Is it the water or the air in Milwaukee?

It could be Milwaukee's air, or the water, or both.  Last week I posted  What Do We Do About the Parents - Incarceration- Especially Blacks, leading with 

Every time we hear right wing analysis about societal problems, whether it comes from Mark Belling or his protege, Charlie Sykes, the rant is about the parents. The not so unsubtle message is that drug addled, unwed inner city residents, authority dissin' and probably black, are incapable of rearing their children.

Then, before the Internet ink was barely dry, Rick Esenberg was in my face with "Inconvenient Truths?" leading with:

Paul Soglin is upset with right wingers for blaming poor educational results in MPS on the "parents."

Before going any further, would someone, anyone, show Rick where there is a reference to the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). I did mention the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD), but not Milwaukee.

But Rick's errant missive does not end with the first paragraph. Writing in paragraph three, the legal scholar observes,

It doesn't seem to be a simple function of racism and poverty and the absence of social programs because the degree of dysfunction has increased as both have decreased.

Rick, go to MPS and get a graph of the number of children in households where they are eligible for the free lunch program. Kids in the free lunch program is a good measurement of poverty in a school district. Compare that over the past twnety years and then come back and we can continue the conversation.

Just for the record, kids in the free lunch program in Madison have increased from 20% in the late 1980's, to 26% in the mid 1990's, to over 48% presently.  Of course most of that is because of the migration of families to the Madison area from other Midwestern cities, including Milwaukee. What is amazing about Madison is that despite this significant increase in poverty, academic standards have not  been severely impacted.

Much of the success is the result of the kind of programming that goes beyond direct education of the kids. It impacts the family, it enhances the family, and it set neighborhood standards that even Rick admires. Unfortunately, even Madison is in danger as budget cuts jeopardize many of these programs.

But so long as Rick and his compatriots blame the parents without any recognized programs to break the cycle, Milwaukee will be fighting a desperate losing battle.

Rick gets one thing right. It is something I suggested to him last year as being part of the problem.

Is it the abandonment of poor neighborhoods by the black middle class?

Yes, middle class blacks left the city just as their white middle class counterparts had done years before. So that is part of the problem, but only part of it. There were other institutions and structures available years ago that are no longer effective against poverty and crime.

There are ways to fix the problem. Blaming the parents and leaving it at that is no solution. Frankly, I don't think everyone praying cuts it either.

Rick, racism for middle class blacks may be on the decline, but I am not so sure that poor black families felt any signicant improvement in the past decade.

Comments

[Henry Dubb]

I will tell you on some days "locking up the parents" sounds pretty good. But, the hard, sad truth is many are already locked up. I remember consoling a young kindergartner because her dad was just arrested. I thought to myself no kindergartner should have to go through this. As the day progressed, the news of the arrest leaked out into the classroom culture, and it turned out 4/5 of the class had a similar situation. A parent who was arrested, in jail, or in one of our esteemed prisons.

I agree wholeheartedly the notion of "blame the parents" and leaving it at that is a non solution. I have less faith in "parental fixer" programs (like Paul mentioned) and more faith in "parental replacer" programs. The reason Madison has held steady, in my view, are the education extension programs run at after school, safe haven, and neighborhood centers.

I will also add one more thing, schools. A few years ago Milwaukee decided to have "neighborhood schools", (yes the 150 million in wasted money) but they defined them as large. Madison for years has supported neighborhood schools with an emphasis on small. Even in Madison, there has been talk about bigger is better. The reason Madison has been able to keep it together is we have for the most part had small schools (under 400) with small classrooms, and strong neighborhood support.

I was watching a clip on the Milwaukee Journal where in one segment of a community hundreds of buses took kids to over 90 different schools. If you break up a community as if they were slave chattel, is it surprising you don't have optimal results.

[Mark]

Hi Paul,

Out of curiosity, has the MMSD free lunch program increased usage because of changes in allowed income levels? Or is it because of increased poverty? Or is it because parent's a smart to not pass up "free" meals for their kids?

There's poverty in Madison, but there is no way, in Madison, that 48% of school age children live in poverty.

[Henry Dubb]

There is a big difference between poverty in Madison and MMSD. Madison proper is most likely 20% or so, where its much larger in MMSD.

This really get at the whole negative aid. MMSD receives aid (actually pays the state)based on being one of the wealthiest (property rich) districts in the state, whereas in reality it is one of the poorest. Madison gets no aid from the state, whereas it has a larger percentage of students with poverty, ESL, and special education.

It would not be wrong to say there is more pressure today for schools to get families on free / reduced lunch. NCLB, Sage, Title and many other funds are tied to this. But without these funds Madison would be in a worse negative aid position than it is today.

[buckyblue]

The state DPI website has it at 40.9% as eligible for free and reduced lunch. 18% do not have English as a first language, a change of about 10% from ten years ago, a significant shift. Because of the paper work involved in obtaining free and reduced, I would say that it is under reported if anything. It's hard to see many families 'qualifying' for this who are not actually in need of the service.