It seemed like a simple idea: follow up on a recent media report about
the rise in “independent” charter schools in Milwaukee and get specific lists
of such charters overseen by the City of Milwaukee, by the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and by the Milwaukee Public Schools.
Little did I know that this simple idea would become an ordeal.
Getting lists of this year’s charters from MPS and UWM was relatively
easy via their websites. Getting a list from the City of Milwaukee was an exercise
in frustration. It took me two days, eight hours on the phone and computer, and
dozens of emails before a list was sent to me.
Which made me wonder. Does anybody at City Hall have a clue what’s
really going on at the city’s charter schools?
There are 11,938 students in the “independent” charters
in Milwaukee, with the schools funded by more than $92 million in taxpayer
dollars. Most of the students are at City of Milwaukee and UWM charters, where
lines of responsibility and public oversight are, to say the least, murky.
Given the difficulties in getting the most basic of information from the
city— a list of its schools — it became impossible to shake the fear that
public oversight of these charter school dollars is shrinking almost as fast as
the independent charters are growing.
From what I can tell, “independent” has become a euphemism for easing
the public out and turning schools over to private entities that operate with
minimal public input and transparency. “Privately run” seems a far better
description of such charter schools.
But shouldn’t we be worried when we use public tax dollars to shift the
education of our children to private interests skilled at circumventing public
transparency and oversight?
If, for example, a problem erupts at an MPS school, you know who to
call: your local school board member or the MPS central office. But what if
there’s a problem at a City of Milwaukee or UWM charter. Who do you call? I’m
not sure anyone really knows.
CHARTER SCHOOL COMPLEXITY
Charter schools are the latest rage in education,
particularly charters that operate independent of a school district’s
democratically elected school board. A little background is helpful.
Charter schools have their roots among progressive educators in the
1990s who wanted charter contracts with school districts so they could operate
outside the bureaucracy and experiment. The goal was to improve academic
achievement, strengthen the connections between school and community, and use
the lessons learned to improve public schools overall.
Thankfully, some charter schools still uphold those values. But in
recent years, the charter movement has become the darling of hedge-fund
managers and entrepreneurs who see a big pot of money in public schools. And it
is these forces that are driving the charter school movement’s dominant agenda
of promoting privately run charters that are independent of school board
supervision.
Like their private-sector counterparts, these charter entrepreneurs tend
to chafe at public oversight and control. They also know that market share is
the name of the game. Thus there has been a proliferation of national
franchises of charters, which use cost-efficient, cookie-cutter programs that
they market to financially strapped urban districts.
Not surprisingly, the growth of charters has coincided with the
market-place approach to education that has gained supremacy in recent decades.
In this education marketplace, students and families are consumers, not
deciders, and “choice” is the king of all values. (Whether there is much
qualitative difference in Milwaukee’s “choices” is another matter, given that
the schools in the city are circumscribed by harsh realities of overwhelming
poverty, joblessness and segregation.)
In Milwaukee, three different entities grant charters: the City of
Milwaukee, UWM, and MPS. All City of Milwaukee and UWM charters are
“independent” charters run by the private organizations that are granted the
charter. MPS has two types of charters, both of which answer to the elected
school board: “instrumentality” charters that are staffed by district employees
and follow many of the guidelines that apply to all MPS schools, and “non-instrumentalities”
that are “independent” charters run as private entities. (Is your head spinning
with all these details yet?)
Back to my search for a list of the independent charter schools in
Milwaukee.
CITY OF MILWAUKEE CHARTERS
I knew that a list from the City of Milwaukee was
especially important. The city’s charters are on the biggest growth spurt, and
the city has been in the forefront of signing contracts with charter management
franchises based in other cities.
I started my search at the City of Milwaukee webpage — my go-to spot for
all sorts of information, from winter parking regulations to the fall leaf
collection schedule. At first, it seemed I was in luck. The drop-down box on
the right-hand side of the homepage, right under “Contact Elected Officials,”
had a link for “Explore Education Options.” I clicked.
Imagine my dismay, however, when the new web page had absolutely nothing
on the city’s charter schools. There were links to MPS, to a private school
directory, to the voucher program, to colleges and universities, and to
information on student aid and other educational resources.
But not a word about City of Milwaukee charter schools. Which inevitably
led to the question: Does City Hall know, or even much care, what happens at
its schools?
I then tried my next-best Internet trick. I wrote “charter schools” in
the web page’s search button. Most of the matches were useless ¬— one took me
back to the Explore Education Options site. But the top match (Charter School
Application) provided a name and phone number. I wasn’t interested in applying
to start a charter school, but I figured that person could help. I called the
number.
Once again my hopes were dashed. The person answering the phone was
extremely nice — but she was at the Institute for Transformation of Learning at
Marquette University. She wasn’t even a City of Milwaukee employee.
I asked her who would be the best person to contact at City Hall, and
she gave me the name and number of a person in the department of administration
she worked with. I called the number and left a message explaining I was
looking for information on the City of Milwaukee charters.
I have learned not to wait for return phone calls from City Hall, so I
did what every frustrated taxpayer does. I contacted the members of the Common
Council. After all, the city charter contracts are subject to the Common
Council’s approval. As the saying goes, the buck stops there.
I emailed each alderman and asked for a list of the city’s charters,
including contact information and basic data on student demographics and
enrollment, and for any type of annual report on the charters. I also asked
each alderman which charter schools are in their district.
Six of the aldermen replied. None had a list of City of Milwaukee
charters, although they suggested whom I could contact. Only one alderman, Jim
Bohl, responded to my question about charters in his district. He said he did
not have any.
Several forwarded my request to the city’s Legislative Reference Bureau,
which provided links to further information, including how to find reports on
schools that the city contracted with last year. It turns out the bureau’s data
was incomplete, but it was better than nothing.
But my simple goal that started it all was still elusive. I still could
not find a list of this year’s City of Milwaukee charter schools
I went to bed Monday night wondering what it would take to get the
information.
On Tuesday morning, just as I was ready to start at it again, the
woman at the Department of Administration returned my call. (Thank god for
hard-working support staff.)
A few emails and about 40 minutes later — and more than a day after I
started my quest — she emailed me a list of the City of Milwaukee’s nine
charter schools for 2012-13. She didn’t have the number of students enrolled,
but at least she had a list.
If anything, however, I was more concerned than when I started.
If the City of Milwaukee wants to be a major player in educating our
city’s children, shouldn’t the aldermen have a better sense of the city’s
charter schools? If nothing else, a list of the schools?
Who’s really in charge of the City of Milwaukee charter schools? Why did
the only phone number for charters on the city’s website lead to the Institute
for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette?
Stay tuned. I have a feeling that, when it comes to public transparency
and input, problems in getting a list of City of Milwaukee charters may be just
the tip of the iceberg.
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This blog is cross-posted the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Purple Wisconsin project.
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