MPS faces big challenges, but new cash, other help are hopeful signs
Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Keith Posley understands the challenges facing the kids in Milwaukee Public Schools better than anybody.
He also knows this: The obstacles facing those 73,000 students — a majority of them Black and Hispanic — cannot be fixed by MPS alone.
The state’s largest district needs help from the entire community if its students are to become productive citizens.
Never has the well-known proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child,” been more true.
“All of us need to come together and get on the same page for our
young people,” Posley told me. “That village is all of us.”
Posley has been in talks with community leaders, and he wants to bring others on board.
He is considering duplicating a Nashville, Tennessee, program called Fatherhood Fridays that I wrote about last year in which Black men come into the schools and read to young students to improve reading proficiency. The program was started by Michael Pratt, the son of the former acting mayor of Milwaukee, Marvin Pratt.
The entire community needs to have a role in helping kids be successful — from mentoring to offering a student their first job.
All of it helps.
MPS has new pots of money for the first time in years
Posley sat down with me last week to discuss a number of topics facing MPS as the new school year begins.
He was upbeat but honest about the challenges that lie ahead.
The good news: For the first time in years, there is a supply of dollars to help pay for needed programs. In addition to the $1.3 billion budget, the district will get almost $800 million in COVID relief from the federal government, which amounts to $11,000 per student, and during the last election, voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum that would add $87 million in support.
Dollars from the referendum, the first for MPS in more than two decades, will fund art, music, physical education and library specialists in schools. Programs like that were cut as budgets tightened and priorities shifted. Music programs, in particular, are a key to reaching kids.
This year, the district will have smaller class sizes, too, which has been shown to help students learn faster and perform better. Class sizes of fewer than 20 students result in more student engagement, make a classroom less chaotic and allows the teachers more time to just teach, according to the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union.
MPS students will see more foreign language teachers, counselors, social workers, psychologists and school nurses as well.
“It was important to be able to bring these resources back and have these built-in safety nets for our children,” Posley said.
As for the COVID relief funding, he said millions are being spent to make sure the more than 150 schools are ready for the new school year. That includes technology upgrades such as hot spots for WiFi and getting students up to speed after months of virtual learning.
Classrooms will be equipped with Plexiglas barriers and air purifier systems. The district will make cleaning in high-traffic areas a priority.
Community stakeholders from throughout the city will determine how a majority of the additional funding will be spent starting in late September through community forums, Posley said.
One critical area: reading. MPS should follow the best practices to help kids get closer to grade level. Fewer than four of 10 students in Wisconsin were proficient in reading in the 2018-19 school year, according to the state Department of Public Instruction.
Every child needs to be proficient in reading. A failure to read adequately by the end of third grade is correlated with poverty and a failure to graduate from high school. The cost to society is enormous when kids fail — estimated at $260,000 in lost earnings, taxes and productivity, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
One of the main things Posley has been pushing for is an accelerated learning program that focuses on math, reading and writing, with increased tutoring.
“I want every student to master those subjects,” he said.
MPS getting help from a cadre of older Black men
Community activist Earl Ingram Jr., a lifelong Milwaukeean who has worked in MPS for 12 years as a mentor, says Posley is spot on in emphasizing community involvement.
Ingram said it’s time for the community — especially older Black men — to be a part of the solution.
“MPS cannot do this alone, and we have to stop blaming them for all of the problems happening with our young people when we are not stepping up to the plate to help,” Ingram said.
Ingram is organizing 100 Black men 60 and older to serve as mentors.
“We have too much talent that is not being utilized in this city. Black men have a lot to offer. We can help turn these children into men and also work with the young women, too,” he said.
Ingram said the men can help provide a fatherly figure for young people.
“These are our kids, and they need to see Black men who are concerned about them,” Ingram said. “It’s hard for people who don’t look like them to understand them.”
He believes a bigger presence in schools could help reduce crime in neighborhoods where nearly 7,000 cars have been stolen so far this year.
“Maybe what I say can stop a young man from stealing a car and losing his life. Or maybe we can be a spark to get them back on the right path,” he said. “All I know is that I’m not going to sit around and do nothing. We can’t afford to do nothing and watch our young people struggle.”
If we want young people to be successful, Ingram has the right idea. Get involved.
James Causey’s interview with Keith Posley will air on the Milwaukee PBS program “Black Nouveau“at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 9 on Channel 10.