Subject: School Choice Wins Big in Milwaukee Election Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 05:01:40 GMT From: oldnasty@mindspring.com (Grinch) Organization: Happy Skeptics of America Newsgroups: sci.econ, alt.politics.economics, misc.education References: 1 The city most familiar with school choice gave it resounding support in last week's Milwaukee School Board election. Voters swept anti-choice, teachers union-supported members from the Board in spite of unprecedented election spending by both the union (which refuses to disclose how much it spent or where the money came from) and out-of-state anti-choice lobbying groups. Recent polls show a state-wide surge in public support for vouchers. Excerpts from news reports: -- Related stories from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel web site: http://www.jsonline.com/ SCHOOL BOARD ELECTION INDICATES DRUMBEAT FOR CHANGE The status quo in the Milwaukee Public Schools was turned on its head Tuesday with the stunning defeat of all five of the School Board candidates supported by the teachers union. In a city that has seen a breathtaking degree of change in its education landscape, Tuesday's verdict from the voters was clear.... For years, the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association has controlled the nine-member School Board, creating a situation where labor was essentially negotiating with a management team that it had put in place.... It had been clear since last summer that Tuesday's election would not just be a contest to fill five seats on the School Board, but a wrestling match over who would hold the balance of power for at least the next few years -- candidates backed by the teachers union or candidates backed by proponents of reform and critics of the union.... Together, the races drew a level of spending never seen before in School Board elections in Wisconsin, including extensive television campaigns by the union and board member John Gardner... The intense election battle grew not only from the fact that the balance of power was on the line, but also the fact that the educational landscape of the city is changing in momentous and rapid fashion. Milwaukee is now the only city in the nation with a constitutionally tested program that provides vouchers for low-income students to use at private and religious schools. Charter schools, public schools that operate independently of school districts, are also popping up around the city.... All of this and more created an unofficial but widespread notion that this election was a referendum on whether to endorse the status quo or to push for more change... --- POLL FINDS MORE SUPPORT FOR SCHOOL VOUCHERS Wisconsin residents increasingly support the idea of providing vouchers to let students attend private and religious schools, a new University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee poll showed Wednesday. Three of five state residents who participated in the Wisconsin Poll said they favored using vouchers, with about 60% indicating that they "strongly favor" or "favor somewhat" tax credit or voucher programs. The support for vouchers represents a huge increase from the same poll conducted in the spring of 1997, when only 49% favored such programs.... The Wisconsin Supreme Court last summer ruled that Milwaukee's school choice program, which lets low-income students attend private and religious schools at taxpayer expense, was constitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court decided this fall not to hear the case -- thus allowing the decision to stand.... The poll's results are in line with those of several other polls conducted recently in Milwaukee and in Wisconsin. According to the poll, about 16% of participants said they somewhat opposed vouchers; 21% were strongly opposed; and 4% didn't know. -- SCHOOLS RACE RIVETS NATION April 4, 1999 What does it say about us that actor Alec Baldwin likely cares more about Tuesday's Milwaukee School Board elections than most of the people who live, pay taxes and send their children to schools in this city? Baldwin is a director of People for the American Way, one of several national special interest groups that are particularly interested in the outcome in a series of races that -- accurately or not -- have been framed as a referendum on Milwaukee's groundbreaking school choice program.... "I'm thrilled that a school board race is causing so much commotion," said Michael Lux, of the Washington-based People for the American Way. The anti-voucher group recently established a voter information phone bank in Milwaukee with the group Wisconsin Citizen Action. Milwaukee is the only city in the country that has a constitutionally tested program that provides vouchers for low-income students to use at private and religious schools. Voucher proposals, based on Milwaukee's programs, are starting to pop up all over the country, in places including New York City and Florida. In each city where school choice becomes an issue, people will likely point to Tuesday's vote as a barometer for the