Fuller drops his proposal for moving to North Division
Critics say plan amounts to takeover, threatens traditional public schools
Longtime school choice advocate Howard Fuller has withdrawn a proposal to move his charter school into Milwaukee’s North Division High School rather than face what was certain to be a brutal approval process.
Fuller had the support of Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Darienne Driver and some board members but withdrew because of mounting opposition led by the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association that he said “pitted black people against black people.”
“And we’re not going to be part of that,” said Fuller, who had proposed “colocating” Milwaukee Collegiate Academy inside the sprawling North Division campus at 1011 W. Center St.
“We believe we’ve got something to offer,” said Fuller, a former MPS superintendent and North Division alum. “But we don’t think taking the community through the usual Milwaukee thing — with all the name-calling and demagoguery — is in the best interest of our kids and families or the kids and families at North.”
Critics, including the MTEA and the advocacy group Schools and Communities United, had derided the proposal as a takeover plan and a threat to traditional public schools that are already diminished, they say, by Milwaukee’s ever-expanding taxpayer-funded school choice options.
“Families, children and the community in Milwaukee have had more than enough of this 25-year private school experiment with black and brown children,” MTEA Secretary Ingrid WalkerHenry told supporters at a rally outside North Division on Monday.
“Whatever funding we have left is being funneled to private voucher and charter schools. And it’s past time to stop with the experimentation ... and invest in public schools that meet the needs of all children in Milwaukee,” she said.
The groups mounted a similar campaign in 2016 in an effort to thwart plans by MPS-chartered Carmen High School of Science & Technology to move into space at Pulaski High School at 2500 W. Oklahoma Ave. It passed on a narrow 5-4 vote after a pitched battle with both sides packing public meetings to plead their positions. And the district renewed its lease with Carmen earlier this year.
Charter schools are technically public schools but with more autonomy.
Typically, they are not unionized and do not answer to publicly elected school boards.
Milwaukee Collegiate Academy, which is currently chartered by the City of Milwaukee, serves about 290 students at 4030 N. 29th St. in space rented from Goodwill Industries. Its lease expires in May and the school has been looking for a new site. It zeroed in on North Division, in part because of its amenities, including a gymnasium.
But the prospect raised a question for Fuller: “Could the model we are using, that is beginning to have success with our kids, could that be something we could bring into North?”
Fuller’s co-location proposal was taken up by the school board’s Charter School Review Panel on Feb. 27, according to a notice provided Friday by MPS’ Office of Board Governance.
He declined to provide a copy of his proposal, and the district has yet to make it available in response to an open records request. Office of Board Governance Director Jacqueline Mann said Friday that charter school proposals may contain proprietary information and that she is working with the Milwaukee city attorney’s office to determine whether it can be released.
While the proposal considered by the advisory panel covered strictly a colocation arrangement — two schools operating in a single building — Fuller said he ultimately “wanted it to be one school.”
Driver said she supported the co-location arrangement but that the district is committed to North Division. To that end, she said, MPS is “open to considering proposals from educators who may be in a position to enhance the educa- tion of our students and help position them for success.”
North Division students have struggled academically for years. The school failed to meet expectations in its 2016’17 state report card, receiving a 22 out of a scale of 100. Just 7.5% of its 412 students were proficient in English language arts and none in math.
Milwaukee Collegiate Academy met few expectations with a score of 53.9; 8.6% of its students were proficient in English and math. Fuller said the school has improved over the years and scored higher than all but three MPS high schools. And he would have hoped to have seen the same progress at North Division.
“Overall, our community has failed the children at North Division for years, including the time when I was superintendent,” Fuller said. “The issue was whether or not there was a way to come together to say our children deserve better.”