Gregory Thornton is looking for the code. Poverty makes it harder to figure out. But he thinks it can be done. He\u2019s determined to do it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The code the new Milwaukee Public Schools superintendent referred to in an \u201cOn the Issues with Mike Gousha\u201d session Tuesday at the Law School\u2019s Eckstein Hall, is the way to achieve substantially higher levels of academic success with children from low-income homes.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see the sting of poverty every day,\u201d Thornton said. \u201cIt\u2019s devastating.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
About 81 percent\u00a0of MPS\u2019s 82,000 students qualify for free or reduced price lunch, the general standard for regarding students as poor. The school system feeds about 100,000 meals to students every day, including thousands of breakfasts.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0But, he said, educators can\u2019t use poverty as a cop-out. \u201cIt\u2019s our responsibility, despite the poverty, to find the code that young people can be successful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Thornton described MPS as a place where meaningful steps, such as a new reading program that is being implemented in almost every school and overhauls of some of the weakest high schools, are being taken.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cEverybody likes champions and we\u2019re going to win,\u201d he told an audience of about 100. \u201cI have no doubt we\u2019re going to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said attendance was up and suspensions were down so far this school year, but \u201cwe get a wake-up call each morning,\u201d in the form of a daily report on data about MPS schools that shows the urgency that attaches to improving outcomes for Milwaukee kids.<\/p>\n
Thornton said a four-year contract with the Milwaukee Teachers\u2019 Education Association that includes requiring teachers to pay some of the basic cost of their health insurance will be a good step forward, assuming it is ratified.<\/p>\n
But other hard financial decisions are going to have to be made, including cutting the amount of space MPS operates. He said the system has space for 25,000 to 30,000 more students than it actually has. \u201cIf we make the courageous decisions that have to be made,\u201d Thornton said, MPS can be \u201cright-sized\u201d over the next three years.<\/p>\n
At a Law School forum in May, Robert Peterkin, who was MPS superintendent from 1987 to 1990, said that if he had it to do over again, he would push reform in Milwaukee twice as hard, twice as deep, and twice as fast. Gousha asked Thornton is he was taking Peterkin\u2019s advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Thornton answered. He said he wanted to push change as fast as he thought it was practical to do, but in a way that would be sustainable in the long run. Too much reform ends up bringing two steps forward and three steps back, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much change can the organization take?\u201d he asked. That reality has to be balanced against the urgency of change.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re moving at a pretty good pace,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the city is ready to do something fundamentally different.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thornton met with the faculty of the Marquette College of Education last week. His two visits to Marquette led him to issue a challenge: How about if Marquette partners with MPS in working with at least one specific school? \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s get the uniforms dirty,\u201d he said, adding it would take time for such an idea to be put into practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a sense of hopefulness in the city,\u201d Thornton said. \u201cI think that hopefulness will drive change.\u201d<\/p>\n