Milwaukee Public Schools

[JD]

I was doing some investigative work, and being from the Green Bay area, i always thought public school systems were generally pretty good. In the Green Bay area there graduation rate is above 90%, most students do attend college of some sort, etc.

Long story short, i was talking to a coworker about the education level down here in Milwaukee and asked if her daughter went to a public school, her response was "hahahahaha, are you being serious?"  I looked at her with a dumbfounded look and said "yes"  She said, search MPS online and you'll find your answer....

So after doing some research i see the MPS gets about 1 billion dollars a year, which comes out to around 3.2million a day to spend on all public schools in the Milwaukee area.  There is 6100 teachers/staff and if you multiply the amount of teachers times an average salary of 60k/year that comes to about $366,000,000 (now granted not every teacher is making 60k/year...)  so where is the other over 600 million going?  It's astounding to me that the dropout rate is in the top 5 in the nation and literacy is at about 35% of GRADUATING students!!!

Anybody have any answers or opinions on why MPS is a complete failure?

[GGGG]

http://www2.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/portal/FY13/Supt_Overview_2.pdf

And are you seriously just realizing that MPS is a disaster?  (BTW, you can send your kid to Rufus King or Reagan and they'll be fine.)

[JD]

http://www2.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/portal/FY13/Supt_Overview_2.pdf

And are you seriously just realizing that MPS is a disaster?  (BTW, you can send your kid to Rufus King or Reagan and they'll be fine.)

I knew the public system down here wasn't stellar, but being 24 and not having kids, i guess i didn't know to what extent that was.

[JD]

http://www.sequenceinc.com/fraudfiles/2008/11/milwaukee-public-schools-wasteful-spending-exposed/

[whodem]

http://www2.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/portal/FY13/Supt_Overview_2.pdf

And are you seriously just realizing that MPS is a disaster?  (BTW, you can send your kid to Rufus King or Reagan and they'll be fine.)

....or Riverside. It's surprising you wouldn't know how bad MPS truly is, and it's not getting any better.

[wyzgy]

the public schools outside of mps aren't too bad-nicolet, waukesha-all three, northshore suburbs, whitnall, new berlin west and eisenhower, to name a few.  ya just have to get out of the city a little-not really sure why that is though

[4everwarriors]

I'm a product of MPS

[wadesworld]

I'm a product of MPS

The ancient days of MPS weren't so bad...

[🏀]

The ancient days of MPS weren't so bad...

MPS had a extensive scroll and script collection.

[TonyTagliavia]

After spotting this conversation, I wanted to share a few pieces of information regarding Milwaukee Public Schools that I thought would inform the discussion.

Specifically, I think they refute the point that "it's not getting better." No one would argue that the district as a whole is where it needs to be, but the indicators are pointing in the right direction.

Milwaukee Public Schools' graduation rate for the class of 2011 (the most recent data available) was 69%, 17 points higher than the rate for the class of 2000. Using both the traditional and the more stringent four-year graduation rate methodology, MPS' graduation rate improved between 2010 and 2011 at a faster rate than the state as a whole.

Data released during the 2011-12 school year shows that during the second year of a program to dramatically boost ACT participation (the rate now stands at 85%), scores rose.

MPS' math proficiency on the state standardized test has grown by 10 percentage points over the last six years.

While overall performance is, once again, not where it needs to be, a number of individual MPS schools boast extremely high academic achievement. We have schools with proficiency rates above 90%. Twenty-eight MPS schools are roughly at or above the state average in reading. Twenty-six are roughly at or above the average in math.

Rufus King and Reagan, which an earlier poster mentioned, were ranked by U.S. News and World Report as the top two high schools in Wisconsin and among the 200 best in the nation. Milwaukee School of Languages was ranked seventh in the state.

Many of our top-performing schools have waiting lists. And just as we have closed schools that were underperforming or not enrolling enough students to thrive, we are growing schools that are both popular and successful to lessen wait lists.

