Republican Party of Sauk County - Wisconsin

Voters in New Jersey and Virginia made it quite clear last night that education reform is not tops on the agenda.  While the rest of America waits for new jobs to be created, a decision on the Afghanistan war, and health-care reform that doesn’t lead to a government-run system, President Obama is getting education reform done in Wisconsin. 

We will see more of this type of rhetoric today.  We should, however, focus on the issue of the President’s trip to Madison today and use this moment to build momentum to create education reform here in Wisconsin.  If ever there was a bi-partisan opportunity in Wisconsin - the time is now.

President Obama is visiting Wright Middle School - a charter school.  He is here to talk about the charter school movement and other reforms that need to be made in education.  We can use this opportunity to press the Wisconsin Democrats to actually get some kind of reform accomplished while they are still in awe of his visit.

The Democrat legislature needs to pass legislation they have denied in the past - but now there is federal money tied to making these changes so they have introduced two bills to get the cash.  While Wisconsin Democrats will get these changes done because of the money, they are not going far enough.  Perhaps the President’s visit today can help lead to the Democrats taking the next step. 

During the 2008 election cycle, I argued that Wisconsin’s Charter School law does not give Wisconsin families the tools they need to successfully lead school reform.   Wisconsin risks losing millions in federal dollars for charter schools without making changes to charter school law, so the Democrats will only be making some minor tweaks, but not the tweaks that can lead to real reform.

Charter schools are public schools and are meant to be operated autonomously from the school district - meaning independent of school district rules. Currently, only school districts can authorize charter schools.  When the school district lords over the charter contract - how can they truly be independent schools?  

In the Milwaukee area, however, the city of Milwaukee, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, and Milwaukee Area Technical College) may also authorize charter schools.  This is a provision of the charter law that has lead to some real innovation in the Milwaukee area.  One Milwaukee charter high school was even named a top 20 school in the nation by Forbes magazine last year.

AB-535 will only require school districts to consider the principles and standards for quality charter schools established by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers when establishing or contracting for the establishment of a charter school.  A baby step forward as the law already requires the other authorizing entities to do this.

AB-535 should also grant charter school authority to the other universities and technical colleges in this state.  Some of the most successful charter schools have come out of the Milwaukee area.  Opponents argue that the other universities are not interested in creating charter schools.   That’s a lame argument.  They won’t do it because WEAC (the teachers’ union) disapproves.  

They also argue Milwaukee has had the highest failure rate of charter schools.  That was in the beginning.  This is now.  A lot has been learned as a result of those charter schools that failed - leading to better charter schools.  Because charter schools are meant to be autonomous, they are also held to higher standards.  When those standards are not been, they get closed. 

Representative Tamara Grigsby recently whined about the charter schools that have failed.  When a school fails - that means it is not getting the job done and we shut it down.  That, Representative Grigsby, reflects the success of the charter school program. Try closing a standard public school that fails.  Milwaukee can’t do it. It is time to get this change done.

Another change that is coming to Wisconsin is in AB-538.  This is a change that is long overdue and WEAC can’t stop the train that is delivering it.  The President has offered a huge carrot for tying teacher pay to student performance.  Wisconsin is one of the last to do so because Doyle and Company have been taking from the WEAC coiffures like kids taking candy at Halloween.  And, of course, we all know from experience that Doyle can’t resist “free government money”.

In defense of teachers (not WEAC), these standards should account for individual performance and the improvement of the group as a whole based on individual achievement.  Every kid comes in with a different skill set.  Every child does not start at the same point and not every child will end at the same point.  The union, in defending their teachers, should work with the legislature to help make this an effective model for grading teacher performance - not one that could lead to petty teacher dismissals. A good model for performance based merit pay would strengthen WEAC’s position as they protect good teachers and weed out the bad.

The final move by Doyle and Obama is to have the Mayor of Milwaukee appoint the Superintendent of the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) and to have the Mayor set the school tax levy.  US Education Secretary Arne Duncan loves it when Mayors run schools and MPS has gotten so bad, something desperately is needed.  This move goes too far, however.

Milwaukee has elected school board representatives charged with the task of hiring and firing the Superintendent.  The Superintendent is directly accountable to those people, but under the new rule, the Superintendent will only have to suck up to the Mayor.  I have a hard time being convinced that a political appointee will do any better than one appointed by the elected decision makers of MPS.   I would also challenge you to consider how it will work when the Mayor just grabs a number for their levy and just sticks it to the school district when someone ticks him off or it will win votes for him politically.

The Mayoral takeover idea is only a proposal that has been floated by Mr. Doyle and no one, as of yet, has authored a bill.  I am guessing it will be on the table before the end of the month after the Obama visit to Madison today.

School vouchers are not on the agenda, and now is not the time to bring them up.  Now is the time to capitalize on changes we could not achieve before.  We now have a real shot at getting the changes done that are supported by the White House.  Obama does not support vouchers and most people run from cover from talks of vouchers, so why risk losing the rest of the reform efforts in a over-reach for this one piece.  Only after we can get the charter school and merit-pay reforms accomplished (and prove it works) can we attempt to convince Democrats to make a leap of faith that vouchers will do the same.

Education reform through merit-pay and charter school reforms are the only conservatively embraced positions President Obama holds.  He is bringing this discussion to his liberal base in Madison today. 

After last night, let’s just hope they listen.

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