(Here are some of my notes from John Gardner's September visit to Oregon. John is the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, school board member who has been leading the reforms made by the board in response to parental choice in Milwaukee. John, a Democrat with a long record of successful labor organizing, became active in education reform while working on behalf of his own Milwaukee neighborhood school. For years, parents had been fighting for Montessori programs, and in 1968 parents launched the Highland Community School. Finally the school secured a charter, the only charter issued in Milwaukee. In 1995 John won a seat on the school board, and by 1999 the pro-change coalition had captured control of the Milwaukee school board. During his three days, he spoke (and debated) with district administrators, school board members, legislators, and groups of community leaders. His message challenged us to think much more deeply about the institution of public schooling as it is now defined and organized—to think out-of-the-box.
The reforms we made broadened the definition of public schools; our definition includes all schools attempting to educate Milwaukee's children—district owned or not, in-district or not. This open system of choice by parents made it important for the board to enhance the capacities of schools so they could respond to families. Our job is to build capacity in schools by giving them control over their own programs. Our intention was not to try to reform our schools or to manage them but to push them to become self-reforming, to manage themselves so they would become autonomous, self-improving.