Milwaukee Public Schools (credit, how much, hotel)

[Tarheel Hopeful]

Hey everyone,

I am doing a final paper for sociology and I am discussing how Milwaukee being a poor city, that effects the schools, and contributes to the ills of the Milwaukee Public School system. I have researched and found many statistics that show how bad it really is, but my question to you all is WHY?

What are the policies and or restrictions in place at MPS that result in such a bad product and/or, more generally what makes a poor community have bad schools?

The only thing that I have been able to note is that Milwaukee teachers are required to live in Mil. Co. which deters good teachers. I also found a statistic that said if Milwaukee PS was run like a normal business, it was save 103 milli.

But I am sure there are more factors, could anyone more knowledgeable than me shed light?

Thank you.

[#Littledog]

Here's my two cents-schools can only be as good as the parents. In MPS, many of the students come from very dysfunctional families. They suffer from poor prenatal care, poverty, abuse, broken relationships, poor nutrition-all factors that affect their educational success. There are a handful of very good MPS schools but it seems like they are the ones where the students come from supportive families who are dedicated to fostering the educational needs of their children. Things such as responsible adults running the household (vs parents who are in and out of jail or strung out on drugs), making sure their child gets a good night sleep (vs staying up all night playing video games), providing them well-balanced meals (vs relying on the government to provide school breakfast and lunches), making sure they have a quiet place to do their homework (vs being absent when the kids come home from school and not enforcing homework rules at home), going to parent-teacher conferences, (vs not attending, not knowing what's going on with their child until he or she is failing and then blaming the teachers), etc...I could go on and on. My husband was a teacher for MPS for several years until this past year. He's in another school district now. The residency requirement does deter many teachers. I also think the high burn out and feeling that no matter what you do as a teacher to try to help these kids become successful, responsible members of society are in vain when they return to their home environments every night, on the weekends, and during the summer.

There is a lot of money in MPS. Now that my husband has another district to compare it to (by the way, he took almost a $10,000 pay cut when he left MPS), MPS qualifies for a lot of federal and state money because of the income level of the students. Some of this money is mismanaged (i.e., Ms. Charlene spending money on an out of state conference, fancy hotel, travel expenses and deciding to go shopping instead-she totally blew off the conference), giving parents free I-Pods if they come to school and sign their kids up for free lunch, administrators who don't do much of anything, making 6 figure incomes. The problem is not lack of money supporting the school system. The problem is lack of parents who are responsible, employed, educated and it just becomes a vicious cycle. Please don't get me wrong-there are some wonderful families in MPS. My husband always felt badly for them because they were working hard to provide a good upbringing for their children. Unless these kids go to the handful of good MPS schools, their education is going to suffer. The behaviors of many of these students is so bad that it takes up all of the education time.

My friend once said that if the government would be better off taking these students from such dysfunctional families and putting them in an orphanage. Then at least the students can get food, education, clothing, shelter and provide a structured, safe environment so they can feel safe, secure, and loved. I know some people will say every child needs to be with their mother or their father but when the parent is a prostitute, strung out on drugs, physically/verbally abusive, absent, or suffering from a mental illness, the child may be better off without them. Unfortuantely, our foster care system is a mess and only perpetuates the problem.

[militarymom]

One main problem. Parents. Schools are ONLY as good as parents. Don't blame the teachers, they try. Honestly. My dad was a bus driver as a job (only lasted a week) and what he saw/heard was insane. Elementary kids swearing, kicking, ugh...he taped it, asked for support and ended up quitting because they just turned a blind eye. Unforunately not many parents are involved in their kids schooling-at all. I know, I grew up there and have friends who have tried to work in the district. Its very sad. You go about 15 min west and the PTA has about 99% involvement rate, schools are outrageously good. Its parents. Hands down.

[#Littledog]

When kindergarteners are acting out scenes they saw in a porn movie (or maybe in real life-who knows!?!), that's when you know the supervision level and involvement of the parents is pretty bad. My friend who teaches at an elementary school in MPS said this is not uncommon. Very sad

[almost3am]

I go back to the parents, also. If the parents cared about their kids, the kids would be focusing more on school and the schools would score better. Gangs and drugs are another problem that affect kids in schools, but if a large group of parents really cared, this would control these problems more than the police can.

[Allan Trafton]

MPS is a typical large urban school district. They all have the same problems. There is no mystery to this problem. The previous posts put it better than I could. It's all about the family and how much they value education. It's really that simple. In the mean time many studies will be done, programs installed, new administrations put in place, teachers will be blamed, schools broken down, even more studies will be done and on and on and on. The results will continue to be the same. Things will only change when they change at home.

[Alexus]

These are great responses and I agree. I attended a MPS for three years before going to college. I found the teachers to be excellent. I mean every single teacher that I had was passionate about teaching and very interested in any kid who took an interest. Just a damn shame to see kids completely unfocused, with parents who seemed non-existent. Incredible shame. So I too place the blacme squarely on the shoulders of the parents who have no done an effective job creating in their kids a love fo learning, an appreciation for school, and respect for the teachers.

It is Milwaukee's central problem. Ignorance is abundant in the city. One doesn't blame people for wanting to move to the outskirts where they can shield their kids from the ignorance, and certainly stay away from it themselves.

[eastsiders]

The poor present performance and the poorer outlook for the future performance of MPS were just one of serveral reasons why my spouse and I left Milwaukee, WI for Barrington, IL.

My children attended Maryland Avenue Montessori School from 2005 - 2007. While we were very satisfied with the high quality of instruction, we were not happy with the substandard building, the low level of parental involvement, the incompetent administrative leadership and the lack of financial resources necessary to provide an excellent education to all students.

The building was over 100 years old and was not large enough to accomodate a full K3 - 8 grade school as envisioned. Handicap access did not exist. The boiler was neither efficient nor fully functioning. At the time, MPS did not have nor did MPS forsee ever having funds to remodel or rebuild.

While the PTO, the Land Use Committee and the School Governance Committee were well served by some intelligent dedicated people, too few existed to add substantial value to the educational enterprise. In comparison, the PTO at our present school (a public elementary school of 250 students) raised over $50,000.00 this year and among otherthings purchased a Smart Board ( A touch computer screen that is about 6ft by 6 ft) for every classroom at a cost of about $25,000.00.

The principal was placed on administrative leave for allegedly embezzling school funds to feed a gambling habit.

I think poor political leadership, decades of decline in student population, incompetent administrative mandarins, ineffective PTOs and the realisation that the money's all gone have created the sorry mess called MPS.

I place the blame at the top and give credit to those at the bottom. The State of Wisconsin has financially deserted the City of Milwaukee. The School Board has failed to react timely to a rapidly decreasing student population. MPS is filled with a class of inept Mandarins. And there are not enough good parents and good teachers to change things for the better before their kindergarteners graduate from highschool.