program's popularity here. People for the American Way sent a representative to Milwaukee last week to encourage pastors to include the School Board election in their Easter sermons. The group has also sent "issue advocacy" mailings to accompany the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association's mailings against incumbent John Gardner. Gardner, the union's sharpest foe, is facing retired principal Taylor in the race that has attracted the most attention. Gardner's at-large seat on the board is the only seat elected by the entire city.... So far, all of the television and radio advertising supporting Gardner has come from Gardner's own campaign, which has disclosed where its money has come from. The MTEA has been running its own television ads against Gardner, but the union has not disclosed how much it is spending or even where the money originated. Gardner's campaign has challenged the legality of those ads with city and state elections officials. The Milwaukee County district attorney's office is investigating, although the matter probably won't be resolved until long after the final ballot is cast on Tuesday.... Aside from generating a lot of spending money, this year's School Board race has been unusual in many regards, not the least of which is the viciousness that has accompanied some of the attacks on candidates. Milwaukee's teachers, who usually defend the quality of their schools and their student body, have produced mailings that do neither. One ad actually featured a picture of a young person holding a handgun on the cover and a marijuana joint, a bag of drugs, another handgun and a bottle of beer on the inside. The ad criticized Gardner for voting against MPS' expulsion policy, which expels and revokes services to any students who are caught with weapons. Gardner said at the time that he believed many students would be better served by being placed in programs for at-risk students than by being let out on the streets during school days. Another MTEA ad had yellow police-tape on the cover and a large image of a handgun next to smiling pictures of its endorsed candidates Todd and Taylor. "It's a team effort to make schools safe," the ad states. The union's television ad features the image of people carrying a coffin and highlights the need for metal detectors in MPS' out-of-control schools. Gardner's campaign is running ads that give Taylor, who retired last year as principal of Maryland Avenue Elementary School, grades of F for her work as principal, low science scores at the school, and her support for $18 million for laptop computers.... Gardner, who is largely supported by business interests, came under fire for voting to spend more money in MPS and increase the proposed tax rate last fall. Typically such attacks about spending come from business leaders who are concerned about rising taxes, but this one came in a mailing from the teachers union. In fact, much of Gardner's campaign money has come from business leaders. Local businessman Jack Rosenberg spent $20,000 of his own money on radio advertisements against Gardner for his support of school choice. But it's hard to tell what Rosenberg is saying about his confidence in MPS. The ad at one point says "good luck" getting a good education in MPS if you can't get into a private choice school. A Web page promoting the MTEA-financed candidates, operated by a supporter of Todd, is being investigated by the district attorney's office for campaign finance violations since none of the candidates has claimed the Web page as an in-kind campaign contribution. Official fliers for several MTEA candidates, including Taylor and Todd, invite voters to learn more about them on the Web site.... -- TEACHERS UNION SPENDS A FORTUNE, OFF THE RECORD April 06, 1999 They are in the fight of their lives to keep control of the state's largest school district, but, officially, leaders of the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association are just about sitting this School Board election out. The big budget television advertisements against their declared nemesis, board member John Gardner, aren't campaign related, the union says. The heaps of mailings bearing the union's return address, 5130 W. Vliet St.? Perhaps it's a coincidence that they arrived just before today's high-profile elections. Same with the lawn signs, radio commercials, telephone polls and newspaper ads. On the record, the union says it has spent less than $3,700 on campaigning since the February primary, and none of it on the spotlighted race for the citywide School Board seat between incumbent John Gardner and challenger Theadoll Taylor. The highly acrimonious race is by far the most expensive election in Wisconsin School Board history -- particularly if you include the cost of the teachers union's extensive efforts. The final totals will probably never be known because so much spending is escaping disclosure, but it appears the fight for the job, which pays $7,200 a year, could involve more than $500,000 in spending by all parties. Gardner claims that the