While legislators debated the solution for the looming state budget deficit in Madison, residents in Milwaukee say more funding is needed to help their school system meet the needs of their children and families, according to a new survey.
The nonpartisan, nonprofit Public Policy Forum released a report today about a survey conducted by telephone May 18 through June 27, with a representative sample of 900 adult residents of the City of Milwaukee.
Most of the people surveyed, parents and non-parents alike, want Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) to provide more services that have not traditionally been identified as responsibilities of the school system. For example, more than 80 percent of the respondents believe it is extremely important that MPS provides violence prevention services, as well as other measures to improve safety and discipline – such as scanning everyone who enters school buildings for weapons, assigning police officers to work in middle and high schools, using dogs to search student lockers for controlled substances, and drug and alcohol prevention programs.
More than 60 percent also say it is extremely important for MPS to provide adult mentors for children, before- and after-school programs, employment counseling and measures to improve attendance.
In addition, the vast majority thought it was important to provide nursing and social work services like mental health counseling, and more than half of the respondents want MPS to provide housing assistance for poor families and measures to reduce poverty.
When asked if MPS has enough funding to meet those needs, more than 50 percent of the white respondents and non-MPS parents said the district does not have enough funding, and more than 70 percent of black respondents and MPS parents said the district does not have enough funding.
The full report is available at www.publicpolicyforum.org.
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