Anti School Choice Radio Ad
The leadership of the Milwaukee teachers' union fears School Choice. With Choice, parents of poor kids are able to vote with their feet. These parents have determined that the members of that union are doing a poor job of educating their children. Thousands upon thousands of parents have decided to let their kids participate in the Milwaukee School Choice Program rather than be warehoused in some MPS school.
For weeks, advocates of the Choice Program have been airing radio ads in the Milwaukee market, in an attempt to convince Governor Jim Doyle to lift the current cap that limits the number of children who may choose to attend a non MPS school.
This week, the establishment struck back with an ad encouraging citizens to call their legislators.
Here's the text of the teachers' union ad:
We hear a female voice, as if this were an automated voice mail system.The ad, of course, is outrageous. The value of homes in Milwaukee are not decreasing due to School Choice. School Choice is not the cause of MPS' problems. Choice schools have accountability and their performance certainly can be no worse than MPS.
"To divert 95 million of your tax dollars to private enterprise, press 1. To risk lowering the value of your home significantly by weakening your public schools, press 2.
"You chose neither."To select sending 15,000 students to private schools with no accountability and questionable performance, press 1. To select larger public school class sizes and fewer funds for their educational materials, press 2.
"You chose neither.
The spot ends with an announcer attacking the choice program in general. He then instructs citizens to call their legislators and:
"Tell them to either limit the school voucher system or eliminate it. Those are the only choices that make sense."
Of course, the teachers' union honchos see no shame in making such outrageous statements. They are determined to keep the status quo at MPS, because for them it's all about jobs and the subsequent union dues.
As Susan Mitchell points out:
Choice for the teachers, but not their students.Consider that by the time African-American students enter their sophomore year in the Milwaukee Public Schools system, taxpayers have invested about $100,000 per pupil in their education. How accountable has MPS been in teaching these students?
New data show that only one in five black MPS sophomores is proficient in math or science. Fewer than four in 10 are proficient in reading. To make matters worse, these distressing results come after a decision to lower the score that a student must attain to show proficiency.
The majority of black MPS students won't receive a high school diploma. The Shott Foundation for Public Education has issued the numbing finding that "nearly three-quarters of the black male students (in MPS) fail to graduate with their (ninth grade) cohort."
Jay Greene, a nationally recognized expert on graduation rates, separately has estimated that the overall MPS graduation rate is 36%.
The actions of MPS teachers are also instructive. According to the latest federal census, nearly 30% enroll their children in private schools.
School choice opponents are fighting a losing battle and this (very lame) ad will not help them prevent parents from choosing the best school for their children.
In fact, I'd expect this bland spot to be scrapped in short order. Look for the anti School Choice zealots to move to plan B quickly.
15 Comments:
Once again, the Teachers' Union not allowing the facts to get in the way of their overwhlming desire to control all of the education money.
... and comparing Doyle to a segregationist standing in the school-house door like Orville Faubus and George Wallace is reasoned discourse.
Doyle and the teachers' union are doing just that: blocking the access of black children to a quality education. Trying to keep them prisoner of failing "gummint skoolz" when "they don't learn nothin'" and have no future except crime, dependency, drugs, prison and death.
We just call 'em like we see 'em. If you are blocking the access to black children to a better education, you are no different than Faubus and Wallace. Maybe the reasons are different, but the end result is the same.
Doyle is doing the exact same thing as Faubus and Wallace. Except his motivating factor is money.
He wants to please the Teachers' Union, which in turn wants the government money to go to them.
The MPS headquarters on 52nd and Vliet is nothing but a fiscal black hole.
And Doyle is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong to endorse a commercial full of lies and poor logic. He and that Union know a majority of students using the voucher program come from low-income, minority families.
And he knows that these families wouldn't be able to afford a move to a suburban school or private school on their own. He has them between a rock and a hard place. And it's a joke. He's a joke. I can't wait until elections this year...
I call BS.
The leadership of the Milwaukee teachers' union fears School Choice.
As a friend of many in that leadership, I can say that this is BS. They--we; I am not afraid to include myself--do not fear choice anymore than Republicans who dislike welfare, for example, fear it. The problem with choice is that it creates a shadow system of unaccountable schools.
Amy Pawlek, above, calls MPS a "fiscal black hole"--again, this is BS. It is only choice schools that are not obligated to follow open meetings laws, publish full financial statements, and account in detail how my tax money is spent in their schools. MPS is an open book when it comes to spending and performance; every single budget line at every single school is public record.
And oh, yes, you'd better believe I said unaccountable. No choice school is obligated to provide student performance data of any sort to anyone at any time--not even parents. You talk about voting with feet, Brian? Last year, almost 30% of voucher students (not counting graduates) did not return to the program. Surely that means something, no? Yet how many of these schools are closing down, due to the accountability of the marketplace?
I don't know . . . maybe these parents are deciding to go back to "members of that union" after their children were taught by some shlump with a GED for a year.
As for Anonymous #1, who somehow thinks this ad lacks facts, riddle me this: What is not true? It is a decidely proven fact that the higher the quality of public schools, the higher the property value. The lower the property taxes (the choice program sucks extra money out of Milwaukee taxpayers' pockets--over and above what we pay for MPS students!) the more attractive an area. The numbers--cost of the program and participation--are not untrue. Nor is the the second "press 2"--that class sizes are increasing and budgets are being cut, as the voucher program costs MPS money.
And the biggest BS of them all--from both Pawlek and Peter--is that Doyle and MTEA are "blocking the access of black children to a quality education." Doyle, if you haven't noticed, has offered to raise the stinking cap! If legislative Republicans hadn't been so bloody stuboorn for the last two years, the issue would have been done a long time ago. You can even blame your GOP pals and your sainted Susan Mitchell because they (the legislature and School Choice Wisconsin, among others) shot down DPI's initial rationing plans that would not have kicked a single student out of a school or closed a single school down.
