Educating Milwaukee: How One City's History of Segregation and Struggle Shaped Its Schools

by James K. Nelsen

Overview

"Milwaukee's story is unique in that its struggle for integration and quality education has been so closely tied to [school] choice." --from the Introduction

"Educating Milwaukee: How One City's History of Segregation and Struggle Shaped Its Schools" traces the origins of the modern school choice movement, which is growing in strength throughout the United States. Author James K. Nelsen follows Milwaukee's tumultuous education history through three eras--"no choice," "forced choice," and "school choice." Nelsen details the whole story of Milwaukee's choice movement through to modern times when Milwaukee families have more schooling options than ever--charter schools, open enrollment, state-funded vouchers, neighborhood schools--and yet Milwaukee's impoverished African American students still struggle to succeed and stay in school. "Educating Milwaukee" chronicles how competing visions of equity and excellence have played out in one city's schools in the modern era, offering both a cautionary tale and a "choice" example.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780870207211
Publisher:	Wisconsin Historical Society
Publication date:	11/17/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	287
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

James K. Nelsen has a PhD in urban history from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and teaches high school social studies at Golda Meir School in Milwaukee, a public magnet school for college-bound students in grades 3 through 12. As a lifelong resident of Milwaukee, he finds the history of the city fascinating, from its early days in the mid-nineteenth century to the modern challenges of urban life today. As a teacher, he enjoys researching the history of education from colonial times to the present. When not teaching or researching, he enjoys volunteering with youth groups, exploring his city, and following his beloved Milwaukee Brewers baseball team.

Table of Contents

Contents Introduction Part One: The Era of No Choice 1. Ethnicity, Race, and the Urban Landscape before 1967 2. Planning for Milwaukee’s Magnet Schools, 1967–1976 Part Two: The Era of Forced Choice 3. Implementing Milwaukee’s Magnet Plan, 1976–1986 4. Reaction to Milwaukee’s Magnet Plan, 1976–1986 5. Rethinking Magnet Schools and Integration, 1987–1995 Part Three: The Era of School Choice 6. Five More Choices, 1987–2013 7. Milwaukee, Choice, and U.S. Education Policy Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index

Editorial Reviews

Educating Milwaukee: How One City's History of Segregation and Struggle Shaped its Schools examines the educational history of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the birthplace of the school voucher movement, and an innovator in programs that offer school choice. Paradoxically, a wider range of options does not guarantee a better education for children, an especially corrosive problem given Milwaukee's problems of concentrated poverty and de facto segregation. Author, teacher, and urban history expert offers a close examination of the many different school choice initiatives that have been attempted in Milwaukee from 1967 to 2013, and explains why Milwaukee's children as a whole continue to struggle with academic achievement today. Educating Milwaukee discusses why constructing new schools in the inner city has sometimes compounded its educational woes (the burdensome cost often leads to harsh budget cuts forced upon existing schools, without addressing many of their biggest problems), how "magnet schools" attracting the best and brightest students compounds declining enrollment in general public schools, the problems of outright incompetence and scandals in underperforming charter schools, and more. "...magnet schools and private schools may want to enroll only the intelligent, motivated students and may try to prevent students with disabilities, behavior problems, and low test scores from enrolling... These practices also raise questions about the fairness of setting up a hierarchy of schools - a hierarchy that runs counter to the notion of equal educational opportunity - and about the political motivations behind choice. Surely that was not what reformers intended." Extensive notes and an index round out this thought-provoking, sharply critical history. (Midwest Book Review, Social Issues Bookshelf, February 2016)
 

From the Publisher