"We’re Playing Games With People’s Lives"

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. MPS has had their share of bad news, and now the school board is ready to cut and run. With $700,000,000,000 ready to bail out the bankers, who would notice another $100 billion for the schools?

Wouldn't that be a great idea? Instead of saddling future generations with debt that paid for salaries and perks and lunches, at least in this case it would be an investment in the future.

Sorry. There's no white knights here in this story. It's just another story where people in power play with people lives just because they can.


Nobody’s waiting to bail MPS out
Posted: Sept. 20, 2008

Eugene Kane

In a week when America’s financial markets experienced a meltdown, perhaps it shouldn’t have been that surprising to learn Milwaukee Public Schools was also apparently in dire financial straits.

Last week, a shake-up of major Wall Street firms sent shock waves through the stock market. The federal government announced a risky, multibillion-dollar bailout of endangered institutions amid concerns about the worst financial crisis in decades. With all that turmoil afoot, it was almost anticlimactic to learn the School Board had voted to look into ways to dissolve the public school system because of increasing financial problems.

Yes, that’s right; dissolve it.

Most folks knew things were bad at MPS; nobody suspected it was that bad. At least one board member, Michael Bonds, still isn’t convinced.

“I was outraged,” said Bonds, who left the room shortly after a 6-3 vote by MPS board members to consider options for dissolving the state’s largest school district. “Yes, that’s why I left the room.”

Bonds said he understood the daunting budget considerations that led to the vote. But as a new board member, he’s been encouraged by positive developments at MPS, such as restoring driver education courses, music and art curricula and other measures to address the poverty of some MPS students.

Instead of passing such a controversial resolution, he thought the board should have concentrated more on resolving budget problems.

“I think it was one of the most disgusting and cowardly acts I’ve ever seen,” he said during an interview. He noted that talks about dissolving MPS essentially meant discussing the future of more than 80,000 students and 13,000 district employees.

“It’s like we’re playing games with people’s lives,” he said.

Bonds, a university professor elected to the board in 2007 on a reform ticket, was skeptical anyone had really thought the measure through.

“What are we going to put in its place?” he asked rhetorically.

It’s comforting to know that Bonds didn’t agree with the high-stakes game of chicken that other board members and MPS Superintendent William Andrekopoulos appear to be playing with the public and legislators.

Frankly, even though local governments have taken over the schools in some cities, the results have been mixed. At least in New Orleans, they had a good reason: Hurricane Katrina.

In Milwaukee, the only natural disaster seems to be the failure of some local politicians and bureaucrats to deal with increasing costs and declining aid from the state to finance the state’s largest education system for the most at-risk minority students in Wisconsin. Even with all that, Bonds insists the district wasn’t at a crisis point yet.

“After all, we’re not talking bankruptcy,” he said.

There’s been talk of the City of Milwaukee taking over MPS, but Bonds thinks Mayor Tom Barrett isn’t serious about such plans. He also doubts if the city’s financial situation would be that much better.

“The city has its own problems,” he said.

There’s also some doubt whether the School Board can even dissolve the system on its own. According to state officials, the Legislature would have to get involved.

It makes you wonder if the School Board’s vote was nothing more than an attention-getting gimmick that caused unnecessary anxiety in some households. Bonds said “it’s already caused a panic” among some constituents he’s heard from.

Like others in town, Bonds worries that the amount of money spent on the school choice program in Milwaukee contributes to the district’s woes. He’s also concerned about political interference by members of the business community who strongly support more school choice and have ties to various School Board members.

That’s why he’s not willing to discount talk of dissolving MPS as just a scare tactic to get a solution for current budget problems.

“I have colleagues (on the board) who would love to see it,” he said. “There are lots of people in town who want control over our budget.”

It’s disheartening to realize the School Board has either decided to govern through fear by alarming parents, students and employees, or is seriously thinking about blowing up MPS in favor of something yet to be determined.

It’s time to consider innovative changes, renewed strategies for success and alternative funding sources for MPS, but dissolving the school district doesn’t seem like a good solution for thousands of students who depend on a stable educational system.

Unlike on Wall Street, if it fails, there will likely be nobody waiting to bail them out.