An empty high school classroom. (Dan Forer | Getty Images)
Milwaukee Public Schools faces growing pressure to place “school resource officers” in schools as soon as possible. At the same time, however, some community advocates are calling on school district officials to take their time.
Officers haven’t been stationed inside Milwaukee schools since 2016, and in 2020, after years of student activism , the state’s largest school district ended its contract with the Milwaukee Police Department. But Wisconsin Act 12 — a 2023 law that boosted local government funding across Wisconsin — included a controversial requirement that Milwaukee Public Schools place at least 25 school resource officers in schools.
So far the district is more than eight months past the deadline that the law set to implement the requirement, Jan. 1, 2024.
At the end of August, state Sen. John Jagler (R-Watertown), chair of the Senate Education committee, wrote to the Milwaukee school board about the district’s plans to meet the requirement. His letter followed comments made by board Vice President Jilly Gokalgandhi in July.
“Her answer was dismissive and appeared to suggest that the school district had no plans to comply with the requirement. I am hopeful that this was simply a misstatement made in the moment,” Jagler wrote. “I am writing to inquire about the School District’s plans to address returning School Resource Officers to MPS and meet the crime reporting requirements. These provisions should be seen as a powerful tools to help keep our kids safe.”
Department of Public Instruction Executive Director Sachin Chheda said in a statement to the Wisconsin Examiner Thursday that DPI has told MPS interim Superintendent Eduardo Galvan the school district “needs to come into compliance with state law as quickly as possible.”
“My sense is that the previous administration did not take this requirement, in addition to other requirements, seriously enough,” Chheda said. Milwaukee Public Schools has also been under scrutiny due to its failure to submit required financial documents to the state on time. The financial issues led to the resignation of the district’s superintendent and its chief financial officer.
“The previous administration is now gone, and both Superintendent Underly and I have spoken directly with Superintendent Galvan, members of the board and MPS staff about this, and strongly encouraged them to work quickly to get into compliance,” Chheda said.
MPS officials say they’ve started planning to place school resource officers back in schools. This includes having discussions with student groups, the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association (MTEA), the Administrators and Supervisors Council (ASC), district staff, community members and the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD).
MTEA President Ingrid Walker-Henry told the Wisconsin Examiner that data shows armed officers in schools have resulted in increased suspensions, expulsions and arrests of students. A 2021 Center for Public Integrity report found that Wisconsin students were referred to police at twice the national rate from 2007 to 2018.
The teachers union has expressed concerns about those findings to the district, Walker-Henry said.
“In 2020, Milwaukee residents, and those are voters and taxpayers as well as our students, expressed — and then our elected school board exercised local control and they made that decision — that having armed officers in schools does cause more harm to students,” Walker-Henry said. “MTEA does not see a situation [in which] we are going to ignore the data that shows it’s more harmful for students having armed officers in schools than [not having them].”
Students, families and educators have called on legislators to fund student needs including social workers, counselors and other mental health supports, Walker-Henry said, and the union has conveyed as much to MPS officials.
MTEA has been “disappointed in the state of Wisconsin legislators who have made a conscious decision to not fund public education, to not ensure that students have counselors and nurses and mental health supports and social workers [and] smaller class sizes,” she said.
In an email responding to Jagler, MPS Chief of Staff Paulette Chambers wrote that MPS personnel have visited public schools in Washington D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia, to observe school resource officer programs that “implement a variety of practices focused on improving relationships between schools, law enforcement, youth, and the greater community”
In an update to the school board Aug. 29, Galvan, the interim superintendent, said the district has worked with the Milwaukee city attorney and the board to draft a memorandum of understanding between the school district and the Milwaukee Police Department to clearly outline the expectations and responsibilities of both entities.
The draft agreement “focuses exclusively on procedural matters such as responsibilities, selection process, supervision, reporting, terms and training,” Galvan said. While it would “establish a clear framework for how the two entities will collaborate moving forward,” he added, the financial details are to be negotiated separately.
“We are committed to reaching a consensus that will facilitate the successful implementation of Act 12 in a manner that is sustainable and mutually beneficial to both Milwaukee Public Schools and the Milwaukee Police Department,” Galvan said. MPS and the city have scheduled meetings in the coming weeks on the cost and the implementation process.
While the bill that became Act 12 was pending in the Legislature, DPI submitted a fiscal estimate that found 25 SROs would likely cost $2 million. “The cost to MPS would depend on what is agreed upon by the City of Milwaukee and MPS, but if we assume an equal share between the two entities, the additional cost to MPS could be at least $1.02 million annually,” the estimate stated.
Alan Chavoya, outreach director for Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression, an anti-racism activist group, told the Wisconsin Examiner that the district shouldn’t rush the process of implementing school resource officers.
Chavoya said the plan should be developed in a community-led effort that emphasizes input from students, families and faculty: the people who will have to interact with SROs on a regular basis.
“Many students, faculty complained about having SROs. You can only imagine you’re going to school or you’re sending your child to school where you’re supposed to be safe, where you’re supposed to be in a learning environment, and you’re met with metal detectors and armed police officers,” Chavoya said.
“They’re out,” he said, referring to the police. “So I think before they are placed back in, there should be some due diligence and students need to be listened to, particularly in these schools where there were issues with SROs, which were primarily Black and brown schools of Milwaukee.”
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