MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Public School Board voted 7 to 1 with one member abstaining to include a referendum on April’s ballot.
If passed, that referendum would cost taxpayers money to avoid cutting full time employees in arts, library services and school nurses in MPS schools.
According to the board, MPS is facing a $200 million budget deficit for next school year.
TMJ4 spoke with Amy Mizialko, the president of Milwaukee Teachers Education Association (MTEA) who was one of many educators in the board room advocating for the tax increase to keep programs alive in public schools.
“The students of Milwaukee public schools deserve every single resource, opportunity, program that we can bring to bear for them,” said Mizialko. “We are really confident that Milwaukee voters will show up for our students. The other scenario immediately makes significant, painful cuts to children in classrooms.”
The referendum is asking for a total of $252 million over the next five years. It would increase taxes by $216 to homes with $100,000 values.
While MTEA teachers are for the vote, others are unsure about footing the bill for another referendum.
Angela Harris, the Chairwoman of the Black Educators Caucus, says it’s disheartening the board is asking the community for more money after passing an $87 million referendum only 4 years ago.
“I think that people are really hesitant to vote for another referendum particularly because we haven't seen a return on our investment as taxpayers,” Harris told TMJ4. “Just within the last year we've seen an increase in our sales tax, to 7.9%, we've already had an increase in our property tax of two percent. This just continues to add money and stress to our already overburdened community.”
While taxpayers and teachers disagree if passing a referendum is the right thing to do, both sides say that the current deficit stems in part from a lack of proper state funding for public schools.
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