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EducationIn an effort to help students strive for excellence, the Education task force fights for quality public education to brighten futures for children across Milwaukee. The education task force is currently working to tackle the limited number of system-wide school nurses and the effect on student achievement. The task force is determined to fight until more public school funding is recognized as a top priority for the entire state. In October 2007, MICAH organized and won by working to secure additional school nurses for MPS. There is a story of the victory below.
MICAH Education Victory 2007 The Story... The Issue Three years ago the MICAH Education Committee, led by Father Tom Mueller, gave a presentation on the health of children in the Milwaukee Public Schools to a crowd of more than a thousand at the MICAH public meeting. The message was simple: our children are sick and this is threatening their ability to learn! The crowd gasped, for example, when they learned that MPS had only one school nurse per every 7,500 students—ten times higher than national standards call for. The Process Searching to find a way to help Milwaukee Public Schools improve learning, MICAH leaders held a retreat in 2005 to educate themselves about the issues and to develop consensus on a local issue. At that retreat, the MICAH education committee decided to focus on healthcare for impoverished children in MPS as a key influence on student achievement. Along with its substantive importance, the leaders felt that the healthcare issue brought with it a number of other promising aspects, including the fact that most impoverished children in MPS are at least eligible for State health insurance; and the availability of a range of other possible resources that MICAH might be able to target. MICAH Education Committee leaders brought this issue to a meeting with MICAH congregations, and the general leadership voted to support this initiative. Soon thereafter, Education Committee leaders held scores of research meetings with healthcare providers, MPS officials, parents, public officials, congregation leaders, community health centers, and education professionals about the impact of health on the learning and success of impoverished students. Out of these research efforts, we developed a brochure highlighting the impact of this issue on families, the general community, and student achievement. Thousands of these brochures were distributed at community meetings, MICAH house meetings, and MICAH mass (public) meetings. Seeking the support and partnership of government agencies, MPS Health Services Coordinator, Kathleen Murphy, and then Department of Health and Family Services Secretary, Helene Nelson (on behalf of Governor Jim Doyle) partnered with MICAH to add funding for an increase in the number of MPS school nurses into the State budget. We worked together to ensure that Governor Doyle’s larger BadgerCare plus plan, which included this initiative, would pass the state budget. On Governor Doyle’s behalf Secretary Nelson made a public commitment to support this collaborative effort at a meeting of 850 leaders from MICAH and the community at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in November 2006. Leaders from the MICAH Education committee continued conduct research and hold house meetings to increase awareness and support in MICAH congregations. The committee gathered monthly to discuss progress and explore next steps for moving this initiative forward. At the Milwaukee State Budget hearing in March 2007, leaders from MICAH rallied with others prior to the hearing to ensure that BadgerCare plus would get major consideration in the budget. And MICAH prepared several leaders, parents, and MPS administrators to testify to the importance of this initiative in front of the Joint Finance Committee of the state legislature. National Public Radio highlighted the importance of this issue when it aired almost the complete testimony given by of one of MICAH leaders at this hearing. The Victory In the budget recently approved in Wisconsin, MICAH succeeded in securing over 4 million dollars of state and federal funding for 24 new school nurses (or other health professionals) to be placed in Milwaukee Public Schools. Hired through the Department of Health and Family Services as a part of the larger BadgerCare plus initiative, these professionals will serve the 37 schools currently without general health care services. Additional components of the expansion include increased coordination among school nursing staff and current health care providers to ensure that eligible students are enrolled in BadgerCare Plus. Priority for staffing will be given to elementary schools with high student poverty levels and poor attendance rates. The Lesson Congregation-based organizing is about engaging ordinary people to do extraordinary things. While many agencies are working hard to address the needs of people in this region, critical systemic challenges remain. The systems and structures perpetuating inequality must be transformed to work for all people. Yet too many of our citizens stand by without acting, even, for example, as our children suffer in schools without access to the most basic forms of health care. MICAH believes that we share a common destiny in our society. Our membership of 35 faith-institutions of 11 different faith traditions organizes people to act intentionally to create the kind society where children will not suffer in this way. Although the process can become challenging and laborious, it is the faith of leaders in our congregations that keep MICAH leaders on the front-line for justice and organizing for power. By creating an organization with the collective power to resist injustice, we combat hopelessness at the scale of the challenges we face and provide an avenue for those who care to intervene in the world.
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Below is a list of major accomplishments in improvement to public education that MICAH has organized to make happen over the years.
Results: Scores of minorities, mostly embarking on a second career path, were trained through this consortium to become teachers in the Milwaukee Public School system.
Results: SAGE schools reduce the student to teacher classroom ratio to 15:1 in kindergarten through third grade classrooms.
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