Bold Leadership Needed: Where do we go from here?

NOTE: This piece first ran on 6/7 as Colleston’s Corner in CFC’s weekly Education News Brief. Sign up to receive that brief here.

Milwaukee’s K12 education ecosystem has been rocked by a series of events as serious as any in recent memory. The turmoil at Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) has made national headlines and led off local newscasts all week. This story is about far more than just late reports or the resignation of a Superintendent — it reflects the decades-long, deep academic and operational decay of our city’s single largest school operator, and its impact on the vitality of our city and the education of its future leaders.

The crisis is still unfolding: DPI has notified MPS that it is withholding $16.6M in special education funds, the district’s first submissions to DPI were rejected as not “a real plan”, and we still don’t know how “significant” the state aid loss MPS will see this year. The School Board still has yet to select an interim Superintendent or adopt a budget for the upcoming school year — even as board members have now admitted that they haven’t read or need more guidance to understand the nearly 1,000-page document.

Maybe the only thing we have clarity on, is the most troubling aspect of all of this financial mess: Milwaukee’s students, families, and hardworking residents will be left holding the bag for the district’s shortcomings and mistakes.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson and County Executive David Crowley are both right in calling for transparency, accountability, and solutions. This morning’s press conference from the Mayor — while light on specifics beyond the Comptroller’s helpful offer of limited support — continues a positive trend of mayoral engagement. But this should only be the start. Milwaukeeans — and especially our city’s students and families — urgently need braver and bolder local leadership, like we’ve seen from local alders Lamont Westmoreland and Scott Spiker, that quickly moves beyond words and to concrete actions.

Governor Evers also positively intervened today, answering the calls of City Forward Collective and others by demanding both financial and academic performance audits of MPS. Coupled with the robust bipartisan engagement at the state legislature, it’s clear that we’re in a moment where the status quo is being shaken, and the standard, hands-off approach isn’t being accepted at the state level.

During today’s press conference, the Mayor called on Milwaukee’s voters to stay involved. I want to echo that call. We’ve seen the power of grassroots engagement in the turnout for April’s referendum, and the impassioned testimony at recent School Board meetings. But, its also clear that public pressure will have to be sustained to drive the fundamental changes needed to put MPS back on track.

To understand where we need to go from here, it is critical that we first understand that this is not just a financial crisis — it’s a crisis of public confidence in the district. It’s abundantly clear that MPS administrators egregiously failed, and it’s become increasingly clear that the current School Board lacks the capacity and the know-how to fix these issues by themselves. School board members have candidly said as much themselves on the record.

As we noted in our public statement, to begin to restore broken public trust, we need:

1. Transparency: A full, independent, forensic audit of MPS’ finances, conducted by a respected auditing firm with relevant expertise, overseen by and reporting to an entity not beholden to anyone at MPS, the School Board, or DPI. Governor Evers’ proposal this morning is promising, but there must be a commitment by MPS and DPI to provide full access to all relevant records and communications, and the full results and final report from this audit must be released to the public.
2. Accountability: A complete and public timeline that accounts for who was notified of these issues, when they first learned about them, and whether that information was withheld. Milwaukeeans deserve full and complete answers.
3. Bold City Leadership: An urgent effort by our city’s elected leadership, beginning with the Mayor, to develop a plan for comprehensive, structural reforms at MPS. As I mentioned above, the Mayor’s early engagement is welcomed and necessary — but this crisis requires more than just words. We need bolder & braver actions to meet the urgency and the seriousness of this moment.
   More broadly, Milwaukee needs our city leaders to convene a broad table of stakeholders, with a clear charge to break out of ideological silos, end the fights of the past, and come together with a shared purpose to craft a compelling vision and a comprehensive plan for dramatically transforming outcomes for all of Milwaukee’s students.
4. Visionary MPS Leadership: An open, national search process with full community participation to determine the next leader of MPS. School Board members need to be clear about how they will engage the full Milwaukee community and ensure full community voice and engagement in the entire search process. Deep community input should be involved in setting the priorities and job description for the next leader, in every stage of the selection process, and in the final decision.

This crisis is a once-in-a-lifetime challenge, but it also presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Our mission statement at City Forward Collective commits us to the work of securing Milwaukee’s future by ensuring families have access to their choice of high-quality schools. In this moment of crisis, we can make a transformational break with the past and chart a new course for our city’s future. Let’s seize this moment for the sake of Milwaukee’s students, families, and our entire city.