union effort alone involves more than $400,000.... Rather than reporting its spending, the union is teaching a fresh lesson in an aggressive political strategy that is increasingly shaping the landscape of American politics: Spend a lot, claim it in the name of issue advocacy and escape a lot of disclosure that would otherwise be required. So if signs spring up across the city saying "Taylor" in huge letters, that's not election spending. It's free speech. Television ads that attack Gardner's record on safety in school are educating people about issues and don't directly tell them how to vote. The distinction rests largely on avoiding using a few key words, such as "vote," and arise from a U.S. Supreme Court decision from 1976. "It's a scam," Don Simon, executive vice president of Common Cause in Washington, said Monday.... The teachers union reported that it had spent less than $3,700 in independent campaign spending since the primaries, all of it on behalf of three incumbents it is backing, Joe Fisher, Sandra Small and Leon Todd. Teachers union leaders continued Monday to decline to comment on the spending issue. -- ELECTION COSTS TEACHERS UNION ITS CREDIBILITY Editorial April 09, 1999 Along with the drubbing it took at the polls this week in School Board elections, the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association lost on another front: believability. Is it possible that the giant union seriously thought it could convince voters that it did not want to unseat archenemy John Gardner? That's the logical conclusion one must draw from the MTEA's pathetic assertion that television ads it ran during the campaign weren't campaign-related, just issue-oriented. In other words, the MTEA wasn't engaging in a hugely expensive campaign expressly advocating the candidacy of Theadoll Taylor to replace Gardner. And the moon is made of green cheese. Of course the MTEA wanted Taylor elected. Yet it reported spending a mere $3,700 on School Board elections since the February primary -- and not a cent of that on the critical contest between Gardner and Taylor for the board's citywide seat. The moon is made of cream cheese, also. Gardner asserts that the MTEA poured $400,000 into the race. The MTEA admits nothing. It claims that its ads were educational; that is, that they focused only on issues. That's a neat trick: By claiming that its ads were issue-oriented, and not specifically advocating anyone's election, the MTEA escaped disclosure requirements. And the union wasn't talking this week when it was asked to comment on the spending issue. Not saying anything actually says a lot... The whole thing was, in our view, an end run around campaign spending disclosure laws.... But a funny thing happened on the way to the polls. The union lost. --- Wall St. Journal, 4/8/99: SCHOOL UNIONS DEMOTED Milwaukee began the 1990s as the first US city to experiment with offering parents choices between public and private schools. The program as been expanded to 15,000 students and it looks like it is going to get bigger: This week, Milwaukee voters swept teachers-union-backed-candidates from the school board and installed a pro-reform slate. It is a dramatic demonstration of the change that school choice can bring to public education. The pro-choice victory has shocked the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, which had dominated the school board through a well-oiled political machine and low-turnout elections. All five seats went to candidates who want school accountability, vigorous standards, reduced bureaucracy, and more choice through vouchers and charter schools. "This is the end of excuse-based education", said Democratic Mayor John Norquist... The most pitched battle was for the only board seat that was voted on citywide. Incumbent John Gardner is a liberal who firmly supports school choice and who has been a constant thorn in the side of the union. The union attacked his record with a $500,000 TV and print campaign. He won 60% of the vote .... Milwaukee is a demonstration of how getting a school choice debate up and running can change a community. After the Wisconsin legislature opened the door in 1991 for 1,000 choice students, the Bradley Foundation joined with local businesses in privately funding 5,000 more. The results prompted an expansion of the program, which was held constitutional by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Expectations for the program grew as parents began to demand change on their own. This week's election ended the myth that union-backed incumbents couldn't be beaten. Yesterday, Alan Brown, the city's schools chief, went on television to say he thinks competition will improve the public schools and he welcomes it. Mayor Norquist says his city has experienced a "virtuous circle" in which each change in attitude has helped create the next positive step. He suggests that other big cities with foundering school systems would benefit from an expanded debate on how competition can spur change and give parents hope that their kids won't be left behind. ~~