The Empty Rhetoric of Voucher Advocates

 “I need your help,” Walker told a crowd of about 350 people, the majority of them children, on April 25. “We need you to help us spread that message to other lawmakers in our state Capitol, because they need to understand this is not a political statement; this is not a political campaign. … This is about children.”

– Wisconsin State Journal.

The proponents of the proposed expansion of Wisconsin’s private-school voucher program have run out of substantive arguments.  Governor Walker’s “This is about children” illustrates how vacuous their efforts at persuasion have become.

When Governor Walker’s budget was first announced, his initial talking points in support of his voucher expansion plan featured the claim that schools in the nine targeted school districts were failing and vouchers were necessary to provide a lifeline to students who needed help to pursue other schooling options. Neither the governor nor his supporters are pushing that argument any more. It seems that they got the point that it is not a smart move politically for the governor to go around trashing the public schools in some of the larger urban areas of the state.

Psssst, Dane County Realtors – Check Out These School Rankings

This year’s results on the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam (WKCE), the state’s standardized test, became public this week. The reading and math results reflect the newer and more rigorous cut scores that were adopted by the Department of Public Instruction as part of the deal by which Wisconsin received a waiver from the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Here in Madison, our attention is primarily focused on our troubling achievement gaps, and those gaps are achingly apparent in the new WKCE scores. Under new superintendent Jen Cheatham’s leadership, we’ll continue to pursue the most promising steps to accelerate the learning of our African-American, Latino and Hmong students who have fallen behind.

At the same time, we also need to continue to meet the needs of our students who are doing well. I am going to focus on the latter groups of students in this post.

In particular, I want to take a look at how our Madison students stack up against those attending schools in other Dane County school districts under the new WKCE scoring scale. The demographics of our Madison schools are quite a bit different from those of our surrounding school districts. This can skew comparisons. To control for this a bit, I am going to compare the performance of Dane County students who do not fall into the “economically disadvantaged” category. I’ll refer to these students as “non-low income.”

Smart Kids Shine Here

Recently I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the Madison school district’s achievement gap problems and other challenges we face. I’ve also been responding to the outlandish notion that Madison is a failing school district whose students deserve private school vouchers as their only lifeline to academic success.

At times like this, I find it helpful to remember that Madison’s schools are educating many, many students who are succeeding. Some of them are succeeding spectacularly. With apologies to those I’m overlooking, here’s a brief run-down on some of our stars –

Madison Memorial’s recently-formed science bowl team won the Wisconsin state championship in January. The team of seniors Srikar Adibhatla, Sohil Shah, Thejas Wesley and William Xiang and sophomore Brian Luo will represent Wisconsin in the National Science Bowl Championship in Washington, D.C. in April.

Voucher Voodoo

Trolling around on the Internet the other day, I came across a March 17 press release from the Wisconsin Federation for Children, one of the leading groups lobbying for the private school voucher imposition proposal included in Governor Walker’s budget bill.

The press release states:

It’s hard to believe, but some government officials have actually called Governor Walker’s educational choice proposals “extreme”. . . .

The truly “extreme” position is that of the entrenched education establishment whose vast members want to collectively bury its head in the sand and pretend that every child is receiving an excellent education. One Madison school board member recently said, “Most people in Madison would reject the notion that we have failing schools in Madison.” Yet, statistics show that more than 20 percent of the students in Madison are attending failing schools!

The quoted Madison School Board member is me. I should probably have thicker skin by now, but this one got my juices flowing. As one of the entrenched education establishment’s vast members (I really should exercise more), I have removed my (or our) head from the sand long enough to put together this response.

First, I provide some background on the private school voucher imposition proposal. Next, I list thirteen ways in which the proposal and its advocates are hypocritical, inconsistent, irrational, or just plain wrong. Finally, I briefly explain for the benefit of Wisconsin Federation for Children why the students in Madison are not attending failing schools.

School Board Races: Yes, Experience Matters

From where I sit, the contrast between the remaining School Board candidates is stark.

I have known and respected Wayne Strong since we served together four years ago on the School District’s Strategic Planning Committee. I am impressed with Wayne’s approach to the issues and by the countless hours he has devoted to his community work coaching and serving as a role model for many, many of our students.

TJ Mertz and I disagree on a host of issues, Lord knows. But if all Board members had to agree on everything, there’d be no need for seven of us. Despite our differences, I like and respect TJ. To those who follow what’s happening in our schools, it is obvious that no one is more knowledgeable about school issues or better prepared to serve on the Board than TJ.

