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The Proposed Future of MPS Governance

Emory Maiden
/
Flickr

Two Republican lawmakers are working on a plan that would turn over control of several struggling Milwaukee Public Schools to an independent body.  Details of the plan by Representative Dale Kooyenga and Senator Alberta Darling emerged this week, though no bill has yet been introduced.

"The idea from these Republican lawmakers is that if you remove a layer of bureaucracy, if you take the school board out of the picture, have these schools be directly run by the commissioner overseen by a separate governmental entity, that you'd be able to do some more radical change at the school," says  Journal Sentineleducation reporter Erin Richards.

The plan would see control of three schools turned over to the separate entity in the first year.  That group would be overseen by County Executive Chris Abele.  The plan is being met with stiff opposition by members of the MPS School Board and others who believe it would make it even harder for the district to succeed.  Erin Richards wrote an articleon the possible changes in control of struggling MPS schools, and she joined us in the studio to help analyze the proposal: