Fighting For MPS, Dreading a Nuclear War

By the time you are reading this the deadline that President Donald Trump has imposed on Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz has passed. The consequences of not complying with the president was that he intended to use nuclear weapons on the country of Iran. Or at least this was how I intended to start this article, because thankfully Trump has moved the deadline back two weeks. In the meantime, he will surely continue to target civilian infrastructure and harm the regular people he props up in the name of regime change. Israel broke the ceasefire within hours of its announcement.

So waiting out a potential nuclear holocaust has become elongated. While many of us are bracing ourselves and our communities for the economic fallout of this conflict, worrying about our loved ones in the Middle East, or worrying about nuclear war writ large, activists are still organizing for a fair budget for Milwaukee Public Schools. This is genuinely courageous and important work! When I am faced with dread I like to hide out and play video games in the dark, or join a protest about the big bad happening until I feel calm enough to go back to playing video games. My impulse is seldom to be constructive.

The community organizers who are showing up for MPS are dedicated to building a better world, and they need all of our help. The actions we have the opportunity to participate in are detailed below, but I hope to help frame them as an active part of the struggle against the same forces behind this recent military escalation. I also want us to look at engaging in local advocacy efforts as an avenue for hope.

The #Resistance… But For Real

For more context on what is happening with MPS right now you can check out our recent reporting on the subject, or any of these sources. Essentially, Superintendent Brenda Cassellius has unilaterally taken over the budget process by shadily gathering votes from the school board to make cuts to schools across the city with abandon. These cuts are inequitable, unprecedented, cruel, and poorly conceived. 

To the extent that her hand was forced by the inadequate funding for MPS from Madison, she has also not joined the advocates in fighting for a more fair revenue system. There is currently a lawsuit against the state for not funding MPS sufficiently (lets hope our liberal courts do what we voted for here!) and Casselius is not willing to sully her hands with these activist causes. She continues to fund both consultants and her friends instead of aligning herself with children’s best interest. Her plan would cut over 200 positions across the district in order to make up for a $46 million deficit.

The latest call to action by parents and community members defending MPS is a pressure campaign to urge the board to overrule Cassellius to return budget prioritization to the individual schools so that they may best pick and choose the services that align with their goals. This campaign rocks, the organizers are very cool. Milwaukee Teachers Education Association (MTEA) was on WPR Tuesday saying, “We — as parents, as students, as workers — are really just demanding that the board stop, they intervene, and they actually take action to ensure that our schools aren’t harmed in this process.” To this Cassellius says many staffers who lost jobs might end up shifting to teaching positions.

MTEA has sent a letter to the school board asking that they take up a special session this month, including  a list of demands, quoted below:

• Reverse the superintendent's cuts by maintaining or increasing hours for critical frontline staff, including paraprofessionals and children's health assistants, art, music, and physical education teachers, school counselors, school social workers, school nurses, psychologists and librarians.

• Direct the superintendent to stabilize MPS’s workforce in school classrooms by agreeing to a full 2.63% cost of living adjustment for all MTEA workers on July 1, 2026

• Pause the implementation of the superintendent’s haphazard and harmful centralized budgeting process that fails to meet the unique needs of each school community. Utilize spring, summer, and fall 2026 to give the school budgeting process the care and time required to engage in careful, system level change analysis, with extensive planning and impact analysis, meaningful engagement with the families of all 139 public schools, collaboratively meet and confer with MTEA to develop a proposal that would go to the board for approval.

• Conduct a thorough review of personnel cost and growth in Central Office and consultant expenditures since March 2025 to current

• Ensure greater transparency and oversight in procurement practices and budget development

In a press conference on Monday, students spoke out. Student organizer Elijah Shorts declared that students are standing with MTEA and rejecting these cuts. Furthermore he concurred with the above letter asking that teachers should instead be granted a 2.63% cost-of-living adjustment. He and other students are organizing a Student Strike Day on April 24th, 10 am, at Cathedral Square Park.

MPS Parents 4 A Fair Budget is the campaign joining with MTEA and students to push for a more stable budget. They have urged community members to sign this petition calling on the school board to cut contractors and not classrooms, and to share it with their friends and neighbors.