James Howard, of course, is completing his first term on the Board and his second year as our Board president. James doesn’t speak as often as some of us, but when he talks about the achievement gap, the culture of our schools or the need for a more diverse work force, we all sit up and listen. James brings a compelling moral authority to his work on the Board that benefits us all.

There is no mystery about why Wayne, TJ and James are running for the School Board. They are each deeply invested in our schools and our community. They will all be willing to roll up their sleeves and commit to the hard day-to-day work of moving our schools forward.

The other three School Board candidates are Dean Loumos, Sarah Manski and Greg Packnett. I don’t know any of them. During my five years on the School Board, none of them has had any involvement in any Madison school issue. I don’t recall seeing any of them at any School Board meeting, though I have read that Sarah Manski may have been at a meeting in December. They have not been among the scores of community members who have spoken to us on nearly every conceivable topic during public appearances at our Board meetings.

We receive school-related emails from hundreds of Madison residents each year. Searching through my email archives, I see that Dean Loumos sent us an email last August urging us to reopen our union contracts and increase pay for school staff. I have no record of Sarah Manski or Greg Packnett ever writing to the Board about anything.

Call me crazy, but I think a record of involvement in our schools is a prerequisite for a School Board member. Sitting at the Board table isn’t the place to be learning the names of our schools or our principals.

Wayne Strong, TJ Mertz and James Howard rise far above their opponents for those of us who value School Board members with a history of engagement in local educational issues and a demonstrated record of commitment to our Madison schools and the students we serve.

The Jen Cheatham Era Begins

Leadership comes in different shapes and sizes.  After spending time with 41-year-old Jen Cheatham and attending the community forum on Thursday, I kept thinking back to the winter day 23 years ago when 43-year-old Barry Alvarez was introduced to the Madison community and made his memorable statement about how fans interested in season tickets better get them now because they’d soon be hard to get. 

Like Cheatham, Alvarez was an outsider, a rising star in a major program who was ready to take the reins of his own program and run with it.  That certainly did not guarantee success, but he proved to have that rare and ineluctable something that inspired his players to raise their game, that drove them to succeed as a team because they couldn’t bear to let their coach or teammates down.

As with Barry, so with Jen.  For those of us who have been able to spend time with Jen Cheatham and talk to her about her vision for our Madison schools, it is clear that whatever leadership is, she has it.  What we heard time and again from those she’s worked with is that Jen is able to inspire principals and teachers to do their best possible work for the students they serve.  But also like Alvarez, she’s doesn’t shy away from tough decisions when they’re necessary.

We on the School Board are the first in Madison to be inspired by Jen to pick up our game.  In the last week or so, the Board has been more united, collaborative and effective as a group than it has ever been in my five years on the Board.  What has unified us is our shared understanding that Jen will be great for Madison, our shared commitment to getting her here, and our shared anticipation of the great things that are in store for our schools, teachers and students.

We’re not quite in a position to echo Barry Alvarez and tell parents that they better enroll their students in our schools soon, while there’s still room.  But our future as a 21^st century school district that meets the needs of all our students never looked brighter than it does today.

A Dozen Wishes for the New Year.

January is named for Janus, the two-faced Roman god who looked simultaneously to the past and to the future.  While I claim no resemblance to any Roman god, I share the common inclination to look backward and forward as the year turns over.

Looking back to 2012, I feel gratitude for all our Madison teachers and staff, who worked every day with skill and commitment to teach, challenge and support our students.  I am also grateful for the hard work of our students themselves.  Looking forward to 2013, I don’t have much in the way of predictions, but I have a boatload of wishes for how I hope the year will unfold.  Here are a dozen of them.

1.            At the top of my wish list is that in 2013 we hire a new superintendent capable of succeeding at the enormously challenging tasks that he or she will confront.  Consider the top five qualities that emerged from the community survey of the desired characteristics of our next superintendent.  We want a superintendent who: (1) possesses the leadership skills required to respond to the challenges presented by an ethnically and culturally diverse community; (2) inspires trust, has high levels of self-confidence and optimism, and models high standards of integrity and personal performance; (3) is a strong communicator, speaking, listening and writing; (4) possesses the ability to enhance student performance, especially in identifying and closing or narrowing the gaps in student achievement; and (5) is willing to listen to input, but is a decision-maker.  It will be a tall order for any mere mortal to meet these and all the other expectations we have for our next superintendent.   Here’s hoping we find a good one.