When the notice went out that there would be a facilities planning meeting at Reagan High School a few weeks back, the rumor shot around that the administration was considering closing Reagan and that people should pack the meeting to protest such a move. In reality, facilities planning meetings were being held all over the school district, including most high schools, to figure out the direction for the entire district. Milwaukee has more school buildings than what it needs, and we need to close some of our oldest buildings, but that does not mean Reagan is on the chopping block.
When the school year began this fall, school officials at both Rufus King and Riverside high schools discovered that each school was about a hundred students short. When they contacted the missing students, they discovered that many of them had elected to attend suburban and private high schools after hearing the dire predictions of overcrowded classrooms and cancelled programs.
Make no mistake about it, both schools took a financial hit, but the death of either school was wildly exaggerated. Both schools had to dig deeply into their waiting lists to fill up their student ranks this fall. Fortunately both schools report that recent orientation sessions for prospective students and parents were once again filled, and both schools will have little trouble filling their school with new students next school year.
Those of us who have warned the public that school funding cuts could have drastic consequences for our schools always understood that our warnings were a two-edged sword. We told the public that there were leaks in the educational ship and people should understand the seriousness of the situation. But we wanted people to do everything they could to patch those leaks and start bailing, not heading for the lifeboats.
Milwaukee’s school budget has a problem similar to Medicare in supporting the healthcare costs of retirees. There are far fewer working MPS teachers to support them. In the next few years there will be only one working teacher for every MPS retiree. Over the next weeks and months the public will hear that this school district will have a harder time supporting its legacy costs, that if we do nothing, the district will be bankrupt in a few years.
Much of the problem directly relates to the impact of the choice or voucher program. The funding voucher flaw was partly fixed under the previous Democratic state administration, and it helped place our books more in balance. In addition, if all the students who left MPS for suburbs and private schools were still in MPS, the school system would have far fewer problems in supporting these retirees. But the new expansion of the voucher program and the state funding cuts make the long term viability of this school district perilous. Healthcare for retirees cannot be cut because Wisconsin’s state constitution considers such retiree benefits to be personal property.
Does the Walker administration understand the hole it is putting MPS in? Frankly it may know exactly what it is doing, and its actions are part of an overall design to destroy public education in this community. At some point, the public is likely to wake up to this reality and begin reversing the state’s destructive policies.
The school board and administration is well aware of the problems, and we are doing everything we can to plug the leaks. Don’t abandon ship just yet.
