“Progress is incremental. It is something that we all have to show up for, because…if we don’t care about our kids and our public schools, then we are destined to fail.,” said Milwaukee Public School Board Vice President Jilly Gokalgandhi at the Rotary Club of Milwaukee.
She was right.
With the start of a new school year for 66,000 students, Milwaukee’s civic, business, and cultural leaders have an opportunity to consider how they have supported MPS since its financial strife in May and how the city can show up going forward. Here are four ways they could change children’s lives by this time next year:
- Make reading reforms a citywide project. Did you know a Black student in Jackson, Mississippi, is likely 3 years ahead in reading of a Black student in Milwaukee? Did you know students with special needs in Miami become better readers than students without special needs in Milwaukee? That’s “the science of reading” at work, and all of Wisconsin starts copying them this year. But MPS needs reinforcement. Ensure tutors know phonics-centric literacy and aren’t just well-meaning volunteers. Pay Marquette Coach Shaka Smart and his wife, Maya Smart, to issue autographed copies of her fantastic book to every kindergarten parent in the district. Get our Boys & Girls Clubs, Milwaukee Public Libraries, and houses of worship in on the revolution.
2. Get graduates to and through what’s next. The odds of an MPS student graduating high school, enrolling at UW-Milwaukee, and getting a diploma are about 12%. It’s not like they’re pursuing alternative careers, either; just 2% of MPS students participate in youth apprenticeships. Supporting organizations like All-In Milwaukee solves the first problem. They build relationships with high school students, provide in-state scholarships to keep them in Wisconsin, and support their needs to ensure they graduate. Restoring relationships with Milwaukee’s manufacturers solves the second. The Cream City is building again, so let’s produce a touch fewer delivery drivers and more tradesmen and tradeswomen.
3. Unlock affordable teaching degrees. What if you could help students become teachers for nearly free? And what if no college bothered to do it? That’s exactly what happened with “teacher apprenticeships,” a bipartisan solution in 35 other states that gets teachers less college debt, more hands-on experience, and more often from the communities in which they will serve. Not a single Milwaukee-area 2- or 4-year college offers this new program, leading to less selectivity or outright teacher shortages in MPS. If your alma mater is in Milwaukee County, tell them they can get federal dollars to save MPS through teacher apprenticeships.
4. Redevelop closed school buildings. Well, we messed up. People fled the city during the pandemic, the rest didn’t have kids, and now smart people are projecting a -20% enrollment shockwave will rip our schools apart over the next decade. Names we know and love will shut their doors, and neighborhoods will lose their central hubs. The only thing standing between innocent families and creeping blight is smart development. The city’s planners, transportation experts, and entrepreneurs ought to stop that from happening (as they have elsewhere) with child care, educator housing, or shops.
Leaders, if you want families to settle down in Milwaukee, if you want to keep our Fortune 500 companies and sports franchises, if you want to stay more populous than someplace called “Colorado Springs,” you need to start hearing our young people shouting for help.
Promise them a prosperous Milwaukee with your time, talent, and money, and they will turn tomorrow into the glory days. Show up for MPS.
Quinton Klabon is Senior Research Director at the Institute for Reforming Government, a Wisconsin-based right-leaning think tank. This copy is as it originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.