Wisconsin Watchdog | Voucher school wants to buy unused building; Milwaukee schools won’t sell

Education Policy Director and Associate Counsel, CJ Szafir, discusses how MPS continues to stand in its own schoolhouse doors, blocking educational opportunities for Milwaukee’s children and families:

“That’s not surprising,” C.J. Szafir told Wisconsin Watchdog.

Szafir, associate counsel and director of education policy at the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, has studied the problem of Milwaukee’s large inventory of empty public school buildings since 2012.

“MPS has been very concerned about the expansion of successful and high-performing charter and choice schools and the effect that has on its enrollment figures. So it has tried to inhibit the expansion of those schools by doing everything it can to block the sale of its surplus buildings to charter and choice schools,” Szafir said.

WILL has been the leader on exposing MPS’ recalcitrance on this issue; our report, “Why the State of Wisconsin Forced Coca-Cola to sell to Pepsi”, explains why MPS’ refusal to sell its empty school buildings is cheating Milwaukee families out of educational opportunities and hurting taxpayers.