Milwaukee Public Schools Cuts 260 Positions: A $46 Million Crisis With No Clear Answers

There is an adage that says you cannot solve a problem you refuse to fully acknowledge. Milwaukee Public Schools finds itself (again) at precisely that crossroads. The MPS Board of Directors has approved Superintendent Dr. Brenda Cassellius’s $30 million staff reduction plan — a plan that eliminates 260 positions in response to a staggering $46 million budget overrun. And while the board may believe this action signals fiscal responsibility, the Milwaukee community deserves more than a swift remedy. We deserve answers.

Let that number settle for a moment: $46 million dollars. Overspent. The question that every parent, educator, taxpayer, and community stakeholder should be asking — loudly, and without apology — is: how? When did the superintendent and board first become aware of this deficit? What, specifically, were those funds spent on? These are not political questions. They are moral ones. When we are talking about public dollars entrusted to the education of Milwaukee’s children, transparency is not optional. It is obligatory.

But the deeper crisis is what comes next. Among the 260 positions targeted for elimination are Central Office Staff (Central Office Staff is a broad based term and can include a multitude of personnel such as traveling Special Educators who are not housed in a particular school, instructional coaches, curriculum specialists, etc.); Assistant Principals and Deans of Students — the very individuals who serve as the first line of defense in school safety and student discipline. Anyone who has spent meaningful time in a school building knows that teaching and learning do not happen in a vacuum. They happen in environments where students feel safe, seen, and supported. Assistant principals and Deans of Students are not bureaucratic luxuries. They are the adults who de-escalate conflict before it becomes crisis, who build relationships with students who have given up on relationships, and who hold the delicate balance of a school community together when everything else threatens to unravel.

And what of programs like Restorative Practices — an evidence-based, community-centered approach to school discipline that has produced a monumental shift in school climate across MPS buildings? To dismantle the infrastructure that supports such programming is not fiscal prudence. It is an invitation for regression. We will spend far more — in human cost, in discipline referrals, in lost instructional time — than any budget spreadsheet can capture.

Practical questions also remain unanswered. Of the 260 positions eligible for elimination, how many of those employees are retirement-eligible and will choose to exit? How many will simply leave the district entirely, taking years of institutional knowledge with them? These are not hypothetical concerns. In a district that already struggles with recruitment and retention, the hemorrhaging of experienced staff compounds an already fragile ecosystem.

Perhaps most telling is the unified response from organized labor. The Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association (MTEA) and the Administrators & Supervisors Council — the sole professional organization representing MPS principals, assistant principals, and supervisors — published a joint letter to the Board of Directors opposing this plan. When teachers and administrators speak with one voice, we ought to listen. These are not people prone to alarm. They are practitioners who understand, better than any budget line, what it takes to run a school building safely and effectively.

MPS does not need fewer people. It needs more — and the right ones, deployed strategically. The challenges our students face extend far beyond the walls of a classroom. Trauma, food insecurity, and mental health crises — these realities walk through the schoolhouse door every single morning. Cutting the staff equipped to respond to them is not a solution. It is a surrender.

It is also, in my opinion, a set-up. While the cost-reduction plan itself is not political in nature, the results may be, because the state legislature is watching. As the legislature has wrapped its 2025-26 session and prepares for 2027 and the creation of the 2027-28 state budget, all eyes will certainly be on MPS. As was the case when MPS went through its last financial fiasco, legislative calls were made to sanction the district, ideas were floated to divide the district amongst other municipalities, place the district into some form of conservatorship, or even strip local control from the elected school board.

Madison is always watching. And everybody in Milwaukee County needs to understand that any opportunity to control Milwaukee, in any way, shape, or form, is always on the legislative menu, especially under Republican control. Therefore, it behooves every elected and appointed official to exercise due diligence, especially when it comes to stewardship of taxpayer funds. The public’s patience is wearing thin; MPS making the news for unforced errors is particularly exhausting, especially for those of us that are dedicated educational professionals, doing our best to counter the constant borage of negative press about the district.

The Milwaukee community deserves a full accounting of how $46 million was overspent — and a recovery plan that does not balance the budget on the backs of our most vulnerable students. Until those answers arrive, we are left with more questions than answers. And that is unacceptable.