Alan J. Borsuk
“Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright, the band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light.”
Those are lines from the final stanza of the poem, “Casey at the Bat.” I haven’t been able to shake them from my mind as the end of the school year arrives. I am sure there are happy celebrations going on – high school commencements, kindergarten completion parties, general relief about the way the school year went, and happiness about the pending summer vacation.
But in the broad picture of kindergarten through twelfth grade education — in Milwaukee, in Wisconsin, nationwide — this was a school year when the Mighty Casey of education had a low batting average and the morale on the team was not good. In this metaphor, Casey might not have struck out entirely. But it was a downer of a season. The happy times where hearts are light seemed far away.
(By the way, if you don’t know the poem, read it. It’s easily available online and it’s an American classic. Too many people, not only kids, have too little sense of the nation’s cultural richness and history.)
So let’s look forward – which, regrettably, requires looking back. A crucial agenda of goals and needs in education for next year and beyond can be found in assessing the tough year that is wrapping up.
Safety. This was a worrisome year for safety in many ways and many places. Safety when it came to physical health and the continuing impact of the pandemic. Safety when it came to so many incidents of violence and disorder, in school and out.
And then came the killing of 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Tex.
People in the crowd when President Biden visited Uvalde several days ago shouted, “Do something.” He said he will. But what can or will be done by him, other leaders, and all the rest of us?
Maybe it’s impossible to reach full confidence in safety. But there must be steps that, even by September, will offer kids, parents, and school staff members increased paths for thinking that school is a reasonably safe place. If not, where are things headed?
The academic gap. When it came to raising the academic success levels of students from historically low-performing backgrounds, things weren’t going well before the pandemic. Then they got worse. There is enough data to say firmly that, locally and nationally, the gaps got bigger and progress in learning such basics as reading and math got worse for those who were already at the low-end of the spectrum.
Did the gaps increase because schools in higher income communities were much more likely to be in-person? Sure looks like that was a factor. But whatever the cause, the crisis in achievement in places such as Milwaukee just gets more urgent. And there seems to be little focus on finding solutions – not from state government, not from local school officials, not from the community at large. When does this get the increased attention it needs?
Emotional and mental health. In the last decade, depression, anxiety, trauma-impacted behavior, and a general decline in social coping moved up the list of issues that schools, as well as parents and health systems, needed to address. And then came the pandemic, which accelerated things.
Nationwide, funding of programs to help kids is increasing and many schools, including in the Milwaukee area, are using federal COVID aid to increase counseling and other help.
A recent survey by the National Center for Education Statistics found that almost all schools had ramped up efforts to help kids with mental issues, according to the Washington Post. But leaders of only 12% of schools strongly agreed with the statement, “My school is able to effectively provide mental health services to all students in need.” Another 44% moderately agreed.
Can the rising level of help match the rising tide of problems? If so, the benefit will be great. And if not, serious problems will grow.
Teachers and all other staff members. Predictions of a big exodus from jobs working in schools have not materialized overall – at least not yet. But you have to believe teachers and all the other people working in schools are feeling worn and stressed. Filling jobs in schools has become harder most everywhere. This is true not only for teachers but for secretaries, food workers, custodians, bus drivers, security people and everyone else involved in schools.
Filling top jobs as a school superintendent or principal is not easy either.
A factoid: Almost all of the 10 largest school districts in the U.S. have changed their school chiefs recently.
A second factoid: A big reason the MPS budget for next year is looking OK is because it includes an “allowance” of almost $60 million for salaries not being paid because listed jobs are vacant.
School districts generally are giving employees raises for next year – in many cases in Wisconsin, close to 5%, because that is the maximum allowed under the Act 10 law of 2011. Two reasons for the raises: People need and deserve them. And the competition to retain and attract employees is stiff.
Are there ways to improve the picture for hiring and keeping employees, especially ones with good qualifications? In some ways, this may be the most urgent of all the question for next year and beyond.
Behavior. One of the first things that has come up in almost every conversation I’ve had with teachers recently is student behavior. Little kids, big kids, kids from many backgrounds — it appears all the time kids were away from conventional classrooms and social life took a toll on skills in interacting with others and engaging in classroom life. Will continued effort and the passage of time improve things? Kids are generally resilient. Let’s hope.
And then there are the thorny but urgent situations where one or two students can throw class life off track by out-of-bounds behavior, and nothing much is done to fix the situation. I also hear this a lot. This gets into complex issues involving mainstreaming of students with special needs, stereotyping and discrimination, short staffing, and more. There are places where such issues have become divisive across entire communities.
It appears many schools and school leaders haven’t figured out how to win the overall struggle to have well-tempered and focused classrooms. Figuring out ways to navigate this would boost life in a lot of schools.
Enrollment and attendance. Milwaukee PBS produced a program for Teacher Appreciation Week recently that featured three Milwaukee Public Schools teachers recording video diaries after several school days.
An anecdote from one of them, a teacher at Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education (formerly known as Custer High School), stopped me in my tracks. The school has a block schedule, which means it has a smaller number of longer classes daily.
The teacher said this particular day brought good news and bad news. The good news: “Today I was able to work closely with a handful of students. I saw 15 students today across three blocks.” The bad news: “I have 64 students across those three blocks and I saw 15.” That is fewer than 25% of the students assigned to his classes.
Oh, my. That is presumably on the bad end of attendance in MPS schools, although MPS officials did not provide me with data I requested on attendance at Obama (indisputably a public record).
But the anecdote speaks to a broad and deep problem in MPS, which is simply having kids show up. Attendance was bad before the pandemic and went down further when schools returned to in-person classes. Other schools in the city and beyond have attendance problems, but generally not to the degree MPS has them.
Can something be done about this for the next school year and beyond?
Enrollment also has also been a problem nationwide, especially in urban public school districts. Milwaukee is an example. Enrollment was down sharply in MPS in the last two years, with a forecast of a decline for next fall. There are reasons, including declining overall population and parents who choose non-MPS schools or who have been home-schooling students. Frankly, not a surprise that parents choose schools they see as best for their children. But the enrollment declines are in themselves signs of big problems facing districts such as MPS.
The financial picture. In a small nutshell, the tight lid on school revenue included in the current state budget is creating problems. Schools generally will be OK, but not great, for next year. But it’s not a pretty forecast. The big wave of federal pandemic aid has been distributed mostly to districts with high poverty rates. But it is short-term help, with a requirement that the money be spent by 2024. And schools in middle- or higher-income communities are generally most likely to feel the short-term pinch.
Politics. Another subject that deserves great attention. The nutshell approach brings two big questions:
How will the increased politization and polarization of communities over school issues play out when it comes to helping or harming the actual education of children?
Who’s going to win the election for governor in November? If it’s Democratic incumbent Tony Evers, the statewide gridlock over many big education questions will continue. If it’s a Republican, big and strongly conservative change is almost sure to follow. The impact of that election will be huge.
Will Casey find redemption? There have been sequels written by other authors to the tale of Casey striking out and leaving no joy in Mudville. Generally, one way or another, Casey gets to bat again and gets the winning hit.
A new school year is on the horizon. Casey will get another chance. But the challenges facing him and his team are formidable. Will things be done to improve the chances of next season being better for the Mudville team? Wouldn’t it be better if the band was playing and hearts were light around here?
Alan J. Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School. Reach him at alan.borsuk@marquette.edu
