Alan J. Borsuk

Alan J. Borsuk connects day-to-day realities in schools with the policy and political decisions that drive them, writing in-depth analysis of K-12 education for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and as a senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette University Law School. His work concentrates on Milwaukee Public Schools, school choice, literacy, and teacher pipelines, using long-range perspective and detailed reporting to explain how reforms unfold and why they stall. He draws on decades of experience as a reporter and editor on education and public policy, and now splits his efforts between newspaper columns and institutional commentary on law and public policy.

Reading crisis and stalled reforms

Borsuk’s recent education coverage treats literacy as a central measure of whether the system is working, and he returns to reading outcomes as a recurring test of policy seriousness. In his work on the reading crisis and on literacy initiatives highlighted by regional education organizations, he lays out how low reading proficiency, especially in early grades, undermines later achievement and fuels concern about long-term prospects for students.

He focuses on whether proposed solutions match the scale of the problem, explaining how task forces, legislative efforts, and district plans collide with political infighting and institutional caution.

His stories emphasize concrete consequences - students who cannot read at grade level, schools struggling to improve instruction, and leaders under pressure to act - while maintaining a measured, analytical tone rather than advocacy. Across these pieces he frames literacy not as a single program choice, but as a system-wide test of leadership, accountability, and follow-through.

Milwaukee Public Schools under sustained scrutiny

Borsuk devotes significant attention to the condition of Milwaukee Public Schools, often organizing his analysis into structured, multi-point breakdowns of the district’s problems and possible paths forward. In a column outlining “11 reasons to worry about the state of MPS,” he dissects issues such as enrollment declines, budget shortfalls, academic results, and governance strain, presenting them as interconnected rather than isolated problems.

In another widely circulated column on the district’s challenges, he argues that financial rescue alone will not fix deep-seated issues and calls for bold leadership, clearer direction, and willingness to make difficult decisions.

Earlier reporting on discipline, including a detailed look at calls to “suspend fewer” students in response to criticism of school discipline practices, shows his willingness to engage with uncomfortable data and policy critiques while noting how officials respond and what change they promise. Taken together, his MPS coverage functions as a running diagnosis of a large urban district, tracking how crises accumulate and how leaders respond - or fail to respond - over time.

Teacher pipelines, Teach for America, and accountability

Teacher quality and supply are another thread running through Borsuk’s work, from local coverage of Teach for America to national-facing commentary on teacher placement and evaluation. In his piece on how Teach for America is changing its profile in Milwaukee and nationally, he examines shifts in where and how the organization operates, what kinds of roles its corps members play, and how those changes intersect with local needs and debates about teacher preparation.

His bylines for a national education outlet include articles on improving teachers by strengthening principals, efforts to steer strong teachers to weaker schools, and how states handle waves of teacher accountability reform, indicating a sustained interest in how policy intends to move talent into the classrooms that need it most.

Across these stories he tends to focus less on personalities and more on structures: hiring pipelines, distribution of effective teachers, the design of accountability systems, and how those systems affect both classroom practice and school leadership. He often places Milwaukee developments in a broader context, noting when local changes reflect national trends in accountability, teacher evaluation, and alternative pathways into teaching.

School choice, vouchers, and sector-wide comparisons

Borsuk is closely associated with long-form reporting and analysis on school choice and voucher programs, particularly in and around Milwaukee. He was a central reporter for an extensive Journal Sentinel series on “Inside School Choice: Fifteen Years of Vouchers,” which involved visits to more than one hundred schools to examine how private voucher schools function in practice, what they offer families, and how they are overseen.

That series, and subsequent references to it in policy reports, show his willingness to invest in multi-part projects that test political claims about vouchers against on-the-ground reporting. In later commentary reflecting on vouchers decades after their introduction, he assesses how the program has evolved, how it affects the landscape of public, charter, and private schools, and what questions remain unresolved about equity, accountability, and student outcomes. His school choice coverage often compares sectors - district, charter, and voucher schools - highlighting not only competition for students and funding but also differing expectations, transparency requirements, and performance.

This body of work gives his current writing on education policy a long memory, allowing him to show how today’s debates over choice and vouchers sit on top of thirty years of experimentation and conflict.

Public policy lens on education

Alongside his newspaper work, Borsuk serves as a senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette University Law School, where he writes about public policy issues and contributes to institutional publications. His role there reinforces the way he approaches education as a policy field that intersects with law, governance, and civic life, not just as a collection of school stories. He regularly participates in law school programming and commentary on public policy, and that platform allows him to bring legal and civic perspectives back into his writing on K-12 systems, accountability, and reform.

The combination of long-form newspaper analysis, historical coverage of vouchers and school choice, and an ongoing policy role distinguishes his education coverage from more routine beat reporting focused solely on daily events.