Topczewski said the campaign was financed through school fees and a fund-raiser, not from church collections. The effort's emphasis, he said, was not on competing directly with public schools. Jim Rahn, elementary school coordinator for the Wisconsin Lutheran High School Conference, said changing demographics have pushed the group's 37 primary schools to think differently. Until recently, he said, most of the schools could fill their classrooms with congregation members' children. At MPS, the promotional campaign is, in part, a matter of money.
State law limits the district's revenue according to the number of students it has.
So MPS wants more students. The push to promote schools will continue. And Don Hoffman, an MPS official and former Channel 58 reporter who hosts the 30-minute TV show, is working on videos promoting individual schools. MPS and Channel 12 are also discussing plans for a TV series on education issues. Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Jan. 29, 2001.