Four popular and successful MPS schools are in new locations for 2012-13 so that they have room to grow. We're opening a new Montessori school near Howard and Howell avenues because of the 100-plus-student-long wait list at our nearby Fernwood Montessori School.

We also continue to attract high performing charter schools and the operators of the highly-successful Carmen High School of Science and Technology are now planning an MPS-authorized second campus to serve the northwest side of the city.

To raise achievement across the district, MPS began implementing comprehensive literacy (in 2010-11) and math/science plans (in 2011-12) that are aligned to the tough, rigorous Common Core State Standards that ensure all students are prepared for college and careers. A $20-million grant from the GE Foundation is assisting us in implementing the Common Core. And in the coming year, we'll be naming 10 'demonstration' schools that will develop best practices that can be modeled by schools across the district and perhaps across the country.

Also, to be clear, MPS does not administer "all of the public schools in the Milwaukee area" as one poster indicated. We serve roughly 80,000 students in 166 schools throughout the city of Milwaukee. The schools do draw some families from suburban communities, but we do not operate public schools in suburban communities.

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions about Milwaukee Public Schools.

Sincerely,
Tony Tagliavia
Communications and Public Affairs | Milwaukee Public Schools
(email address is tagliaaj at milwaukee.k12.wi.us)

[mu03eng]

Holy Schnikes, MUScoop has hit the big time.  It looks like the $600 million may be going into PR 

[GGGG]

Actually, that was a pretty informative post.  Doesn't address per pupil spending and the like, but still...

[JD]

Holy Schnikes, MUScoop has hit the big time.  It looks like the $600 million may be going into PR 

LOL'd!

[TonyTagliavia]

Our budget companion website addresses how money is spent: www5.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/dept/budget

I should add that the $1B total budget includes fee-for-service recreation programs and tens of millions of dollars the district sends to privately-operated schools through the voucher program and to suburban schools through Chapter 220 and Open Enrollment.

Since the companion was published, we were able to realize better-than-expected health care savings to bring teaching positions back that were slated to be cut. We are not laying off any teachers this summer.

In the most general sense, budget expenditures include staff (teachers, principals, educational assistants/paraprofessionals, psychologists/social workers, physical/occupational therapists, speech pathologists, food service workers, nurses, safety, central administrative staff, etc.), utility costs, technology, textbooks/supplies, transportation, food service and other items.

Again, specific questions can be sent my way any time.

Tony

[mu_hilltopper]

There is 6100 teachers/staff and if you multiply the amount of teachers times an average salary of 60k/year that comes to about $366,000,000 (now granted not every teacher is making 60k/year...)  so where is the other over 600 million going?

Point of information .. $60k may be about right for average salary, but you missed the fastest growing cost: Benefits.   After taking that into consideration, the average compensation package for a teacher is just a bit over $101,000 per year.

Naturally, with health insurance costs rising at 5-20% per year .. you can see how quickly MPS is sinking into a financial hole.

[JD]

Point of information .. $60k may be about right for average salary, but you missed the fastest growing cost: Benefits.   After taking that into consideration, the average compensation package for a teacher is just a bit over $101,000 per year.

Naturally, with health insurance costs rising at 5-20% per year .. you can see how quickly MPS is sinking into a financial hole.

40k for health, dental, vision, 401k, and Pension plans?  Holy F!  Well What's the excuse then for the MPS being a FAILURE?  A TEACHER...making about 100k to work 8 months out of the year is a joke. 

It's quite simple to me, if i do bad at my job, if i don't meet expectations, i'm gone.  Yet these teachers aren't held accountable?  Obviously they're not...  Facts are facts and MPS has failed, the blame should be placed on the teachers.

[GGGG]

40k for health, dental, vision, 401k, and Pension plans?  Holy F!  Well What's the excuse then for the MPS being a FAILURE?  A TEACHER...making about 100k to work 8 months out of the year is a joke. 

It's quite simple to me, if i do bad at my job, if i don't meet expectations, i'm gone.  Yet these teachers aren't held accountable?  Obviously they're not...  Facts are facts and MPS has failed, the blame should be placed on the teachers.

