Borsuk: Come together and take action to close achievement gaps in Milwaukee schools

Alan J. Borsuk

Special to the Journal Sentinel

There was one easy question at the “On the Table” event I was part of at the Next Door early childhood education center on Tuesday. The subject of discussion for the eight people at each table was this: What could be done to help put more preschool children on good educational paths?

That’s hard.

But the ice-breaker question was to name our favorite childhood book.

I said, “Horton Hears a Who,” by Dr. Seuss.

I’ve given that answer pretty often over the years. There are several reasons I think it’s a great book. One is that, in the end, the community of "Whos" is saved when all of them join together to raise their voices. And it’s not until the last, silent Who lets out a “yop” that the totality of their voices is heard, to great benefit.

What if that were true, at least in some way? What if we all raised our voices to insist on better things for Milwaukee and on better ways for meeting the needs of so many people here?

The best thing about the metropolitan-wide “At the Table” undertaking, sponsored and spurred by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation and involving dozens of gatherings and thousands of people, was the sense that so many people cared, wanted to be involved, wanted things to get better, wanted to speak up.

But then there were all of the hard questions, such as: What are we going to do? What would actually work? Is this just a lot of talk?

We were given cards that said: “In the next month, I will take the following action to help build a stronger community:”

I admit my card is sitting on my desk, blank, as I write this. I’m still thinking about what I might answer.

What can one person do? Several suggestions were made by Next Door leaders: Donate books. (The organization has a big program to put books in kids’ hands.) Volunteer. Donate money. Each is a worthy idea and there are many more organizations that are also worthy of donations and volunteer time. Lots of people are truly committed to making the city better.

But I keep coming back to the big picture. As many hundreds of children as Next Door and some other early childhood agencies serve well, there are thousands who are not getting strong starts in life. The achievement gaps that are so large and persistent between the “have” and “have-not” children of the Milwaukee area are, to a large degree, already present the day those children arrive for the first day of kindergarten. What are we doing about that? Not much, when it comes to broad, effective, and urgent steps.

Also Tuesday, I took part in an “At the Table” discussion at the Sherman Perk coffee house (in Sherman Park, of course), focused largely on high schools. A big part of the discussion consisted of the principal and several students from Milwaukee Collegiate Academy, a 300-student charter school, talking about what was needed for academic success and why they thought their school was doing a good job.

I was left with the same question: What are we doing about the bigger picture?

That evening, the same day as most of the “At the Table” sessions, a Milwaukee School Board committee was scheduled to talk about a compilation of the latest test data for Milwaukee Public Schools students. The discussion was postponed at the last minute because the report presented to the committee had some flaws — for example, several charts labeled as comparing MPS and statewide results listed no statewide results.

But the data that was there underscored the depth of the overall problems.

How grim was the picture? Two examples, based on results from this fall on a test MPS uses called STAR: Overall, 14% of students were listed as “on target” or “significantly above target” to become proficient in reading, while 61% were “significantly below target” or “well below target.” For math, it was 14% for the “on target” side and 43% “significantly below” or “well below.” The rest are listed as “below target.”

When it comes to education issues, I would say there was agreement on several things at my table at Next Door:

Giving up is not the answer. Withdrawing into our own lives isn’t the answer. Big answers don’t come easy. But change has to be pursued, and with an urgency that remains spotty across the Milwaukee landscape now. Somehow, there must be ways to reach more kids and to connect with the lives of more parents who could be better allies of their children’s futures.

All this “At the Table” talk was good – it’s especially better than no talk at all.

But turning talk into action and action into change? That’s what needs to come. It takes leadership, vision, community unity, caring, dedication, a willingness to join across lines that often divide us. Some of these things are not traits that Milwaukee is famous for.

So here is what I will write on my card as my "action to help build a stronger community”:

I will let out a yop. I want to be part of lots of people letting out yops. But I want all the yops to be catalysts to action to raise the lives of so many children in Milwaukee, including fresh commitments to what can be done to help parents, strengthen the community fabric, and improve schools.

If we all raise our voices, it will only matter if it’s not just talk.

Alan J. Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School. Reach him at alan.borsuk@marquette.edu.