Gregory Thornton is looking for the code. Poverty makes it harder to figure out. But he thinks it can be done. He’s determined to do it.

 The code the new Milwaukee Public Schools superintendent referred to in an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” session Tuesday at the Law School’s Eckstein Hall, is the way to achieve substantially higher levels of academic success with children from low-income homes.

Gousha, distinguished fellow in law and public policy at the Law School, asked Thornton if the impacts of poverty were too great to succeed in school districts such as MPS.

“I see the sting of poverty every day,” Thornton said. “It’s devastating.” 

Ten quotes that stick in my head from the panel discussion of former Milwaukee Public Schools superintendents at the Law School on Monday evening:

Robert Peterkin, superintendent from 1988 to 1991: “This is a town that loves politics as a blood sport.”

Peterkin on school reform when he was in Milwaukee: “We should have done it twice as much, twice as fast, and twice as deep.”