(The Center Square) – Milwaukee’s superintendent says she understands that she must make difficult budget decisions, even as she hopes what some people call the most significant school budget reform in Wisconsin history gets struck down.
Milwaukee Public Schools superintendent Brenda Cassellius was on UpFront over the weekend.
She defended her decision to cut nearly 200 jobs at MPS’ central office, while also using a federal grant to hire more than 150 new teachers and paraprofessionals.
“We have to make the very difficult decisions to tighten our belt to make sure that we’re spending within our means. We have been overspending within the district,” Cassellius said.
Cassellius said MPS has to stop “overspending,” largely because the district doesn’t have any extra money to spend.
“We only have about $14 million left on the referendum that we can spend in the budget year past this one, and so we know that by [fiscal year] ’28, which is the funding for the school year ’27-28, we won’t have any new additional referendum dollars,” she added.
Voters approved a $252 million tax increase in 2024 to stabilize MPS’ finances.
That money is already earmarked, and Cassellius said MPS is looking at $20 million in additional insurance costs next year, which means there could be a deficit going forward.
And that is before the Wisconsin Supreme Court decides the fate of Act-10.
Proponents say Act-10 has saved taxpayers more than $35 billion since it was signed into law in 2011. The law limited what teachers can negotiate on, specifically banning insurance rate increases from contract talks.
Cassellius said she wants to see Act-10 struck down.
“I’ve always been a supporter of unions and labor,” Cassellius said. “I think they play a really important part. I actually said to the union I’d want to be one of the first ones to have our contract in place.”
She didn’t offer a guess as to how much the end of Act-10 would cost MPS.
Cassellius also said she can’t rule out a new school referedum to raise more money. She said MPS must also look at its aging buildings.
But Dan Lennington with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty said MPS, like all schools in the state, don’t need as many buildings because they are looking at fewer students.
“Wisconsin will lose 4.6% of its public school enrollment by 2031. Large school districts MUST plan to cut spending/staff/facilities,” Lennington wrote on social media. “Why should budgets keep growing?”
