Gardner credits choice, a program under court scrutiny
Vouchers and other education options created in the 1990s lighted a fire under Milwaukee Public Schools and forced the system to improve, School Board member John Gardner argues in a report being released today.

"The evidence is increasingly clear that MPS students have made significant academic gains between 1997 and 2001, the period of the most rapid expansion of school choice," Gardner writes.

The report comes as voucher advocates and opponents attempt to try, in the court of public opinion, a question the U.S. Supreme Court will consider in less than a month: Can taxpayers' money be used to help low-income children attend religious schools?

In one respect, Gardner's findings are unsurprising because he has long supported school choice. But because he also has been one of MPS' most vocal internal critics, it is unusual to see him bragging about increases in test scores, enrollment and spending.

"If John Gardner believes the school district has improved, the public can believe it," said state Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee), an adamant opponent of vouchers who served on the School Board from 1991 to '98. "Look at his history. He's never been very supportive of public schools."

Sinicki noted that she has not seen the report. She also wondered about its timing, not only because of the Supreme Court hearing on school vouchers in Cleveland but also because she thinks Milwaukee voucher supporters may want to defend their program as the state plugs a budget deficit.

Gardner said the timing was coincidental. He said he has been noticing improvements in MPS for years and, "to my delight and surprise," the pro-voucher American Education Reform Council wanted to publish his findings.

"A clear understanding of the impact of school choice is critical in a year during which . . . the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of the Cleveland program," says a letter from council President Susan Mitchell that accompanied the report.

The Milwaukee-based council did not pay for the work, Gardner said.

He said that while he has always praised successful MPS schools, he surprised himself when he found systemwide gains in test scores and other data.

"I think there's an awful lot of good news for MPS that I wish more people were cognizant of," Gardner said. "It seems to me when our enrollment and our money and our market share and our test scores and our parent satisfaction are up, that's cause for more celebration than we usually hear in this great academic ideological war."

Report's findings

Among Gardner's findings, some of which have been reported separately in the past:

MPS enrolled 80% of the city's children in the 2000-'01 school year, up from 78% in 1989-'90, while the share in private and non-MPS charter schools fell. After accounting for inflation, MPS spent 24% more on its students in 2000-'01 than in 1989-'90. From 1997 to 2001, MPS 10th-graders' percentile ranking on national tests rose 15 points in social studies, 13 points in reading, 11 points in science and language arts, and six points in math. A percentile ranking reflects the percentage of children taking the test nationwide who scored lower than MPS students.

The gains came even as MPS educated more students who live in poverty or come from racial and ethnic minority groups, the report says. In 1989-'90, 72% of MPS students were minorities and 61% qualified for free or reduced-price lunches; by 2000-'01, 84% were minorities and 68% got meal subsidies.

Outside researchers such as Harvard University economist Caroline Hoxby also have tied vouchers to improvements in MPS. But some choice critics say the district's gains could have come even without choice.

Choices forced MPS to listen

Gardner, a board member since 1995, said competition from voucher and charter schools forced MPS to listen to parents, and that led to better schools.

"As soon as parents wanted to go to the Catholics or the Lutherans or start a charter or something else, MPS would become responsive," Gardner said.

Improvements he cited include more kindergarten-through-eighth-grade schools, all-day kindergartens for 4-year-olds, and a bigger role for parents and teachers in setting schools' budgets.

Sinicki responded that it would be oversimplifying the situation to say vouchers and charter schools are solely responsible for the changes in MPS. But she acknowledged that they play a role.

"I really hate to say this because I'm not a choice supporter, but I do think that the threat of choice did force the public school system to make those changes," she said.

Gardner qualified his findings by noting some of MPS' failures, such as the small percentage of eighth-graders who manage to finish high school.

"MPS remains a district where overall academic achievement is unacceptably low," Gardner writes. "Nothing in this report should be construed to suggest anything but that much progress is still needed."

Cleveland program in court

The impact of school choice is drawing extra attention lately because on Feb. 20, the Supreme Court will hear arguments about Cleveland's voucher program.

Like Milwaukee's program, the Ohio one lets low-income students attend private and religious schools with taxpayers' money. But the Milwaukee program won approval from the state Supreme Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal. A federal court called the Cleveland program unconstitutional.

Voucher advocates say that because families with vouchers pick their children's schools, the programs don't amount to government involvement in religion. Voucher opponents say that argument camouflages an inappropriate taxpayer subsidy to religious organizations.

The Cleveland case could become a landmark because voucher advocates want to apply the "charitable choice" concept to many other social services.

President Bush's administration, which supports choice, filed a highly unusual unsolicited brief asking the Supreme Court to decide the matter, and then sought and received permission to participate in oral arguments.

As the hearing nears, groups on both sides are sending hefty reports to the media pushing their views. The Supreme Court also has received 40 friend-of-the-court briefs, and many of the people who wrote those briefs - such as Gov. Scott McCallum and Milwaukee Mayor John O. Norquist - have orchestrated publicity for their filings.

"There is undoubtedly some feeling from people that it's an opportunity to try to bring to attention materials and ideas that they want to get in the public eye," said Elliot Mincberg, legal director of the People for the American Way Foundation, which represents voucher opponents. Whether the court pays attention to a brief, he said, is "something of a crapshoot."