City of Milwaukee - File #: 150171

• File #: 150171
• Version: 1
• Type: Ordinance
• Status: Placed On File
• File created: 5/12/2015
• In control: COMMON COUNCIL
• Final action: 5/27/2020
• Title: A substitute ordinance relating to the chartering of schools by the city.
• Sponsors: ALD. ZIELINSKI
• Indexes: CHARTER SCHOOLS

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result	Tally
5/27/2020	1	COMMON COUNCIL	PLACED ON FILE	Pass	14:0
5/14/2020	1	STEERING & RULES COMMITTEE	RECOMMENDED FOR PLACING ON FILE	Pass	8:0
6/11/2015	1	STEERING & RULES COMMITTEE
5/12/2015	0	COMMON COUNCIL	ASSIGNED TO

Number
150171
Version
Substitute 1
Reference

Sponsor
Ald. Zielinski
Title
A substitute ordinance relating to the chartering of schools by the city.
Sections
330-4 cr
Analysis
This ordinance establishes a 5-year moratorium during which the City of Milwaukee will grant no school charters to schools not currently chartered by the City.
Body
Whereas, The granting of school charters, which are intended to provide innovative educational programs to help struggling students succeed, requires considerable expertise and an in-depth knowledge of the latest innovations in education; and

Whereas, While the City of Milwaukee relies upon the expertise of the Charter School Review Committee when granting school charters, the City itself has no direct expertise in education policy innovations and school operations; and

Whereas, Many of the schools chartered by the City are struggling and are either underperforming their public-school counterparts or are not performing significantly better than public schools; and

Whereas, The lagging performance of schools chartered by the City may suggest the City is not sufficiently knowledgeable about education policy and innovation to be the best judge of which school proposals are most likely to succeed and should be chartered by the City; now, therefore

The Mayor and Common Council of the City of Milwaukee do ordain as follows:

Part 1. Section 330-4 of the code is created to read:

330-4. Moratorium. 1. PURPOSE. The city recognizes that many of the schools chartered by the city are either under-performing the available public schools, or are not performing significantly better than public schools, and acknowledges this underperformance may indicate an inadequacy in the city’s school chartering process. The city further acknowledges, given the paramount role of education to the children of the community, that the most prudent action for the public good is to establish a moratorium on city-granted school charter...