Report: Milwaukee Needs More Charter Schools Not Run by Unions

Real choice, please

Milwaukee Public Schools should increase its number of non-union charter schools and Wisconsin should explore creating a recovery school district to take over and turn around failing schools, according to a new report that public-school advocates immediately dismissed as partisan.

The report issued this week features experts from a variety of backgrounds who weighed in on how to reform education in the state and its most challenged city.

But the fact that the report was produced jointly by two think tanks that embrace conservative and free-market ideas — one local and one national — means the suggestions are unlikely to gain traction with union advocates and supporters of traditional public schools.

Many of the ideas would also take legislative action to pursue and are coming when most major changes to the state's school landscape over the next two years are close to a done deal.