As MPS budget introduced, pushback on plan to take spending power away from schools
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The public had its first chance Thursday, June 5, to share its thoughts on Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) Superintendent Brenda Cassellius' first proposed budget.
More than a dozen people spoke after Cassellius and members of her cabinet gave a brief overview of her $1.5 billion spending plan for the 2025-26 school year.
Most of the remarks revolved around two themes; there was frustration over a lack of increased funding for extracurricular activities and concern over a push to move spending decisions out of schools and into MPS' central office.
At the start of her presentation, Cassellius was blunt about the problems facing the district, discussing challenges in a way previous administration and board leaders have not. She noted MPS' abysmal scores on 2024 national testing; only 12% of the district's 4th graders were proficient in math, and only 9% of 4th graders were in reading.
She also mentioned 21 students have died by homicide this school year as of May 5, noting it's possible that number has increased in recent weeks.
"That is just unacceptable, and we have to change," Cassellius said. "We have to move this needle because a child's success depends on their success in school."
Some of the signature changes in Cassellius' budget is a shift that gives the administration more of a say on individual schools' budget, taking some of those decisions away from principals.
Cassellius has said that will free up principals to focus more on the instruction and culture in their schools. Parents and teachers who spoke at Thursday's presentation were skeptical of the plan, saying it would worsen inequalities between schools.
"While I understand the intention may be to create consistency across the district, centralization often comes at the cost of equity," Angela Harris, chair of the Black Educators Caucus, said. "When financial decisions are moved further away from school communities, we risk silencing the voices closest to the needs of our students."
The other common concern came from members of the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association (MTEA). The teacher's union stated it had an agreement in place to guarantee steady funding for extracurriculars by having it as an item in the district's overall budget.
Currently, extracurricular funding is handled at the individual school level, and speakers said that's unfair to students in MPS' least desirable schools.
"Students have been asking for these opportunities for years, and if we want to have engaged students, we have to provide them opportunities to engage, to find things that inspire them," teacher Nicolo Onorato said. "And it is our duty to provide the funding to facilitate that."
This year's budget is propped up by $51 million coming from the April 2024 referendum Milwaukee voters narrowly passed. Most of the referendum's $252 million will be gone by next year, and Cassellius said the district faces a projected budget deficit between $75 million and $110 million without a significant boost in state funding.
Even if that happened, she acknowledged MPS will have to make tough decisions about consolidating low-enrollment schools and downsizing its 9,500-person workforce.
In the immediate future, the MPS board will have the next couple of weeks to amend Cassellius' budget. The board is set to vote on adopting a final budget on June 24.