There’s so much talk about innovation in Whitewater, but an example of it will be found in an old institution, not a new building. It’s not a center, but a school district, that holds innovative promise for our city.

Here’s why:

A Solid Record. Looking at the last two years, one sees quickly that the school district has done better than Whitewater’s city manager’s big-ticket approach. I’ve noted before that the last two years

…have been, overall, very good ones for Whitewater’s public schools: a renewed interest in the curriculum, including the creative option of a charter school, the preservation via agreement of workers’ bargaining rights for another two years, the cancellation of an expensive plan to go to referendum, and significant budget cuts that saved hundreds of thousands while still preserving key services.

Whitewater had a fine administrator in Suzanne Zentner, and has a fine successor in Eric Runez. See, Zentner and Afterward and The Whitewater Schools’ Next Administrator: A Wise and Sound Choice.

(I received a note recently from someone defending the record of Dr. Steinhaus, but have yet to reply to it directly. I’m sure it’s genuine, but it’s the only one anyone has ever sent. A brief reply, now, would be to observe that there was nothing in her dull and referendum-soaked years that was half as accomplished as in the last two.)

There’s no big-ticket project that has been as beneficial to the city as recent district accomplishments. Among them, Whitewater’s new charter school. It’s nearly impossible to imagine that school developing here several years earlier. It didn’t come about through a commitment to conventionality, but by those who crafted something different.

(Even some of the biggest defenders of status-quo politics have come to embrace the idea. About that school, see Kevin Hoffman’s Whitewater charter school offers different atmosphere.)

How the District Can Lead the City (more easily than the city can lead the district). There’s much that can be done in city government, but advances in the district will become known even faster than necessary changes to municipal policy — it’s simply faster to implement curriculum and policy changes in a school district. Word spreads rapidly.

One of the repeated justifications for municipal zoning restrictions in the Starin Park neighborhood has been the possibility of attracting young families to Whitewater, and thereby boosting school enrollment. It’s a dubious policy, as restricting sales in the market will boost prices at the expense of new buyers (it will cause a decline in values overall even later on, but that’s not what restriction-loving homeowners either want or understand will happen).

The theory’s backwards, anyway — it’s not the city that can quickly boost the district, it’s the district that can more quickly boost the city. An attractive school system will become known farther and faster than many municipal changes.

(That’s not to say that municipal changes aren’t important – for the long-term health of the city, to prevent stagnation and a permanent underclass, those reforms are critical. It’s just that municipal reform is a longer slog than gains in district achievement and attractiveness. Of course, if municipal reform does not take place, district accomplishments will be overshadowed, and vitiated. A city’s reform is a bigger task, and those who undertake it are admirable.)

That’s why the last two years have been good for the district, and will likely continue to be good — a charter school is only part of a broader discussion about competitiveness and twenty-first century achievement. You know, and I know, too — that there’s more than one dull person, or dull teacher, or dull administrator, who’d like the teaching of the same tired lessons year in, year out, forever. It’s easier on adults that way — they have less to do. It’s simultaneously harder on students, and Whitewater’s next generation. American is a dynamic place, and if Whitewater will not try to adjust, adapt, and change — each day — she’ll fall behind places that will do so.

I have no doubt that this focus on competitiveness seemed brusque, demanding to sticks-in-the-mud, but it’s just what Whitewater, and America, need now. It’s not new to us, either: other generations have been genuinely innovative, with far fewer resources than we have now. They were creative because they were ambitious not merely for themselves, but for their society’s enrichment. They were scornful of sloth and indolence because they were energetic, and knew others could be, too. They rejected sham awards in favor of real gains.

More than two years ago, after nearly seven years of stagnation and relative decline, Whitewater’s schools had a dimmer future than they do today. These are difficult times for Wisconsin, with more class warfare than our community ever deserved, but still our schools have managed better than others, and better than one might have hoped. We have come through a hard time — with other hard times yet ahead — in better educational shape than we would have been without a competitive, dedicated focus.

We have every reason to believe that we can continue to do well.