Madison public schools take parents
on a progressive guilt trip
Public schools here in overly “woke” Madison WI are shut tighter than Joe Biden’s cellar door, despite federal CDC guidance that schools should be open. (“The importance of reopening schools this fall.” — U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.)
The school board succumbed to Black Lives Matter harassment and kicked police out of its four troubled high schools while teenagers are jacking cars and shooting each other dead in running gun battles on city streets. All the while the district is asking voters for an additional $350 million to fix buildings that won’t be open any time this year.
Then it wonders why Madison parents are voting with their feet. Since the start of alternative open enrollment applications on July 1 a total of 197 parents have asked to get their kids out (and 31 from outside Madison to get in). Madison Metro School District is feeling parents’ wrath.
‘Equity’ — the pause that refreshes. Not.
Madison schools are sending parents a letter that contains this desperate appeal:
Do you support public schools but are thinking of leaving MMSD for just one year due to COVID-19 planning efforts? Consider taking an equity pause.
We’ve heard from some families that they are considering home-schooling their children in the fall or enrolling their children in private schools offering in-person learning. We understand and respect what families need to do for their children. However, we are anticipating and planning for key improvements to our virtual learning offering this fall and are asking families to consider this. … We believe that this fall students will have a virtual learning experience that is stronger, more rigorous, and more equitable than what they experienced in the spring.
The district continues its guilt-shaming:
We also want all families to know the financial impact when a student withdraws from our school district. Even a small percentage of students withdrawing makes a huge impact, not for one year but for three years. Our revenue from the state is dependent upon the number of students enrolled. … This impacts everything in our district, but especially our ability to invest in the vision in our Strategic Framework, which aims to close opportunity gaps for students and invest in hiring and maintaining high-quality staff. We know each family needs to make the best decisions for their children, but we hope you will pause to consider equity as well as our improvements to virtual learning before making a final decision.
A parent tells the Werkes: “So, apparently our kids’ future should suffer and we should keep our kids in the awful online (non)-education program they have created as a result of buckling to the teachers’ union wastes yet another school year. These people are really quite something!”
A way out of Madison’s madness
Which is why Madison parents are flocking to private schools or taking advantage of the state’s Open Enrollment Program, which allows them to send their kids to participating suburban schools. Application period for the latter ended in April but those wonderful Republicans in the state legislature (the ones Dave Zweifel hates) created a work-around called Alternative Open Enrollment. You got to come up with a good reason but Vos and Fitzgerald added this catch-all “The pupil’s parent and the nonresident and resident school districts agree that attending the nonresident school district is in the best interests of the pupil.” Follow this link to escape Madison’s madness.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Madison schools long ago put parents and kids back of the line behind progressive social engineering and feel-good virtue signaling.
Blaska Policy Werkes 
20 responses to “My kids … or “Equity”? My kids … or “Equity”?”
Howse about the talented Ms. Mirilli display a little skin in the game; perhaps a symbolic Controlled Burn at the ANAHNduh Manor to rally the Solidarnost Troops?
However, it would behoove the Equity Enkindlers to first determine whether not, ala Ali School Choice For Me But Not For Thee Muldrow, that flattens a multi-dimensional relationship.
The Gotch
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Remember when Madison bragged about how many Merit Scholars the high schools produced?
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Merit is racist–unless it’s based on skin color.
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Parents should check the excellent Queen of Peace Catholic School in Madison to see if it has fall openings. I do not speak for these Catholic schools. Yet I CAN vouch for the excellence and sanity of the schooling at Queen of Peace.
Both of my children attended QP. Both of my children have master’s degrees…one from the University of Notre Dame.
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Would be interesting to find out how many teachers and staff of the MMSD live in Madison and how many of them send them to Madison schools.
Do they eat their own cooking?
