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Global Inequality in Wealth

The wealth of the three richest individuals in the world is now equal to the gross national products of the 48 least-developed countries of the world. Furthermore, the net worth of the world's 200 richest people is increasing at the rate of $500 per second - or $43.2 million a day.

An Abdication of Responsibility

Across Wisconsin, more than half the students expelled from the largest school districts were not offered any alternative education during their expulsion period, according to an analysis by the Associated Press.

Practices varied widely by district. In Racine, for instance, all 146 students expelled during the 1997-98 school year were offered alternatives. Oshkosh and Waukesha also offered alternatives to all students, with alternatives ranging from alternative institutions to home schooling, tutoring, or time at computer-aided learning centers.

In Milwaukee, only 45 of the 255 expelled students were offered alternatives. Aquine Jackson of the Milwaukee Public Schools rationalized the figures this way: "Why would we give services to students, especially if they endanger health and safety of others, that would put them in a similar setting where they could endanger the safety of others again?"

The State of Democracy

David Obey (D-Wis.) has been in Congress 30 years, so speaks from experience when he comments on his fellow politicians. This is what he had to say in an Oct. 4 interview with The New York Times about the mindset of his congressional colleagues:

"They pass meaningless resolutions that praise God, motherhood, and country but don't do anything. They stick it to little people, because little people don't have access to information and can't fight back. They rely on a huge tub of money that flows into their party coffers to drown out objections. They have a huge juggernaut of private foundation money organized by the right-wing economic elite and they pour money into these so-called think tanks to pretend that independent research verifies their world view."

Healthcare Exec Takes on Schools

Wall Street followers of the so-called "education industry" frequently cite the similarities between the nascent for-profit education business and the early years of Health Maintenance Organizations and their eventual domination of the healthcare industry. So perhaps it's no surprise that one of the country's leading for-profit education companies has turned to the healthcare industry for leadership.

Advantage Schools this August announced the appointment of Geoffrey S. Swett as President and Chief Operating Officer. Swett has nearly two decades experience in for-profit healthcare management and most recently was president of the Dialysis Services Division at Fresenius Medical Care, a $2 billion division with 650 locations.

Advantage is a for-profit company that runs charter schools in nine states and the District of Columbia, serving approximately 10,000 students.

Hollywood Distortions

The season's big "educational" movie this fall was Music of the Heart, in which Meryl Streep portrays the inspirational violin teacher, Roberta Guaspari. In the movie, Guaspari is depicted as a miraculous teacher working single-handedly to instill her craft despite a "cultural wasteland of a school, marred by drive-by shootings, lazy teachers, and hostile parents," as The New York Times described it.

Guaspari teaches at Central Park East which, as the Times noted, is "a center of progressive education" where even middle-class parents beg for admission. "In reality, Ms. Guaspari, who still teaches at the school, succeeded not as a lone ranger in a hostile environment, but by thriving in a school marked by strong leadership, a collective willingness to take chances and a shared sense of mission," the Times said.

Apparently, however, the image of a well-run, successful urban public school conflicted with Hollywood stereotypes.

According to the real Roberta Guaspari "almost every calamity that befalls schoolchildren in the movie was a fabrication."

School Satisfaction in Milwaukee

Milwaukee Blacks are some of the least dissatisfied with their public schools in the entire country, while Milwaukee whites are some of the most dissatisfied.

The Educational Testing Service (ETS) issued a report in late October analyzing dissatisfaction with public schools in 55 U.S. cities. "One important implication of the ETS findings is that they appear to challenge the contention of voucher proponents that sizable proportions of inner-city families are ready to jump ship when it comes to public education," according to a report in the Oct. 27 Education Week.

Milwaukee schools scored particularly well among African Americans, and the city was ranked fifth in terms of Black households "least dissatisfied." Only 6.6% of those polled were dissatisfied.

In contrast, white households were among the most dissatisfied with Milwaukee's public schools; 31.5% of white households were dissatisfied, placing the city eighth among the ten most dissatisfied among whites.

Milwaukee Public Schools are approximately 61% African American and 20% white, with Hispanics accounting for most of the remainder. Whites have increasingly left the Milwaukee public schools in the last 25 years, particularly following the court-approved desegregation plan in 1976.

Gun-Totin' Teachers

Arizona State Rep. Barbara Blewster has proposed that teachers be allowed to bring guns to school, saying it would make it less likely that a shooter could walk in and open fire. While Blewster's proposal got a chilly reception from other legislators, the president of Arizona's affiliate of the National Rifle Assocation said it has merit.

It's not the first time Blewster has made headlines with her remarks. Blewster, a first-term lawmaker and John Birch Society member, wrote an e-mail Feb. 1 equating homosexuality with "bestiality, human sacrifice and cannibalism.'' According to the Associated Press, she also later told a female colleague that "she didn't look Jewish because she didn't have a hooked nose," and suggested to a Black colleague that "slavery wasn't that bad and American Indians weren't very smart."

Winter 1999