Author Archives: Thomas J. Mertz

by | March 31, 2007 · 5:41 am

The Company We Keep or Cole Not Beholden to Special Interests–You decide?

Here are two very different perspectives on the candidates running for seat 5 on the Madison School Board Cole/Passman. One is written by Nancy Donahue, one of the organizers of the Studio School and the other is written by Russell Wallace, Linkup and Meetup host Democracy for Wisconsin, Madison and author of his own blog ReformDem from which this article was taken http://reform-dem.blogspot.com/2007/03/company-we-keep.html
DON’T BE A LAZY READER–READ BOTH ARTICLES–AND THINK!!

Nancy Donahue: Cole not “beholden”
Nancy Donahue, one of the organizers of The Studio School http://www.madisonstudioschool.org/

I have had the opportunity to talk with Maya Cole twice in the past two weeks and I am convinced that she would be an excellent addition to our school board …someone who can see the big picture and incorporate it into a vision for our schools and our community. A change agent? Moreover, Maya is unfettered by the MTI machinery and political agenda so I can trust that her votes are guided by her own judgment. I am also supporting Rick Thomas for many of the same reasons.
I think that it is imperative that we make every effort to ensure that the people we elect are not “beholden” to any large organization to support their campaigns. MTI’s questionnaire flagrantly and publicly advertises that candidates must comply with the MTI agenda if they want MTI political support (which would be difficult to pass up). But the campaigns are just the beginning of an insidious political relationship. Along with MTI support comes the continual threat of repercussions (i.e., public criticism and withdrawal of support) if, once elected, a candidate should muster the personal integrity to cast a vote that runs counter to the MTI position. I prefer that our school board members feel free to cast votes based on information rather than intimidation.

I know that most SIS readers are well aware of this situation but I thought it deserved mentioning again…and again…and again. It probably goes deeper and reaches farther than people realize. Throughout the process of developing our proposal for The Studio School I had opportunities to talk and meet with MMSD teachers. I find it very interesting that early in the process they would come to planning meetings, meet with me in coffee shops, email me, and talk on the phone…but they never seemed to feel comfortable attending school board meetings or speaking out publicly in support of The Studio School. Why was this? Were they intimidated? I think they were. I did have a couple of conversations in which teachers expressed concern about going against MTI and/or the impact it would have with other teachers (i.e., coworkers). Is this really the kind of climate in which we want our teachers and children to spend their days? A climate where people are intimidated into silent complicity? I am also concerned that principals work in a similar climate. I thought that our country was rooted in freedom of thought and speech. Freedom to choose our own ideologies. I thought that Madison valued thoughtful, informed and independent thinking. I want my children to attend a school and to live in a community that supports personal integrity and responsibility. A safe place where they feel free to act and speak out in accordance with their convictions; without fear of intimidation, insult or injury from others…especially school or community leaders. Hmmm…isn’t this something we learned about in school?
And speaking of leaders, I still wonder why Johnny Winston, Jr., our school board leader, withdrew his support during the final few weeks before the BOE vote on our proposal. In late December, Mr. Winston assured me that he would “not vote no.” Yet, after consistently saying (privately and publicly) that he supported The Studio School, he suddenly had a change of heart and voted “no.” (By the way, he remains endorsed by MTI. ) Sparing the details, the net effect of Mr. Winston’s support was that it undermined our efforts – it certainly didn’t advance them. At best, I now question his leadership, reliability, and effectiveness in supporting an issue. At worst, I question the motives behind any vote he casts – especially if it involves an issue that could require standing up to the MMSD and MTI power structures.

FACT CHECK: MTI is not listed on Johnny Winston’s supporter page. Other reasons must have lead Mr. Winston to vote no. This lead me to wonder about other “facts” Ms. Donahue uses in her letter. Just because the answer is no, does not mean it wasn’t based on thoughtful, informed and independent thinking.

