The More They Push Barrett, The Less This Makes Sense to Me

Ok, let's be honest with ourselves.  Doyle and Barrett want the Mayor of Milwaukee to take the reins of the failing Milwaukee Public Schools System.  It is well-known that Doyle is not shy about praising Barrett about being "his guy" to succeed him as the next Democratic Governor of the State of Wisconsin.

Pardon me for asking, but if Barrett's out running for Governor for most of next year, who the hell is supposed to be overseeing MPS?

Milwaukee's mayor would have the power to not only appoint the city school system's superintendent but also set its annual tax levy under a legislative proposal Gov. Jim Doyle detailed Tuesday.

Flanked by five Milwaukee-area legislators, Doyle released more components of what he said would be within a bill introduced in the Legislature giving the mayor a strong hand in governance of Milwaukee Public Schools.

With little time left in the legislative session and the bill still in the drafting stage, Doyle said he may call a special session this year to consider mayoral takeover of MPS.

"I think we all feel this incredible sense of urgency that this has to be done," Doyle said.

The plan would not just give the mayor the ability to fire and hire the MPS superintendent, according to a handout drafted by the governor and legislators. It also would move authority over budget and fiscal issues, curriculum, facility decisions and collective bargaining from the School Board to the superintendent.

The mayor would set the annual tax levy.

School Board members would provide oversight and perform duties related to community relations and student discipline. A referendum to reauthorize mayoral control would be held after seven years.

Even though a bill that would give the mayor a hand in the schools has not yet been introduced, Mayor Tom Barrett said in an interview Tuesday that he has been talking with others about what characteristics he wants in the next schools superintendent. He called on the School Board to postpone its Nov. 19 deadline for applications for the MPS superintendent position, which the board is looking to fill before Superintendent William Andrekopoulos' departure in June.

Those who have talked to me in private about this issue pretty much know where I stand.  The idea isn't totally baseless and without merit.  MPS is in horrible shape by a combination of managerial waste and fraud, inattentive parents who gave up on not just bettering their kids, but their neighborhoods years ago, and a school board which is well...words fail to describe it sometimes.

Milwaukee's Public Schools are in need of a fix, and something indeed needs to happen to make that change a reality. Under the right kind of leadership from a mayor who has a record of tackling education reform head on, Milwaukee could start under many of the same reforms DC has seen under Mayors Williams and Fenty.

However...

What we are very likely about to see if what Democrats (and seriously folks, you are kidding yourself if ever believed otherwise since the NEA started calling the shots in that party) always do:  Use kids as a smokescreen for the realpolitik going on behind the scenes.  I mean, seriously, after months of this idea being out there and complaints from Milwaukee officials, suddenly they find legislative authors.

Where were these folks weeks ago?  Did they just materialize over-night?

And then next week, what do you know, the Big Guy's coming to Madison.  And what is he talking about?  You guessed it, education.  Does anyone honestly think there won't be some 'alone time' with Mayor Barrett or that Michelle Obama won't give the "shared sacrifice speech" to his wife Kris?  That guilt trips about 'grand Democratic loses from Milwaukee to Superior and parts in-between' won't be laid upon them every chance they get?

Now that's all fine and good.  It's how some party politics go down behind-the-scenes, but they're using the guise of reforming Wisconsin's largest, most bloated, most in need of repair school system as the puppet theater to move the political chess pieces on the board.

That's low.  That's not going to help any one's kids or any kid's future with the sort of half-hearted effort I fear we're about to receive from Doyle and friends.

That's not reform; and frankly, if that's how it's likely to go down, then don't bother doing it.