Milwaukee Leaders Rally Support for Public Education
A war is being fought over public education in Milwaukee, and the future
of the city’s most vulnerable children is at stake, speakers said
during a daylong inner city forum to support public schools.
Dozens of concerned citizens, students, parents, community activists,
and religious leaders attacked private and religious school vouchers,
saying vouchers would destroy efforts to improve Milwaukee Public Schools.
They gathered for a day of workshops and speeches and a nighttime rally
at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church December 8.
 “You can’t solve a
problem
by running away from it.” Safiya Jones, student
Riverside University High School
Milwaukee |
“Vouchers benefit private and religious schools at the expense of
our public schools,” said Roxanne Starks, president of the Milwaukee
City Council of PTAs and PTSAs. “A strong public education system
is vital to America’s well-being.”
Safiya Jones, a student at Riverside University High School, said it
doesn’t make sense to try to improve public schools by taking money
away from them and giving it to private schools.
While pointing out that there’s a lot of positive things happening
every day in Milwaukee Public Schools, she acknowledged that problems
exist and improvement is needed. But, she added: “You can’t
solve a problem by running away from it. We want to improve within our
own system.”
Keynote speaker the Rev. Timothy McDonald of Atlanta said it’s “wake-up
time” for public school supporters in Milwaukee. “I don’t
know about you, but I’m ready to fight now. We have a responsibility
to do what is just.”
Some proponents of vouchers and charter schools are not concerned about
children or education, he said. “All they want is to get their hands
on the money.”
They want to put the money into schools that are not reflective of the
community, he said. Milwaukeeans can no longer allow people to come into
their community and take money from their children, he said.
“Our agenda is to save our children.”
Felmers O. Chaney, president of the Milwaukee chapter of the NAACP, said
efforts must concentrate on improving public schools.
“The only way a majority of children that look like me are going
to get educated is if they go to public school,” he said.
Carol Shields, president of the People for the American Way Foundation,
used the forum to unveil an Action Plan to strengthen public schools and
tighten standards for voucher schools.
The voucher approach, she said, is built on the concept of increasing
opportunities for some “and leaving the rest behind.” Voucher
schools often won’t educate children who most need help, she said.
The Action Plan has three goals:
- Stop the private and religious school voucher program.
- Hold voucher schools to the same standards as public schools.
- Give Milwaukee children the same opportunities as children in other
communities to participate in positive school improvement programs such
as the Student Achievement Guarantee in Education program.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr., an Illinois congressman, spoke at the evening
rally. The event was sponsored by Partners for Public Education and supported
by a variety of organizations, including the Milwaukee Teachers’
Education Association and WEAC.
Why vouchers are not the solution
People for the American Way has developed a list of reasons why private
and religious school vouchers are not the solution to the problems in
education. Following is an abbreviated version of that list. For more
information, go to the organization’s Web site at www.pfaw.org.
- Vouchers drain much-needed funding from neighborhood public schools
while doing nothing to improve them. Most students are left behind in
deteriorating schools that are robbed of critical resources.
- Private schools often reject students based on past academic performance,
religion, gender, disability or other factors.
- Voucher programs allow the spending of large amounts of public money
with little accountability to taxpayers.
- Voucher programs are costly. The cost of running public schools is
not reduced by the amount sent to private schools under the program.
Public schools must continue to heat buildings, bus children, pay teachers,
etc. In addition, a large amount of public funding is spent subsidizing
students who are already in private schools.
- Because they send tax dollars to private religious schools, vouchers
violate the separation of church and state.
Posted December 10, 1998