Public school advocates rally support for MPS schools
Teachers, students and supporters rallied at more than 100 public schools across Milwaukee on Friday in a show of support for public education and opposition to the law passed this year that would shift control of some underperforming city schools to the Milwaukee County executive.
Also Friday, the Milwaukee County Board's Intergovernmental Relations Committee passed a resolution opposing the takeover law adopted as part of Gov. Scott Walker's 2015-'17 budget.
"This is an attack on our democratic institutions," North Division social studies teacher Lukas Wierer told about 30 demonstrators gathered outside the building before the start of classes on Friday.
Wierer acknowledged Milwaukee Public Schools' shortcomings, saying administrators and staff must "continue to strive to be better." But he said MPS is the "only institution in this city with the capacity, commitment and legal obligation to serve all of our students."
The state budget signed by Gov. Scott Walker in July gave Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele broad authority to oversee a special district in Milwaukee for the city's most troubled public schools by turning them over to charter school operators.
The program, devised by Republican state lawmakers from the suburbs, is designed to take some of the district's lowest-performing schools from the control of the Milwaukee School Board and put them under the control of Abele and a commissioner he selects, or directly under MPS Superintendent Darienne Driver, if she chooses to use that authority.
Public school critics, many of whom support using state funding for private voucher and charter schools, argue that some schools are failing to educate some students and that parents should have greater choices for their children.
At North Division High School at 1011 W. Center St., which is thought by some to be a takeover target, protesters lined the sidewalk Friday carrying signs saying "Defend Democracy" and "Support Our Public Schools" and chanting "When public schools are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back."
"We live in a representative democracy. We get to elect our leaders who make decisions for us," said Wierer, a former citizenship teacher. "What these actions are saying is, 'You the people of Milwaukee are not capable of choosing your own leaders, that representative democracy is not for you.'"
Friday's rallies were organized by a coalition of public schools supporters, including the Milwaukee teachers union; Schools & Communities United; and MICAH, the Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope. Solidarity rallies on behalf of MPS were also planned in La Crosse and some schools in Chicago.
The county committee resolution opposing the law passed Friday is essentially symbolic, as the takeover measure is now law. But it draws a line in the sand between County Board members and Abele, and seeks to ensure that costs associated with operation of the so-called Opportunity Schools and Partnership Program do not fall to Milwaukee County taxpayers, who already pay separate taxes for their schools.
The measure passed 4-1, with Supervisor Deanna Alexander as the lone dissenter and Tony Staskunas Public school advocates rally support for MPS schools:
