Northside Family Restaurant Values

To celebrate the last days of elementary school, my mother (visiting from MD) offered to take daughter D to any restaurant in Madison - cost was no object. Anywhere she wanted to go!

I started salivating. We have some pretty awesome restaurants in Madison. L'Etoile! Harvest! Fresco!

But my daughter had something else in mind. She named a strip-mall restaurant, down the street from us.

"Oh sweetie," I said, "We can go there any time. This is a special dinner! You only 'graduate' from elementary school once! Pick somewhere nice!"

But she held to her guns. See, last week her class received a nice surprise from this restaurant. The waitresses at the restaurant, together with the owner, pooled their money together to donate hundreds of dollars to the 4th/5th grade field trip to Green Bay. Then, the owner paid for a school bus to go to the school and bring the kids to his restaurant, where he offered them ANYTHING ON THE MENU. For free. The kids were beyond excited.

He explained to the kids that he came to the U.S. from Armenia and when he arrived, people were kind and helped him out. He wanted to give back to the country that gave him so much, and was reaching out to our school to do that.

In no uncertain terms, my 11-year-old daughter told me that he had something more important than a fancy menu with over-priced wines. He had character and values.

So we went. To the unpretentious strip-mall restaurant. Where we had a lovely dinner. (And bonus: turns out they serve Spotted Cow!)

As we left, my son turned to me and said, "You know, that restaurant doesn't look like much on the outside. But inside, where it counts, it is really nice."

I blinked back a few tears (mothers are allowed to be a bit overly emotional when their eldest is leaving elementary school behind, no?) and told him that was exactly right. And I was so very glad that my daughter didn't listen to my recommendation to go to the fancy restaurant instead.

I'd like to think that I'm the one teaching my kids that what is on the inside matters more than what is on the outside. But I suspect that perhaps, they are the ones teaching me.

Solidarity Forever

It is rare for me to concur with David Brooks. But in this column, directed at college graduates, I found something we agree on. He says that graduates are being told:

"Follow your passion, chart your own course, march to the beat of your own drummer, follow your dreams and find yourself. This is the litany of expressive individualism, which is still the dominant note in American culture."

He continues:

"The graduates are also told to pursue happiness and joy. But, of course, when you read a biography of someone you admire, it’s rarely the things that made them happy that compel your admiration. It’s the things they did to court unhappiness — the things they did that were arduous and miserable, which sometimes cost them friends and aroused hatred. It’s excellence, not happiness, that we admire most."

We all want the best for our children. But what if it turns out that providing them with the best of everything isn't the answer? What if allowing them to experience some of the struggles that life invariably contains, actually helps them?

Last night, we went to the school picnic of the middle school that daughter D will attend next year. The school has a 71% poverty rate, so most of our neighbors choose to attend a private school, or open-enroll to another public middle school.

But while we were there, we met a group of 7th graders who went down to New Orleans to do an incredible service learning project. We also met a really neat young man who demonstrated his complicated science fair project in both English and Spanish. (Something I certainly could not do....either the science or the Spanish!)

Finally, we headed downtown to the interfaith coalition solidarity singalong.

I know there will be enormous obstacles in the upcoming year. There will continue to be unique challenges at a high-poverty school.

But standing with my fellow Madisonians at the Capitol last night, singing "We shall not be moved" and "Solidarity Forever," it felt, for a few minutes, like we were part of a community that valued the rights of all citizens over the individual happiness of a select few. I felt hope.

David Brooks should come a sing a few verses with us.

Best School Board Meeting. Ever.

I go to a lot of school board meetings. That either makes me certifiably insane, or a concerned citizen who is very interested in education policy. (please let it be the later. please.)

There are only a handful of us average-joe-citizen-parents who are regulars at the local BOE meetings. Sometimes I get really annoyed that no one else seems to care about this critical business of educating our children.

But then, there is a meeting like tonight's - and I am so very grateful that I have whatever recessive mutant gene I possess that attracts me to attend local education meetings.

