The clock in my car said 12:34 p.m. Thursday while I waited for a car to pass before I pulled out of\u00a0my parking spot on N. 53 rd St. I watched as the car turned on to W. Vliet and immediately pulled in front of the Milwaukee Public Schools central administration building. The passenger in the front seat got out and slowly walked by himself to the front door of the building.<\/p>\n
It was Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. And he was playing out a scene in what appears to have become a lose-lose political situation for him. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The bid by Governor Jim Doyle, Barrett, and others to overhaul governance of MPS, giving the mayor dominant power over the school system, is on life support, at best. The effort is deadlocked in the Legislature. It appears to be decidedly on the unpopular end of sentiment in Milwaukee, especially among African Americans. And several days of pretty intense efforts to reach some form of compromise with backers of a less-extensive plan to shift power in MPS pretty much blew up on Wednesday. \u00a0The two sides simply and apparently irresolveably disagree on how much power a mayor should have over MPS.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
For Barrett, it means he’s taken an unpopular stand, he hasn’t succeeded in making it stick, and\u00a0there’s a lot of tension and infighting among people (all Democrats) who would, in other circumstances, be coming together behind Barrett’s campaign for governor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the School Board, and particularly its president, Michael Bonds, have been moving forward on picking a new superintendent for MPS, \u00a0whatever the surrounding political ruckus. From the perspective of the moment, it appears to be a smart strategy because it certainly looks like they’re going to pick a school chief and make it stick, which may well be\u00a0the final stake in the heart of governance reform activity for now, if a final stake is needed.<\/p>\n
Which brings events to Thursday. The three finalists\u00a0for superintendent have three sessions set for the day. (The three are Robert Alfaro, a regional superintendent for a large section of the Clark County, Nev., school district, which covers the Las Vegas area; Stacy Scott, an associate superintendent of Montgomery County, Md., schools; and Gregory Thornton, superintendent of a small district, Chester Upland Public Schools, in southeastern Pennslyvania.)<\/p>\n
In the morning,\u00a0each of the three made a half-hour public presentation, talking about themselves and answering questions submitted in advance about issues relevant to the job. There were about 75 people at the session. The three candidates did a reasonably good job. It appeared none blew\u00a0the crowd away, but none made a major\u00a0blunder.\u00a0\u00a0By the way, none showed any significant depth of knowledge about the situation in Milwaukee specifically, beyond saying\u00a0there is a lot of school choice here.<\/p>\n
Following that, there was a closed session with a group of about a dozen “stakeholders” in MPS who were asked by the board to meet with the finalists and\u00a0give\u00a0board members their reactions.\u00a0 That’s where Barrett comes in. The group\u00a0included several\u00a0close allies of Bonds, but Bonds was shrewd enough to include Barrett on the list. (I ran into Bonds at a coffee shop\u00a0several weeks ago and he showed me the list of stakeholders. I said Barrett would never agree to take part. Wrong again.)<\/p>\n
By Wednesday night, Barrett found himself with\u00a0a choice. He could take part,\u00a0which would give him at least some involvement in the process (on the same level as some community activists, the teachers’ union president, and others),\u00a0\u00a0but would mean\u00a0many would say he was giving in to the School Board and admitting defeat. Or he could not take part, which would leave him outside the process and, in some views, looking he was being a bit of a sorehead who was more interested in power than in school issues.<\/p>\n
That\u00a0walk\u00a0to the door could well symbolize\u00a0the end of the governance debate.\u00a0 Was it an act of leadership and healing, opening the wayfor Democrats to come back together behind Barrett’s bid and move forward? Was it a sign\u00a0of weakness and a symbol that Barrett’s critics will use to say he \u00a0isn’t\u00a0tough enough to play hardball politics?<\/p>\n
The third session for Thursday for the superintendent candidates was a closed meeting in the evening with the School Board itself. No announcement of a superintendent\u00a0will come out of that session, Bonds said, but a decision will come by Feb. 1.<\/p>\n
When that decision is made, Barrett will not be at the table. Which makes it easy to guess that, after all that has gone on in the last five months of debate about mayoral control,\u00a0Barrett’s walk\u00a0from the curb to the front door of the MPS headquarters\u00a0was not a happy stroll for him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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