This is Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk.
Here are your hosts, Dr. Tim Slecker and Dr. Johnny Lupinacci, educated educators talking
education.
You know what, it's Monday, Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk, educated educators
talking education.
Oh, man, Johnny, weekend, I'm back.
Minneapolis, awesome conference, what was not awesome on my way back, six hours in the
Minneapolis airport, six hours in the Philadelphia airport.
Oh, man, you won't say what an airline you flew because I got to do some travel this
weekend.
We don't want any issues with, you know, airlines coming and saying, no, I was, but I was
in the air for three hours, but in airports for 12 hours on my way home.
So, whoo, that's the grind, that's the grind, but hey, happy Father's Day.
Yeah, man, back at you too, we did it, you know, it's the five Father's Day.
I got some great grilling, no, no, when I say that, I mean, I had a great day.
Well, it was tiring though, because I had spent, like you said, you know, all that time
in the airport.
And I finally got back to my house on Father's Day at, at like two o'clock Sunday afternoon
yesterday.
So long trip.
And remember, I left their Saturday morning.
So the fact that I didn't get back to my house, but got great gifts from my kids.
Lots of grilling stuff, man.
They know that I like to go out on the grill.
So, you know, I got me one of those grilling sets that you kind of carry around in a little
attach showcase.
I look cool.
Awesome.
Awesome.
I got a bracelet made for me with my kids names on them.
That was a pretty awesome moment.
There's like this whole swifty movement of these school bracelets that I've been saying,
hey, I need one of those and they're like that.
They're not for dads, but they made me some dad ones and that was really cool.
Tim, man, we got some great guests tonight and you and I could probably talk all, yeah,
we could because, you know, a couple of fathers here soaking up that action.
But, you know, we got a lot to talk about.
We had an awesome week last night.
We got a banger week coming up before we get into it though, let's just throw some props
out to our friends at Monaco Brewing Company, plus the pencils is sponsored by the Monaco
Brewing Company, who are big time advocates of public education and are always working
hard to build community and make great beer.
Monaco Brewing Company is making Wisconsin great again, one beer at a time.
Check them out at Monaco Brewing Company dot com to see where you can buy their progressive
beer.
And Tim, the last time we were talking to our friends at Monaco Brewing Company, yes.
We had one of our guests tonight, who was also there at the Monaco Brewing Company.
So let's get into the night.
Yeah, let's jump right in Wisconsin Public Education Network, third Monday of the month,
their regular spot, welcome back Heather DuVois, Bernane, Heather and you brought a friend
tonight.
So jump in there, tell us who you brought with us so we can get them now.
I know it's not a new friend because Jenny's an old friend of the show, but let's get
that introduction.
Heather, how are you and tell us all about Jenny?
I'm doing great.
It's nice to see you both again.
And thanks for having us back.
I am pleased that my friend and colleague, Jenny Hochschelty, is here today.
She works with the network as our small East Regional organizer out of Milwaukee, and
I will kick it over to her to say a little bit more about who she is and how she got involved
in this work.
Hi, everybody.
Thanks for having me.
Thank you, Heather.
I am a 20-year Milwaukee Public Schools parent and a parent advocate.
And I got involved in school, public school advocacy by asking 20 years ago why the school
funding formula was so broken in the state and it's been a two decades journey of learning,
for sure.
But I am still a proud Milwaukee Public Schools parent of one graduated student and one rising
freshman.
Nice job, Jenny.
Really appreciate glad to have you here with the Wisconsin Public Education Network.
Heather, though, you know what, before we get into the big story of the time, little promotion
with WPEN and the conference coming up.
Yeah, we are super stoked about our fully-ledged summer summit, which is going to be July 30
to 31st in Madison.
It happens to be our 10th anniversary of the event.
We have been doing this work as a formal network for over 10 years now and we are taking
the opportunity to really dig in for two solid days of workshopping and strategizing around
how we can get organized and take action together on day one and then on day two, a full day
of world class breakout sessions on all kinds of exciting topics.
You can learn more at WisconsinNetwork.org slash summit and register for both days, just
40 bucks and it includes lunch.
What more can you ask from a dream event?
Nice, nice.
Appreciate that everybody out there get registered.
