Last week, an alternative plan for governance of Milwaukee Public Schools was proposed by Rep. Tamara Grigsby and state Sen. Spencer Coggs, both Democrats from Milwaukee. This is a plan that never would have been proposed or entertained seriously on its own merits. It was conceived with political rather than policy goals: to head off the proposal for a mayoral takeover. It seems like a scheme by the teachers union, which of course has endorsed it.
The proposal would split up power between the mayor and the school board in a way that would drive any superintendent crazy. The mayor would have line-item authority to veto budget items if the property tax rises more than 8 percent, but the school board could override the veto. The mayor could veto the board’s choice for a superintendent, but the board could override this. Meanwhile, yet another committee, made up of the mayor, school board and Common Council, would meet quarterly to discuss education issues.
The end result would give the mayor little real power over the process. And to the small extent that it did, it would give the superintendent even more masters and more committees and more meetings to weather, making governance of the schools even more convoluted than it already is.
But for the teachers union, which has been adroit in working with school board members to undercut the superintendent, it makes a divide-and-conquer approach even more feasible, adding Common Council members as possible allies when issues like the teachers contract are being contested.
If you doubt the union’s fingerprints on this plan, consider that it also requires principals to work six years before receiving tenure, while teachers continue to get tenure after three years. It creates two “transition campuses” for disruptive students. (Most teachers always want to ship out the troublemakers.) And it proposes a SAGE program to lower class size for ninth graders, as blogger Gretchen Schuldt has noted. Teachers always want smaller class sizes, but given that education funding is a scarce resource, why spend on smaller ninth grade classes? Education research shows overwhelmingly that smaller classes only have an impact in early elementary classes.
An idea like transition campuses might bear discussion, but since when are such decisions mandated from afar by the legislature? This bill offers a grab bag of favorite items for teachers, which is why the Milwaukee teachers union, state teachers union, state Service Employees International Union and MATC teachers union all support it. No one in the legislature would have taken a plan like this seriously if it had been proposed by itself. It’s simply a spoiler, an ingenious way to head off the proposal for a mayoral takeover. Better to approve no plan than pass this hydra-headed monstrosity.
Dannie Darko
Poor Dan Bice. Humanity is always disappointing him. Last June, the gloomy Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist broke the news that reporter Jessica McBride and Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn had an affair but rushed to judgment that it began while she was writing a feature story on Flynn for this magazine. Within a day, Bice wrote a piece quoting McBride that the affair actually commenced in early May, more than two months after she turned in her story. Later references by the Journal Sentinel, like this story, began to use the past tense: that McBride “had written” a profile before having the affair. (It’s like watching the old Russian Kremlin, where a subtle change in language signals an abrupt change in thinking by the leadership.)
So Bice next asked for all the e-mails between McBride and Flynn but couldn’t find a smoking gun. Having (sigh) gone through the e-mails myself, I can attest they include some chatty friendliness (that I wouldn’t recommend any reporter engage in) but nothing salacious or flirtatious. Bice tried to get some mileage out of the e-mails anyway, but the paper only let him blog online and published nothing in print.
But last week’s accusation by McBride’s husband Paul Bucher that the affair has recommenced gave Dour Dan another turn at bat. Sure enough, Bice tried to again suggest the affair had started while McBride was reporting the story. He hotly repeats his claim that “many” in the Police Department considered her story a love letter to the chief but offers not one such officer’s name or even one off-the-record quote. (Note to the normally picky JS copy editors: There are 2,672 Police Department employees. Wouldn’t “some” in the department have been at least a little more believable?)
Bice claims McBride exchanged “hundreds” of e-mails. I count about 125. He never tells readers the e-mails clearly verify McBride’s claim that the affair started in early May. He darkly notes the e-mails were ongoing while the story was being edited. Well, yes, that was me doing the editing but honest (and you can check his emails), the chief and I weren’t having an affair.
As I’ve previously written, the controversy over this affair does shadow our story and must be (and has been) acknowledged by this magazine. My experience is that readers appreciate it when you correct or clarify things. Why not try it sometime, Dan; you’ll feel so much better in the morning.
The Buzz:
-Add Antonio Riley to the list of those likely to run for mayor should Tom Barrett win the election for governor. The articulate former Democratic state representative from Milwaukee has served more recently as the head of the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Agency.
-Has anyone noticed the disappearance of Boris Gokhman? The combative Russian immigrant and high-profile developer who sometimes got in trouble explaining his developments. Nowadays, his son Tim Gokhman is always the spokesman for New Land Enterprises, while Boris plays Harpo.
-Wisconsin always lags economic trends. We were doing less poorly than other states early in the Great Recession but now rank fourth in the nation in unemployment claims per capita. That’s not good news.
-How dare he? Mayor Barrett declined to veto the increase in the night parking fee despite my impassioned argument in last week’s column as to why it’s a bad idea. Barrett’s staff said they checked and found the use of night parking permits is pretty well distributed through the city. But did they check who fails to pay the fine and loses their drivers licenses as a result? It’s all poor people.
-And amid the endless dross of television, is there any good stuff to see? And any droll takedowns of the stuff that shouldn’t be seen? Yes on both counts in TV Guru.
