WISCONSIN

Candace Crawford

Legislative History
        Wisconsin's charter school law was passed in August 
1993.  The original bill which was opposed by such groups as 
the Wisconsin Education Association and the Department of 
Public Instruction was heavily sponsored by governor Tommy 
Thompson.  Starting in 1994, Governor Thompson has tried to 
expand Wisconsin's charter school law including proposals to 
remove the limit of ten districts, allow charter schools to 
hire uncertified teachers and allow private contracting for 
the hiring of personnel.  Governor Thompson's new proposals 
have created an uproar among several groups including the 
state superintendent of schools, Democratic leaders and 
teacher's unions across the state.  

Summary of Legislation
        The number of schools allowed to be chartered  has been 
limited to 20, 2 per district in ten districts.  Two groups 
can charter a school:  a local school board or any other 
group.  For a local school board to receive a charter they 
must submit a petition to the state superintendent.  For an 
other group to receive a charter, they must submit a petition 
signed by at least 10% of the teachers in a district or 50% 
of the teachers at any one school.  After obtaining the 
appropriate signatures, the petition must be submitted to the 
local school board which must have a public hearing within 30 
days of receipt to determine community support for the 
school.  After the hearing, the school board may grant the 
charter.  If the school board receives a charter it may hire 
a management team to run the school.  
According to the Wisconsin law, "A charter school is an 
instrumentality of the school district in which it is located 
(Wisconsin State Charter School Law)."  The school has 
complete control over its budgetary processes but the 
district holds the power to grant, revoke and control any 
other aspect of a charter school within its district.

Results of Law
        Three charter schools are up and running in Wisconsin.  
They are all in separate districts and serve different 
students.  Two are schools within schools and the other 
started from the ground up.

Beaver Dam
        Beaver Dam serves 70 at risk students from grades 6-12.  
The school is located in area with a population of about 
15,000 with 3400 students in grade K-12.  The school was 
started from the ground up after studying 15 programs for at 
risk students in Illinois and Wisconsin.  The middle school 
students attend a typical 7 hour school day while the high 
school students generally spend 3-31/2 hours in the 
classroom.  The rest of their day is spent in the community 
completing on the job training.   The school is staffed by 
five teachers and a social worker that addresses the 
studentŐs social and emotional needs. Each student has an 
individual learning plan which addresses the needs of that 
particular student and the school creates a family atmosphere 
for its students.  Some students will graduate with the 
Wisconsin High School Equivalency Diploma or a portfolio of 
their job skills.
        The major problem the school had in starting up was 
garnering support from the local community to pass a budget 
referendum.  In the state of Wisconsin, there is a revenue 
cap on funding that can only be waived through referendum.  
The school was allotted a budget of $350,000 but needed more 
money to lease and modify an old building and to hire new 
staff.  The founders of the charter first had to explain 
exactly what the revenue cap was and then they had to fight a 
perception that the school district was trying to get rid of 
the "bad" kids.  Many people were wondering where this 
building was to be located that was going to put away these 
"bad" kids.  After explaining to the community the purpose of 
the school and its plan, the referendum passed on a 2-1 
margin with strong union backing.
        The school is trying to develop a competency degree.  It 
would not be based on the traditional units for graduation 
like four years of English, but would be based on skills that 
each student has gained from on the job training.  The main 
goal is to prove to people that Beaver Dam's students meet a 
workplace readiness guideline.