Tonight, the teachers were out in full force. There was standing-room-only at the meeting. I saw almost every teacher from our elementary school. The teachers spoke so eloquently that I was moved to tears. More than once.

You would think, perhaps, that they were complaining about the millions of dollars of lost benefits and salaries they will not get in the next budget cycle. No, you'd be wrong. Perhaps they were complaining about the $900 million decrease in WI education funding. No, not that either. Or maybe they were upset about the people who continue to write to the local paper decrying the "union thugs" and the "fat-cat overpaid teachers" No, that wasn't it.

They came out because the district is contemplating a change in their planning time. The district wants to provide more time for professional development. They thought they could take a few hours away from teacher planning time to make way for classes/workshops/seminars. When I first read this, it sounded like a pretty good plan, to me. Really, who doesn't like learning new skills?

But then I spoke with some teachers. And I learned about the incredibly important work that they do in their planning time. I learned about the field trips they planned. And the science experiments. And the art projects. And the reports they write. And the amazingly creative work they do to keep students engaged. (I could go on and on...)

I am hoping that our board heard what I heard. We have amazing kick-ass teachers in Madison who care more for the students they serve than just about anything else. The passion for the kids came through loud and clear.

And reason #101 why I could never be an actual Board Member and why I respect them more than they will ever know: After listening patiently for over 2 hours of teacher testimony, they began their very-full regularly scheduled meeting. At 9 pm. When normal people should be headed to bed. That is when they *started.*

TJ Mertz, of AMPS, outlined the agenda items here. I went home and watched on TV and have two comments:

1) TAG ("talented and gifted") - I may be the only parent in the entire district who thinks TAG is doing a great job. We've had no problems at all getting our kids identified and getting amazing services from our classroom teachers and our instructional resource teachers. But I'm a parent who is in the school every week....and goes to board meetings....and is on district committees.

So, that makes me think that one of the big problems is perhaps *communication* to parents on the services available and how to make use of them. That is why I really like the new plan. I think it goes a long way to improve services and communication.

I was on the TAG parent committee, until I got kicked off. (Long story - but I don't recommend ever asking a group of TAG parents the following question: "Don't you think that the kids who are learning all of this stuff in their second language are just as smart, if not smarter, than our kids? What about kids who grow up in poverty and overcome obstacles our kids can't even imagine, but still perform well? Don't you think we should should have special TAG services for them?" If you do ask that question, you will quite coincidentally get a phone call the next day telling you that there is no longer room for you on the committee because they have too many parents interested in being on it. Total coincidence, I'm sure.)

2) 4K - I am so glad to see 4K in Madison that I am able to overlook some of the not-quite-perfect aspects of its roll-out. But TJ spoke so eloquently tonight about the lack of a 4K site at Allied Drive- one of Madison's poorest south-side neighborhoods. That is so very sad. I'm glad to see it offered at Northport and Packers on the north side of town. So, I'll take that, for now. But we can do better.

It's the poverty, stupid.

Oh, the intentions I had to keep this blog regularly updated again....sadly, life gets in the way.

But I have finally carved out some time to pen my thoughts on next year's MMSD Budget. You know, the one in which we ask the Madison teachers to collectively take a $15 million dollar pay cut.

Last year, the Board did not have the flexibility to ask the teachers to make such a sacrifice. Instead, they were forced to propose budget cuts that directly affected student programming. You name it, it was on the chopping block: sports programs, English-Language-Learner services, school closings. After months of difficult negotiations and community-listening sessions, they came up with a budget that worked for most people (within the realm of our very screwed-up school funding formula.) The community came out in droves to state their objection to the cuts. Most of the listening-sessions were standing-room-only. In the end, I felt like we avoided the most damaging cuts. Barely.

But in comes Governor Walker and his budget repair bill, and the tables are turned. Wave the magic wand and we can balance the budget on the backs of our teachers! You know - those overpaid fat-cat teachers.

John Matthews (Teachers Union leader) is calling "uncle" and Ed Hughes (school board member) responds.

I have much more to write on the interplay between management and the union in our school district. Surprisingly, I agree with the school board more often than with Mr. Matthews.