The Company We Keep
What does a Madison School Board race have to do with Karl Rove?
by Russell Wallace, ReformDem and Democracy for Wisconsin
In yet another odd case of politics making for very strange bedfellows, it turns out that School Board candidate Maya Cole hired a telemarketing company called Arizona FLS, also known as FLS Connect and FLS-DCI, during her 2005 campaign. FLS has a rather exclusive clientele, and it’s not exactly what you would associate with a Madison progressive. Their customers include the Bush/Cheney campaign, the Republican National Committee, the Republican Governors Association, Exxon, the NRA, the rather repressive military government of Myanmar (Burma), and, closer to home, the Republican Party of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.

But what really got me was this quote prominently featured on the FLS homepage:

“I know these guys well. They become partners with the campaigns they work with. From designing the program to drafting the scripts; from selecting targets to making the calls in a professional successful way, they work as hard to win your races as you do.” – Karl Rove
One of FLS-DCI’s specialties is creating astroturf groups, fake grassroots organizations that are actually paid PR and lobbying campaigns. They’ve been tied to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that attacked Kerry in ’04, and Voices for Choices, a front group that lobbies for AT&T (check out this previous post for a little local AT&T intrigue). One of FLS-DCI’s more interesting exploits was creating this flash video mocking Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth”:

It created quite a stir on YouTube, and fooled a lot people until The Wall Street Journal exposed it as a paid political hit piece.

So why would Maya give her money to an outfit that’s basically trying to destroy everything she claims to believes in? My guess is that she didn’t have a clue about FLS-DCI, and was just told to use them by one of her campaign advisors.

One of the reasons I’m supporting Maya’s opponent, Marj Passman, is that in both her current and previous campaigns Maya has chosen to surround herself with people who represent the exact opposite of the progressive values she claims to stand for. To be fair to Maya, and I do believe she really is a progressive, I know she felt forced to do so because she’s been largely locked out of the Madison political machine. But you’re known by the company you keep, and I wouldn’t be caught dead with some of Maya’s current buddies.

FACT CHECK: The correct Campaign Finance Report can be found by clicking the year 2006-not 2005 here http://www.ci.madison.wi.us/clerk/electionCampaign.cfm and finding the name Cole, Maya here http://www.ci.madison.wi.us/clerk/CampFin/2006/index.cfm and clicking on July Continuing under her name. The final link is here http://www.ci.madison.wi.us/clerk/CampFin/2006/Cole4.pdf look at page 6 of 7 and you will find a $1451.60 payment made to Arizona FLS.

posted byJanet Morrow

I am supporting Marj Passman, Beth Moss and Johnny Winston, Jr. for these and many other reasons. I hope you will join me on April 3rd and vote for positive change for Madison’s Public Schools!

Comments can be read at ReformDem

http://reform-dem.blogspot.com/

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by | March 30, 2007 · 1:37 pm

We Are Not Alone #6

Another in a series on school finance and referenda in Wisconsin. Unless you believe that mismanagement is endemic to public schools, I think it should be pretty clear that the budget problems in MMSD are not the result of bad or no decision making by our Board and administration. They are the result of bad or no decsion making by our legislatures and governors.

This is a round up of news from Western Wisconsin

Referendums Everywhere

Spring elections are less than a week away and many school districts are depending on your vote to determine whether they get more money to run the schools. If you think there are only one or two referendums in this area, think again.

15 school districts around Western Wisconsin are seeking referendums come April 3rd. One of those districts includes the Independence School District which faces a $70,000 deficit and is asking for $800,000 for 4 years.

School administrator Dave Leahn says they’ve already cut $750,000 in the past year to make ends meet, but they can’t make anymore cuts so now they’re asking for money to keep the school going, “district administrators, reading specialist, learning disability teachers, to custodians, to secretaries.”

