News Room:
“Governor Doyle’s education package to improve Milwaukee schools jeopardizes a city-wide commitment to high school reform endorsed throughout the Milwaukee community,” said Daniel Grego, Executive Director of TALC New Vision.
“We have received fourteen applications for planning grants from diverse Milwaukee teams that hope to open high schools in Fall 2005 as independent charters or private schools in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program,” said Grego. “If the Governor’s plan is enacted, none of these school innovations will be possible.”
In July 2003, Milwaukee received a $17.25 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support A New Vision of Secondary Education in Milwaukee. The New Vision calls for the development of forty new small high schools and the conversion of seven large Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) high schools into multiplexes. Ten of these forty new schools would open as independent charter schools sponsored by UW-Milwaukee or the City of Milwaukee or as private schools that could participate in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP).
Governor Doyle’s proposed moratorium on independent charter schools would make it impossible to meet the objectives of the grant. In addition, the prospect of rationing that will come into effect when the cap on the MPCP is reached makes it difficult to plan new small high schools accessible to low-income students in the choice program.
“Our community should use all of the tools at our disposal to educate our children,” said Grego. “Why would the Governor limit the ways our community can get involved in the process of reaching out to every child?”
The New Vision of Secondary Education grant received the endorsement of MPS, the Milwaukee Partnership Academy, which includes the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC), the Alliance for Choices in Education (ACE), and TransCenter for Youth, Inc., which operates TALC New Vision.
TALC New Vision provides technical assistance to teams planning and implementing new small high schools both inside and outside MPS under the New Vision grant. TALC New Vision is committed to a new vision of public education that is based on a diversity of personalized learning environments, a diversity of school governance options, and the ability of all families, regardless of their economic status, to choose options that best fit their needs.
For more information, contact:
Daniel Grego
(414) 931–6225
Download: “Doyle Education Plan Undermines New Small High Schools” PDF (43 Kb)
