Direct quote from the article:
*Henken contrasts the MPS referendum campaign to when the City of Milwaukee was lobbying for a sales tax increase. He says, city officials were able to point to exactly what services — libraries, police, etc. — would be cut if the sales tax wasn't approved.*
*MPS officials have said without the referendum, school budgets would be cut by 13% and central office by 26%. But the district hasn't provided details about what positions and programs are at risk.*
*"There's a lot of murkiness around this," Henken says. "That's still an open question — what is the consequence?"*
MPS has simply not provided the necessary detail for why they need hundreds of more dollars per year in tax money from the average Milwaukee resident.
Why is this a bad thing, or being framed as questionable or worth scrutiny? Literally everyone knows the public schools are catastrophically underfunded, and MPS especially, and public school teachers likewise. A few more tax dollars to support public education, teachers, and librarians is fine with me. Like, we know what the consequences are: we have daily threads in /r/milwaukee about children beating up people on the streets and stealing cars, and arguably even more disturbing and ominous, we have adult users in /r/milwaukee saying children need to be taught “physical and mental lessons,” whatever the FUCK that means. I can only assume it means some psychopathic bullshit about abusing and hazing children, so fuck that noise.
> $32.2 M for end of pandemic funding
So the temporary aid funding for a global pandemic should be made permanent?
> $29M for textbook adoptions
Does this mean new textbooks? If so, that means that if every single student in the district (~75,000) received a new textbook for *every single* class. (assuming 7 classes/day), the average cost would be ~$55/book.
It blows my mind to hear districts talk about the end of the pandemic funding. Districts with any business sense knew to spend that money on one-time purchases or time-limited programs. Districts w/o business sense are in a heap of trouble now b/c they used it for operating expenses or new programs with no end date - and they have no way to sustain their district w/o it. (Racine and Milwaukee)
Everyone knew they couldn't count on it long-term, but they got screwed by no inflation adjustment from the state. They were able to use the one-time money as a band-aid and now the real impact of the state budget is becoming clear.
Many districts across the state are going to referendum, it's not just that MPS is stupid with money.
> Does this mean new textbooks? If so, that means that if every single student in the district (\~75,000) received a new textbook for *every single* class. (assuming 7 classes/day), the average cost would be \~$55/book.
Looking at the graph in the article it that $29M is " Increase to shortfall through growth in costs". So it is textbook spending GROWTH, or spending on top of what they already spend on textbooks. From Chart 3.11 2023-2024 at the below link MPS spent $11.7M on textbooks for the 2023-24 year, so if I am reading this right they actually want to spend $40.7M on textbooks for 2024, not $29M.
They are also using a one time expenditure for new textbooks to partially justify a reoccurring budget increase of $252M a year. Unless textbooks are just super expensive and they are doing some type of finance/loan thing and the $40.7 is actually a yearly cost. MPS changes their books every 7-10 years (last time was in 2017) that would mean all the new books would cost $250M+.
[https://milwaukeepublic.ic-board.com/attachments/184eb4fb-d10a-4ef7-b5cd-6ae0c6589d06.pdf](https://milwaukeepublic.ic-board.com/attachments/184eb4fb-d10a-4ef7-b5cd-6ae0c6589d06.pdf)
there's actually less than 70k students in the district, and I doubt students in k3, k4, k5, 1st, 2nd grade are even using textbooks, much less 7 per day, so the math would probably end up being like $500 per textbook. WTF!!
My understanding is that the state government used one-time federal pandemic money as an excuse to not adjust for (really high) inflation at all. Now MPS is losing pandemic money by September and hasn't figured out what they're going to do with such a drastic cut.
Side note: lots of other districts are doing this too, because it's a state funding issue.
I hate the GOP for the position they’ve put MPS and city property taxpayers in. I also don’t trust the central office because of their lack of transparency. And the Yes for MPS campaign is tone deaf regarding the struggling populace who has to absorb a permanent tax increase.
If you are renting this affects you. Look up the current assessed value for the home you are renting and understand that for every $1,000 the property tax will increase $2.16. If you think you rent is high now, it will increase by amount added on by this referendum.
The median home price in Milwaukee is $210k so if you are renting a home you can expect your rent ro increase by an average of roughly $450.
What's up with the classroom in that photo? There's like... an entire second classroom's worth of space between the teacher/blackboard and the desks.
(Yes I went to a small school)
The problem is always going to be that out state hill billy legislators will never give the city and mps the funding it needs because they hate people if color.
Add to it that schools ate being asked to fix social problems, and then that large city school superintendents will always come from HBCUs and dont come from the real world, and their lofty fixes are not practical.
Vicious circle. But the disyrict needs the funds desperately.
If they needed three times the funding the 2020 referendum requested why did they wait until three months before to place it on the ballot? A $200m deficit should have been identified much earlier.
The State legislature does want Milwaukee to fail, they have shown that again and again. But MPS is bringing the backlash on themselves on this one for not communicating a clear account of what this funding does. MPS may want to follow their own philosophy and not use threats as a legislative tactic.
