As a member of the Madison School Board and chair of the Finance and Operations Committee, I would like to get your ideas and perspectives regarding “alternative revenue streams” for the MMSD. The parameters would be: not to target students, No alcohol & drugs (e.g. bars), promotion of good health (e.g. no soft drinks), nothing morally questionable (use your imagination). Here are some areas identified:
Sponsorships: Adopt a school or program, Extracurricular programs, MMSD TV
Advertising: Limited toward adults, not children – e.g. website, District-owned vehicles, signs on stadiums, fields in athletic arenas (outside of school building).
Naming rights: To new schools, facilities, and rooms. Patterned after U.W. and City of Madison model.
Exclusive rights: “Company A is the exclusive vendor of (pencils) in exchange for $75,000 donation to Foundation.” Patterned after U.W. and City of Madison model.
Cell Tower/Antennas: On school facilities or parking areas. Done in many school districts including Milwaukee. Cell phone companies would rent space. Could bring in over $1000/month per company per site.
What do you think? Do you have any ideas? Thank you in advance for sharing your perspective. Remember the parameters…
How about re-applying for the $2 million in reading funds the superintendent returned to the federal government?
Ed (and anyone else who may know the answer)- Is it true that the educational resource group that sponsored the research that ultimately led to the above-mentioned Reading Program (is this “Reading First”?) has since been involved in some scandal and had it’s federal funding revoked? I seem to recall hearing an administrator say this at some point in time this past year…which might obviate reapplying for the funds!
David,
I don’t know anything about a scandal.
The research remains strong for the underlying principles of Reading First, so the funds are still worth pursuing.
I’ll provide a more detailed response in a separate post in the next couple of days.
The whole Reading First program is under investigation by the federal government’s Inspector General because of complaints that those charged to oversee the implementation were steering districts to assessments and commercial reading programs which they had a financial connection to. Further, there have been charges that the program’s implementation has not adhered to the scientific principles outlined in the actual law.
The Madison district’s experience is similar to many of the districts who filed the original complaints. It is well to remember that the grant money was, ultimately, tied to purchasing certain commercial programs and using these programs exclusively in the five schools which were part of the grant. The data on the district’s approach (Balanced Literacy) showed better results than the data from any of the designated commercial programs.
Carol,
Thank you so much for your post. I always appreciate your perspective, and I hope that your posts give all blog readers a better understanding of decison making by the board and administration.
A vast amount of research does not support your contention, and problems with the administration of Reading First do not change the research findings. (In a separate post, I’ll provide links to various research sites and summaries on what works and doesn’t work in reading instruction.)
Could you please post the referenced data that show the district does better with so-called balanced literacy than programs that meet Reading First criteria?
I believe that the district doesn’t have that data, because the district only collects data on balanced literacy and Reading Recovery, its preferred reading approaches. For instance, it does not collect and analyze data on Reading Mastery, a less expensive and more effective curriculum which my wife and other teachers use at Lapham. I’d be delighted if I’m wrong on the district’s data and you can provide a data comparison on balanced literacy versuses Reading Mastery in the MMSD.
To refer to the administrative problems now as a reason that the superintendent turned down the $2 million doesn’t seem relevant, since any such problem wasn’t mentioned as a reason in the superintendent’s explaination of his action in the fall of 2004. (His memo posted elsewhere on this site.)
As to the use of “designated commercial programs,” the district spends tens of thousands of dollars each year for materials and training for Reading Recovery, a trade-marked commercial reading program that requires use of certain prescribed materials.
While we’re talking about reading, what does the MMSD offer non-reader 10th graders at West and other high schools? So far, only vaguely described assistance during lunch awaits non-readers in West’s English Curriculum Reduction Program. (As you know from some of my earlier posts, 20% of West’s 10th graders cannot read at grade level.)
Finally, Carol, I asked you weeks ago to ask staff to send me an electronic copy of the MMSD’s reading intervention manual. You have not responded to say whether you will or won’t ask.
Prior to asking you, I asked Johnny Winston to ask staff to send me an electronic copy of the manual. He flat out refused saying, “I don’t want to debate the [reading] issue.”
I hope that you want to debate the reading issue and provide the data and documents I request above. However, we should probably continue this conversion in a separate thread of posts.
Thanks again, Carol.
I like Johnny’s way of thinking. Progressive and out of the box.
I heard Tom Barrett, mayor of Milwaukee, speaking of a system in Ireland, that he has written about, where there is one teacher union for the country and the savings it provides for Ireland. Our country is huge, but it made me think of our state. What if we had one teacher union for the state of Wisconsin that could provide a medical contract at a cheaper rate for all teachers, an increase wage of a certain percent of all Wisconsin teachers. Would that reduce the cost per district? (I ask with no experience or knowledge of unions as all my employment experiences have been non-union, paid or fired per your production.) Therefore this may insult or inflame strong union supporters which is not my point but just a thought outside the box. Also this may be beyond Johnny’s ability as a local board member but I thought it was worth discusiion
**What about an Epic school of technology.
**UW school of educational research.
**Thailand immersion, (cooperation with the country that gave Madison a garden)
**My previous school district had many charters that required parents provide transportation and they were very popular
**Frosti-ball would have more appeal to me if the benefits were for education or poor, what about a huge educational benefit, this author would be happy to help organize such an event.
**1/2 cent city tax increase designated for MMSD
**increase student parking fee. I live next to Memorial and many of my neighbor’s children drive to school, mine walk and bike!
** A huge PROTEST on the State Capitol to stop sending legistaltion about sex, religion, and gun control and start sending legislation about EDUCATION REFORM and funding.