cur-mud-geon:
anyone who hates hypocrisy and pretense and has the temerity to say so; anyone with the habit of pointing out unpleasant facts in an engaging and humorous manner
I attended the meeting held at the Germantown School Administration building on Friday afternoon. The participants included the Presidents of Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC), Moraine Park Technical College (MPTC) and Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) along with their senior staff members. Additionally, Village Board President Kempinski, Village Administrator Schornack, School Board Director Warnimont, County Supervisor Brady and Representative Jeskewitz were in attendance along with other village officials and citizens.
Mr. Kempinski led the way with most of the early questioning and discussion. He queried each of the college presidents on a number of things mainly relating to numbers of Germantown students, courses offered by each college, courses unique to MATC and overall tax rates for the three schools.
The primary point established seemed to be that, without regard to which taxing district we’re placed in, Germantown students have equal access to any of the technical colleges anywhere in the state at identical tuition rates to any other student. Second, there are major programs that are unique to each of the three colleges represented at the meeting. Those include Liberal Arts and Sciences, Health Occupations, Technical and Applied Sciences, and Business and Information Technology programs at MATC, Nanotechnology in the WCTC system and Nuclear Medicine in the MPTC system. Beyond these, there is a general similarity of course offerings based upon the needs expressed by the communities.
Mr. Warnimont followed with what he called “a more direct discussion”, and proceeded to cut to the heart of the matter. He asked MATC President Cole how he would answer the question, “What makes MATC worth as much as some 60% more than WCTC, and nearly 30% more than MPTC to Germantown, when its students can go to any college without any cost differences?” Warnimont indicated that he meant no disrespect, but this is the question he and other elected officials had to answer from their voter constituents.
Mr. Cole appeared hesitant to answer, but finally said, “I don’t think I can give you an answer that will change your mind.”
If we take the hand-outs from this meeting at face value, MATC served a total of 286 students from Germantown in 2006. We send some $5 Million to MATC for a mere cost of $17,400 per student (whether or not they’re enrolled full time, or are simply picking up a course or two that might be of interest) without taking into account the tuition being paid by the students. As a fellow Blogger pointed out a week or so ago, we could be sending these students to a four-year college without spending much, if any, more.
The student enrollment from Germantown has steadily decreased from 1998 to 2006. MATC students from Germantown decreased by nearly 40% over that period; WCTC decreased by a much lower 18% and MPTC by about 20%. I have no way of knowing what has driven that trend. It may be that we’re sending more students to four-year schools; it may be that our high school curricula have improved during the period and thus dampened the need for MATC; it may be that MATC is not as convenient, or it may mean that the curricula from the technical colleges hasn’t kept pace with the needs of the community. More likely it is a combination of these factors.
Finally, MATC has voted to add Superintendent Rossetti to its nine member board. From my perspective, that is both too little too late, and a very thinly veiled attempt to make us think that MATC has “seen the light”. More likely,what MATC has seen is the potential for the loss of significant amounts of funding if Germantown is permitted to secede (move to another taxing district). As an aside, I was also troubled by Mr. Rossetti’s statement of total support for MATC during the meeting that led to the 15-1 vote in his favor earlier in the week.
Apparently Germantown trustees will vote on a resolution sometime within the next month. I am not aware of the School Board’s plans, but hope that it will get a similar vote scheduled for a near-future meeting. It is important that this issue continue to be moved along with all deliberate speed.
