An alternate universe does exist. And I now have proof that the Milwaukee has slipped into one such universe. It's a universe in which everything and nothing is true all at once, and there is no past. Many things in this place of mirrors appear opposite, especially in written form. In the public school reform circles, all of the above is especially true if you've got some money that allows you to do "research" that supports school choice and charters.

The evidence suggests that Milwaukee education slipped unawares into this alternate universe some time ago (about 1993-4) and has remained there since, regulation and compliance supplied by the folks at our local daily newspaper, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. New evidence was realized Sunday, June 25, in the daily's "Crossroads" section under the innocuous headline "Residency rule's demerits at least merit a discussion." It was written by Patrick McIlheran, the daily's right-wing editorial columnist, who's made a name for himself of late reporting false MPS drop-out rates while inflating bad pro-school choice research.

In the editorial, McIlheran runs readers through a recent study by UW-Milwaukee education professor Mark Schug and Lakeland College economist Scott Niederjohn, who are out to show that Milwaukee Public Schools' requirement that its teachers live in the city is harming the "quality of education" in MPS.  Remove the requirement, get better teachers, the Schug-Niederjohn study concludes.

Who's partially to blame for the residency policy, in place since 1977? Why, of course, the teachers union, Schug and Niederjohn insist, and McIlheran eagerly reports. The union (MTEA), Schug says, has no incentive to get rid of residency because what MTEA really wants is to control the MPS school board. To leverage school board votes in low turnout spring elections, Schug says, the union needs all of its members living in the city and eligible to vote. That's why the union, though formally opposed to residency, Schug argues, backs down on the issue of residency during collective bargaining.

That's the world according to the alternate universe of pro-school choice and charter-based research, according to a professor of education at UW-Milwaukee.

In the real world, the teachers union has been vehemently opposed to residency since 1977. In the real world, school choice advocates such as ex-MPS superintendent Howard Fuller, ex-MPS Director John Gardner and ex-Mayor John Norquist publicly vilified the union for caring too much about residency throughout the 1990's. The upshot, according to its critics, was that the union didn't care ENOUGH about reform and the quality of education in MPS — because its priority was on members who too often whined about having to live in the city.

The union leadership, many of whom were working in MPS before 1977, could live anywhere they wanted, and Sam Carmen, et. al., were doubly vilified for living outside the city limits. By the late 1990's, the union talked about residency only when asked, and focused on progressive reforms in the schools, such as mentoring programs and other changes designed to find and retain top teachers and support young teachers. 

Add to all this the fact that the residency debate truly ticks MPS parents off. One of our most cherished parental choices is the freedom to remind teachers that we really don't want to hear about the residency issue. In the real world, it's a bit insulting and far, far off topic when it comes to the education of our children.

Back to the outer limits of the 2006 alternate universe, and residency is now apparently the fault of Sam Carmen, et al, for backing off on the issue and sitting idly by while the best MPS teachers left the system. In the alternate universe, the union can never do the right thing on behalf of students and parents — while anything that can be twisted to bash MPS, its teachers and its students, is researched and then explored in the pages of the Journal Sentinel.

How do we fix the system, according to Schug and Niederjohn's alternate reality? Get the state legislature to end residency because the union won't; focus on basics [back to hooked on phonics again]; expand charters [despite astounding failures in the program]; and expand choice to the middle class [in choice schools where nonunion teachers are paid less and have fewer benefits]. In the alternate universe, most roads and grants funds naturally lead to arguments for school choice.

Back in the real world, Schug really is a professor of Education at the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin, the university within the city limits that trains many MPS teachers. If MPS really has too few of the best teachers, I think I know which classrooms at UWM to begin looking for the root of the problem.

In the real world, however, the grant funds to get to the root of the problem just wouldn't flow. And the Journal Sentinel and Pat McIlheran would never breathlessly twist and turn the findings onto the editorial pages.