Let's see it.
The Wisconsin Public Education Network.
Okay.
Set the stage.
Milwaukee.
You know, again, let's, we're going to go at this so that we get through this.
There's some intense scrutiny now happening in at the Milwaukee Public Schools.
There's the possibility of a $50 million lag or some type of misunderstanding of how the
what was allocated to Milwaukee Public Schools from the state versus what the state is now
saying should have been allocated.
There could be a difference that could end up making Milwaukee Public Schools potentially
need to pay back the state $50 million, up to $50 million.
The budget, though, for the one and a half million dollars, the board passed last week coming
on the, you know, the success of passing that referendum that we said, say yes to MPS.
We spent so much time generating that.
And again, the saying yes to that referendum was to just make sure that students and teachers
get what they need, nothing extra.
All right, Jenny, what's happening on the ground in Milwaukee?
I mean, to say that people aren't upset and hurt about what's happening would be an understatement,
right?
And the DPI's letter of kind of the final gauntlet was thrown.
It became public right away that these reports had been not appropriately filed.
And that really brought up a lot of people's taxpayers who just voted for our referendum
and supported it.
They're higher as well as people who work for the school district, families who utilize
the school district every day, students and staff.
People who are really perplexed by it still, and we're sort of sorting out the pieces
in order to pick them up to sort of rebuild back better, I hope.
So I mean, the way to explain this is that so the state gives money through the Department
of Public Instruction to schools and school districts across Wisconsin.
And DPI now is issued a report saying, hey, Milwaukee, looks like we gave you more money
than you were allowed to get.
And the reason that they gave more money is what we're hearing is that the paperwork submitted
by Milwaukee public schools to get this money may not have been submitted on time or it's
certain times.
There's an accounting issue at play.
Does that sound about right, Jenny?
There's an accounting issue at play and then also a delay of reporting.
So some, you know, I wouldn't call it malfeasance.
I would say maybe some negligence on Milwaukee public schools part to file their reports in
a timely manner in order for these types of errors to be caught, you know, along the way.
Well, I just, you know, because I was looking at the story on this and, you know, again,
how the media frames this is, is that we want to be careful to not jump into and kind
of turn this into some form of an ambulance chasing story.
But Jenny, I mean, you came right out and said this, like, look, parents are concerned.
Teachers are concerned.
And the one thing that I keep kind of seeing in the media reports are is that, well, then
why did the board approve their budget and why didn't they wait until after this is sorted
out with the Department of Public Instruction?
I think there are good reasons why they voted and approved the budget, but that's where
I keep seeing it seems like the stickler is going, well, why did they approve the budget
when the potential is is that there's this upwards of $50 million that might have to be
paid back?
Well, part of passing the budget is that it's statutory and then needs to be done by
the end of June, right?
So, like, part of it was doing the right thing to do it.
The other piece of it is your budget isn't really finalized until October for any school
district.
Our board said we agree that these allocations of funds should be what happens.
We won't know until our third Friday student counts and how all the other equalization
aids come through.
So, there is still time for this situation to play out, but really, statutorily, they
had to pass their budget.
Heather, I see you want to jump in there.
Yeah, because this is where I want to complain about the whole process that Wisconsin public
school systems have for how they do their budgeting.
They're beholden to a system that forces them to write their budgets in advance of knowing
how much aid they're going to get.
And so, there's always some amount of guesswork involved in this process.
And in a budget year, this often happens before the budget has even been passed or finalized.
And so, they're really just guessing.
They're doing it before even, you know, they get the estimates of what aid might be under
certain conditions sometimes.
We hear districts complaining about that all the time.
So, you know, this is all part of a larger system that really makes it challenging for
districts to plan ahead in under good times.
And when something like this happens, it just becomes, you know, exponentially more frustrating
for everyone involved.
Well, Jenny, not Jenny.
Also, chime in on this, how the timeline of things works out, because it actually works
out locally in an even more grotesque way, because oftentimes in school districts have
multiple schools like Milwaukee has over 120, right?
The individual principles are charged with creating their budget ask as well.
And they base their staffing on these estimates or guesses, you know, and like you can't
over-guess, because then you're going to hire people and have to let them go, right,
September, you know, the third Friday.