Leahn and other staff are worried more cuts will only diminish the quality of education. He says more cuts will mean eliminating a whole program or even grades since the small school only has one section of each grade or program. Leahn and many other school administrators blame the budget problems on the state’s revenue system where the money districts receive are largely based on enrollment numbers.

“If you’re receiving approximately $100,000 in revenue and your expenditures were $200,000, it’s going to catch up with you.

That’s why Leahn says we’re seeing so many referendums coming Tuesday. Independence faces an $800,000 referendum, Eau Claire will have a referendum, New Richmond is seeking more than $2 million, Thorp as well as Lake Holcombe and Barron Area School Districts are also seeking money.

The budget problems are not only in Western Wisconsin but all over the state. Countless numbers of districts across the state are also seeking referendums.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under AMPS, Budget, Elections, Referenda, School Finance, We Are Not Alone

by | March 30, 2007 · 4:13 am

We Are Not Alone #5

Part of a series of posts on school finance and referendums around the state.

Too many referendums and too much news to cover it all. Just a once over this time.

Shell Lake and Spooner have referenda questions on the ballot. The Shell Lake superintendent described the familiar situation:

Superintendent Jerry Gauderman said Shell Lake’s school expenses, as in other school districts, are rising at 4 percent a year while revenue is increasing at only 2 percent. And like many districts in Northern Wisconsin, Shell Lake has experienced a declining enrollment which affects the revenue limit based on student enrollment.

The Spooner business manager explained their situation

The money will be used, primarily, to keep existing programs in place, said school officials. They noted earlier this year that a casulty of a failed referendum may be the elimination of 20 positions, at least three-quarters of them teaching jobs.

Andrew Sarnow, district business manager, projects that without additional funding the district will experience deficits of $1.01 million in the 2007-08 school year; $1.62 million in 2008-09; $2.273 million in 2009-10; and $2.996 million, 2010-11.

The district plans to cut roughly $200,000 in both 2007-08 and 2008-09.
Along with the cuts, if the program maintenance referendum passes, the district will accrue a surplus in the first two years that will cover the larger deficits expected in 2009-10 and 2010-11.

Oconomowoc has a different problem. They are growing, but the rolling average employed to calculate the revenue caps hurts growing districts.

Barry said most of the districts that are struggling are districts with declining enrollment and therefore declining revenue, although their costs are somewhat fixed. In districts where enrollment is flat, so is the revenue.

“Yet their costs are going up; health insurance for example. That scenario should not be unfamiliar to anybody in Oconomowoc. This district struggled with flat and declining enrollment for 10 years, and it obviously weakened the district’s balance sheet substantially over that period,” Barry pointed out.

“As we look forward to next year, we have a different scenario. Unlike many of our neighboring districts, and unlike almost 70 percent of the districts in our state, Oconomowoc has increasing enrollment, and in our case we have rapidly increasing enrollment,” the assistant superintendent said.

Despite, or because of that advantage, a new circumstance arises that requires prudent planning.

“Our challenge is that the revenue formula, the three-year rolling average, by definition, lags behind your actual enrollment year to year.
“Therein lies the difficulty for us. Our revenue has not caught up to the size of the district and the size of the staff to support the district,” Barry said.

“The problem this year is can we, in the budget, earmark enough revenue for the additional staffing that we need? It’s a growth problem, not a cutting problem,” Barry said.

In Baraboo, school board candidates are talking referenda (and private financing)

The “R word” made an appearance in a question over whether the candidates would support a go at another referendum. All said they would. It’s perhaps surprising that an anti-referendum candidate didn’t surface when about half of the district’s voters opposed both attempts last year to increase its levy and there was organized opposition to the measure.

Maxwell, who ran on an anti-referendum platform three years ago, said his experience in the trenches of the district’s operations and finances have changed his perspective.
“I sat on this stage before and fought my personal demons on the word ‘referendum,'” he said. They’ve made the cuts the “no” votes forced upon them and became more efficient, Maxwell said.

