These bad choices were a creation of the state legislature that actually increased state aid to wealthier school districts while cutting Milwaukee Public School aid by $19 million.

Originally the MPS budget would have added only 2% to the school tax levy. But when the state legislature finished its work, that same MPS budget now called for a whopping 16.4% increase. The School Board just couldn’t follow the superintendent’s recommendation. I was willing to vote for a zero MPS budget increase, but the majority of the Board voted “yes” to a 9% levy increase. I voted “no.”

Even a zero budget increase would have resulted in over a 5% levy increase because of state cuts.

You would think that the state would reward MPS for a lower tax levy. But because we will not tax to the maximum limit, the state will now cut MPS funding an additional $6 ½ million in state aid.

Moreover, MPS must pay for children in the voucher system but the school system can not count those voucher students in the state aid formula. Thus Milwaukee appears to have more money per student because we are not allowed to count all the students we pay for. More lost money for Milwaukee. We are the only school district in that situation.

Common council members of this city criticized the School Board for not being fiscally responsible. But MPS school buildings are technically owned by the city of Milwaukee. Three years ago the city paid MPS $10 million dollars a year for the upkeep of those buildings. Now the city is saying to MPS, “You pay for it.” What happens to all the tax money and aid MPS gets for it schools? It goes into a city, not MPS, bank account, and the city keeps all the interest.

Neither the state nor the city wants to take over MPS. It is a lot easier to stand on the sidelines and be armchair quarterbacks.

Does the rest of the state hate Milwaukee so much that they really don’t care what happens here? Perhaps. In the words of former Governor Tommy Thompson, “Stick it to them.”  

School Board members are looking again at the constitutionality of this state’s school funding formula. The last time we went to court, we lost at the state Supreme Court by one vote.  But the school voucher funding was not an issue at that time. It is now. It’s time to go to court.

A version of this article appeared in the Bay View Compass newspaper.