Health & Fitness
Milwaukee stonewalling sales of unused schools, law firm says
By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter
MADISON – A complete failure.
That’s how the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty rates the City of Milwaukee’s policy of giving Milwaukee Public Schools the authority to sell or lease the district’s unused school buildings.
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Beyond the failing grade, WILL, a conservative, public interest law firm based in Milwaukee, asserts the school district is playing “shell games” and the city is violating the spirit of a 2011 state law that gave Milwaukee the power to move idle buildings.
“Our report shows that MPS is preventing numerous charter schools and private schools in the choice program from purchasing empty, unused school buildings. In doing so, they are directly blocking thousands of children from attending a nearby, high-performing school,” said C.J. Szafir, WILL’s education policy director in a statement released Thursday.
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“And the City – by ignoring its power to sell these buildings under Act 17 – is equally culpable.”
An MPS official charges WILL with making false or misleading claims, and tells Wisconsin Reporter the law does not require MPS to sell buildings it has legitimate plans for.
WILL contends the school system has played a “shell game” with its unused property.
“In February 2011, MPS listed 28 buildings as surplus, i.e. vacant buildings that are for sale. However, in April 2013, MPS told WILL that only 4 buildings were surplus. Had MPS sold or leased 24 buildings in the intervening two years? Apparently not. Another chart, circulated internally in March 2013, showed that at least 23 buildings were still vacant and, besides the 4, were not on the market,” the law firm wrote in its release.
