A Q&A With MPS Board President Peter Blewett

MPS Board President Peter Blewett has become the face of MPS in the press. He has advocated for more funding for arts, languages and core subjects, increased transparency, and more equitable funding from the state. On April 7, Blewett will vie with ReDonna Rodgers, founder of the Center for Teaching Entrepreneurship, to represent the West Side of Milwaukee on the MPS Board of Directors. Recently, Blewett spoke with the Shepherd about why he’s seeking another term on the board and his hopes for public education in Milwaukee.

Shepherd: Why are you running for another term on the board?

Blewett: I’m seeking re-election because we’ve just started to accomplish the things that we really need to accomplish. The board has been kind of dominated by this split. But since Michael Bonds got elected [to the board]—we agree on a lot of things, including budgetary accountability and transparency—we’ve started to do a lot. The first year was a test year.

I chose to move to Milwaukee in the ‘80s. When I looked at graduate schools, Milwaukee seemed to be the place to be. When I came here, I looked at the public school system. Milwaukee had the first urban Waldorf school. It had all of these language schools. It had the arts schools. It seemed like a great place to come because of the schools. I’m running again because I want my son’s kids and grandkids to choose Milwaukee. I want people to choose Milwaukee now. But who with the education and resources wants to live in a town with a voucher system? But I believe that if we really try to bring back MPS to what it once was, and make it even better, Milwaukee could be a center for progressive, educated people. We could reverse the brain drain. I think we can do it but it’s going to be really hard work. The last two years have been very exciting. And I think the people who are out there running are going to make it even more exciting.

Shepherd: What is the board divided over?

Blewett: It used to be over vouchers. But I think the split is over so-called “reform.” I think that on one side you have the Journal Sentinel and the MMAC and their reform initiatives, whether it’s neighborhood schools or No Child Left Behind, more testing, small schools, 15 different reading programs, a superintendent [William Andrekopoulos] who reads a new book and then he goes out to buy a new program and teachers have to teach to it. So you’ve got that side.

But on the other hand you have people who understand that there are very important issues. The most important is that the children of Milwaukee do not have the same educational opportunities as the children in any other part of the state. There’s not the same investment in Milwaukee. Until that injustice is addressed, we’re going to keep struggling. These are the people who say, look, we’ve got kids with tremendous needs. Class size is growing. We’ve been cutting specialists. We’ve been cutting our teachers, and physical education and foreign languages and library and media specialists. I don’t think it’s acceptable to cut those teachers anymore. It’s never been acceptable. But now is the time when we need people who are going to confront the injustice issue head on.

We’re making some progress. In the governor’s budget they’ve started to address one of the funding flaws. It’s not the funding flaw the mayor has been talking about. The mayor wanted more money for property tax relief. [In the budget proposal] they’re letting us count the students [which will result in more state funds for MPS]. That’s the funding flaw that we wanted to address [two years ago] and they’re going to start doing that. Only 10% this year and then it goes up to 50%. That’s not good enough for me but it’s a start. So we’re making some progress.

The other thing that’s in the budget is accountability. We’re going to require these teachers [in voucher schools] to have a college degree. It’s about time. There will be some other things. It isn’t enough but it’s about time that we start to address these things. The governor has at least recognized the MPS agenda in the budget this year. That’s a sign of hope.

Shepherd: If you win another term, what do you plan to do?

Blewett: There are two big issues that have recently come up. They’re not the reason why I’m running, but they’re the reason why people need to re-elect me. One is that we’re going to hire a new superintendent. You may know that the last time we did, Jennifer [Morales] and I tried to reopen the search so that we had a real national search. But they had chosen their guy already. In fact the Journal Sentinel and the MMAC already have their short list of people from Milwaukee who they’d like to see in there because they know that they can push these people around.

Maybe the best person is from Milwaukee. But if I’m elected we’re going to do a real search. We’re going to find the best person, not someone who just wants to build their resume and move on. We want to find someone who’s going to bring what we need, a strong leader, someone who’s going to build good principals, who’s going to focus on what we need, small class sizes and good teachers, stability in the system. Not someone who’s going to chase every fad.

The other big thing, which I’ve been working on with Michael Bonds, is investing in early childhood education. I did a modest proposal my first year, he got a bigger one passed. That’s really exciting stuff.

Shepherd: How has your role as board president affected the district’s policies?

Blewett: Look, by one vote I won the presidency [in 2007]. So that means by one vote we repealed the handcuff policy [supported by the previous board]. Guess what. This district now has a comprehensive safety plan. That plan has violence prevention, restorative justice. I’m the board member who went out and listened to the Children’s Court judges and they were upset with the superintendent because MPS was not responsive to their needs. I listened to them rail. I said, “If you have an office here I’ll put a position in the budget and he or she will answer to you and that will be his or her job to get you everything you need.” It took a few months to fill that position. I put the arts ambassador position in last year. We need this position so the person can manage the arts partnership, can create some accountability so we can show the public how we’re investing the money, and publicize the arts and write grant proposals to bring more money to the district. The board has brought close to $5 million of private funds into the district for arts education in the past three years. It’s great.

To me that’s what leadership is—building relationships statewide working with people to bring resources into the district. It’s giving direction to the administration. Have we given enough direction to the administration? No. The problem with the board is not that it’s too strong or dysfunctional. The problem is that it’s too weak. We’ve had the strongest board in the past two years, partly because Michael Bonds came in there to reinforce some of the things that I believe in. I think it’s going to be stronger in the years ahead. It needs to be. If we’re going to get to this Milwaukee that I dream of, the one that my son’s grandkids are going to want to live in, we’ve got a long way to go.

Milwaukee is in serious straits. We’ve lost industry. That’s not the school system’s fault. There’s a lot more poverty. That’s not the school system’s fault. For people to casting aspersion on the school system and saying that MPS is responsible for Milwaukee’s decline—give me a break. But the school system can be and should be a key to revitalization to help create the direction. I think I need to get in there to make it happen.