“I see no options for this district based on the cuts we made in the past, the priorities we’ve set and the goals we want to achieve,” Vodak said. “I wish it didn’t have to come to that.”

Anderson said if the state’s school funding formula doesn’t change a referendum will be inevitable.

“We need to stop voting for state representatives that don’t listen to us and say take care of it at the community level,” Hovde said.

All candidates also agreed that cuts to the music program last year should be reinstated and that such a vital piece of the district’s educational offerings shouldn’t be left to private fund-raising.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under AMPS, Budget, Elections, Referenda, School Finance, We Are Not Alone

by | March 29, 2007 · 1:20 pm

School Finance Advocacy Session This Evening

From Arlene Silveira, Communications Committee Chair

Thomas J. Mertz

All – the Communications Committee of the BOE is holding an informational/advocacy meeting on March 29. Details are attached.

This is the first in a series for meetings. The next meeting will focus on advocacy efforts for the state funding system.

All are welcome to attend, actively participate and ADVOCATE!

Arlene Silveira

“Thursday, March 29, at 6:30 p.m. in the McDaniels Auditorium of the Doyle Administration Building. The meeting will provide you with information about the budget and advocacy “talking points” to contact legislators and gain support for some of the budget’s provisions.”

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Filed under AMPS, Budget, Local News, School Finance, Take Action

by | March 28, 2007 · 5:55 pm

Dept. of Education “What Works” Clearinghouse Rates Reading Recovery Highly

Here’s a link to a detailed article on how Reading Recovery has been rated highly by the rigorous Dept. of Education’s Institute on Educational Sciences “What Works” Clearinghouse.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/03/28/29recovery.h26.html?
For those who are really interested in evidence-based practices in education, keeping updated on the “What Works” clearinghouse is a great way to determine what is rigorously researched and tested in classrooms.

The article goes into depth on almost every aspect of Reading Recovery, including the fact that some criticisms were based not on its efficacy, but on its overall cost…some reading experts believe it doesn’t have to be a 1-on-1 approach…Jack Fletcher is quoted and is one of the foremost reading experts in the country. His work is well worth reading for those interested in literacy issues.

Like any issue, there are no simple solutions and no single answers that will work best for every student. But this article has some good discussion about both the merits and the barriers to different reading approaches.

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by | March 27, 2007 · 5:49 pm

Observations, Endorsements

 

There has been much talk on the campaign trail about the need for a “cost benefit” analysis and the lack of forward planning. I find it disturbing that some of our candidates seem unaware of the 2002 Functional Analysis that MMSD commissioned from Virchow, Krause & Company, LLP. At that time, the district realized that the flawed state finance system would force cuts in the years ahead and wanted to be prepared. Because we have the analysis, we are prepared (nearly as well) as we can be for the challenges of the yearly budgeting.

I’m glad that this was commissioned and we have it to use. However, we all need to be careful and understand that all educational research and data is contingent, contextual and only provides guidance for decision-making. The factors that make a student achieve or fail are so complex and interactive that attributing causality is at best a matter of likelihood, not certainty. Some of the most important things, like the smile on a teacher’s face, defy quantification. Additionally, all the measures we use are to one degree or another subjective and flawed (see Fair Test for one set of examples). It isn’t science and applying the positivism of science and related reliance on “expertise” to education can be dangerous.

I value data and research as tools to inform educational policy, but I know that human judgment is the final and most important quality that we need on the Board of Education. This is one reason why I am supporting Beth Moss, Marjorie Passman and Johnny Winston Jr. in the April 3d Election. They are knowledgeable about our district and community, open to using data and research and have displayed the kind of judgement we need to keep our schools strong and getting stronger.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under AMPS, Best Practices, Budget, Elections, Local News

by | March 25, 2007 · 3:55 am

We Are Not Alone #4

I’m going to try to pull together some excerpts from local reports on April 3d school referenda in the next few days (for the next We Are Not Alone entry). This is just an overview of those measures from the DPI listing.

