After much resistance, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty has finally secured the approval of the Milwaukee Common Council to allow a new voucher school to purchase a vacant MPS building in the Riverwest neighborhood. Annysa Johnson shared in an article for the Journal Sentinel,
“Council members voted 9-6 to approve the sale of the former Centro del Nino Head Start building at 500 E. Center St. to Right Step Inc., saying they had no choice under a new state law aimed at forcing the city to sell vacant and underused Milwaukee Public Schools buildings to competing school operators.”
“CJ Szafir of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, the conservative public interest law firm representing Right Step, said he was pleased the council “followed state law,” but that he knows the sale is not final. “The city and the teachers union will continue to play political games with us,” he said. WILL had accused the city of dragging its feet on the sale and had threatened to sue if it did not comply with the law.”
MPS has continuously resisted the sale of vacant MPS schools to voucher programs. Nicole Neilly shared the cost of maintaining the vacant buildings for Wisconsin taxpayers in an article for RedState,
“As of last year, at least 17 buildings owned by the Milwaukee Public School system have been sitting vacant and unused for an average of seven years, functioning as nothing more than dead weight for taxpayers. The cost of maintaining them has cost MPS more than $1.6 million.”