The Customer is Always Right
By Nancy Salvato (04/30/06)
On February 16, 2006, the president of the Milwaukee School Board, Kenneth L. Johnson, spoke at the Illinois School Choice Initiative’s second monthly Educational Choice Speaker Series luncheon. His dialogue reflected the idea that parents must be considered customers of our schools.
Background
Johnson, who has a BA in Education and is studying for his MBA, was born and raised in Milwaukee. He is a product of the Milwaukee Public Schools, a general electrician, the father of a teenager in MPS, a strong Baptist, and a lay leader for his pastor. As a speaker, he is able to offer a unique perspective because of his involvement with local unions as well as his role in advancing educational choice.
School Choice is a Philosophy
Beginning his presentation, he explained school choice is a philosophy, not just a program in Milwaukee. In 1999, he was elected to the Milwaukee School Board as one in a slate of five candidates, even though they didn’t run together and no one knew the others. Actually, these were five individuals who agreed the system had to be reformed within the climate of school choice. In other words, MPS must improve and compete for students in a system where parents could choose whether to attend the public schools or some other program; charters or private schools within and outside of a school choice program. His job would be to improve MPS, but he didn’t perceive other programs as a threat; rather, he looked at them as partners. As a member of the school board, his obligation was to advocate for the education of every student in the city of Milwaukee. Nowhere did the Constitution say it had to be for just public schools, everyone was his constituents.
Environment of School Choice
Operating where parents had an option to choose something else and walk away from MPS meant that children aren’t held accountable to the system, the system is supposed to be held accountable to them. It used to be that if the system isn’t responsive, with education in America, you get what you get. Will public education do what you need it to do? In Milwaukee, the parents and students are customers. They have to do what is necessary to keep those customers.
Funding
Johnson has been criticized for saying not to give the system more money until it can use what it has well, that way the consumer will know what whether it is a sound investment. Logic dictates that money shouldn’t be given to people who aren’t investing it well. There haven’t really been complaints for more money. It is amazing what they have been able to afford using a customer driven model. Instead, they created efficiencies in bureaucracy by decentralizing the budget system. Governance councils of local schools control the budget and they approve of the education plan for that school. Councils made up of an educated populace; parents, business people, work well in a climate of customer service. It is their budget, their school, so they spend wisely. There is plenty of money to recapture.
The Sky didn’t Fall
School choice presented an opportunity for the Milwaukee Public School (MPS) system to change. MPS wasn’t destroyed, there wasn’t chaos. The public schools remained the primary educators of children in the urban school district, working alongside the independent and religiously affiliated private schools. No private school system in this country could take over a public school district. By competing against other schools, MPS reformed themselves and drew engaged and responsible parents in.
“Dance of the Lemons”
One particular reform ended what they called “the dance of the lemons.” Teachers had been transferring in and out of schools based on tenure, which was destroying learning environments. For example, a bilingual school had a transfer who doesn’t speak Spanish and who bumped a Spanish speaking first year teacher, recruited from Costa Rica. The complaint was that the board wouldn’t allow schools to select their own people. Yet, it was just a matter of the union and Superintendent signing a form allowing for a change. Johnson said that the board let the strength of the union members fight for what they thought was necessary for the schools. Pressure and debate showed teachers where the true issue was and soon the Language Immersion Schools, Art Schools, Montessori Schools, and other specialty schools petitioned to select their teachers. As a result, local schools became empowered to make decisions about populations they serve and how they would deliver.
Interesting Exodus
Teachers that didn’t perform well would transfer to other schools to avoid upcoming reviews. Up to nine years of seniority is what often allowed those folks to bump better qualified teachers. Now they couldn’t use their seniority that way. This helped to maximize student learning. School Choice, by allowing the ability for people to choose something else, sparked that. Special schools, which never had enough seats or teachers to fill them, multiplied when opportunities to work in them were posted. Teachers were quick to fill in and specialize, creating specialized climates. This is the catalyst for MPS increasing enrollment. They started to give parents what they were asking for. What can board the do? Not fight against school choice but meet the ante and up it, meet the ante and up it.
TEAM
The Teacher Evaluation and Mentoring (TEAM) program was bred out of the previous story of the selection process. TEAM provides assistance to poor performing teachers. Teachers can request mentoring on their own accord or be referred by administrators or colleagues. Sometimes teachers do not want to respond to recommendations and resign.
Teachers as a group, have a vehicle to do something about slackers. Though they fire almost no one, there are a lot of resignations.
By thinking of parents and students as customers and competing for them, the Milwaukee Public School system has a growing enrollment and has been able to implement comprehensive educational reform without breaking their budget. Instead of perceiving their competition as a threat, other educational systems serve to drive MPS to offer the best education at the lowest prices. They certainly understand that rather than customer being a bad word, the customer is always right.
Copyright © Nancy Salvato 2006
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