Public School Educators and their Unions Join Milwaukee Common Council Members in Condemning State Revenue Deal

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.

On Friday, seven members of the Milwaukee Common Council accurately decried measures in the deal as racist. The alders said the Evers/GOP deal attempts to roll back locally approved initiatives to improve the lives of Black residents, citing measures in the deal that strip away local control of fire and police policy, prohibit local diversity, equity and inclusivity programs and dictate how Milwaukee can spend its revenue.

“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.”

MTEA President Amy Mizialko said, “We are grateful that our fellow public school union leaders from across the state stood with us to unanimously oppose this bad deal,” said Mizialko. “Milwaukee deserves the ability to implement a sales tax, and municipalities across the state deserve additional shared revenue, but not in exchange for a Republican wish list of attacks on our public schools and local decision-making authority. “We call on Wisconsin Legislative Democrats to vote against these bills and we demand that Governor Tony Evers veto these bills if they get to his 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. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.