Wisconsin Right Now

Milwaukee’s superintendent could soon be out of a job. The city’s school board will meet late Monday afternoon to discuss Superintendent Keith Posley’s future. The meeting comes after Milwaukee parents' blowback over proposed budget cuts, the state's threat to withhold millions of dollars in school aid, and activists in the city's demand for “accountability.” “These are serious violations that directly call into question MPS’ financial stewardship of taxpayer dollars. We are dismayed, though not surprised, that our concerns have been proven well-founded – and we repeat our calls that Milwaukee cannot afford for business as usual to continue at MPS,” City Forward Collective Executive Director Colleston Morgan Jr. said Friday. Posley has not answered questions about how MPS missed last year’s deadline for two state-required financial reports. Last week, Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction threatened to withhold $15 million in general state and special edu...

Jill Underly’s op-ed is 572 words long. She doesn’t use the word "parent" once. Wisconsin’s state superintendent of schools is jumping to the defense of teachers and schools in the debate over race, gender and sex in the state’s classrooms. Superintendent Jill Underly wrote an op-ed Wednesday that defends what she calls “welcoming spaces.” “The way we – as leaders, as community members, as adults – talk about race, or about respecting pronouns, or about including books in libraries that address racism or those with LGBTQ+ characters, have an impact. When the adults in charge – those who make policy, or run for office, or serve on boards – speak negatively and encourage harassment of students with disabilities, or of students because of their gender, immigration status, race, sexuality or gender identity, it makes life harder for students,” Underly wrote. “These are children! And when adults sit passively without calling out these harmful behaviors, they are no differe...