Well then why haven't I seen you at the meetings?

by folkbum

Gwen Moore, Wisconsin's Huggiest Politician^TM, has a Democratic primary opponent, apparently. This stuck out to me (my emphasis):

As an example, Morel cited Rep. Moore’s belief in simply throwing more money into education, instead of trying something different. Morel noted Rep. Moore is fond of saying, “no child left a dime” when referring to how to best address the issue of education, and he added that when it comes to education there are proven ideas on how to fix what ails under-performing school districts--such as Milwaukee Public Schools--there are ideas that have worked elsewhere.

So where has Paul Morel been with all his good ideas for fixing MPS? Is he teaching somewhere? Running for school board? Going to the meetings and offering suggestions? And which "elsewhere" districts is he talking about, with their low-cost urban-education miracles, so that we can learn from them and emulate them?

I appreciate that Morel sends his kids to MPS (I assume that's what "[m]y kids attend public schools in the area" means). But does he think people like me, who work diligently inside the system and advocate for students, are just too dumb to notice all those "elsewhere" districts? Does he think the people tasked with running and overseeing the district just sit around sucking their thumbs instead of trying day in and day out to make a difference in kids' lives?

I get very tired very quickly of people who stand outside of MPS and off-handedly insist there's a simple or inexpensive fix and duh stupid us for not figuring it out. I mean, even Morel's "Education" page at his website offers a condescending call to "shift all funding to a limited set of PROVEN programs that WORK" (his italics this time) without a single specific PROVEN program mentioned.

Gwen Moore isn't a Congressional superstar like the retiring Dave Obey or--sadly--Lyin' Paul Ryan. But she understands growing up poor and minority and what it takes to overcome the challenges my students face every day. If Paul Morel really has a better answer, he needs to chip in rather than just lob shots from outside.