The Milwaukee Common Council on Friday voted 14-0 to accept the recommendation of the Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development committee to accept five charter and private schools as education operators. After costing tax payers over a million dollars a year to maintain the empty school buildings, MPS was finally forced to sell. James Wigderson covers the story in his Wisconsin Watchdog article.
CJ Szafir, vice president of policy at WILL, shares “We should all keep in mind why this law was passed. There exists over 17 empty school buildings, which have sat empty for an average of seven years and have cost taxpayers over $1.2 million in maintenance,” Szafir said. “Charter and choice schools, some very successful, have long expressed interest in buying these buildings, only to be denied by MPS and the Common Council. The state legislature had no choice but to intervene and fix this problem.”