But you can't under-guess, because then where will you get people if all of the sudden
you need to open another classroom?
So, the whole system of it is broken from the grassroots up.
Johnny, so you hear a little comment.
They're really lifting the veil on the mystery there.
Well, I know for listeners, you know, we're familiar with this because we're constantly
under the, you know, dictation of the budgets.
And we've been in schools, we've either worked in them as teachers, school leaders, or some
capacity.
We've become familiar with the cycle of the budget and things.
But this conversation, I think, for our listener out there who is always hearing us talk
about school funding, school funding, this is really special because it's sort of explaining
how it goes and some of the ins and outs.
So that would be cool too.
So if we can, we have time, let's get into some of that, like, what's so important about
that third Friday?
What's so, like, for our listeners, these are like, this is like, this is a learning moment.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, first of all, promoting that big conference coming up in July was constant public
education network.
And then looking at, okay, this development with the budget, Milwaukee Public Schools upwards
of potentially $50 million that might, that might have to be paid and the complexity that
goes on with the school budget and all of this, want to come back to the two when we come
back after the break.
Let's put this question about saying, you know, for teachers, it was really important
that the board passed this budget and a lot of other people, we want to know why when
we get back.
Uh, there's always some reconciliation available here on busted pencils, it's fully
let it education talk, educated educators talking education, third Monday of the month, Wisconsin
public education network, it's their regular spot, we're joined with Heather, executive
director, Jenny Hofschult, Hofschulte parent, MPS WP and member also budget, uh, things
that are going, if you've been watching the news in Milwaukee Public Schools, everybody
seeing right now, the potential that there was upwards of $50 million that Milwaukee Public
Schools may have to give back to the Department of Public Instruction based on some, I don't
know if you say heirs or just the process of how you report this, uh, also at the same
time, the budget for Milwaukee Public Schools, one and a half billion dollars, one and a
half billion dollars was passed last week.
And you know, other news to add to this was that, um, you know, there's the superintendent
and the CFO look like they've left Milwaukee Public Schools.
So it's presenting this situation to the taxpayer or to anybody looking or say, my neighbor
who might be paying attention, trying to go like, what's going on?
Hey, if you have questions or eight five five seven five two four eight four two is the
number you can jump in if you've been following along if you have some insight, but we're trying
to make sense of this.
Now, we said for the teachers and the staff, because people are going, how in the world
could they dare pass the budget when the reality of the situation is, is that they might
have to all this money?
Well, when it comes to at least the teachers and the staff, Jenny, there's a real good
reason.
You gave us one reason number one, which is they have to by statute by the end of the month,
pass the budget, but teachers and staff, what was its stake for them?
Well, job security, feeling like there's going to be a school district that exists, right?
And that same thing is true for parents and their children, you know, where could this path lead?
We're very used to it in Milwaukee, having lawmakers turn their gaze in a negative way
in our direction and have a lot of things to say about MPS, we're, you know, used to being
under scrutiny.
It's not uncommon for lawmakers from around the state to write really heinous type communications
about MPS.
This current situation has been no different, right?
So what was on the line in some ways is a reputation.
And in other ways, it's just another chunk in this chain that's, or chain, link in this
chain that's constantly coming at MPS as being scapegoated in the district, people talking
about it like a bottomless pit.
I mean, these are kids and families and educators in a system, but it's an opportunity, I think,
to also to get the community involved in a different way at MPS.
It is a really big system.
So this could be seen as an opportunity moment.
And the other part about this is it's a real learning opportunity for everybody about
the functions at Central Office, how the board actually operates, what does board governance
look like?
What are, what is the board's role and what are their duties in this situation like this?
And then also like, who is responsible at Central Office?
You know, initially when this came down, there was a big question of it, like was it negligence
or malfeasance, right?
Was someone doing their job ineptly or were they intentionally misleading?
I think we don't totally know all of the answers to that yet, but that goes a lot into
the trust of the community and the educators.
What will happen on September 3rd when we come back to school on day one, right?
Right.
Heather, when, you know, from Wisconsin Public Education Network, this is, as Jenny said,
a learning opportunity.
I was wondering how you are, you know, the membership might present this for the entire
state.
Yeah.
