The most interesting part of a conference on education issues at Marquette Law School\u2019s Eckstein Hall on Nov. 17, 2022, arguably did not take place during the conference itself. It was in the 45 minutes after the formal end of the two-hour session. A significant number of those who spoke or who were in the audience stayed on in the room to talk.<\/p>\n
People from some of the best known and firmest ranks of the conservative and liberal sides of Wisconsin\u2019s long-standing education debates stood in small groups, talking with each other civilly and sometimes with some agreement on what was being said. In some cases, they were people who had never met in person previously.<\/p>\n
Those in attendance included four of the nine members of the Milwaukee School Board and several staff members from the Wisconsin Institute of Law & Liberty (WILL), a leading force in conservative advocacy on education issues. Along with other school leaders, civic leaders, and people from a range of education involvements, people found a lot to talk about.<\/p>\n
It would go too far to say minds were changed and problems were solved. But serious and level-headed exchanges about issues are one of the core goals of programs of the Law School\u2019s Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education, and that was a goal served during and in the aftermath of the conference.<\/p>\n
Titled \u201cSo Now What? The Path Ahead for Education in Wisconsin and the Nation\u201d and co-hosted by Marquette Law School and the Marquette College of Education, the conference included a presentation on the state of American students by Erin Richards of the Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), a national think tank on education issues, and a panel discussion with four Wisconsin education leaders.<\/p>\n
Richards said the CRPE assessment of information from all 50 states was that educators were finding it hard to make progress in helping students recover from the many impacts of the disrupted school years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From the situations of students themselves to limits on how recovery funds can be used and the practical aspects (such as staff shortages) for doing what works best for students, there have been many distractions to doing what would ideally best. In general, students still have substantial distances to go to get back on track with their educations.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan we use this crisis as a pivot point to actually do things differently in the future?\u201d Richards asked. There is not much evidence yet to show that is so. But without improvements, schools will return to doing the same things they did prior to the pandemic, \u201cand that wasn\u2019t very good either,\u201d when it came to long-term success for many students.<\/p>\n
Richards pointed to some places, such as Mesa, Ariz., and Oakland, Calif., where there were efforts by educators and community members to create more effective ways to move students forward.<\/p>\n
As for Milwaukee and Wisconsin, she said, \u201cWe just don\u2019t see Milwaukee rising in the data\u201d or doing much that is different or novel. And, she said, things have been \u201ca little anemic\u201d at the state level, a result in large part of politically divided government. With that divide continuing in the state Capitol, \u201cI feel like we are looking at two more years of kind of just the status quo.,\u201d she said. \u201cThere hasn\u2019t been a desire to put aside political differences to do something meaningful on education.\u201d She added, \u201cI\u2019m happy to be proven wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richards was an education reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel<\/em> and for USA Today<\/em> before joining CRPE in early 2022. The organization is based at Arizona State University.<\/p>\n During the panel discussion, strong differences of opinion on what should lie ahead were seen, but there was some signs of agreement that action is needed to if there are going to be better results for many Wisconsin students.<\/p>\n Aisha Carr, a member of the Milwaukee School Board, said, \u201cWe have reached a point where the urgency is unparalleled.\u201d She said during election campaigns this fall, \u201ceducation was presented as an afterthought.\u201d Nationwide, \u201cpeople really don\u2019t give a damn about children,\u201d and the large amounts of federal pandemic relief money were not being used to serve the real needs of students.<\/p>\n Carr called for structural changes in how schools use time and resources, including more involvement of community members and more opportunities for teachers to collaborate and improve their work.<\/p>\n Libby Sobic, L\u201916, director of education policy for WILL, said she hopes there will be constructive conversation in the state Capitol about how to use the state budget surplus, now listed at more than $6 billion. Sobic and WILL are advocates for parental choice programs for parents. She said the current Wisconsin system for funding education disincentivizes coming together on policies by emphasizing systems and not kids, and she hopes that will change.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to change our language around funding to bridge the divide in government,\u201d Sobic said. \u201cWe need to leverage parents.\u201d Parents need to pressure both sides of the political divide to have conversations.<\/p>\n Heather DuBois Bourenane, executive director of the Wisconsin Public Education Network, said, \u201cI hold the radically contentious view that every single kid in every single public school in this state can and should have access to a great education.\u201d We can do it, she said, adding, \u201cThe question is, why don\u2019t we?\u201d<\/p>\n Bourenane, whose has opposed private school choice programs, said that if partisan politics was put aside, there would be positive steps. \u201cI worry that I\u2019m not going to see much of that this year if we see the same kind of political game-playing we\u2019ve seen in past sessions,\u201d she said. But, she said, \u201cthe fire is burning\u201d among people who want change.<\/p>\n Faith VanderHorst, interim executive director of the Southeastern Wisconsin Schools Alliance, an organization of leaders of 31 public school districts, said Wisconsin should focus on becoming \u201cnumber one in the country for education.\u201d Doing that would mean recognizing that schools need more money, there needs to be innovation, and that it\u2019s time to stop \u201cbickering\u201d about education policy. \u201cWhy can\u2019t we focus on schools and stop using our children as something to toss around?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n There have been some signs from Evers and Republican legislative leaders of a willingness to at least talk with each other as work on the next two-year state budget begins. That would be a change from the last several years when they generally didn\u2019t speak to each other.<\/p>\n Will the conversations bring agreements or compromises to deal with issues schools of all kinds are facing statewide? It won\u2019t happen easily. But talking together might be a prelude to change. The Eckstein Hall conference both formally and informally offered a glimpse of the willingness some people with differing views have to at least start the dialogue.<\/p>\n