John Parr, Developer of TPPs in Milwaukee and across the U.S.
2620 West North Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53210

Phone: 414-270-7587
Mobile phone: 414-550-1156
Fax: 414-270-7584
Email: johnparr@wi.rr.com

Milwaukee Public School District (MPS) has approved eight instrumentality chartered schools with the understanding that eight respective teacher cooperatives would manage the learning program and administration of each. The teacher cooperatives are delegated the authority to manage, or arrange for the management of, the schools via a memorandum of understanding with the union and MPS that provides waivers from the master contract. Districts transfer funds for the operation of the school directly to the school.

In Milwaukee, formal workers’ cooperatives are arranged to create a state-of-mind about the collective way in which teachers work within them to manage schools. Since the teachers do not manage any funds for the TPP itself, teachers do not have the capacity to receive patronage dividends from surpluses. Consequently, there is little financial or operational management of the cooperatives themselves (as there is in California and Minnesota).

The teachers in each cooperative collectively accept the authority and responsibility for the success of the school while remaining employees of MPS (under the district’s master contract) and dues-paying members of the teachers’ union. Essentially the teachers are 'leased' by the school from the district. The district hires and fires; the school, the cooperative, selects and (if necessary) de-selects. And the union sees its members get the professional roles they have not been able to win through negotiation or through legislation.

The waivers require that all cooperatives meet a few specific requirements in their administration of the schools and management of the learning programs, but also allow for flexibility in the methods the cooperatives use to meet most of the requirements. Teacher cooperatives decide, for example, all curriculum and budget decisions. Each cooperative also determines whether to have committees (which may involve parents and people from the community) to make decisions about budget allocations and curriculum or if such decisions should be made by the full membership of the cooperative. So in some ways the cooperatives operate similarly, but in other ways they are different.

There are two formally established teacher cooperatives serving two respective schools in Milwaukee. Each cooperative shares the name of the school it serves. There are six teacher professional practices operating informally as cooperatives, serving six respective schools. They plan to apply for formal status. Four new cooperatives and schools are being organized to open in fall 2007. See the 2006 TPP Inventory (see pages 20-36) for details about the legal structure, membership, governance, and management practices used in the Milwaukee teacher cooperatives. Also, the inventory provides school site statistics and describes commonalities and differences between cooperatives that manage them.

Teachers and others who want to start teacher cooperatives based on the Milwaukee model in Milwaukee, or to create similar arrangements in other areas of the country, might wish to contact John Parr. A former consultant who worked with labor unions, Parr and his daughter Cris Parr (a teacher-cooperative member and union rep in Milwaukee) are founders of the original cooperative serving I.D.E.A.L. Charter School and have been instrumental in establishing others in Milwaukee. John Parr is also working with cities, unions, districts, administrators, and teachers around the nation as they consider establishing similar arrangements.