Greater Milwaukee Committee says no to $252 million MPS referendum

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A collection of business and community leaders announced Tuesday it will formally oppose the $252 million referendum Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) has put on the April 2 ballot.

The Greater Milwaukee Committee (GMC), which includes more than 200 members from backgrounds that include the corporate, healthcare and non-profit sectors. 

GMC President Joel Brennan said in an interview Tuesday he agrees MPS needs more funding, but he added the process the district has used in this push to have voters approve a property tax increase is not the way to do it.

"It's become clear over the last several weeks that this has been a pretty hasty or truncated process," Brennan said. "Not a lot of opportunity for community engagement or dialogue around this. The size of this is significant, the impact to Milwaukee taxpayers."

MPS is seeking voters' permission to raise the state-imposed cap on property taxes by $2.16 for every $100 of assessed property value. For a home worth $250,000, that would amount to a $540 increase per year. 

Brennan previously served as secretary of the Department of Administration under Gov. Tony Evers between 2019 and 2021. He said the GMC wouldn't spend any money on a campaign against the referendum, a contrast from the region's largest business lobby, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, which is running ads on TV, radio and digital urging voters to reject the referendum.

Brennan said GMC members were disappointed MPS leaders did not take a similar approach to 2020, when the district successfully passed an $87 million referendum.

NEW: The Greater Milwaukee Committee announces this morning it opposes the $252 million MPS referendum on the April 2 ballot.

"The lack of transparency surrounding this referendum...leave the GMC unable to support the current referendum." pic.twitter.com/f84TfXqLkx

— A.J. Bayatpour (@AJBayatpour) March 26, 2024

"[In 2020,] There was a series of meetings with GMC members and stakeholders and people in the community around what the size of the referendum should've been, what could they do around those things, what were the plans," Brennan said. "Those conversations haven't happened in the last couple of months."

In a statement, MPS Spokesperson Nicole Armendariz pointed to the gains provided by the 2020 referendum. Specifically, she highlighted the addition of 68 music teachers, allowing 92% of MPS students to have music class as opposed to 19% in the 2018-19 school year.

That funding also allowed 56 schools to expand their art classes. There were also new gym teachers and librarians, along with early childhood classroom upgrades that came with the funding.

Armendariz said there would be across-the-board cuts to schools if the referendum fails.

"The district’s referendum plans will avoid a 13% budget cut to schools and a 26% cut to Central Services," she said. "Instead, schools will maintain or slightly increase resources compared their prior year’s budget." 

The district has not put forward a specific breakdown of where the $252 million would spend. For example, there are no details on 

MPS leaders have said the district is facing a $200 million shortfall because state funding how not kept up with inflation. However, when accounting for federal aid the district receives, MPS' total per-student funding is currently in line with other big-city school districts.

Alan Borsuk, who follows education as a senior fellow at the Marquette Law School, said MPS hasn't been specific enough about how it would use the additional funding to improve outcomes in a district where more than half the students are performing at a below basic level in both reading and math, according to the most recent state report card.

On the 2022-23 report card, 52.1% of the district's students were below average on language arts. 64.3% were below average in math, although that was an improvement from the 2020-21 and 2021-22 math results; in those respective years, 67.1% and 68% of students performed at a below basic level.

"What's gonna get better if this passes? They haven't answered that question at all," Borsuk said.

The district's teachers union, the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association (MTEA), also points to the additional staffing provided by the 2020 referendum.

MTEA President Ingrid Walker-Henry said maintaining access to art, music and libraries is essential to helping students improve learning in subjects across the board.

"There is no parent in this world that would tell you that removing art, or removing music from their child's education is what they want," she said.

Brennan said regardless of the outcome next week, MPS should develop a detailed plan for how it will improve results in the classroom and manage its long-term finances.

"Whether this passes or fails next Tuesday, the community is owed that kind of a plan, that kind of a dialogue around these decisions," he said.

Another battle to come

Throughout the referendum debate, one question of MPS is why district leaders hadn't first completed a long-term plan for its buildings before seeking a property tax increase.

While Superintendent Keith Posley has defended going to referendum while the district conducts a facilities study, Brennan said that was also an issue for GMC members.

"It only makes sense that these decisions, these things, ought to have been thought about before," he said. "And they need to be considered moving forward."

Currently, dozens of the district's schools have enrollment totals well below their building's capacity. According to a building inventory report MPS is required to give the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, 36 schools have an enrollment number than is than 70% of capacity.

23 schools are operating at less than 60% of their buildings' capacity, and 14 schools are less than half-full.

Walker-Henry said the MTEA strongly objects to the idea of closing any schools, regardless of any enrollment or attendance concerns.

"When we're talking about right-sizing, we are talking about impacting Black children and Black families and closing their schools and displacing them," she said.

The upcoming debate about closing schools will indeed involve race and the city's history of segregation. All 14 schools at less than 50% capacity are on the city's north side, which is predominately Black. At the same time, numerous south side schools are either at or above full capacity.