I mean, it's a tough situation in part, like Jenny said, because there's a lot we don't
know yet trying not to jump to conclusions, grateful for all of the opportunities democracy
affords us in our public school systems to be able to hold the public schools to this
level of scrutiny, to be able to see all the books, to be able to attend all of the meetings.
And so as hard as it is to hear some of, some people say some of the things that they've
been saying in the public meetings and to see the sort of level of anger and frustration
amongst people, you know, it's, it's heartening to see people mad and showing up, right?
You know, I mean, like Jenny and I always say, bring us your maddest mom, people should
be mad, right?
There's a lot to be mad at right now.
Let's all get in the same room and figure it out.
And let's find a way that we can both demand transparency and accountability for what's
going on, allocate those resources to meet the actual needs of kids and come together
to make sure that we're fighting for better at the state level because none of this came
from nowhere, right?
So even though it might look from a distance like, you know, one person or persons or people
are personally to blame for what's happening, I mean, you'd have to have your head buried
in the sand, not to connect the dots to the way that that Milwaukee has specifically
been targeted to and under resourced over the past several decades in this state to the
point where the needs of the community are just absolutely out of comparison with other
communities in the state that didn't happen by accident, that happened because of decades
of choices that the state made to make sure that that Milwaukee didn't have enough resources
to meet the needs of its kids.
And I'm not okay with that as somebody who doesn't live there but loves to visit, right?
Why are we doing right by all of the kids?
Why is this district in such dire straits in the first place?
That's one of the questions I want answered.
Johnny Lupinaji.
Well, I think this is great, Tim.
I mean, anytime our listeners can listen in on us all having a discussion.
We're learning.
And that's what we're doing here.
We're learning with Heather and Jenny tonight about school budgets, but why it's so important.
And about how it's, it's, you know, how they unfold, really how it works.
It's not like you would have a common knowledge, not like your home budget, like it's not
like a bunch of that home or a budget, you know, for a small company.
It's a massive kind of piece of, that piece of, I don't want to say legislative.
It's an input from many different angles and it, and they overlap.
Remember, school has to happen every year.
So it's always interesting when, when the July 10th and we'll do a little rundown on basic
budget, like cycle, we'll do that at the end of the show when, when we break it down
to him.
So our listener was like, I don't know what, what they're talking about school budgets seem
to always be off.
Mm-hmm.
They're not always, but just remember that is expensive and I, and I, and I'm, I'm, I almost
cringe not at what, because of what Jenny said, but because I also hear it too often.
You know, these schools are just an endless pit of spending money.
This is just constant.
Well, what do you think?
Like we're educating kids and it's not free.
It doesn't, like there's not only, and I hate to, I'm not reducing education to this,
but I was like, when I'm talking to the neighbors, sometimes like, dude, do you know how much
money you're saving now that you don't go to childcare anymore?
Like this is, this is childcare.
This is feeding your child.
This is taking care of all of their learning needs.
This is staffing and entire building.
This is making sure transportation is part of this is every, this is all the moving parts
basically for, for your young person to be living in our community, by and large, and it
costs money.
Just like the cost of living has gone up, things have gotten more expensive.
And in fact, you know what, if you want there to be good education, then we have to pay
for the things that we know work, like having smaller class sizes and having, we call them
extracurriculars, but having all those things that are really essential to a good education.
I love when we have the Wisconsin Network for Public Education with us Heather and Jenny,
they'll be back when we come back after the break.
Welcome back, here we are, bus compensation for fully-lettered education talk.
It is Monday, we have a special Monday, once a month with the Wisconsin Public Education
Network, W-E-P-W-P-E-N, Heather and Jenny joining us tonight.
We are deep in talking about school budgets, the stuff happening in Milwaukee, and really
kind of getting into this.
We left it off at the break with some of the complications of school budgets, and why
they're so messy, and just thought might be nice to come back and talk about scale.
You know, because there's a big difference between districts.
Districts have like a high school, a middle school, three elementary schools.
You know, they may be a small, what we call a small district, or even our suburban larger
districts are kind of less moving parts.
Can you tell us a little bit more about the scale of Milwaukee public schools?
