I was in Arizona yesterday and haven't seen the MTEA ad on school choice, but it really strikes me as throwing into double coverage.
Why would MPS teachers ever bring up the relationship between property values and schools? Everyone in the area knows that the major reason people move out of Milwaukee is the schools. Go to the highest value neighborhoods in Milwaukee, knock on the doors and ask where the families with children send their kids to school. For most people I know deciding to live on the East Side or in Bay View or in one of those enclaves on the northwest side that consist almost entirely of city and MPS employees who are trying to move as far out as they can included a decision to pay private school tuition for their kids.
This isn't "because of" choice. Its been going on ever since I returned to Milwaukee from law school in 1981. It isn't because spending at MPS has gone down - because it hasn't.
We can argue about why MPS is a failed school system but the fact that it is has been the largest single factor driving the middle class into the suburbs. For the MTEA to blame declining property values on choice is like Roseanne barr blaming Calista Flockhart for eating that last chicken wing.
1 comment:
The single most significant obstacle to educational achievement is the TOTAL lack of interest by parents.
Educational achievement can (in most cases) be linear-linked to parental involvement/interest.
That said, the MTEA is full of it.
Post a Comment