But, I think we are losing sight of the true key issue: childhood poverty. We live in a country in which nearly 20% of our children live in poverty (or "near-poverty.") In our district, 50% of the children qualify for free/reduced lunch. At our school, it is close to 70%.

Who do you think is the one key person who can actually help a kid escape poverty? In my experience, that person is their teacher. The teachers at our school do more than teach - they provide food, clothing, love, guidance, and support.

Every year, I put together a book through iPhoto for our teacher. I ask the kids to tell me their favorite thing about the teacher and we throw together some photos and their quotes. It's really nothing fancy, but it looks nice after Apple gets done with it.

The kids like my son, the ones who grow up with 2 parents and a bed to sleep in and enough food to eat, - they give boring answers: "I have a nice teacher. We do fun things." You know, generic, stock 8-year-old answers.

But the other 2/3rds of the class....they make me cry. They could fill the entire book with the incredibly meaningful things they say about the teacher. It is immediately apparent that for many of the Hmong kids in the class, their beloved teacher is the only person who is able to regularly read to them aloud. They remember every.single.book she has read all year long. They describe her voice when she reads, the plot of the story, the twist at the end.

Teachers matter.

I am not willing to accept a society in which 1 in 5 children doesn't get enough to eat. And the people I see leading the charge to eliminate childhood poverty are the teachers.

So I'm just not sure how drastically cutting their pay helps anyone.

Complexity

Why does everything have to be so complex? Why couldn't we have some more black vs. white or right vs. wrong?

I just returned from testifying at the school board meeting. I'm not known for my estimating abilities, but I'd say there were over 110 people there who spoke. At least 100 people spoke in favor of a particular charter school. I think there were only 5 or 6 of us who spoke against it.

That was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Don't get me wrong, I speak at school board meetings regularly. I think the school board members see me and think "oh no, not her again." But tonight was different. I was shaking in my shoes.

The charter school in question was a charter school for disadvantaged African American boys. Anyone who knows me well knows that this is a cause near and dear to my heart. I've been a "Big Sister" to some amazing African American young ladies for over 20 years. I've lobbied the board over and over and over again to provide MORE resources to our minority and low-income students. I enthusiastically send my kids to an amazing public school in which minorities are the majority and 70% of the kids receive free/reduced lunch.

But - the way they wanted to structure this charter school was troublesome. In Madison we have "instrumentality" and "non-instrumentality" charter schools. "Instrumentality" means that the Board of Education has some jurisdiction over the school. They get some authority over the administration of the school. "Non-instrumentality" is essentially a private school. (But one that gets public money.)

So, I had a decision to make. Here is a charter school that serves a population that I have devoted a great portion of my time/energy to help. Every single speaker tonight struck a chord within my core. They spoke the truth. There *is* a huge achievement gap within our school district. I know, I see it on a daily basis.

But....this particular school is a procedural example of everything I feel is wrong in the education reform movement. I firmly believe that the proposals in front of Wisconsin for expanded vouchers and charters (SB22 and the other bills) will completely destroy our public education system.

So, I stood up.

I asked them to keep their ideas and innovation and enthusiasm and to channel it into an "instrumentality" charter school. Yes, that would require more bureaucracy and it will certainly take longer. But it would be available to every single student - not just the ones who won the charter-school-lottery. You see, the kids I have fallen madly in love with don't even have the resources to apply to the charter school. Some of their parents don't speak English. Others don't have parents who are involved. Still others are homeless. A charter school lottery will certainly help a small population. But it won't help everyone.

The board voted 6-1 in favor of the charter school. Marj Passman was the one board member who seemed to share my concerns.

I spent most of yesterday at a marathon school budget meeting. I can honestly say this was the first budget meeting in which I witnessed grown men cry. Yes, the budget situation in WI under Walker is that dire. The superintendent at one of the districts was describing some of the budget cuts his staff would be taking (20% pay cuts, layoff, etc.) and he started to cry.