Well, as I mentioned to you, gentlemen, in the break, you know, when we lay out data
across the school districts, and we have over 400 school districts across the state of
Wisconsin, independent school districts, Milwaukee public schools has more students that
live in identified homelessness just over 5,000 every year, which is more than 400 of
the school districts in the state have in total enrollment, right?
You know, our school district has about 20% of students with various degrees of special
education needs.
And in some schools, because, you know, students go to school, we have choice within, even
within our public school district, some schools run in access to 40% of students with special
needs, or 100% of students, you know, living below the federal poverty line.
Well, and on that too, just the scale, Johnny, you said that I'm by saying, yeah, you know,
I mean, if you're, even if you're from a suburban district, you might have the sense of a
high school, maybe a couple middle schools and some elementary schools, Jenny, you said
120 distinct campuses within the Milwaukee public school system.
Yeah, give her a take.
Wow.
Okay.
And for listeners, like in general, this isn't just like 122 places where there's teachers
teaching kids.
And yeah, we got to pay some salaries.
These budgets include transportation, you know, buses and drivers, facilities, the whole
building maintenance aspect of it, the whole campus, so we say 122 campuses.
That's just not a building that's parking, that's all the sports facilities, that's all
those things.
Energy, the school has to stay lit, heat, you know, the cool and the summer, it's hot,
you know, it's hot in parts of Wisconsin right now.
It's real cold in other parts, in other times of the year, health and safety.
We got school nurses, we got all kinds of school security fund and the budget instructions,
students have to have qualified teachers.
Thank you, Wisconsin, for having qualified teachers.
I mean, this is a banner of our state.
These are all worth aspects of good public education.
It's not cheap, but it's worth it.
On top of that, you got curriculum, staff development, food services, library services,
counseling services, school leadership support, you got to pay the principal and all the
school, you know, super assistance to the principal.
You got everybody's a job form, right?
So all the adults that go to that building are going to work to you and our kids and those
adults are going to building.
So imagine our operating costs for one company and then multiply that by 122 facilities
in the area and include transportation because I have never worked anywhere that paid for
the transportation of all the people coming and going.
So it's expensive endeavor.
So when I hear 1.5 billion, of course, those news bites, they hit like in real shocking
ways, especially when we're, you know, most of us, hardworking people are feeling this,
feeling the squeeze.
So we hear those news bites and I'm, that's where I'm going to go a little bit.
It's like, I think it's just a little bit, it seems a little bit shady, a little sus
to drop something like this in mid July, July 10th is when budgets get all reconciled and
to come out the gate, all of a sudden, find it 1.5 and then point and fingers at a district.
So I'm just curious like how they're gently like the timing, the message, it's like,
oh, see, it feels like a little shade.
I'm not going to speak to the rationale for the Department of Public Instruction and
how they did release that final letter.
But I mean, it has come to bear that publicly that there were several attempts at trying
to get this report corrected and to give appropriate information.
What has been sort of interesting, I'm sure public records request will eventually help
us fill in a timeline in a little bit better way, but the board really seemed to be caught
off guard by the whole situation.
So it's unfortunate if during this whole span of time that DPI was trying to get this
report and these corrections made that no one ever tried to loop the board in in any meaningful
way, right?
For them to understand the gravity of this documentation and then also the impact of
its being late or, you know, misfiled.
But even that, the way you just said that, Jenny, is that learning opportunity you just
presented to us because I can hear right now because I see the media is like, well,
what was the board doing?
Well, hey, it seems at least at this point that the communications that if some of these
reports were laid based on that 50 million that might be owed back, that that was a communication
with within potentially some of the district administrators, not the board, potentially
in saying so like some of the board members felt very caught off guard with this, is that
sound about accurate?
I mean, that's the, what I know to be the public facing information, yes.
I mean, I don't know anything secret, but I do believe that our board fell off caught
off guard, definitely.
And a lot of people were left wondering, and even during the meetings, the public meeting
since just wondering why they hadn't been approached.
Heather, go ahead, Johnny.
You're curious because here we are.
This is like public education.
Where he's talking about, we are, you know, fighting for public education.
It's like a unified front.
We are fighting for public education.