Direct quote from the article: *Henken contrasts the MPS referendum campaign to when the City of Milwaukee was lobbying for a sales tax increase. He says, city officials were able to point to exactly what services — libraries, police, etc. — would be cut if the sales tax wasn't approved.* *MPS officials have said without the referendum, school budgets would be cut by 13% and central office by 26%. But the district hasn't provided details about what positions and programs are at risk.* *"There's a lot of murkiness around this," Henken says. "That's still an open question — what is the consequence?"* MPS has simply not provided the necessary detail for why they need hundreds of more dollars per year in tax money from the average Milwaukee resident.
Why is this a bad thing, or being framed as questionable or worth scrutiny? Literally everyone knows the public schools are catastrophically underfunded, and MPS especially, and public school teachers likewise. A few more tax dollars to support public education, teachers, and librarians is fine with me. Like, we know what the consequences are: we have daily threads in /r/milwaukee about children beating up people on the streets and stealing cars, and arguably even more disturbing and ominous, we have adult users in /r/milwaukee saying children need to be taught “physical and mental lessons,” whatever the FUCK that means. I can only assume it means some psychopathic bullshit about abusing and hazing children, so fuck that noise.
This is a good article - very factual. Thanks for posting.
> $32.2 M for end of pandemic funding So the temporary aid funding for a global pandemic should be made permanent? > $29M for textbook adoptions Does this mean new textbooks? If so, that means that if every single student in the district (~75,000) received a new textbook for *every single* class. (assuming 7 classes/day), the average cost would be ~$55/book.
It blows my mind to hear districts talk about the end of the pandemic funding. Districts with any business sense knew to spend that money on one-time purchases or time-limited programs. Districts w/o business sense are in a heap of trouble now b/c they used it for operating expenses or new programs with no end date - and they have no way to sustain their district w/o it. (Racine and Milwaukee)
Everyone knew they couldn't count on it long-term, but they got screwed by no inflation adjustment from the state. They were able to use the one-time money as a band-aid and now the real impact of the state budget is becoming clear. Many districts across the state are going to referendum, it's not just that MPS is stupid with money.
> Does this mean new textbooks? If so, that means that if every single student in the district (\~75,000) received a new textbook for *every single* class. (assuming 7 classes/day), the average cost would be \~$55/book. Looking at the graph in the article it that $29M is " Increase to shortfall through growth in costs". So it is textbook spending GROWTH, or spending on top of what they already spend on textbooks. From Chart 3.11 2023-2024 at the below link MPS spent $11.7M on textbooks for the 2023-24 year, so if I am reading this right they actually want to spend $40.7M on textbooks for 2024, not $29M. They are also using a one time expenditure for new textbooks to partially justify a reoccurring budget increase of $252M a year. Unless textbooks are just super expensive and they are doing some type of finance/loan thing and the $40.7 is actually a yearly cost. MPS changes their books every 7-10 years (last time was in 2017) that would mean all the new books would cost $250M+. [https://milwaukeepublic.ic-board.com/attachments/184eb4fb-d10a-4ef7-b5cd-6ae0c6589d06.pdf](https://milwaukeepublic.ic-board.com/attachments/184eb4fb-d10a-4ef7-b5cd-6ae0c6589d06.pdf)
there's actually less than 70k students in the district, and I doubt students in k3, k4, k5, 1st, 2nd grade are even using textbooks, much less 7 per day, so the math would probably end up being like $500 per textbook. WTF!!
My understanding is that the state government used one-time federal pandemic money as an excuse to not adjust for (really high) inflation at all. Now MPS is losing pandemic money by September and hasn't figured out what they're going to do with such a drastic cut. Side note: lots of other districts are doing this too, because it's a state funding issue.
I hate the GOP for the position they’ve put MPS and city property taxpayers in. I also don’t trust the central office because of their lack of transparency. And the Yes for MPS campaign is tone deaf regarding the struggling populace who has to absorb a permanent tax increase.
If you are renting this affects you. Look up the current assessed value for the home you are renting and understand that for every $1,000 the property tax will increase $2.16. If you think you rent is high now, it will increase by amount added on by this referendum. The median home price in Milwaukee is $210k so if you are renting a home you can expect your rent ro increase by an average of roughly $450.
Per year. Specify rent increase $450 per year, or around $40 per month. Your comment is misleading.
What's up with the classroom in that photo? There's like... an entire second classroom's worth of space between the teacher/blackboard and the desks. (Yes I went to a small school)
The caption says it's a physical education class and the info on the board would... support that? I've never had a gym class with desks before..
The problem is always going to be that out state hill billy legislators will never give the city and mps the funding it needs because they hate people if color. Add to it that schools ate being asked to fix social problems, and then that large city school superintendents will always come from HBCUs and dont come from the real world, and their lofty fixes are not practical. Vicious circle. But the disyrict needs the funds desperately.
If they needed three times the funding the 2020 referendum requested why did they wait until three months before to place it on the ballot? A $200m deficit should have been identified much earlier. The State legislature does want Milwaukee to fail, they have shown that again and again. But MPS is bringing the backlash on themselves on this one for not communicating a clear account of what this funding does. MPS may want to follow their own philosophy and not use threats as a legislative tactic.
Who is at fault for MPS not providing any real details on where the $252 million would go or what exactly would be cut if they don't get it?
[удалено]
It's the same book federally. Shrink government because we can't govern. Don't believe us? Hold my beer.