As for the union not caring about education, you may also not have noticed the NEA grant we received this year to close the achievement gap with research-proven methods. And, as an NEA grant, that means we're paying for it ourselves with our own dues. You may also not know that MTEA is constantly involved in the professional development of its teachers, running workshops and overseeing a mentoring program with a mechanism for firing bad teachers. Believe in your little straw men all you want, but don't be upset when I call BS.
It outrages me--not as a union member or teacher, but as a Milwaukee taxpayer--that we pay more for the voucher program but get considerably less in return. To perpetuate the system as-is would be untenable.
Jay:
MPS is a fiscal black hole because most of the money spent doesn't reach the kids. Throwing more money at it isn't going to solve the problem. It isn't going to jack up the 36% graduation rate (even less if you take away Rufus King, HS of the Arts, and Riverside). And when one looks at the district's budget books, one is amazed at how much is eaten up with huge benefits, unnecessary consultants, and other dross.
And a choice school (or any private school) has to be accountable in order to stay open. The Catholic and Lutheran schools give their students standardized tests, and they are open with the results. Also, any private school which ticks off parents soon finds itself mostly empty. The same can't be said of a public school.
I could go on here, but I have a blog to do so in more detail. Pay it a visit and feel free to reply there, if you wish.
Jay:
In addition to the appaling graduation rates, the questionable spending of finances through MPS, the violence at MPS schools (i.e., the Superintendent having to bar the public access to events because of their behavior, or the fact that a co-worker's husband regularly stays after school to file police reports because of fights) and the fact that most schools don't reach state or No Child Left Behind standards, how can you defend the system?
Is it because you're a part of it? Or because you have friends who are part of it?
We know many parents who have not and will not send their children to MPS schools. We won't. I don't care how much money we have to borrow or how many jobs we have to work or if we have to move to a suburb. Our children are not going to MPS schools unless there is considerable improvement. The only schools I'd consider - Montessori and The Language Immersion Schools and Art Schools - have long waiting lists and are difficult to get into. But we - and other parents - refuse to sell our children short.
True, there are dedicated teachers in MPS and a handful that make a difference. But most spend the day banging their head against a wall.
How can you ignore the stats Mitchell notes? How can you say that MPS is fine when it isn't serving the population it's meant to serve?
This article from the Journal Sentinel (http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/sep04/262800.asp?format=print) shows that the graduation rate for MPS schools was 36% (that's just over one out of every three students) while private schools using vouchers had nearly double that with 64%, or two out of three. One of the men conducting that study said the school choice program "does produce substantial results."
School choice is esentially the product of a free market society. Businesses that don't serve the needs of their customers close. Schools that provide substandard education will lose students...but only if their parents are given the means (i.e. vouchers) to send their children elsewhere, especially when socioeconomics and geographics prevent parents from sending their children to other schools or moving to other communities.
Other countries - ones that are beating the pants off us in achievement scores - like Belgium and other European countries let parents choose their children's schools. If it works for them, why not us?
And it's common sense. Any parent worth their salt is going to consider the schools before moving into a community. The appaling state of MPS will turn parents away, and they will move to outlying suburbs instead. That will put a damper on MPS and housing values...not school choice.
Nothing you say will convince me to buy into the propaganda that is robbing deserving youth of a better life through better education. That commercial, and all the supposed evidence behind it, are nothing but lies.
Not every private school is perfect, but the voting of feet *is* very influential. Parents will go where they need to in order for their children to get a good education. Schools like Messmer, St. Anthony's, St. Leo's, Prince of Peace, St. Adalbert's are successful because parents and students see the effort, the results, and the discipline that goes into those private school educations. And yes, these schools hold to standards and are held accountable.
I would send my child to one of those schools before any MPS school (with the above exceptions).
Amy,
I'd homeschool mine before I'd let any WEAC thug anywhere near them.
So I'm a thug now, Peter? Great.
Dave, I'd visit your blog but your profile is locked so I can't get to it.
Why does Education in America stink...Simple answer is in one little word. Unions
These Teachers' Unions have blocked every attempt at State and Federal controls on teacher quality since 1983. Help break up those stupid flaming-liberal Teachers' Unions...get involved.
Jay:
My apologies. I'll try to straighten out that situation later, since I'm home sick today, and got plenty of time...
You may visit me at pawlakimprov.blogspot.com
I heard the ad on Thursday on WISN. The one thing that I did not hear was the tag line at the end... Paid for by ... Why is WEAC afraid to admit that they paid for the ad? Because they would be seen as rather partisan and on the fringe. Compare that to the bi-partisan support from the MMAC. (Business owners who have thrown money at Doyle, E. Michael McCann, etc.)
Hey Xoff- where is the outrage over the lack of the tag line? You know the same thing that you were complaining about Charlie's 'spot'. Of course this ad was actually bought and paid for using someone's union dues.
Jay - Please explain to me how 'that we pay more for the voucher program but get considerably less in return'. As state tax payers the cost is half. ($11,300 compared to $6,300)PERIOD Next time try a valid argument instead of they WEAC press release.
id10t: According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau (not WEAC), Milwaukee property taxpayers pay $1000 more per voucher student than we pay per MPS student. We may save a little on our income and sales taxes because of the voucher program (you've seen how far those taxes have fallen since the advent of the program, right? hahahaha), but we pay higher property taxes because of it. PERIOD.
Hell, I am doing the damn MTEA's job for them ... for a lot less money. Cut me in on the gravy, folks!
Jay,
Not you personally. I am sick of having to do the work of your colleagues and not getting paid for it. And I am sick of your district refusing to even consider me for employment. For no damn good reason.
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