MPS superintendent says referendum will allow district to 'maintain' services. But is that enough?

The Milwaukee education landscape is split roughly in two, with about half the city’s children who are getting publicly funded education enrolled in the Milwaukee Public Schools system and about half in private schools, charter schools and public schools in districts outside the city. This has big implications for the nature and vitality of all the schools serving the city’s kids.

The April 2 referendum vote in which MPS is seeking approval of increasing its spending by $252 million a year will have unknown but almost certainly large effects on the future of the two halves of the school scene.

In a column that was published several days ago, I offered thoughts on four facets of what is going on. In this column, I offer four more.

New undertakings on the non-MPS side

A surge of additional revenue that the state budget, passed in 2023, is providing to non-MPS schools has increased something that was already happening: more momentum for non-MPS schools, while MPS is largely trying to hang on to what it has. Consider examples of what non-MPS schools are doing.

The fast-growing St. Augustine Prep on the south side announced recently it is moving forward with plans to open a north side campus on the former Cardinal Stritch University grounds, although it said the cost of that expansion will be about $100 million, more than twice original estimates, and it delayed the projected date for opening the new campus by a year, until fall 2026.

Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy is on track to move its high school program this fall into a new building on Phillips Avenue (formerly North Fourth Street), just south of North Avenue. Its current building at Capitol Drive and North 29th Street will be remodeled to house middle school grades as the Fuller School and the Milwaukee Excellence Charter School merge. Milwaukee Excellence will leave the MPS system and give up its current space in a former MPS elementary school.

Hope Christian Schools, with five schools in Milwaukee, announced recently a multimillion plan (the announcement didn’t give a specific amount) to upgrade its programs, including improving salaries and program innovations such as increased art, music and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) offerings. The announcement linked the improvements to the revenue increases in the state budget.

The Milwaukee Academy of Science, a charter school at 2000 W. Kilbourn Ave. with about 1,400 students, announced in January that it would expand by adding a second campus in a school building at North 24th and  West Vliet Street that was previously home to Urban Day School and Penfield Montessori School.

The Seeds of Health network of three high schools and an elementary school continues to thrive, including the expansion two years ago of its Tenor High School into a building at 918 Vel R. Phillips Ave. that was formerly home to the Milwaukee Sentinel.

The United Community Center is adding a third floor to the main building of its Bruce Guadalupe school on the south side, which means more classrooms, as well as improvements in existing space. A cramped cafeteria has been replaced by a more spacious and useful cafeteria. The school has reduced average class sizes from 25-27 down to 20-22. The school still needs to raise about $1.5 million of the project’s cost, but Laura Gutierrez, executive director of the UCC, said, “Our kids cannot wait.”

'We’re trying to maintain.'

Meantime, on the MPS front, that was the phrase MPS superintendent Keith Posley used in a recent television interview about why MPS launched the referendum campaign.

MPS advocates have been careful about saying that, if the referendum wins, the additional $252 million a year will bring improvements in outcomes for children. They generally have emphasized that they will have to make cuts if the referendum is defeated, possibly cutting staff, increasing class sizes and losing ground in areas such as arts and music, where there have been positive steps in recent years (including benefits from the $87 million a year referendum that was approved in 2020).

Is it a good idea to go to voters without a plan that speaks clearly to doing better and amid a specter of major cuts? Is “maintaining” enough of a pitch? Interesting questions.

Speaking of maintaining ...

One of the issues raised by opponents of the referendum is that MPS has maintained its inventory of schools almost without major change for at least 15 years.

There are schools in MPS that have more students than their listed capacity, according to a report MPS made to the Legislature’s joint finance committee in August 2023.

But there are also a bunch of schools that are substantially under-enrolled, and the system as a whole appears to have more capacity than it needs.

The under-enrolled schools are generally on the north side. For example, Clarke Street School, which President George W. Bush visited in 2002, has a listed capacity of 560 and, as of May 2023, had 266 students. Hi Mount School, spotlighted in the 1990s for its innovative programming, had a capacity of 506 and an enrollment of 172.

MPS has resisted closing schools and Posley, the superintendent since 2018, has suggested that closings would not save much money. He also has said MPS is working on a new facilities plan. The last time MPS made a serious effort to close schools was when William Andrekopoulos was superintendent. Now retired, Andrekopoulos has come out against the current referendum, in large part because of the number of schools with low enrollment, which he argues leads to unnecessary staffing and costs.

So how are the children doing?

The core and ultimate issue is the overall academic success of Milwaukee students. And, in the broad picture, they’re not doing well. This does not apply to every student and every school. But paint the picture with broad strokes and it’s not pretty.

In tests given in spring 2023, only 15.8% of MPS third- through eighth-graders were rated proficient or advanced in English language arts (including reading), and 52.9% were rated as “below basic,” the lowest category on Wisconsin’s tests. Absenteeism is high; behavior problems are serious.

The picture isn’t so great for students in the non-MPS schools either. For example, among all Milwaukee students (including some in ninth grade or higher) using vouchers to go to private schools, only 20% were proficient or advanced in English language arts, with 37% below basic.

The biggest problems, to put it candidly, involve a list of schools serving low-income Black children on the north side. And there is almost no sign of results getting much better in those schools, regardless of whether they are part of MPS or not part of MPS. There is little sign of a real plan to deal with the issues in a meaty way, whether you’re talking about things school can influence or the important factors that shape children’s lives outside of school and before they reach school age.

Do you know of plans to do something meaningful for children in MPS schools where zero to 5% of students are proficient in reading? I don’t. The answer to that question varies in the non-MPS sector, but there are schools there where I would say the same.

Some schools are raising the roof. But a lot are hoping only to maintain the situation they are in, situations marked by low overall education success.

What happens in MPS if the referendum is passed? What happens if it fails? Both are important questions. But transcending them are two questions that aren’t up for a vote on April 2 and don’t get the attention they need: How do we really raise the roof? And what happens if all we can do is maintain what we have?

Alan J. Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School. Reach him at [email protected].  

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Maintaining low educational success isn't what MPS needs