By Representative Dora Drake
Our children are the future; they will become our next doctors, teachers, leaders, nurses, and electricians. Our children will have their own families, their own dreams, and inherit the struggles we failed to address. In this moment, we as a community must ask ourselves, how are the children? And the sad answer is they are in trouble.
Like many of you, I have been disheartened with the recent news regarding our Milwaukee Public Schools. Quality education should be accessible to everyone, which should be the goal for public education. Many of my close friends, colleagues, and leaders in the community thrived and had greater opportunities because of the public education they received in this city I call home. Republicans time and time again have made efforts to defund public schools and have failed to provide the necessary funding for special education.
But accountability goes both ways.
When there is a lack of accountability of how resources are spent, how funds are supporting our teachers in the classroom, a lack of transparency from school board officials to parents and families, and most importantly the success of our children, we need a “come to Jesus moment” and rip the band-aid off to see where we went wrong.
I had hoped there would be tangible action steps and additional information provided from MPS officials to Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI) so we all can see what the issues are and forge a path forward. However, if DPI sent a letter to our MPS officials stating both drafts lack a “real plan,” it’s time to step in and the state needs to do an audit so we can see the problems for what they are.
This is not a political gotcha moment and this cannot be a situation where we are pointing fingers at each other. At the end of the day, this is about the well-being of our children and our families.
How are the children? Our children are in trouble and all of us need to put aside partisanships, egos, and petty alliances aside to protect our children and ensure their success and future now.