“*The blind truth is, most of the state hates Milwaukee. There’s a lot of racism, and the thought is that money is being wasted in Milwaukee.*”
– Jack Norman, research director for the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future

A group of students hosted an informal discussion on how funding is affecting the Milwaukee Public School system at People’s Books Co-op Tuesday night, focusing on how to boost state funding for a system in dire need of additional cash.

Jack Norman, research director for the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future, is well aware of the lack of funding and has spent time looking at ways to increase the budget for MPS schools.

“The budget for MPS schools is $1.2 billion and is basically starving for money,” Norman said.

Not only is MPS starving for money, but it’s also under-funded by around $200-300 million, according to Norman. The problem with this is the school district’s revenue limit has not changed in over 15 years.

“On average the revenue limit has allowed schools to spend 2.5 percent more each year. The problem is that’s simply not enough,” Norman said. “If MPS wanted to simply maintain its programming it would have to increase its spending closer to 4.5 percent.”

Norman looked at the budget crisis issue in two ways. First, he commented that there is a need to realize that the MPS school board has no power over the money.

“In Wisconsin all the rules for school funding are set by the state,” he said. “The local school board has virtually no latitude on the rules.”

In order for MPS to be able to change the revenue limit, there needs to be a change in the state funding decisions in Madison where the real audience is the state legislature and the governor.

This brings about a whole new set of issues Milwaukee needs to overcome.

“The blind truth is, most of the state hates Milwaukee,” he said. “There’s a lot of racism, and the thought is that money is being wasted in Milwaukee, so there’s very little chance Milwaukee, by itself, can go to Madison.”

For Milwaukee to even have a chance in Madison, MPS needs to join forces with other school districts, according to Norman.

“There has to be a coordinated move by a state-wide, powerful coalition of public school districts to change the laws in Madison,” he said.

Norman then looked at second way of solving the budget crisis: by raising taxes. He believes that the tax system, as it is currently, is old fashioned with a lot of holes.

“If we close the holes, we can use that revenue to fund public schools and adjust the tax system so it’s fair,” he said.

Teachers gave an inside look at how the lack of money funded is affecting the children attending MPS.

Damita Olsley, a special education teacher at Riverside High School, is concerned with the growing needs of special education students.

“With the special ed. population increasing, more money is going to be needed to service special education students,” she said. “This is where the funding is really starting to affect us.”

The lack of money is not only affecting the needs of special education students, but of all students in general as well.

“Classes are much larger, and the choices for classes people can take are much lower,” Norman said. “We need to get class sizes down and hire additional staff.”

Bama Brown-Grice, an educator at MPS, ended the discussion by laying out the fact that if schools districts don’t work together to solve the funding problem, then the problem will just grow to districts outside of Milwaukee.

“If they cannot educate Milwaukee, then Racine, Brown Deer and Mequon, they better watch out,” Brown-Grice said. “The children will be reading at a sixth-grade level in eighth grade, and you are going to have to be made to educate them.”

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