Milwaukee fights back against school takeovers with “walk-ins” at more than 100 public schools
Thousands of parents, educators, students and community leaders held “walk-ins” at more than 100 public schools across the city of Milwaukee.
Supporters of Byron Kilbourn Elementary School in Milwaukee participate in the Walk In for Public Education on Friday, a districtwide response to a law allowing politicians to take over neighborhood public schools and hand them over to unaccountable voucher or privately run charter schools without input from parents or citizens. Photo courtesy of the MTEA.
Thousands of parents, educators, students and community leaders held “walk-ins” at more than 100 public schools across the city of Milwaukee to celebrate public schools and to share information about how a proposed public school takeover will hurt students and the Milwaukee economy.
The Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association and the Schools and Communities United coalition organized the walk-ins in response to a public school takeover plan that was passed in July as part of the Wisconsin state budget.
The school takeover plan charges Milwaukee county executive Chris Abele with choosing a takeover commissioner this fall. The commissioner would then choose 1-3 schools to convert into privately run charter or voucher schools for the 2016-17 school year. In each subsequent year, up to five schools could be handed over to private operators.
Parents and community members have raised several concerns about the takeover plan, chief among them its disenfranchisement of Milwaukee’s African American and Latino voters and communities. A recent report by the Alliance to Reclaim our Schools shows that nationally, of nearly 50,000 schools whose schools were taken over, 97% were Black and Latino. The report also underscores how takeovers eliminate democratic local control.
NAACP-Milwaukee president Fred Royal said: “We are walking in today at more than 100 schools because our students deserve better. Simply handing our public schools over to a private charter or voucher operator does not guarantee student success. Parents in Milwaukee have a different plan. They want Community Schools – they’ve worked across the country and they can work here. State legislators and the county executive need to focus on creating the supports our children need, instead of attacking our schools and handing them over to unaccountable operators.”
State representative Christine Sinicki, speaking at a walk-in at Fernwood Montessori School, said, “We need to send (County Executive) Chris Abele a message: ‘not one child, not one school, not today, not now, not ever.’”
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.
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Takeover is being kind. This is actually destruction of public schools and removing accountability to the voters that pay for education. It is the rape and pillage strategy of the GOP and ALEC with laws written by corporate attorneys for corporate benefit and looting of taxpayer funds.