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Lets play “Thank A Teacher”, I’ll go first. If your college student spends 8 hours a day screaming venomous profanities at police, but is “uncomfortable” saying grace at Thanksgiving —“Thank A Teacher”. If your High Schooler just wants black clothes and body armor for Christmas —“Thank A Teacher”. If your Middle Schooler is more familiar with Left-Wing politics than they are with their textbooks, —“Thank A Teacher” If your Grade Schooler says that we are destroying the “planet”, but couldn’t point to the “planet” on a world globe, —“Thank A Teacher”. –(your turn)–
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pANTIFA… Well said. As Dave’s last PI Chart shows, yer w-a-y closer to the reality of “results” in public education than the School Board. Too bad Gloria Reyes got doxxed and ran scared -mighta been some hope. Nah… “Fergot about it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.”
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We already know that not all the Board of Education members send their kids to Madison’s public schools.
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“We already know that not all the Board of Education members send their kids to Madison’s public schools.”
Those with the biggest mouths do not.
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You’ve got to admit the guilt-tripping Madison educational establishment really knows its target audience: upper-middle-class white Madison parents for whom racial guilt is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
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HAHAHAHA!!! Eat their dust, MMSD!
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They only want your silence and money! Don’t make the same mistake Kasich made as he was only a pawn in the bigger picture! Deplorables are not woke under any circumstance!
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Mongo just pawn in game of life.
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Just when will THAT movie be cancelled ? Any day now…..
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Quick question that is slightly off-topic. In today’s news regarding Andre Brown the shooter, “Detectives said another man informed them of Brown’s involvement on Aug. 13. The man said he was at the shooting range with two others, including Brown, when he heard Brown say “what we did on East Washington already made the news.”
Just which shooting range was this???!!!
Mr. Blaska, I note that one of your posters named “Kooter” posted n August 4th: “I was brushing up on my handgun skills recently at a local indoor shooting range on a Weds, mid-afternoon. Every lane- and I mean EVERY lane, was occupied by either a black gang-banger complete with pants falling off or a black teenager busy taking photos of themselves holding various models of Glocks. Neither group seemed like they’ve handled firearms at all by the looks of their targets. The gun violence in Madison is spooky.”
Are we talking about the same shooting range???!!! Which one is it?
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“Dear MMSD, Got yer letter -Can ya hear my tiny violin ?”
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MTI demanded virtual learning for the first quarter….ya right. Will teachers be required to virtually teach from a classroom setting or from the comfort of their home? Imagine the distractions during the day, children tugging on Mom and Dads skirt and helping their own children with virtual learning while on the job teaching YOUR children. Collecting full pay and avoiding child daycare costs seems like a dream come true for the unionistas.
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Let’s play “Thank a Parent.” I’ll go first, with examples from personal experience. If a college student writes, “Janitors get a real job” on a classroom wall-“Thank a Parent.” If a highschooler calls a professionally dressed, well spoken teacher of color a “Ho”-“Thank a Parent.” If a teacher spends every evening on the phone explaining why middle schoolers got detention, AGAIN-“Thank a Parent.” If an elementary student runs to the Principal screaming abuse after a teacher taps him or her on the shoulder when the brat won’t shut its pie hole for 2 seconds so some teaching can actually occur-“Thank a Parent.”
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I have NO problem with what you wrote, it sounds like something I would write, (but nicer). Just as a parent has no control over the political indoctrination administered by SOME teachers, teachers have no control over influences outside of the classroom. Some children are just mirrors of their awful parents. Some are products of popular culture (the first three examples maybe, number four is ALL on the parents). It is certainly incumbent on parents to monitor their children’s music, peers, and exposure to media. Most are woefully unsuccessful. I suspect many children act much differently at school than they would at home. OK, so what is the answer? Police in schools? Less tolerance of disruptive behavior? Parenting classes? –Good Post, wish I’d thought of it first. (just to be sure, your “personal experience” is as the teacher,not the parent, right?)
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Having realized early in life I’m not parent material, the last 3 were as teacher (realizing too late I wasn’t teacher material either). The first was sitting in Van Hise as a 30-something undergrad surrounded by a bunch of pretentious, dare I say, privileged, offspring of Easterners who couldn’t make the cut into an Ivy League school.
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