Politics Guides Partisan Educational Policy in Wisconsin, the Ultimate Big Government/Corporate Takeover!!!

It started out in a not so innocent way when Republicans dropped this little bomb on Milwaukee:

County exec would oversee turnaround of MPS schools in GOP plan: The Milwaukee County executive would oversee the turnover of up to five struggling Milwaukee Public Schools per year to operators of successful public charter or private voucher schools. 

That's privatizing up to 5 schools a year. That seems dramatic and pretty much over the top, all the while ignoring the real reason some schools are failing; economic status and poverty.

And that's a big clue. How do you know republicans wrote the plan as part of their attempt to privatize the state’s largest population center (the rest of the state would be a piece of cake)?

Staff at the public schools run by new operators — or directly by the commissioner — would have to re-apply for their jobs and, if hired, would waive their right to be represented by a union. The "Opportunity Schools and Partnership Program" is a proposal by Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) and Rep. Dale Kooyenga (Brookfield). 

This is a plan to turn our brick and mortor schools, paid for by taxpayers, over to the for profit privateers. That didn't go over well with the superintendent, and she said so on Upfront with Mike Gousha:

Milwaukee Public Schools superintendent Darienne Driver said a proposal to pull the worst schools from the district and put them into a charter program would be devastating. She said that the state needs to realize high rates in poverty and crime are large factors in poor academic performance. She said that both public and private schools are struggling, and this proposal won’t fix issues in the classroom. 

"I think that having choice schools becoming the method of choice, when they're performing lower than MPS is currently, is a mistake," Driver said. 

So in a preemptive move, the school board got very creative:

jsonline: The Milwaukee School Board on Thursday will consider limiting its own authority and giving full power to Superintendent Darienne Driver to make the changes at up to three low-performing schools a year without board approval, according to a new proposal. "Our plan calls for less disruption," School Board President Michael Bonds said. 

The superintendent to have control over the facilities that house the low-performing schools getting alternate treatment. Under the GOP plan, MPS would likely lose that ability.

The superintendent to be able to reintegrate the low-performing schools back into MPS if they showed improvement. There was no plan for that under the plan from Republicans.

As Charter Schools Scores Tumble, just more excuses- "It's pretty clear we all have work to do." No, it's time to end the failed Republican experiment.

Republicans own this privatization mess.

While so many public schools met or exceeded performance expectations, our highly innovative privateers in the charter business, failed: 

jsonline: Despite having more freedom over curriculum, budgets and staffing than traditional public schools, the majority of Milwaukee's independent charter schools are not meeting performance expectations, according to statewide report card results for 2012-'13.

Of the 17 independent charters in Milwaukee, 53% fell below expectations, with two schools authorized by the City of Milwaukee receiving a failing grade. The results … raise questions about whether independent charters should be producing better results. 

What critics like me have been saying for years is true now more than ever; spend the time and money on public schools, not a parallel system of schools that cry and whine about flaws in a rating system that consistently proves they're failing. After all, they're...

...privately managed, and are given freedom from bureaucratic restraints on school districts in exchange for upholding a promise to deliver on performance.

That's a broken promise. But these money grubbing privateers won’t stop:

"It's pretty clear we all have work to do," said Cindy Zautcke, who directs the City of Milwaukee's charter school initiative.

No, No, No!!! Privatization con artists think we should now spend time and money improving charter schools too? Heck, the next thing you know we’ll be working on improving the private voucher schools.

And pile on that the fewer number of low income and special needs students at charters:

One independent charter is in Racine: 21st Century Preparatory School, authorized by UW-Parkside … also fell below expectations on the new report cards.  In MPS, 25% of the rated schools met or exceeded expectations. But on a percentage basis, the 134 schools rated in MPS educated three times as many students learning English and twice as many students with special needs, compared with independent charters. The charter schools enrolled a higher percentage of white students and lower percentage of students in poverty than MPS. Report card questioned

While these same test were used for public schools, charter whiners who don’t like the outcome, are now saying the test were flawed. Folks, it’s time to pull the plug on this con job:

Sean Roberts, president of Milwaukee Charter School Advocates, said there are still flaws in the report card school accountability system, especially at the high school level, where almost all data relies on one test: the state achievement test taken at the beginning of 10th grade." More than half of the schools would be meeting expectations," if the report cards were a better measure, Roberts said. Roberts also said he didn't think it was appropriate to draw conclusions about the quality of charter school authorizers based on report card scores of their schools.

Do excuses like that work for you and your child, or should you wait a few more years so they can get their act together. Your kid is only going to go through this once, can they wait too? Time to put a fork in another bad Republican idea.

It's working, Scott Walker. Milwaukee Public Schools anticipate the loss of 700 teachers/staff.

The vast wealth of experienced teachers is about to take a hit, as many try to salvage their earned benefits by retiring. Most don’t want to leave, but Scott Walker’s Act 10 “tools” have left them no choice.

Milwaukee’s loss is a direct result of Scott Walker’s disdain for PUBLIC education. This teacher purge can’t be good, not the numbers reported below. All indications point to Republican legislators taking advantage of those dedicated individuals willing to spend every waking hour educating children. Still, it won’t be long before overbearing school boards drum them out of the business too.

The following represents a new era for public schools, where conservative whiners can no longer blame unions for every imagined problem. Yet in the comments section of this article, Republican low information voters continue to beat up on teachers. You've got to wonder who their next scapegoat is going to be to explain away educational policy failures.

jsonline: Faced with the task of filling about 700 teacher and other staff vacancies next fall, Milwaukee Public Schools is staging the first of five recruitment sessions today. The hiring spree is a result of the higher than normal number of teachers who are expected to retire when the current collective bargaining agreement ends at the end of the school year. The district also is looking to hire paraprofessionals and 12 principals.