MTEA President Ingrid Walker Henry: Statement on Passage of MPS Referendum

MILWAUKEE – MTEA President Ingrid Walker-Henry issued the following statement on the passage of the MPS referendum:

“On behalf of the Vote Yes for MPS Committee, supporting organizations and leaders, volunteers and the 5,500 members of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education, I am proud to announce to the people of Milwaukee that we have Voted YES for MPS. Milwaukee sent a message today: we will do what it takes so that the children of our city have access to public schools with equitable opportunities. That MPS students deserve access to certified art, music, and physical education teachers and school libraries and librarians. That we will have competitive salaries that retain the best teachers, paraprofessionals and critical staff for our students. That students deserve tech and career readiness programs that increase their chances at future success. Milwaukee voted “Yes” because we know our children are worth it.

“And Milwaukee overcame what is now clearly more than half a million dollars of misleading attack ads from right wing business interests, most of whom do not live in Milwaukee. Milwaukee will not forget who tried to harm our children and their public schools in this election. Former Brookfield Republican State Senator Dale Kooyenga, now head of the MMAC, led the effort to force $200 million in cuts for Milwaukee children. We call on the Milwaukee business community to think about whether the extremist and largely suburban MMAC is an organization they want to be associated with.

“The City Forward Collective, the private school lobby with designs on total school privatization also spent big money on the effort to force huge cuts to MPS schools. City Forward’s Director Colleston Morgan has planned how to destroy our public schools for years. City Forward inundated Milwaukee voters with misleading messages with the goal of eliminating public education. Milwaukee protected our children from City Forward’s attacks.

“Milwaukee has shown time and again that we support a well-funded system of public schools that serves every child regardless of their needs. Public schools are accountable to the public via an elected school board. Public school budgets are transparent, debated and passed in the public eye. These things are not true of the private voucher and private charter schools that take huge sums of money from taxpayers – and from MPS students – with little transparency and little accountability.

“The work of providing our students with the public schools they deserve is not over. The State of Wisconsin has purposefully neglected our public schools for decades. I invite the people of Milwaukee to join us as we once again demand the state release the budget surplus and fix the wrongs of the past two decades so that we live up to the promise of the Wisconsin Constitution that every Wisconsin child will have an equitable, adequately funded public school to attend.

“We stand in solidarity with the people of Milwaukee for once again standing up for our students and the public schools they deserve.

“I would also like to thank the many community leaders and organizations who supported the referendum. Congresswoman Gwen Moore, former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, Mayor Cavalier Johnson, County Executive David Crowley, Attorney General Josh Kaul, Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski as well as numerous state legislators, Milwaukee Common Council members, County Board members, candidates and community supporters. And thank you to outstanding community organizations like Leaders Igniting Transformation, Black Leaders Organizing Communities, Voces de la Frontera and so many others for your efforts throughout this campaign to protect our students from devastating cuts.”

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.