Judge Rules MPS Must Bring Police Officers Into Schools
District has less than a month to act.
Charles Edward Miller (CC-BY-SA)
Milwaukee Public Schools must return police officers to schools by Feb. 17.
The ruling, by Judge David L. Borowski, places urgency on the need for the city and school district to figure out financially how costs will be shared to station 25 school resource officers in MPS buildings.
The requirement is part of Act 12, the 2023 local government funding law that provided the city a sales tax and other communities a shared revenue increase. As part of the agreement, MPS was required to have 25 school resource officers in schools by Jan. 1, 2024.
With no public action on the measure, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) sued the district in October on behalf of parent Charlene Abughrin. The conservative law firm requested a writ of mandamus to force MPS to comply with the law.
Borowski, a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge, ruled in WILL’s favor Thursday.
MPS must return the officers by Feb. 17 or present an argument on why it has not been able to do so during a hearing that same day.
“This is a massive triumph for parents and kids who want to go to school in a safe environment. Without this ruling, MPS would have simply continued to ignore the law and parents like our client would have been left with no options,” said WILL associate counsel Lauren Greuel in a statement.
“I am grateful to WILL for bringing this lawsuit. I will sleep better knowing that my child, and others, will be protected once MPS begins to comply with the law,” said Abughrin.
MPS had sought to dismiss the suit.
The district previously said it was waiting for the city to provide the officers. Mayor Cavalier Johnson, earlier this month, said it’s up to MPS to fund the majority of the cost.
He suggested returning to the 5/6 cost-sharing agreement in place before the MPS board terminated the agreement in 2020.
“Usually when you go to a restaurant and order a meal, the chef doesn’t prepare your meal and then pay the bill,” said Johnson during a Jan 7. crime stats briefing. “That’s essentially what we’re being asked to do and I think that’s wrong for taxpayers of the city.”
MPS, said the mayor, should pay five-sixths of the cost to cover the days when school is in session. The city would pick up the remaining sixth to cover the summer.
“As it has all along, Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) remains ready to implement a School Resource Officer (SRO) program as soon as officers are made available by the City of Milwaukee. The Court’s decision today ordering the City of Milwaukee to participate in the implementation of the SRO program at MPS is a recognition that the City plays an integral role in implementation of the SRO program. MPS remains committed to working collaboratively with the City to build a sustainable SRO program,” said the district in a statement.
At an unrelated event Thursday afternoon, Governor Tony Evers endorsed MPS complying with the ruling and Act 12. “Way too long, way too long. It should have been done. I mean, the law is a law,” said Evers. He said the city needs to have ‘skin in the game’ as well because it negotiated Act 12. “All I can say is that the school district has a decent argument that they weren’t really part of that conversation. The other two – the Republicans and the city – were. So somehow there has to be some recognition that the city may need to pony up the money.”
Act 12 provided the city with a 2% sales tax and Milwaukee County with an additional 0.4% sales tax, but MPS did not directly receive increased funding as part of the bipartisan law. It was, however, required by the law to reinstate the SRO program. Buried in Act 12, which triggered the soft closure of the city’s pension system used by MPS administrative employees, is a provision that the city use some of its sales tax proceeds to pay for the growth of MPS’ underfunded employee pensions triggered by a reduction in the assumed rate of return. A report from the City of Milwaukee Employes Retirement System says that provision provides MPS with $4.7 million in 2025.
Republican legislative leaders had expressed frustration with the lack of action by MPS, however, Act 12 did not include a specific penalty for failing to comply.
As Urban Milwaukee education reporter Terry Falk previously reported, based on a review of a similar Chicago program, the actual impact of having officers stationed in schools is mixed.
UPDATE: This article has been updated with comments from MPS and the governor.
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