· Total Referenda = 72
· Total Districts = 53 (about 1/8 of the districts in the state)
· Total Issue Debt (mostly building and renovation) = 33
· Total Non Recurring (operating and maintenance) = 24
· Total Recurring (operating and maintenance) = 15
· Largest Operating = $21,601,931 (Eau Claire Area)

If recent trends continue, about half will pass. This is not a system that is working for the children of our state.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under AMPS, Elections, Referenda, School Finance, We Are Not Alone

by | March 25, 2007 · 2:31 am

Accountability Frankenstein Published

The long awaited (at least in my house) book from Sherman Dorn is now available for order. There will be a series of podcasts from the book, the first is here. This is what the publisher has to say:

Accountability Frankenstein
Understanding and Taming the Monster

Sherman Dorn
University of South Florida

To understand the current moment in school accountability, one must understand the larger contradictions in education politics. Accountability Frankenstein provides a broader perspective on the school accountability debate by exploring the contradictions inherent in high-stakes testing. Accountability Frankenstein explains the historical and social origins of test-based accountability: the political roots of accountability, why we trust test scores while we distrust teachers, the assumptions behind formulaic accountability systems, and the weaknesses with the current carrot-and-stick approach to motivating teachers.

Accountability Frankenstein answers the questions of educators and parents who want to understand the origins of accountability. This book challenges the beliefs of fierce advocates and opponents of highstakes testing. It provides a rescue plan for accountability after the failures of high-stakes testing, a plan to make accountability smart, democratic, and real.

CONTENTS: Acknowledgments. Preface. 1. The Political Origins of Accountability. 2. Trusting Tests. 3. How Trustworthy are Test Scores. 4. Setting up Goals and Failure. 5. Consequential Thinking. 6. A Better Way. References.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | March 23, 2007 · 4:01 am

Nan Youngerman on REACH

At the MUAE forum to discuss education for gifted and talented students, it was disturbing to hear one candidate, Maya Cole for Seat #5, talk about eliminating REACH as a way to trade money to keep Eastside schools open. I was bothered on many levels.

One; REACH was developed to provide one additional and desperately needed hour of planning time for elementary teachers. It is in this hour that teachers might differentiate curriculum or do hundreds of other necessary tasks to keep their classrooms going. This precious hour, one of about a total of five permitted during the work week, is a negotiated term or part of the Teacher Bargaining Agreement. Maya Cole is suggesting it be eliminated. If this were possible, simply by saying it —- is not a friendly gesture to teachers. This will not save money. A different method of providing for children during the negotiated hour of planning time would need to be developed. Claiming to know what would help teachers and then suggesting to take away their planning time is down right nasty. Elementary planning time is beyond necessary for teacher sanity and is is the very basic component of being a thoughtful and reflective teacher!

On a second level, this was a disturbing suggestion made at a forum where the main topic was gifted and talented education. The original intent of REACH, when developed in the early nineties, was to promote curiosity, creativity, problem solving, cooperative learning and about six other similar criteria. In many instances these key aspects of REACH have been lost, but I rather hear about returning to these ideals to promote the giftedness in every child than hear about eliminating the program entirely at a forum of this nature.

Respectfully submitted, Nan Youngerman

Veteran teacher, parent, Madison community member, member of Teacher Bargaining Committee, 1990 committee for Elementary Planning, 1990 Committee to Design REACH Program and WI Presidential Teacher of Excellence

I took the liberty of uploading one of Ms Youngerman’s publications (linked to her name) so all can see what teachers who are given the time and tools can accomplish.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | March 23, 2007 · 3:00 am

MUAE Forum Video-Maya Cole’s response

Question: Would you as a school board member support a referendum to deal with the short fall that the district is currently facing? For example, Carol Carstensen’s version of a referendum.

Maya Cole’s response to referendum question (REACH)

Posted by: Janet Morrow

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