For Immediate Release Wisconsin Legislative Black and Hispanic Caucus Chides Korte's Charter Proposal MPS Superintendent should obtain community input before offering MPS to federal government Madison.
Charter schools are exempt from most state education laws and regulations.
We have major concerns about any plan which could potentially undermine the equal protection of our students, strip educational guarantees for special education and other disadvantaged student programs, and exempt our schools from the laws and regulations set out by the state. Until we thoroughly debate the merit, effectiveness, and accountability of charter schools on both the state and local level and are able to reach some level of consensus on this issue, you have no authority to speak on behalf of those you have not attempted to represent. Without consulting the parents, teachers, principals, and school communities to whom you purport to grant decision-making authority, you took it upon yourself to offer up the Milwaukee Public School District to the federal government as the first charter school district. Furthermore, your comments to the House Subcommittee inappropriately and inaccurately suggested that there is some kind of community consensus behind this measure, when, in fact, this was a unilateral decision made without any community input. Furthermore, since charter schools have a blanket waiver from most state education laws and regulations, we as members of the Legislature are taken aback by the ease with which you volunteered Milwaukee's school district to be the first charter school district without even mentioning the proposition to Milwaukee's state legislators.