And, you know, I just wonder, these things kind of like the way they're being reported,
the reading that's coming out of Milwaukee and the, the point in fingers about it and
then that, you know, it just like throws fuel on the flames of that sentiment, well,
schools just spend lots of money and lots of money and, and it's like, will they spend
the money there that they need to to educate kids for our democracy, for our communities,
for their futures, for all of our futures.
So Heather, I'm, you know, as someone who has got a 10,000 foot view of Wisconsin and public
schools in general, and you're like, dialed in on like the solidarity we need.
You know, I just wonder your comments on that, on this moment, like how, how, how can
we stay together on this, not be divided?
I think that's really the question that a lot of people are asking themselves right now.
Again, people, people are interested and upset for good, for good reasons.
Like there is, there's a lot to unpack here and I don't want to come across as, you
know, being an apologist or give the impression that we don't need to, you know, fully,
holy, deeply scrutinize, like whatever got us here.
But what I do know is that the way this moment is being exploited to pit our public institutions,
the institutions that we trust the most to take responsibility for educating our kids
against each other in this moment and the way that, you know, this fight is kind of playing
out on a public stage is just playing right into the hands of those who have been actively,
vocally, forcefully, publicly working to undermine the success of Milwaukee students for decades.
And these same players are right there in the room when these conversations are happening.
They are behind op-eds that are getting written.
They are, you know, pulling a lot of strings, connecting a lot of dots, making, you know,
lots of accusations and, you know, really trying to exploit this moment to further erode
public trust in our institutions.
Well, meanwhile, this district, this massive district that serves, you know, 75,000 kids
is just trying to make sure all those kids are okay, right?
The board is busy taking care of kids and trying to meet them where they are and, you know,
do the enormous work that they've been elected to do.
And I think that a certain amount of grace is required in these moments to both make sure
we have the facts, you know, before we rush to judgment to trust the elected officials
who earned our votes by standing up for the right thing, who, who, you know, by and large
on this board have long track records of being champions for public education, for full
transparency, for meeting the needs of kids and fixing a funding structure that has been
grotesquely unfair to Milwaukee students, you know, and trying to find ways that we can
work together.
I want to be a partner in that from a statewide point of view.
And I know that Milwaukee folks really need people to try to help them understand what's
going on before we rush to judgment too quickly.
You know, what comes across here that really sounds strong is this is why we have public
schools.
This is, this is the biggest reason for public schools, Johnny.
Well, no, man, that's Tim, I was just giving you a high five for the five minutes till
our break, but you could call, you could go to me, I agree, and I, I really love how
there you had tying it together that way for us to be thinking about, let's gather the
facts and let's, let's lean on that democratic core value that is part of our institution.
Sometimes it's messy, but we trust one another.
So that full transparency that Heather talks about is so important because things are difficult.
We're talking about a massive district, budgets are going to be sometimes up, sometimes
down, especially when they're so tight, they're likely going to maybe come in under, let's
figure out why and let's have that transparency so that we can continue to trust one another.
That's a small part of a strong democracy, but that also Tim, why we really, we really
hammer against the privatization of schools and charters and stuff that don't have that
accountability.
Right.
It's like, sometimes the fingers and advice that in both Jenny and Heather gave such a
unifying response when I was kind of kind of lofted up a low below about like, it seems
a little shady to point fingers, you know, it sometimes happens.
I can say it from the outside, like, hey, let's not point fingers.
And Jenny and Heather are saying, no, we don't want to point fingers.
We want to open the books.
We want to figure out how we can build trust because the trust is there somewhere there
is a shortfall.
We'll figure it out together and we'll correct it.
Some kids cost money.
We already know we under fund it.
So so we're going to figure out what we need to get it going and to take care of all these
children and to do it openly and transparency.
Now on the flip side, why it's so dangerous to point fingers and be like, they're under
budget.
It's like, all these charter schools books are closed.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The board just knows they're under budget and they fix it and correct and go back and
correct it.
So transparency is always going to show the good.
And sometimes the mistakes, I won't even call them ugly because making mistakes is what
we do sometimes when we're learning to grow.
And especially what we do when we're taking care of children because you know what that
means?
That means that those school leaders most likely and all those decision makers needed to
in the moment take care of people and children in their community and it ended up costing
more than we projected likely because someone projecting it didn't really care about those
kids.
