Milwaukee Superintendent Resigns Over Financial Mismanagement
Milwaukee Public School (MPS) leaders sought a $252 million tax referendum while keeping their financial mismanagement a secret. Parents are now seeking a recall of the leftist school board.
MPS Superintendent Keith Posley resigned on June 3 amid controversy over financial mismanagement. Milwaukee taxpayers are furious because this information wasn’t provided until after voters approved a tax increase in April—to benefit the school district.
The State Superintendent of Public Instruction sent Posley a letter in May outlining audit and financial reports overdue by more than 8 months. Many of these reports were required for the MPS district to receive state aid payments, including money for special education needs.
Not only does the MPS district risk losing state funding, the federal government has withheld millions in funds from their Head Start programs due to abuse and lack of supervision.
Most egregious of all? This information was withheld from voters in April when the referendum was pushed by the teacher’s union, Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association (MTEA). The MTEA supported many of the sitting board members, but they don’t seem worried about the controversy. MTEA plasters its social media accounts with anti-police, pro-LGBTQIA+, and “free Palestine” messages—but remain completely silent on the financial mismanagement of their endorsed school board members.
Read more: Leftists Have Transformed School Bathrooms into a Nightmare for Students
Parents Hold the Milwaukee Elected School Board Accountable
The mismanagement of public funds has been an embarrassment for the Milwaukee Board of School Directors, who have ultimate oversight of what happens in the district. This fiasco should remind voters about the importance of school board elections. It’s imperative to elect individuals with the proper skills to provide oversight of not only academics but everything else—including finances—needed to run such a large organization. Did the board know about this lack of financial reporting of the Superintendent?
The leftist board president, Marva Herndon, pushed hard for the $252 million referendum, which passed in April. Yet she neglected to inform the public of the district’s financial management turmoil. If Herndon didn’t know about the financial trouble of the district and the lack of proper reporting, she should have. This was either a cover-up or incompetence on the part of the school board. Both are unacceptable, and should come with consequences to the elected board members.
Milwaukee parents have had enough. They’ve started a recall effort of 4 board members, including Herndon and Democrat vice-president Jully Gokalgandhi. Community members filed paperwork at city hall on June 13 to start the recall. It won’t be easy to get thousands of signatures necessary for the recall, but the organizers are determined to get the topic on the ballot. Tamika Johnson, one of the leaders of the recall effort, said, “It’s not enough for the superintendent to resign, this board and administration worked to hide the truth from the public, to push a false narrative for the need for more funding.” Johnson also accused the board of irresponsibly managing funding.
Why Education Freedom Matters
Herndon, the leftist school board president, is a staunch anti-school choice activist. She aligns herself with Senator Elizabeth Warren’s ideas of big government takeover of public schools. Since 2019, Herndon has written multiple articles about the need for more funding of government schools. Her efforts paid off— MPS received $87 million more in 2020 and $252 million earlier this year. Yet, Herndon has nothing to show for it except a controversy of financial mismanagement.
Democrats endlessly push for more taxpayer funding of government schools, yet more money hasn’t improved academic achievement. In 2023 at James Madison High School in Milwaukee, only 2 percent of ninth and tenth grade students rate proficient or above in reading and language arts. Only 1 percent rated proficient or above in math. More money isn’t the answer.
Power hungry government leaders like Herndon put their agenda of controlling the education of children above what works for students. When government schools fail to properly educate and prepare students to be successful, most families have no alternative. They can’t afford private schools, especially when the local public schools continue to ask for more money through increased taxes.
Support for education freedom and school choice has grown in America. A 2023 survey reveals greater than 65 percent of support for education freedom programs such as education savings accounts (ESAs), vouchers, and tax credit scholarships. Another poll conducted in June 2023 shows 66 percent of Democrats in favor of school choice. Black voters favor school choice by the widest margin, with 73 percent support.
American children need alternatives to government schools that fail them. Hold elected school board members accountable for their actions and advocate for education freedom!
Read more: NORTH CAROLINA POLL: Parents Know Better Than Government Schools, Voters Say