Well, what about the statistics that the PR guy listed above?  What about the parents and family situations those students come from?  If you have kids from impoverished families whose parents don't care about school, don't you think simply blaming the teachers is right course of action?

And the reason they are paid 60k is becuase they have to pay that much to get bodies. 

[JD]

So being 15-19 years old, you don't think kids understand the importance of school because of their dead beat parents?  I don't believe that.  Each individual has their own opportunity to become anything they want to become.  I agree that not having a good support system will make things much more difficult, but to insinuate that these kids cannot do their own homework and stride for something more than what their parents have i think is false.

I still believe teachers hold the majority of the blame here, every kid should be taught how to read, and write.  Knowing coworkers who tell me there are students who teachers PASSED knowing they cannot read road signs, or simple words is in comprehendable to me. 

[Bocephys]

So being 15-19 years old, you don't think kids understand the importance of school because of their dead beat parents?  I don't believe that.  Each individual has their own opportunity to become anything they want to become.  I agree that not having a good support system will make things much more difficult, but to insinuate that these kids cannot do their own homework and stride for something more than what their parents have i think is false.

I still believe teachers hold the majority of the blame here, every kid should be taught how to read, and write.  Knowing coworkers who tell me there are students who teachers PASSED knowing they cannot read road signs, or simple words is in comprehendable to me. 

Most 22 year olds don't understand the importance of school, and yes, it starts at home.  Parents who think the school should basically raise their kids between the hours of 8 and 3 and refuse to put in any outside work with their kids will lead to developmental issues no matter how good the teacher is. 

[mu_hilltopper]

Most 22 year olds don't understand the importance of school, and yes, it starts at home.  Parents who think the school should basically raise their kids between the hours of 8 and 3 and refuse to put in any outside work with their kids will lead to developmental issues no matter how good the teacher is. 

Bingo.  JDuquaine .. while I think everyone (should) agree .. there's a bell curve on the quality of teachers (and accountants, and cashiers, and doctors) where there are some awful ones, some fantastic ones, and a load of ones in the middle .. generally speaking, there aren't enough "bad teachers" to explain MPS' massive failures: the vast majority of the terrible results of MPS is due to horrendous parenting and the cycle of poverty, 18 year olds having children  -- who have opportunity, yes, but only a slim glimmer of breaking out of poverty themselves due to their terrible environment, lack of role models, and terrible personal decision making.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

[GGGG]

So being 15-19 years old, you don't think kids understand the importance of school because of their dead beat parents?  I don't believe that.  Each individual has their own opportunity to become anything they want to become.  I agree that not having a good support system will make things much more difficult, but to insinuate that these kids cannot do their own homework and stride for something more than what their parents have i think is false.

I still believe teachers hold the majority of the blame here, every kid should be taught how to read, and write.  Knowing coworkers who tell me there are students who teachers PASSED knowing they cannot read road signs, or simple words is in comprehendable to me. 

It is incredibly naive of you to think that teachers, who deal with 25 or so kids a day, 8 hours a day, 180 days a year, should have more influence on kid's education than parents and conditions that they deal with pretty much every other hour of their life.

[mu03eng]

One way to break that.....year round school.  Break up the summer into small chunks through out the year and limit the lost knowledge with students almost literally doing nothing over the summer.

[JD]

^ Don't they do that in Japan and other countries?

[Bocephys]

One way to break that.....year round school.  Break up the summer into small chunks through out the year and limit the lost knowledge with students almost literally doing nothing over the summer.

While I have nothing against that, I'm not sure it's the cure for the lack of parental involvement.  They get a new teacher every year, so they'll follow the lead of what the see at home far more often that what they see at school. 

[mu03eng]

While I have nothing against that, I'm not sure it's the cure for the lack of parental involvement.  They get a new teacher every year, so they'll follow the lead of what the see at home far more often that what they see at school. 

Not intended as a cure, but it will at least reduce the impact of the lack of parental involvement.