This is the part that breaks my heart about Milwaukee, but it resonates around the country.
Who are the children in Milwaukee?
Whereas the highest concentration, Jenny kind of talked about the high needs, the people
who are experiencing poverty at high rates, right?
Are black and brown children in higher concentrations than in our predominantly white suburbs and
parts of the state?
So well, it may not be some explicit sort of like white supremacist movement to really
stick it to Milwaukee.
You know, it resonates with that kind of systemic racism.
Let's get with it.
Let's open the books.
Let's figure things out together and let's trust one another.
Why stuff from Jenny and Heather and I love it, love it, Heather, a little closing statement
there.
Yeah, I just want to echo, I guess, what Johnny said because it's so important to keep
in mind that we're not, we're talking about kids here.
When we withhold resources from our kids, we are basically forcing our children once
again to pay the price of mistakes of adults, regardless of where those mistakes came
from.
When what we should be doing is looking for ways to make sure that we are providing every
sort of support that we can at the state level to meet the needs of our largest district.
The entire state depends on a thriving Milwaukee.
The ways that the Milwaukee economy drives the rest of the state are fantastic, amazing.
It's a world-class city.
I mean, we know that wonderful things are happening throughout the district.
There are all kinds of amazing programs going on, like lots of resources.
They've got a robust and thriving community schools program.
They've got all kinds of offerings at the school and local level.
Instead of pitting our systems against each other and punishing the district for whatever
this mistake was, we should be looking for a way to move forward stronger and better
and position kids to thrive rather than get further in the way of their success.
Yeah, Wisconsin Public Education Network, Heather, Jenny, man, thank you guys for busting
pencils with us tonight.
When we get some more, though, too, we want you guys coming right back as soon as this news.
In fact, we'll leave this open.
Wisconsin Public Education Network, Jenny, more news you guys can bring it on.
Johnny and Tim are going to break it down when we get back.
Oh, there it is.
Tim and Johnny, coming back, break it down.
Busted pencils fully, let it education talk, educated educators, talking education, third
Monday of the month, Wisconsin Public Education Network in the house, executive director, Heather
with us, and we're going to ally working through the Milwaukee Public Schools parent, Jenny
Hochschild, he was there, Johnny, so yeah, you know, there's some confusion.
Maybe that's the word.
I don't know, but Milwaukee Public Schools, the big budgeting, $1.5 billion total budget
that passed, potentially upwards of $50 million, maybe the state gave Milwaukee Public
Schools all of this, and it made me think, though, too, of going, yeah, and guess what?
You know why we know this?
Because it's our public school system, and this type of transparency is what you voted
for and what you get.
This isn't a moment to then turn this into an opportunity to advocate for privacy, because
understand the privateizers that are going to use this to their, they're saying, look,
you know, nothing good happens in Milwaukee Public Schools.
This is why we need to turn.
We need to turn it over to unaccountable, privatizing people.
Really, that's your pitch.
Your pitch is going to be that we need less transparency.
We need a bunch of micro private schools that can do whatever the heck they want, because
knowing what's happening, the transparency that came about that brings us to this ability
to talk about this, really, you're going to vote that potentially.
People are going to use this as a stick to beat up public schools.
This should be why you champion public schools, because this is the transparency you get.
Johnny, that's all I'm saying.
Well, yeah, Tim, I think it's great.
I mean, here we are talking about, you know, the importance of public education and public
education costs money.
Even though, technically, it should be, you know, free for kids, like, I mean, and families
that live in our communities, it's not free.
It comes from somewhere.
We fund it.
Right.
And just as we're talking about school budgets, just for a listener out there, I know, because
there was, it was some adjusting it.
I had to, like, it took for me to understand sort of the cycle of a school budget.
So we're talking about a school budget.
We're talking about that basically this differs a little bit from state to state to state,
but it's pretty similar everywhere.
Is that it depending on the fiscal year ending, and that's usually around July one, right?
Like sometime in July of fiscal year ends, and essentially a new budget begins, but if
you think about it like that, school typically goes from fall to early summer, and in the fall
districts begin to discuss the priorities, they sort of begin thinking about what they're
going to need, what's new stuff.