On April 9th the MPS District Advisory Council convened virtually. Cassellius took most of her time with a vague powerpoint that failed to address specific cuts being made by her new budget; she also spent some time addressing questions from the community. She made clear that an itemized budget would be available in the future - which seems too late. Furthermore it adds to the fluidity that is sowing so much confusion around her cuts. In the call and in her correspondence she continues to send different and confusing messages that conflict with what parents are hearing from principals.

None of the budget items outlined in the call addressed the elephant in the room, that her office has taken on the budget process unilaterally and denied schools and School Engagement Councils input. At the end of the day the one thing Brenda Cassellius did get correct is that the budget is a reflection of values. Unfortunately those values seem to mostly be enriching the Superintendent and her friends. Her position is salaried higher than both the Mayor of Milwaukee, and the governor of the state. 

Fighting For A Better World

Whether it is these amazing school organizers, governor hopeful Fran Hong’s legislative passion project to feed k-12 children, or childcare activist Corrine Hendrickson fighting to fund care, organizers fighting for children are constantly leading the way for a better world. Their ability to commit to issues in the face of overwhelming terrors, like fascists kidnapping community leaders or the threat of nuclear war, need to be the beacon for all of us in the struggle. I asked four organizers how they stay motivated fighting for public schools (emphasis added).

Amy: 

“This impacts the most vulnerable people. I grew up in a small town that only had one school – a public school. I got a great education and that is motivating to me. Finally there are so many amazing people in this advocacy space! This issue feels like a major fight, there was a lot that was bad and wrong. We are working together to make sure all stakeholders have a say into this issue – that is one of my values.”

Kristin: 

“I think so much stems from our direct local context. We have to see what public goods and services need defending and strengthening in our communities. As a parent I want to make sure I’m showing up at sites of my children’s struggle, instilling in them the courage and fortitude to stand up for their communities. At the same time, so much flows out of schools. If we make school a classroom to prison pipeline, if we give up democratic control, if we divest from our communities it will affect other struggles. We’re in a somewhat unique situation in Milwaukee with the Fuller legacy, the shitty school funding formula, Scott Walker's legacy, and a segregated city. The politics match what other industries are seeing – privatization efforts, stripping away worker’s rights, relying on private vendor data to make decisions, erosion of democracy, etc.  It’s an important struggle and one that I hope others recognize as a key to community health and wellbeing.”

Amanda: 

“Public school advocacy will always be important to me. My own public schooling made the life I have now possible. Teachers stood in important places in my life when my own family could not. Classrooms were safe places to read good books, try out different ideas, evaluate systems, and envision new possibilities. Schools should be the most hopeful places in our community and it will take all of us to bring that hopeful visioning to fruition.”

Erin: 

• “Public schools must be places of hope, safety, belonging, and the support needed for every young person to know they matter and they are valued. And showing my own children how we use our voice and our power to stand up when something is wrong and fight for a better world for all is how we raise a generation with the skill and will to create something better. Whether it’s fighting for a free Palestine, funding public schools, advocating for trans rights, and more, showing up for a better city and world will always be worth the fight.”

As these organizers have said, the fight for MPS is but one of the fronts we struggle on. If you do join the anti-war movement like our friends at Milwaukee Anti-War Committee, or Peace Action Milwaukee that rules! But for a more local flavor you can join the struggle for food justice like the folks at Metcalfe Park Community Bridges. The good people at Walnut Way are going all in against data centers that are plaguing our communities! The Young Democratic Socialists at Milwaukee School Of Engineering have been working overtime to evict ICE from their campus and you are not too old to help them out. It is my understanding that advocates wrestling with the Milwaukee Police Department are starting to make gains.

I refuse to join the online leftist dog-pile of No Kings protests, and I think that people have naturally used that space to create connections and get people motivated for important causes. If I have a criticism of some of the early protests, it is that this is a mass movement that doesn’t have explicit demands or goals and that feels like a missed opportunity. Generalized discontent seems to only serve the goals of the Democratic Party seeking to win supreme court seats and the midterms. However it does seem like the organization is making an intentional pivot towards next steps and connecting with local organizations. They have joined the call for no work, no school, and no shopping on May 1st along with the next mass movement protest!

I think No Kings organizers know that simply electing Democrats won’t get us out of this mess. Their feckless and failing response to Trump’s war is so wrapped up in policy and optics, but corporate Democrats also want this war. We can fight for more than what they have to offer us, and that is exactly what MPS advocates are doing.