Madison Middle School 2000
        The city of Madison is the capital of Wisconsin and 
contains a population of about 200,00.  It is a University 
town which offers a nice place for family.  In the last 
decade or so there has been a migration from Chicago, located 
2 1/2 hours away in nearby Illinois, from housing projects 
such as Cabrini Green.  The new population has brought to the 
city of Madison a cultural diversity but it has also caused 
some uneasiness in the city.  It is a place that has high 
graduation standards and high student achievement standards 
for its students.  Middle school 2000 is located in West 
Madison but serves children mostly from South Madison.  The 
school is a conversion school and serves 6-8 graders.  It 
does not serve a specific population of students but has a 
breakdown of 30% of students above grade level, 30% at grade 
level and 30% below.  There are about 80 students per class 
that are selected by a student selection committee.  The 
school uses an integrated curriculum with a strong computer 
focus.  Each classroom has five computers and there are 
powerbooks for students to take home for outside assignments.  
Madison is co-housed with a pre kindergarten/early childhood 
program.  The students have book buddies and helps out with 
the other program.  They also have e-mail pen pals at the 
local university that they meet at the end of the school 
year.
        One of the start up problems Madison had was when the 
technical director proclaimed that  middle school kids did 
not need the type of technology the school wanted him to 
build and promptly quit.  They also had problems with hiring 
staff for the new school.  Currently they have been trying to 
find a site and have had backlash from the South Madison 
community who wants a 600 student comprehensive middle school 
within walking distance of their community.  However, Middle 
School 2000 is a small school with about 240 students with 
creators who have a very different focus.
        Recently the referendum bond passed for the school to 
build at a site on the outskirts of South Madison.  They 
would like to get all the details worked and erect a 
permanent facility for the school.  They would also like to 
initiate a contract system with parents, who would have to 
pledge 2 days of their time in a school year to help around 
Middle School 2000.  The school would also like to have 
elected positions for their school governance council which 
comprises 5 different committees that cover different areas 
of school operation.
        
Stevens Point
        The city of Stevens Point is a small city of about 
26,000 people located in a rural area.  However the school 
district that includes Stevens Point serves about a 
population of about 50,000.  It is a collection of four small 
towns all within one area that contains alot of large crop 
farms.  The population is not a very diverse one but is 
becoming more so with the arrival of a huge migrant Asian 
population.
        Stevens Point is a school within a school and serves 
students grade 10-12.  The school's goal is to have students 
from many different ability ranges but mostly serves the 
needs of the middle of the road or average student.  The 
school also wanted to include students with disabilities in 
its program.  They wanted to do an integrated curriculum with 
courses such as Technical Thinking and Cultural Heritage.  
The school is run on a block schedule with classes ranging in 
duration from 30 minutes to 80 minutes.  The students only 
attend for half a day in the mornings.  The students also do 
some community work and get some on site job experience.
        Steven Points main problem starting up was funding.  The 
school board was having a hard time giving up budgetary 
responsibility to a group of people not necessarily 
associated with them.  In its contract the school had to 
stipulate that it would follow the budgetary policies of the 
district.  The local union believed that the teachers hired 
at Beaver Dam was trying to bust up the union.  The teachers 
had to reassure them they had no intentions of leaving the 
union and that was another point stipulated in the contract.  
The third problem they had was not knowing what to do.  It 
was a learn as you go process.  They have also run into a 
problem with the usual school gossip accusing the teachers 
who work with the program as creating an elitist group of 
students and not working as hard as other teachers in the 
building.
        Stevens Point plans to follow the sophomores that are in 
the program until they graduate.  They hope also to follow 
them two years after they are out of high school in order to 
measure the effect of the program on the students.  They hope 
to get out in the community more next year and maybe do some 
classes at the local university.  Next year they will also 
switch the program to the afternoon so that they can run past 
the typical 3:00 PM school day.

Conclusions
        Wisconsin's law is a good start. Governor Thompson has 
been working on expanding Wisconsin's highly restrictive 
charter school law for over a year now.  Some of his 
proposals include removing the limit of ten districts, 
allowing charter schools to hire uncertified teachers and 
allowing private contracting for the hiring of personnel.  
However, Governor Thompson's new proposals have created an 
uproar among several groups including the state 
superintendent of schools, Democratic leaders and teacher's 
unions across the state.  Many see the governor's proposals 
as purposefully "trying to divide the community."(John 
Matthews, director of Madison Teachers Inc., Capital Times 
1A, Feb. 10, 1995).  Others such as Senator Joseph Wineke a 
democrat from Verona thinks "he's intent on destroying public 
education"(Jeff Mayers, Wisconsin State Journal, 1A, January 
26, 1995).  But the governor contends that he wants to give 
"every single school... the freedom and the flexibility to 
educate our children as they(parents, teachers and 
administrators) know best"(Jeff Mayers, Wisconsin State 
Journal, 1A, January 26,1995).  However, to  further meet the 
needs of charter schools in his state, Governor Thompson 
needs to add a few more suggestions to his proposal.  He 
needs to include an appeals process for rejected charters and 
a provision that would make charter schools legally 
autonomous from the local school district.  As seen with 
Stevens Point, the local school board and administration can 
pressure petitioners to include items in their charter to 
restrict their freedom in running their school.