Act 10 did NOT kill Kaleem Caire’s charter school!
Mebbe Janet (spell it with me!) Protasiewicz isn’t the progressive black hole obliterating everything Republicans have done for Wisconsin since Tommy Thompson. At least this time, she did not attempt to rewrite legislation from the bench. The Wisconsin Supreme Court 12-13-23 unanimously refused to hear a lawsuit (brought on original jurisdiction) to eliminate school choice, the program that rescues low-income, often minority students, from failing public schools.
The suit was brought by Kirk Bangstad, the slanderous owner of Minocqua Brewing Co. He threatens to refile in a lower court.
Perhaps not even Justice Janet could overcome the law library full of precedents upholding the program, which now serves 52,000 students and their struggling families. The four progressives on the seven-member court did the Democrat(ic) party a favor. Imagine the furor if hundreds of black kids were marched back into Milwaukee North Division high school, where 98% of students cannot read or count at their grade level. That’s the school where Tony Evers, then superintendent of public instruction, hosted a Barack Obama rally in his successful 2018 bid for governor.
Did we say Justice Janet did Democrats a solid? A poll conducted last May found that 70% of Wisconsinites support school choice.
Teachers union 1st, students 2nd
Here in Madison, the proponents of one-size-fits-all government monopoly schooling are rewriting history to cover their misdeeds. The occasion was the recent passing of barely remembered Daniel Nerad, superintendent of Madison public schools between 2008 and 2012.
Capital Times publisher Paul Fanlund marvels that the same problems that beset Nerad a dozen years ago plague the city’s public schools today — those being a yawning racial achievement gap and disparate disciplinary problems. Indeed, the numbers have not budged. Only 8% of the district’s black students can read and write at grade, compared to 64% of white students.
Back in 2011, nationally renowned education reformer Kaleem Caire offered Madison an escape hatch — a charter school called Madison Prep that would hold longer school days on an almost year-round calendar and suffer no race-shaming excuses. But the school board sent him packing.
Today, former school board president Ed Hughes, incredibly, blames Scott Walker’s Act 10 for supposedly tying the district’s hands because, Fanlund quotes Hughes to say:
“The district could not as a practical matter alter the collective bargaining agreement with the teachers union.”
We’re still paying for MTI’s self interest
As a practical matter it chose not to. The school board turned down Madison Prep because that is what Madison Teachers Inc. (MTI) union president John Matthews demanded. A full auditorium at Ruth Doyle administration building witnessed the union boss whispering into members’ ears on stage before being satisfied that his fix was in. Blaska saw it all!
Hughes and his school board had already rushed to ratify an old-style, smokestack labor union, teachers-first contract through the tight window created by a temporary court-ordered stay against Act 10. In any event, Caire always proposed a non-instrumentality charter, meaning it would operate independent of union contracts and school board strictures, as allowed by law.
Mr. Caire realized his dream only when Republicans in state government circumvented the hidebound school district, allowing the black educator to start One City Schools, starting with the earliest grade levels. At least The Capital Times is consistent; it has opposed all forms of school choice from the get-go in deference to that Democrat(ic) powerhouse special interest: the state teachers union dropped $312,000 on Tony Evers in his first election cycle, more than any other political action committee. (Source here.)
Paul Fanlund’s alternative history includes a photo of Nerad back in the day. Its cutline reads, “Former MMSD superintendent Dan Nerad … faced criticism over issues that still confront a new superintendent in 2024.”
Blaska’s Bottom Line: If messieurs Fanlund and Hughes still wonder why, they would do well to consult the nearest mirror.
Blaska Policy Werkes 
8 responses to “Don’t know much about history”
[…] This post originally appeared at https://davidblaska.com/2023/12/14/dont-know-much-about-history/ […]
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She just might be the perfect judge for me. I get school choice AND abortion rights?? Yeah baby yeah!
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Why single out Janet when all seven ruled the same way? Is the right-wing still pi$$ed about losing? She and all the others ruled against a guy you obviously dislike. Rejoice and stop misrepresenting the situation.
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I wonder if they will rule the same way when the Maps and Act 10 come up?
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So many threads to untangle here. I don’t miss anything about Evers’ reign, most especially over the schools. I am especially chuffed, however, to hear about Kaleem’s school still viable after all the efforts to purge the schools of anything resembling success for the under-served. He’s a hero in my books.
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I used to be philosophically opposed to charter schools for the reasons you ignore:
>Too often, they cream skim;
>They, similarly, have the luxury of rejecting/dissuading/expelling challenged students;
>On average, they produce no better outcomes in troubled neighborhoods than public schools (acknowledging that a small handful have, atypically, produced heartwarming miracles); and
>Most of all, though economic and racial housing segregation weakens this, public schools are the last, and only, place left in America for kids from all walks of life to socially interact, which is one of the best ways to defuse the horrific tribalism afflicting America today.
But, then over the last five years I became gobsmacked by the disaster that the Madison Metropolitan School District has become as it has zealously glomed onto to the kind of “anti-racist” agenda propounded by the totally counterproductive Ibram Kendi (lumping everyone as either an oppressor or victim, declare any undesirable outcome for African-American’s as proof of racism today instead of looking at — AND ADDRESSING — the roots of the disparity from the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and the persistent harms from poverty and family breakdown, and, under the euphemism of affinity groups, re-segregate).
So it finally dawned on me that not every heavy-duty issue can be tidily compartmentalized within a consistent philosophical framework, and I’ve committed myself whole-hog to volunteer helping Kaleem make One City Schools a success by getting trained in phonics and tutoring kids struggling to learn to read. It’s hard, I wouldn’t pretend otherwise to you, but it is so rewarding like nothing else in our material world.
If you conservatives who follow Dave really care as much as you profess, if you really follow what Jesus really taught about helping the poor, I would like to ask that you consider volunteering at One Schools too.
Should you be amendable to learning more about this opportunity, just pick up your phone and call me at 608-444-2817, and I’ll try to answer any questions you might have and connect you with the good folks at the school. I’d love to share with you the many vignettes about the miracles that happen there every day, saving little lives that otherwise could have been lost.
Currently, just about all those volunteering at Kaleem’s charter school are card-carrying libos and other assorted pinkos. Are you really going to let that embarrassing commentary about conservative bona fides stand?
Peter Anderson
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I volunteer as a teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL) classes to an African immigrant at my parish’s Catholic school. I agree with you, it’s right there in the 25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. So, don’t be too hard on Madison’s Christians…for example, the Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Parish runs the Catholic Multicultural Center, which likewise offers immigrants ESL classes. You, Mr. Anderson, might consider offering a monetary donation to that worthy cause, too. Thanks!
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[…] Progressives like Stubbs and Fanlund blame disparate incarceration rates and poor test scores on racism, not on poor individual choices. Progressives have been enabling dysfunction for decades and nothing changes except that racial relations are more adversarial than any time since the 1960s. (“Don’t know much about history.”) […]
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