MILWAUKEE – It’s pretty safe to assume that most parents would prefer to send their children to schools within close range of their homes, for obvious reasons.

They can drop their kids off in the morning without driving far, and school district bus transportation is often available.

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But a growing percentage of parents are opting for more distant schools, for equally obvious reasons. Neighborhood schools may be nice, but they draw the line when it comes to quality education.

Milwaukee is a perfect example.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel education columnist Alan Borsuk recently asked a Milwaukee Public Schools spokeswoman a question: “What percent of kindergarten through eighth-grade students across the city go to the school in the ‘attendance area’ where they live?”

The answer was a stunning 17 to 18 percent.

“We recognize that Milwaukee is a competitive, choice-driven environment,” the MPS spokeswoman told Borsuk. “Our interactions with families suggest that families still want those choices.”

There’s a reason parents demand school choice in Milwaukee. Many schools in the MPS system have gained a reputation for poor academics and safety issues.

On last year’s Badger Exam, 51 percent of students statewide demonstrated proficiency in reading and 41 percent in math. At MPS, 27 percent were proficient in reading and 17 percent in math.

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In most of the 55 troubled MPS schools that are candidates for state-imposed outside management under the Opportunity Schools and Partnership Program, the number of students proficient in reading or math is lower than 10.

Then there’s the safety factor.

“As of May 25th, there have been more than 31,000 referrals issued in Milwaukee Public Schools this year for fighting or violent or aggressive behavior toward classmates or staff members—an average of more than 172 per day,” said a report from News Talk 1130, published in the spring.

Families have reacted by embracing school choice. They’re not just rejecting neighborhood schools – they’re leaving MPS altogether, and enrolling their kids in public charter schools not affiliated with the school district, or private schools that accept state vouchers through the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program.

In a column published last year, Borsuk noted that only 56 percent of Milwaukee K-12 students are attending MPS schools, or charter schools authorized by MPS and staffed with district employees.

MPS’ polite recognition that parents prefer choice is a relatively new phenomenon. MPS officials and public school apologists didn’t choose to accept choice.

The public school establishment has a long history of opposing state laws that created the private school voucher program and allowed the development of independent charter schools.

They liked the old system, because it kept kids neatly trapped in MPS schools, regardless of their quality, and kept state funding, which varies based on enrollment, flowing into the district. That, of course, guaranteed financial stability for the district and employment stability for staff.

While they now grudgingly acknowledge that school choice is permanent due to popular demand, public school apologists have maintained their efforts to discredit competitors at every opportunity.

Instead of focusing exclusively on their own issues, and letting parents observe and make their own choices, they never miss a chance to trumpet the news when competitors – particularly private voucher schools – fare poorly on state tests.

Meanwhile, MPS and its supporters in city government have stubbornly refused to sell their surplus school buildings – which were vacated due to student flight – to private schools in the choice program, even those with strong academic records.

They know classroom space is the city is hard to find, and they want to stunt the growth in the voucher school sector – even if that means limiting parental choice

The state finally dealt with that problem last year when it passed a law forcing MPS and the city to sell surplus buildings to private voucher schools.

MPS will always have an automatic advantage over its private and charter school competitors, because it can offer residents many schools within a stone’s throw of their homes.

When a high percentage of families reject that benefit and choose distant schools that are more difficult to access, the message should be clear to MPS officials:

Offer strong instructional programs in a safe environment, and they will come. Continue to fail in those respects, and they won’t.