Howard Fuller’s changing views on Milwaukee
Look to the future of a lot of kids in the central city. What would be better for them — a $15 minimum wage or improved curriculum in school? Howard Fuller gave his answer: The $15 minimum wage.
It was surprising to hear that from one of the most prominent education advocates in the country and the person I would call the most significant figure on Milwaukee’s school scene in the last several decades.
I asked if he would have given that answer 10 years ago. No. What changed? “I didn’t understand what I understand now.”
The $15 wage would offer paths for a lot of young people to more stable lives. Better schooling is important but it can be more like “a rescue mission” for young lives that have already been shaped by so many powerful and negative forces, he said.
Fuller has had a consistent passion for decades for trying to help African-American students reach good futures, even as the specific initiatives and reforms he has advocated have evolved, sometimes dramatically.
One force behind his changing views: Deeper understanding of the life circumstances of young people and the difficulties a school has in changing the trajectory of their lives.
For years, Fuller has been deeply involved in Milwaukee Collegiate Academy, now a 300-student charter high school at N. 28th St. and W. Capitol Drive. Many incoming ninth-graders are years behind where they should be academically.
The school emphasizes individualized education. Its work overall is praiseworthy. But overall success has been hard.
The more Fuller has seen of what shapes students’ lives, the more he sees why.
Then there was August 2016. A Milwaukee police officer shot and killed a man fleeing from him, triggering disturbances and longer-lasting tensions focused on the Sherman Park neighborhood.
The shooting was on the block where Fuller lives. He became involved with trying to return calm to the usually quiet neighborhood. His insight into the lives of many he met underscored to him “how deep the hole is that we dug,” in terms of Milwaukee’s problems.
And there was the election of President Donald Trump. Fuller has worked in the past with conservative politicians, organizations and funders because they supported things he supported. He met with George W. Bush when Bush was elected president.
But Fuller said he would not meet now with Trump and has no involvement with Betsy DeVos, the current secretary of education and a former ally in promoting school choice.
He called Trump “despicable” and said, “This man and what he’s done is qualitatively different than anything else I’ve seen.”
“Not to take a stand is to co-sign on the injustice,” he said.
None of this was what prompted my visit to Fuller’s office at Marquette University, where he has held the title “distinguished professor” since resigning as superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools in 1995.
The Institute for the Transformation of Learning, which he heads, was for years a booming operation, with involvement in school-related initiatives and school choice advocacy in Milwaukee and nationwide. The organization is now pretty much just Fuller. Once major player to close
What brought me there was the announcement that the Black Alliance for Educational Options, known as BAEO, would close by Dec. 31. A conference hosted by Fuller’s institute in Milwaukee in 1999 led to creation of BAEO and he was its central figure.
BAEO was significant for years. It played major