Barrett Denies Charge of Racism
Michael Bonds, MPS Board President. Photo courtesy MPS
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett insists that his decision to pursue control of Milwaukee Public Schools is motivated by what is best for the children of the city and not by race.
“President Obama’s Secretary of Education is a major proponent of this,” Barrett said in a phone conversation this morning. “The mayors of Detroit and Washington are huge advocates for this. There is nothing racially-motivated about it.”
Michael Bonds, the new president of the Milwaukee school board, charged yesterday in an interview with WTMJ that the attempt to transfer control of MPS to the mayor is “racist.”
Bonds, an African American, angrily resigned from the commission appointed by Governor Jim Doyle and Mayor Tom Barrett to study MPS. He charged that by announcing their support for mayoral control Doyle and Barrett were going back on a commitment they made to engage in an open examination of how to improve MPS.
Bonds told WTMJ that the current board did not create the problems facing MPS and should be given a chance to address them.
In a letter to MPS Superintendent William Andrekopoulos, Bonds ordered MPS staff not to serve on the commission or devote any MPS resources to assist it.
Barrett said there was a sense of urgency because hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds are in play.
State applications for a piece of about $4.5 billion are due by the end of the year, Barrett said, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said that preference would be given to urban school districts with mayors in charge.
“Everything has changed,” Barrett said. “As easy as it would be to walk away from a fight, I’m not going to do that with $100 million or more at stake.”
Barrett says that Wisconsin leads the nation in the achievement gap which reflects the difference between test scores of white and black students and other cities like Chicago and New York have shown marked improvement following a switch to mayoral control of the schools.
“It is an amazing coincidence that on the same day this made news here, the governor of Michigan and the mayor of Detroit were making the same announcement,” according to Barrett. “Mayors and Governors are seeking to align themslves to get these federal resources.”
“We do not support this but at the very least we believe it requires an open and public discussion,” said Citizen Action of Wisconsin Political Director Matthew Brusky. “We don’t believe governance explains the issues that MPS is grabbling with.”
Brusky said he is troubled that a school district with a majority of African American students finds itself at risk of losing a democratically-elected school board.
This is far from a done deal, Barrett said. The change requires the approval of the state legislature which would hold public hearings on the proposal and if it doesn’t pass during the fall legislative session “then the idea dies,” Barrett said.
Barrett has invited comments on the future of MPS from the public and the commission’s next meeting is scheduled for August 26th at Bradley Tech High School, 700 S. 4th Street at 8 am.
Check out my story from yesterday and, by all means, let us hear what you think.
are any of the mayors in the other cities that have changed their policies, black? and how much of the money conerns are caused by unions?
concerns. make that concerns, not conerns. show me the money. HOW successful have the other mayoral-run school systems been? In what way are they better than the current system? How can citizens trust any of this? I can say as one who has worked as a sub teacher in the inner city, that wow! it wasn’t all bad, but it was hell for the most part.