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April 2007
By Brother Bob Smith
For more than 20 years as a citizen and educator, I have watched educational trends in Wisconsin. During that time, I have taken a specific interest in urban education as the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program has become an innovative and important option for poor families.
This program is one of the jewels of our city and state and is talked about and replicated in cities, states and countries around the world. Offering more than 17,000 low-income students more than 175 private and public educational, faith-based and non-sectarian options makes this program the envy of the nation.
This is one of the few times in life in which people with little money can go into a store full of school options and pick what is best for their child. This provides the poor with the same educational choices as the rich.
However, we still fight a common stereotype in the choice program that schools can select the "cream of the crop." This claim simply is untrue but does lead to the importance of having and enforcing non-negotiables.
Teachers and other staff must be empowered to teach and work in environments of safety and cooperation. If a student will not come to school regularly and treat all with respect and dignity, he or she needs to have an alternative.
Sometimes I hear people saying, "Even if a child is disruptive or threatens others, he or she has a right to be in this school."
I disagree. What about the 95% of students and teachers who have their rights violated by the few who are not serious about learning? Are we to forfeit our societal future based on political correctness? Absolutely not!
Looking at strategies to be employed around the state, we must first do as former Education Secretary William Bennett advised many years ago: Make schools - all schools - temples of learning. This means that students come to school to learn, work hard and discover life lessons. Regardless of whether they attend a public or private school, necessary resources are provided so that children have a chance to succeed.
All of us in Wisconsin should and must care about the education of all students - in all parts of our state. That is why Messmer High School has established partnerships with three suburban public schools and recently organized a spaghetti dinner to help Waukesha West High School raise money to represent our state at the National Academic Decathlon.
This was done for the same reason that in the New Testament the good Samaritan risked his safety to cross over the dangerous road in Jericho to help a man, beaten and robbed by thieves. The first two men who saw this person in need did not cross because they asked, "What will happen to me if I go over to help him?" The good Samaritan asked, "What will happen to the injured man if I don't help?"
In that same regard, the concept of school choice should not be viewed as a threat but rather as a model of what is possible. Around Wisconsin, it is parallel to open enrollment for public schools.
Moreover, this program is able to model educational and administrative best practices - small schools, site-based management, individual school focus or mission and active governance boards for each school. Equally important, these schools stay focused on why they exist - to educate children.
Schools must stay true to that sacred charge, or all of society will suffer not from enemies from without but from a most unlikely opponent: ourselves.
Brother Bob Smith is president of Messmer Catholic Schools.
The above column appeaed in the April 29, 2025 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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