Wisconsin legislators will return to Madison this week for the beginning of the fall session. One issue likely to grab the spotlight is control of the Milwaukee Public Schools. Gov. Jim Doyle and Mayor Tom Barrett are pushing for the mayor to appoint the superintendent, and possibly the school board, in the hopes of improving student achievement and school finances. As WUWM’s Marti Mikkelson reports, the debate will be contentious.
The suggestion that the mayor take charge of the Milwaukee Public School district has set off hot buttons across the city; even dividing Democrats in the Milwaukee delegation. One lawmaker who supports some fashion of mayoral control of MPS is state Rep. Pedro Colon.
“I believe that the mayor should be able to hire and fire the superintendent. I believe that the mayor should have an ability to have control and a direct say in the budget of MPS. I think those two factors are very important to adding coherency between City Hall, the MPS Board and the students,” Colon says.
Right now, the school board appoints the superintendent. Colon believes there would be better accountability if the superintendent answered directly to the mayor, rather than to a sometimes divided board. The Legislature would have to approve a structural change in how MPS is governed in order for the mayor to take charge. Colon says it’s therefore important that the Milwaukee delegation speak with a cohesive voice on the subject.
One Democrat not interested in bringing such a bill to the Legislature for a vote is state Rep. Christine Sinicki. She’s a former Milwaukee School Board member and is now co-chair of the Assembly Education Reform Committee. That’s where the proposed change could get its first look.
“If it comes to Education Reform, it will not get out of committee. It will die in committee. That’s our plan,” Sinicki says.
While Sinicki intends to scuttle the plan, supporters such as Colon want to put legislation on the fast track. He says the state is competing for a share of more than $4 billion in federal stimulus money.
“I do think this is an issue we have to resolve fairly quickly for various reasons. We have an expiring superintendent coming up. We have the “reach to the top” money that’s in play,” Colon says.
Wisconsin might have a better chance of winning those federal dollars, known as Race to the Top funds, if MPS makes dramatic changes in how it’s run, according to Colon. While he’s working to rally Democrats, Sinicki is among those reaching across party lines to the GOP.
One Republican approached is Sen. Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau. He’s met with both Democrats and members of the school board and believes MPS can solve its problems without changing the way it’s governed.
“It does seem that there’s some things in place that have been improving and that’s what the board is going to continue to push with legislators like myself who don’t represent Milwaukee but certainly have been involved in watching MPS over the years,” Fitzgerald says.
Fitzgerald says if a bill reaches the floor of the Legislature, he can’t predict which way the vote would go. He believes for the most part, lawmakers outside Milwaukee care about the future of the city and MPS, because this is where a great deal of the state’s economy and future workforce is located.
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