{"id":12405,"date":"2024-08-29T14:36:10","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T14:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=12405"},"modified":"2024-08-29T15:03:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T15:03:00","slug":"fourteen-months-after-deal-with-legislature-still-no-cops-in-mps-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=12405","title":{"rendered":"Fourteen months after deal with Legislature, still no cops in MPS schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/fourteen-months-after-deal-with-legislature-still-no-cops-in-mps-schools\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Milwaukee stiff-arms Legislature but takes sales tax money<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n

Once again, there will be no police officers in Milwaukee Public Schools when classes begin this Tuesday, violating a requirement that is part of the current state budget.<\/p>\n

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It was way back in June of 2023 that Milwaukee leaders reached a deal with legislators allowing both the city and the county to raise sales taxes in exchange for putting officers back in crime-ridden Milwaukee Public Schools by Jan. 1, 2024.<\/p>\n

State Sen. John Jagler, chair of the Senate Committee on Education, said he was at first surprised to learn MPS was still flouting the deadline to put cops back in schools for the first time in eight years. Then he was angry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are breaking the law and they don\u2019t care because there are no ramifications for not complying with this,\u201d Jagler, R-Watertown, told the Badger Institute. \u201cThe flippant attitude is just crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

MPS administrators are expected to update the Milwaukee Board of School Directors about the status of a school resource officer plan with the Milwaukee Police Department at the board meeting Thursday night, MPS chief of staff, Paulette Chambers, told Jagler in an email response to his inquiry.<\/p>\n

Chambers gave no indication of how soon a plan can be executed nor were there any estimates of the number of resource officers or where and how they might be deployed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am disappointed, but I\u2019m not surprised,\u201d state Rep. Bob Donovan, R-Greenfield, who advocated for the addition of the resource officer requirement. \u201cThey (MPS officials) have given every indication that they don\u2019t want these officers back in the schools for whatever reason. And they have not been forthcoming with the public about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt tells me that at the state level we need to scrutinize many more things going on with the Milwaukee Public Schools,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Badger Institute left messages asking for comment from several MPS officials, including board member Jilly Gokalgandhi, but received no replies before this story posted.<\/p>\n

Audio of a recent interview with Gokalgandhi in which she said her focus would be on \u201crestorative justice\u201d rather than the officer placement prompted a peeved Jagler to ask MPS for some explanation.<\/p>\n

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\u201cChildren deserve to feel safe at school,\u201d Jagler said in an Aug. 22 letter to Board President Marva Herndon. Herndon is on record as having opposed the resource officer requirement, but that she would cooperate with its implementation. \u201cIt is vitally important to ensure that our schools are as safe as possible to help facilitate a learning environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, when the lights have never shone brighter on them, they continue to act this way,\u201d Jagler said. \u201cHow could we (the Legislature), in good conscience, think that we are dealing with them and they are acting in good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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