Public School Educators and their Unions Join Milwaukee Common Council Members in Condemning State Revenue Deal
Agreement Shortchanges Public Schools While Giving Windfall to Private Voucher Schools
MILWAUKEE – Last week, Governor Tony Evers and state Republican leaders announced that they had struck a deal concerning shared revenue, education funding, and multiple attacks on Milwaukee. The Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association (MTEA) and the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) strongly oppose the package of bills and join with elected officials and stakeholders in voicing our displeasure with the deal.
“MTEA applauds the members of the Milwaukee Common Council – Alders Coggs, Chambers, Pratt, Rainey, Stamper, Taylor and Westmoreland – for calling this plan exactly what it is – racism,” said MTEA President Amy Mizialko. “Milwaukee is the largest population center in the state for people of color and has historically been the target of Republican attacks. While we expect this of Republicans, what we don’t understand is why the governor, Mayor Cavalier Johnson and County Executive David Crowley are celebrating this deal while lamenting the items they did not want in it. MTEA members expect that more elected officials who consider themselves progressive should join us in fighting for a better deal for Milwaukee.”
This weekend, the Executive Board of the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) voted unanimously to oppose the deal Evers struck with Republican leaders. WEAC President Peggy Wirtz-Olsen released a statement that included: “Wisconsin is sitting on $7 billion budget surplus and this so-called funding compromise only compromises our students. A child graduating from a public school this month has never seen a state funding increase that has kept up with inflation. Governor Evers, WEAC calls on you to veto these proposals when they come to your desk.”
Wisconsin Public Education Network Executive Director Heather DuBois Bourenane joined union leaders in opposition to the deal.
“Wisconsin kids’ needs are clear, and they shouldn’t be subject to negotiation – especially not for a ‘compromise’ that provides massive expansion of public spending on unaccountable private schools that can legally discriminate against and pick and choose their students, but doesn’t even provide an inflationary increase to students in the deeply under-resourced public schools most kids attend,” DuBois Bourenane said. “We know it will take at least $1510 per student just to keep up with inflation in the next biennium, and we know we need to use our surplus to end funding discrimination for kids with disabilities by restoring our reimbursement rate to at least 60%. Anything less just compromises our kids and our values. We can and must do better, and we can and must hold ourselves and our elected officials responsible for meeting the needs of our children.”
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
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