A disastrous school budget

Milwaukee school board members were just as shocked as the public about the extent of suggested school budget cuts. The superintendent has yet to submit an overall budget to the board. While the board is likely to find ways to place more resources into the schools, some school budget cuts will take place.

School districts across the state are experiencing similar budget problems. So are all MPS schools, and the superintendent promises that central administration will also have cuts. The recession means the state is collecting fewer tax dollars, so the governor and state Legislature cut school funding.

The state cut SAGE, a program to lower class sizes for students living in poverty, by $200 per child. The MPS superintendent says the district can’t make up the difference, so he cut 11 schools from SAGE. Other cuts impact teachers, educational assistants, and other support staff.

Dramatic increases are taking place in health insurance. For every dollar going toward wages next year, MPS will pay out $.77 in benefits.

Neither suburbs using open enrollment nor private schools in the choice system are taking the most expensive special education students from Milwaukee. Thus MPS must educate our most needy children. The Legislature only partly fixed the voucher funding flaw, so Milwaukee taxpayers still pay more.

Solutions to our budget problems are not simple. The state is unlikely to give more money to school districts this year. The MPS superintendent does not want to use one-time federal stimulus money to maintain teaching positions. The school board may think differently.

Milwaukee’s health insurance system is broken, and MPS and its unions must fix it. But lower wages and poorer working conditions mean MPS has trouble attracting and retaining teachers.

We can close more schools, but each closed elementary school saves only enough to cover about four teachers. We still have schools in rented facilities while we have empty school buildings. That has to stop.

Busing accounts for only 5 percent of the total MPS budget, and half of that is for required special education students.

No one solution will solve our budget crisis.

Terry Falk is the Milwaukee Public Schools director for the Eighth District, which includes Bay View. He can be reached at (414) 510-9173 or falktf@milwaukee.k12.wi.us.