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Last week, Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett suggested he will be a candidate in this year’s likely gubernatorial recall election.  Much has already been made about the difficulty Barrett will have explaining his use of the flexibility given to local governments in Act 10 to help balance Milwaukee’s budget. 

Perhaps Barrett thinks Scott Walker’s image problem, as illustrated by the high percentage (45%) of Wisconsin residents with strongly unfavorable views of the Governor in WPRI’s most recent polling, will counteract any claims Barrett is a hypocrite.  Perhaps. 

But more interesting is the contrast in Barrett and Walker’s record on the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS); while Walker may have an image problem, when it comes to MPS, Barrett has an execution problem.

In July 2003, then mayoral candidate Tom Barrett proposed a mayoral appointed school board, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “[T]he mayor should ultimately be accountable for the academic performance of the students in MPS."  After backing off, Barrett – with  the support of Governor Jim Doyle and other Democrats in full control of state government --  again floated the idea in August of 2009, stating: “The future of this city is inextricably intertwined with the future of our schools.” 

The effort was a comedy of errors.  Five days after announcing the plan, Governor Doyle announced he was not running for reelection.  In November, Barrett declared his intentions to run for Governor, and by December the effort died without seeing the floor of the legislature.  Alan Borsuk detailed the failed takeover in the March 2010 Wisconsin Interest, concluding it was doomed by a lack of specifics, a lack of strategy, and the fact that “Doyle and Barrett didn't put up a good fight.”

Barrett has also come up short in his efforts to fix the school choice funding flaw.  The funding flaw refers to the uneven distribution of taxpayer savings from the Milwaukee school voucher program; state taxpayers benefit, Milwaukee taxpayers do not.  As early as 2006, Barrett argued the flaw needed to be fixed.  In a June 2007 press release Barrett declared he had “sat down with numerous stakeholders to develop a plan” to fix the issue in the state budget. 

However, by November the plan had failed.  The Shepherd Express reported on the effort, stating: “Barrett said that strategy went nowhere.”  In the 2009 State of the City address, Barrett again called attention to the flaw, declaring he was “fighting” to fix it.  And most recently, in April 2011, he wrote an op-ed in the Wisconsin State Journal advocating that the flaw be fixed.  There is a five-year track record of declarations and half measures, but no permanent solution.

Perhaps most telling is the joint MPS reform-effort between Barrett and Doyle that preceded the proposal for a mayoral takeover of the board.   In April 2009 the duo released a report, “Toward a Stronger Milwaukee Public Schools,” that listed policy options for the fiscal challenges plaguing MPS. 

Five areas where significant savings could be achieved are identified; the largest being an estimated $23 to $43 million in savings from a “Benefit program redesign” that “…could involve negotiating with employee groups to maintain employee satisfaction with benefits while reducing costs.” A FAQ accompanying the report notes the role that collective bargaining plays in making cost saving changes possible:   

“Many of the reforms would require negotiation with local unions. The Governor, Mayor and Superintendent respect the right of workers to collectively bargain issues related to their employment.”      

The report made little impact. Even small changes to move the district towards a more sound fiscal footing such as privatizing food service were derailed by union concerns. 

In 2011, however, MPS Superintendent Gregory Thornton was able to push through a set of reforms that dramatically improved the long-term fiscal forecast for MPS.  Governor Walker had a significant role in Thornton’s action, not through any task force or edict, but through the passage of Act 10. It was that piece of legislation that allowed the MPS board to increase MPS employee health contributions and make a temporary freeze on salaries that will reduce the district’s unfunded post-retirement health benefit liability by a projected $900 million over thirty years. 

The condition of MPS is unlikely to be a major issue in a recall election that will be dominated by collective bargaining, cuts in state aid to local governments, and the emotional hangover of a tumultuous year in politics.  This is unfortunate, especially if the recall is a Walker-Barrett rematch.  In few if any other areas will the contrast in approaches and results be as stark.               

-January 9, 2012