Is this the end of Milwaukee Public Schools?<\/p>\n
I kind of doubt it, but the fact you can ask that question seriously says something about the depth of the crisis facing the state\u2019s largest and most problem-filled school district. Put together the cuts outlined in Gov. Scott Walker\u2019s budget proposal \u00a0with the end of federal stimulus spending, the continuing decline in enrollment, and the every-day run of severe problems that affect MPS and you have a really ugly picture.<\/p>\n
School Board President Michael Bonds has used the word \u201cdevastating\u201d repeatedly in recent days. State Rep. Tamara Grigsby, a Milwaukee Democrat who is an MPS graduate herself, called Walker\u2019s proposals \u201can absolute annihilation\u201d of public education, according to a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel<\/em>. \u00a0Those are strong terms.<\/p>\n Layoffs of hundreds of teachers, the elimination of a list programs such as a math initiative in recent years (paid for by $10 million a year in state aid), and the possible closing of a substantial number of schools all seem likely. \u00a0Will even those steps be enough to meet the financial problems? Will what results be a stable and functioning system? (I\u2019m imagining simply the re-assignment and scheduling issues around a major wave of school closings, for example.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Walker proposals open the door for growth in charter and voucher schools. But there are major capacity issues that mean neither of those streams of local education can start flowing a lot more heavily, especially in the short term. There isn\u2019t going to be a huge boom in enrollment in those schools by next September \u2013 it just doesn\u2019t seem possible. \u00a0So don\u2019t count on those schools to bail out MPS, especially not quickly.<\/p>\n One important question is whether the MTEA teachers union will agree to re-open the contract that runs through June 2013. As I outlined in a recent blog item, that contract calls for a level of support for employee benefits that Walker and legislative Republicans are adamant about ending. While Republicans are almost certain to prevail as a matter of statewide policy, they can\u2019t override a contract that is already in force. But if the union insists on sticking to the contract \u2013 and that seems very likely \u2013 job cuts in MPS will be all the more severe. \u00a0State aid payments will be premised on benefits that are much svelter than MPS\u2019s body.<\/p>\n But even if the union relents, it\u2019s going to be ugly. The MPS system has been \u2013 and remains \u2013 based on having more money to feed it every year. MPS leaders were unhappy with the tentative budgets they worked on in January, which were based on spending per student (the state revenue cap) going up $200 for next year. That would be a smaller increase than any recent year. A few weeks ago, someone told me the cap was actually going to go down $100. I thought that was very serious business. In Walker\u2019s budget proposal, the cap goes down, on average, $550. That\u2019s a swing of $750 from the premise used in MPS budgeting just a few weeks ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you want to say we should break the spending cycle and that MPS needs a fundamental restructuring because of its unsatisfactory results, that\u2019s fine. But I\u2019m not aware of anyone who has workable plan for what comes next, especially if we\u2019re talking about a school year that starts six months from now.<\/p>\n Navigating this will require leaders of the system to be smart, quick, strong, and creative. Those aren\u2019t words that have been associated with MPS leadership an awful lot. \u00a0Protesting may be the preferred response of some MPS leaders. But I hope there are people, both inside MPS and in the broader community, who will be working on plans to provide for the 80,000 or so students of MPS. Even if the Walker proposals get moderated a bit in the legislative process, they are generally going to prevail, and they\u2019re going to shape things for at least the next two years.<\/p>\n Systems have a way of weathering storms, which is why I suspect there will still be an MPS system come September, and all the students will have seats in a classroom where there is a teacher.\u00a0 It won\u2019t be pretty, but it will probably be functional in some way.<\/p>\n But it really is time to wonder if the end of MPS as we have known it lies in front of us \u00a0\u2013 and, more important, if so, what comes next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Is this the end of Milwaukee Public Schools? I kind of doubt it, but the fact you can ask that question seriously says something about the depth of the crisis facing the state\u2019s largest and most problem-filled school district. Put together the cuts outlined in Gov. Scott Walker\u2019s budget proposal \u00a0with the end of federal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-milwaukeepublicschools","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12936\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}