Milwaukee Budget to Eliminate 1,000 Teaching, Coaching Jobs (WI)

May 5, 2011

Milwaukee Public Schools superintendent Gregory Thornton has released his budget proposal for the 2012 school year which will eliminate nearly 1,000 full time teaching and coaching positions, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

The budget for next year calls for a 13.5% reduction over this year’s operating costs. To fill the financial gap, it proposes eliminating summer school classes and bus transportation for younger kids, raising class sizes in elementary schools, increasing the price of school lunches, delaying any building projects, and putting off the adoption of any new textbooks and classroom materials.

    “When you have a cut of this magnitude, things will not stay the same,” Thornton said before the start of the board’s Strategic Planning & Budget committee meeting Tuesday night. A public hearing followed, and another hearing will be held Thursday.

The proposed budget totals $1.17 billion, a $182 million cut from last year. The reasons for the reduction include a loss of grant funding from last year’s federal stimulus program which amounts to about $82 million, and $81.6 in losses from state revenue.

MPS will also not immediately benefit from the restrictions placed on teachers’ unions by Governor Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill since the district has a contract in place that’s ratified through 2013.

Although nearly 1,000 positions are slated for the elimination, the Journal-Sentinel writes that it doesn’t mean 1,000 people will lose their jobs. Thornton expects to achieve most of the job reductions via retirement and attrition and hopes not to repeat the situation last June, when 500 teachers and staff received lay-off notices, but were eventually recalled.