Interdistrict Diversity Choice in Milwaukee: When Equity and Market-Based Choice Policies Collide

• In Event: 72.046 - Learning From the Past: How Interdistrict Desegregation Policies Can Inform School Choice and Improvement Policies Today

Abstract

Objectives and Perspective
This paper presents a case study of the Chapter 220 program, which is an inter-district diversity-based choice program that has been operating for nearly 40 years in Milwaukee, a city that is more well-known for its relatively more recent adoption of market-based reforms such as vouchers (enacted in 1990) and charter schools (in 1993).

The Chapter 220 program was the result of a settlement agreement that emerged from a suit filed by civil rights attorneys against 24 suburban school districts, charging that families of color in Milwaukee faced wide-spread housing, banking, and insurance discrimination in the suburbs, preventing them from accessing more well-resourced and higher performing suburban schools. The settlement agreement, forged in 1976, resulted in some fair housing reforms, as well as the Chapter 220 program, which provided students of color residing in the Milwaukee Public School District the opportunity to transfer, with transportation, into suburban school districts, and white students the opportunity to transfer into the Milwaukee Public Schools. Over the years, the Chapter 220 program has served tens of thousands of Milwaukee area students.

This paper explores the inception and history of the Chapter 220 inter-district choice program. The paper examines the context for the program’s emergence, and the extent to which it achieved its policy goals.

Perspectives
The analysis draws upon Oakes, Welner, Yonezawa and Allen’s (2005) theory of implementation of equity-minded change. This theory calls upon researchers, in understanding the implementation of equity-minded reform, to examine the technical aspects of reforms (the content, structure, and resource allocation involved) as well as the broader normative beliefs supporting those policies, and the political dynamics undergirding-or undermining them.

Methods & Modes of Inquiry
This paper employs qualitative case study methodology. The case study draws on nine interviews with civil rights attorneys, superintendents from urban and suburban school districts, program graduates, and program administrators. These data were triangulated with reports, newspaper stories, and program documents.

Results & Significance of the Study
We found that the Chapter 220 program lacked the policy strength and political capital to make a significant impact upon the problems it was designed to address. The fair housing measures were weak and short lived, and as a result little integration occurred in the most exclusive suburbs. In addition, the Chapter 220 student choice program was largely dependent upon the consent and co-operation of suburban districts to open seats for urban students: while many districts were committed to the program, the districts slowly began reducing available seats to student transfers, as a market (and not race-based) open enrollment became more financially lucrative.

As a result of these challenges, the Chapter 220 program has made small inroads into the systemic problems--specifically, the patterns of housing and school segregation-- that motivated its existence. This paper therefore points to the need for educational policymakers to consider the original vision of reform proposed by Chapter 220 plaintiffs in the 1970s: multi-pronged policy efforts inclusive of housing, education, and employment to develop urban communities, and integrate suburban communities.

Author

• Jennifer Jellison Holme, The University of Texas - Austin