By mid-winter, you know, they are meeting and adopting the budget calendar, review and
guidelines.
They're going over all the things on the budget.
They're looking at like where might we be off a little bit, what's some of the stuff
that's going to need to change for next year, estimates of salaries, benefit increases
and adjustments.
You know, that's like mid-winter, really early spring.
And then also the same time, this used to be like, like, steadfast February by March,
we know, because the governor would submit the proposed state budget, right?
And so by early spring, mid-winter, like usually February March, right, district staff knows
that evaluation and evaluates and revises its preliminary budget.
So it's doing all kinds of reconciling, right?
So that's why I said like, hey, how come we're finding out about this in July, right?
So there's going to be some figure out to do, because that's typically something that's
starting to really surface in early spring, late winter.
So then by the end, we have a final review in spring, right?
And a public hearing to proceed the adoption of the next year's budget.
So then like the next year's budget is set before the fiscal year closes, then it closes.
So that gives the kind of cycle, the life cycle of a school budget to listeners.
And I know for me, I was always sort of like mystified by like, when would we know?
What do you mean we don't know how many teachers we're going to be able to hire back next
year?
Like, why can't we know these things?
We mean we know if we're going to have extracurriculars, like these are things we're
planning for.
What are you?
And we used to always know by the end of February, sometimes latest March.
It's been pushed out further and further and it's kind of a sad thing to mom with you.
If you're a school and you're serving the public, right, your book should be open to
everyone.
Absolutely.
You should go to the same process.
It's only fair, right?
It's like, I can't decide that I'm going to play, you know, hockey, but, you know, I'm
going to change the rules and some guys are going to be able to play with a ball and
not wear gloves.
And they can, you know, it's like, that's the kind of game of public schools that got
to all play by the same rules, you know, otherwise it creates this mess.
And I couldn't agree with Heather and Jenny Moore, like, loved their sentiment to stand
up warriors for public education, right, saying, Hey, let's come together.
Let's figure this out because it costs money to care for children.
And if children needed more of that year, let's figure out why and let's make sure we
have that.
But I'll tell you what, come on, folks, if children need something, remember Tim and I
make jokes about this, we're serious.
We taught wants and needs absolutely that second, third grade lesson wants and needs.
Children needed something different.
And that doesn't shock me coming out of COVID wherever you are at in this country.
Young people, all right, I'm fine, large going to be okay, but right now they're not
okay.
No need for them in multitude of ways.
And guess what?
Things got more expensive too.
So some money to care for children, never a bad idea.
We'll keep up to date with this.
Tim, I got to ask you though, before we close, quick one, man, quick one.
Okay, that'll a beef.
Okay, I'm using it.
I don't know if it's, if it's, if it's sarcasm or not, because I like this sarcasm
in it, but L.A. Tom, my man, our guy, he said, John, he keeps saying democratic party,
a democratic party.
And he's saying it's a democratic party, but I'm like, huh, is he?
Because I believe it's the democratic party.
And Sherry from HorrorCon, what's up?
You always say hello to us every evening.
We love that you're listening.
So maybe Sherry knows the answer.
Sherry posted, give us a comment and leave that for you because I know you got to talk
about some things and close us out tonight, but I'm going to leave that for you.
This week is going to be a wild week.
And I won't buy the end of the week that I know whether or not I should say the
democratic party or the democratic party, the democratic party sounds colloquial and
like sarcasm to me because it's, we call someone a democrat, right?
I believe it's the democratic party or the democratic candidate, but this is a beef
for me.
I'm not going to totally settle before you right now because I can tell you though that
there are some, there are some Republicans who like to throw out Democrat as a pejorative.
The democratic party, they like to throw that out there.
So yeah, I don't know is L.A.
Tom.
Oh, Johnny, though, what a week, but great, great week, though.
And again, busted pencils, too, really wants to thank everybody for listening.
And especially Menachua Brewing Company because busted pencils is sponsored by Menachua Brewing
Company.
They make Wisconsin great again, one beer at a time, Johnny Lupinachi busted pencils
man, Anya on the boards, Heather, Wisconsin Public Education Network, everybody, tomorrow,
Horace Man, give you a little hint.
See you all tomorrow.