“We know the kids are there. They are just not going to our schools.”
Milwaukee Superintendent Questions Affordability of Half-Empty Schools
The head of Milwaukee’s public schools is being blunt with parents: MPS likely cannot afford to keep as many teachers in the district’s half-empty schools.
Superintendent Brenda Cassellius told parents at a recent community forum that while students and parents would like a full slate of teachers, counselors, and assistant principals at every school, it is just not possible.
“While we’re waiting for families to trust us and send their kids back, do we have the additional resources to continue to stand up those schools is the bigger question to the community.” Cassellius said. “This year alone we stood-up $25 million worth of stand-ups at schools that were underutilized.”
To stand-up a school means to pay extra to keep a teacher, or counselor, or administrator in a particular school building even though there are not enough students or enough dollars to justify that on paper.
Cassellius and MPS are trying to close a $46 million budget deficit from the 2024 school spending plan. The current school budget closes that gap on paper, but a slew of reports warn that because of declining enrollment, and the fewer state dollars that come along with that, as well as spending increase MPS could be looking at a new $400 million deficit in just five years.
Cassellius has talked about closing schools to offset those costs, but Milwaukee’s teachers union and some parents are against the idea.
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More.
“While we’re waiting for families to trust us and send their kids back, do we have the additional resources to continue to stand up those schools?” Cassellius said, and you wonder:
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Notes and links on the taxpayer funded Wisconsin DPI and Jill Underly.
“Did you know my school was bad like this when you decided to put me here?” she asked.
Madison’s district, despite an elite university pipeline, hypereducated leadership, and a shiny, new strategic plan, suffers the same frailties as Milwaukee’s: basement performance, backbreaking spending. But while Milwaukee is pulling out of its tailspin due to courageouschoices from the top, Madison is ponderously ambling to nowhere. Just ask the locals. “You need the marketing, and you need the product,” as a parent told a reporter. “I’m missing the product.”
2025-2026 Madison 4k-3rd grade Early Literacy Screener report: The bar moves faster than the kids.
Joe Gothard, Becky Kundert and Sonia Spencer Remarks on Madison’s K-12 Literacy Crisis.
2026-2027 Madison K-12 $pending continues to grow, fueled by a 9.7% (!) property tax increase. Total spending will be at least $706,000,000 for 25,003 students, or $28,236 per student.
May 2026 Madison School District Presentation: 7,095 adults for 25,003 students (3.52 students per adult!)
2024-2025 Early Literacy Screener Map.
Map: Foundations of Reading Results: 2015–2024
Where have all the students gone?
3,887 Madison 4 year old to third grade students scored lower than 75% of the students in the national comparison group.
Madison taxpayers have long supported far above average k-12 tax & $pending. This despite our long term, disastrous reading results. May, 2026: 7,095 Staff for 25,003 students; $pending > $26k per student!
Madison Schools: More $, No Accountability
The taxpayer funded Madison School District long used Reading Recovery…
The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic.
My Question to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Teacher Mulligans and our Disastrous Reading Results
2017: West High Reading Interventionist Teacher’s Remarks to the School Board on Madison’s Disastrous Reading Results
Madison’s taxpayer supported K-12 school district, despite spending far more than most, has long tolerated disastrous reading results.
“An emphasis on adult employment”
Wisconsin Public Policy Forum Madison School District Report[PDF]
WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators
Friday Afternoon Veto: Governor Evers Rejects AB446/SB454; an effort to address our long term, disastrous reading results
Booked, but can’t read (Madison): functional literacy, National citizenship and the new face of Dred Scott in the age of mass incarceration.
When A Stands for Average: Students at the UW-Madison School of Education Receive Sky-High Grades. How Smart is That?
China’s PhD Glut Drives Top Graduates to High School Teaching Jobs