So, of course, I started to cry too. I'm still crying tonight. But tomorrow morning, I will get up again, and start the fight again. Our country NEEDS public education and I refuse to give up.

Unbelievable

I am generally an optimistic, glass-half-full kind of person. It takes me a long time to distrust or dislike someone or something, in general. I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories. I am often mocked for being gullible or naive. (And I am. Both gullible and naive. I admit it.)

So, I'm having a really hard time with this one:

On Monday, Bill Cronon published an amazing Op-Ed in the New York Times. My favorite part is this paragraph:

"Scott Walker is not Joe McCarthy. Their political convictions and the two moments in history are quite different. But there is something about the style of the two men — their aggressiveness, their self-certainty, their seeming indifference to contrary views — that may help explain the extreme partisan reactions they triggered. McCarthy helped create the modern Democratic Party in Wisconsin by infuriating progressive Republicans, imagining that he could build a national platform by cultivating an image as a sternly uncompromising leader willing to attack anyone who stood in his way. Mr. Walker appears to be provoking some of the same ire from adversaries and from advocates of good government by acting with a similar contempt for those who disagree with him."

Note that he says that Walker is NOT McCarthy.

So what does Walker do? He files an open records request to get access to Cronon's emails.

What???? Here we have a very intelligent UW professor who disagrees with our current government in a well-written Op-Ed but has done NOTHING WRONG. Our state is now allowed to read our emails for the simple reason that we disagree with the Gov.? Really? Can they do that?

Cronon's blog is worth a read for the full story.
Jay Bullock has more on his blog, Folkbum.

Scott Walker may be the one who succeeds in turning me into a cynical pessimist. Please tell me that this stuff isn't happening all over the country. Please tell me that Walker is an anomaly.

Charters and Vouchers and Testing, oh my.

With all the events going on around the world this month, my dad has been calling and singing Kingston Trio lyrics to me:

They're rioting in Africa, there's strife in Iran.
What nature doesn't do to us, will be done by our fellow man.

If anyone knows the extent of what nature can do to us, it is my master-of-disaster father. (He also knows more obscure song-lyrics from the 1950s than anyone else I know...)

The news about what nature can do has been absolutely horrifying this week.

I didn't think the "fellow-man" news could get worse for education in Wisconsin after seeing the nearly $900 million cut to K-12 education in Walker's budget. But boy was I wrong. Welcome to SB-22.

SB-22:

• Creates a 9-person authorizing board for charter schools: 3 appointed by the governor, 3 by the senate majority leader, and 3 by the speaker of the assembly.
  
  
• Changes current law that limits organizations to opening only one charter school. SB 22 permits one organization or company to open multiple charter schools which allows non- and for-profit franchised Charter Management Organizations (CMOs) to enter Wisconsin.
  
  
• Modifies teacher licensure requirements so that teachers in charters do not need certification.
  
  
• Lifts cap on and promotes virtual (online) charter schools

Lining up right behind SB-22 is an upcoming bill on vouchers, to divert education money from public schools to private schools.

At first glance, this looks great, right? More charter schools! More innovation! What's not to like?

There's a lot not to like:

• The charter School authorizing board circumnavigates the local school districts, limits legislative oversight and allows Walker’s cronies, who have no experience in education, to make influential decisions about schools.
  
  
• There simply isn't data to support that charter schools, in and of themselves, are better than public schools. There are good charter schools. And bad charter schools. Stanford has lots of research worth reading here.
  
  
• I'm still reading all the info, but I have yet to find any good information on how the charter school/voucher plan will serve special education or English language learners. It is really expensive to serve these populations and they don't always have high scores on standardized tests. If we move to a system that is run solely by efficiency and measurable results, it could have devastating consequences for many of our students.
  

The one up-side to all of this horrid budget news is that I have met some of the most incredible people as we organize to oppose the destruction of public education in Wisconsin. Last night, I met an amazing group of young women who started Public Schools for the Public Good - a great website for the latest news on education, both locally and nationally.

Stay tuned. This isn't over. Across the political spectrum, the citizens of Wisconsin value public education and we will not let Scott Walker destroy it.