Reading, Writing, Roulette (cont.)
............................................................................................................................
viewing page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11
14 first and second graders, is quick to defend his school's shortcomings. "You've
got to learn to crawl before you gallop," he says as he highlights the amenities,
like the shared Y pool and arts-and-crafts room, and the public park across the
street. "We don't have all the trappings of a traditional school. But if
traditional schools were so successful, we
wouldn't be here."
Milwaukee Debates the Results
Howard Fuller, Ph.D., a Black educator, agrees. He and his wife, Deborah McGriff, Ph.D., are staunch choice supporters. "I can take you to public schools in America that nobody will want to send their kids to--and you can't close them," he says. Fuller, an education professor at Marquette University and Milwaukee's public-school superintendent from 1991 through 1995, is organizing the Black Alliance for Educational Options, a national coalition of African-Americans who push for broader educational choices like charter schools, vouchers and homeschooling. His wife heads Edison Teacher Colleges, a subsidiary of Edison Schools, a for-profit educational-management firm, which is scheduled to open two campuses in Milwaukee this fall. "Parental choice is enough to make sure accountability exists," he says.
But "for parents who think choice is better, what criteria do you use to define something that's better?" counters the Reverend Dr. Rolen L. Womack, Jr., pastor of the Progressive Baptist Church. With other Black ministers, Womack has helped organize rallies against the voucher program and is now working to improve public schools. "I'm for every child having an opportunity to learn," he says. "Look, I could get $5,000 a student, pay teachers $10 an hour. But wouldn't I be more effective in championing the rights of 100,000 students, instead of trying to do one school?"
Acknowledging that some public schools aren't up to par, Spence Korte, Ph.D., the current Milwaukee superintendent and the third in five years, says, "the trouble with choice is if you leave a mediocre public school for a mediocre choice school, then you haven't solved the problem." Korte, a former elementary principal, outlines a plan under development to shift $170 million from busing to improving all public schools and building more in overcrowded areas. "But the economic reality is that many families are not stable," adds Korte who is White. "Schools started with a narrow charge, then people added things on like you add balls to a Christmas tree. We're now responsible for hot breakfast, hot lunch, immunization, AIDS education and more. We can do all that if it's mandated, but in fairness we need to be judged on more than test scores."
Nationally, much of the opposition to vouchers comes from People for the American Way (PFAW), a group founded by the television director Norman Lear, which has accepted donations from the National Education Association (NEA), the nation's largest