MPS share of cost to place 25 cops in schools could be $1 million per year, estimate projects

MADISON – A plan to require Milwaukee Public Schools officials to hire about two dozen police officers could cost the district an additional $1 million per year, according to a new state estimate.

Republican lawmakers have put forward a sweeping bill aimed at increasing state funding for Wisconsin's local communities that also includes other provisions that would make extensive policy changes for schools, policing, elections, hiring practices and quarries, among other areas.

One measure within the bill would require Milwaukee Public Schools to hire 25 school resource officers — a proposal lawmakers say will curb fights, criminal activity on school grounds and boost teacher recruitment. The district already employs 231 unarmed school safety staff members.

"They like the idea of having people who are there in the schools to maintain order and to make sure that kids are safe," Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, told reporters Friday at an event hosted by the Milwaukee Press Club.

But the idea is opposed by many in the Milwaukee Public School community, including MPS board president Marva Herndon, who said Friday the bill would "destroy Milwaukee's right to self-govern." MPS Superintendent Keith Posely has not said whether he supports the proposals.

"It clearly has racist overtones, as Milwaukee has the largest minority population in the state," Herndon said. "... we will not stand for that."

Jeff Fleming, spokesman for Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in March that the city and school district were then considering ways to have a "more dedicated presence" at schools in Milwaukee, especially during after-school events.

Johnson has not directly weighed in on the MPS provision of the bill to boost funding known as shared revenue for local governments.

When questioned at a public hearing on the bill in the state Capitol last week about whether he disagreed with any specific parts of the proposal, Johnson did not include the school officer proposal in his response. But he said, generally, local matters should be decided by local officials.

An estimate of the requirement drafted by Department of Public Instruction officials shows the hiring of 25 officers could cost $2 million annually when assuming the cost per officer is about $84,000 per year. Depending on how the City of Milwaukee and the school district divide the additional costs, the district's share could be half that, according to the estimate.

To estimate the potential cost of the proposed requirement, DPI used a starting annual salary for Milwaukee police officers of around $60,000 and a rate of 36% of salary costs for benefits, creating a total estimated cost per entry-level officer of $84,600 per year.

Bill also requires schools to track and report criminal activity

The bill also would require school officials to track and report criminal activity on school grounds, on school buses, and at school events. DPI analysts said local schools will incur additional costs to track and report such events but the exact amount per year is unknown. DPI also would need to develop a new reporting system to comply with the bill, analysts said, that could require "approximately 800 person-hours."

MPS cut its last contracts with Milwaukee police in June 2020, when racial justice protests landed outside MPS offices. School board members have stood by that decision to stop paying Milwaukee police officers to patrol outside its buildings and events.

In response to the proposal, MPS board member Missy Zambor said in a tweet Wednesday that she was elected on a platform to continue to keep police officers out of schools.

"I did not meet a single parent on the campaign trail who asked me to bring SROs back into our schools," she tweeted.

As city officials planned earlier this spring to boost police presence in Milwaukee schools, Assembly lawmakers passed legislation that would require police officers be stationed in public schools experiencing high numbers of reported crimes.

The bill is supported by the Milwaukee and statewide police unions and opposed by Milwaukee Public Schools, the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, Disability Rights Wisconsin and groups representing school psychologists and social workers.

Lobbyists for Disability Rights Wisconsin said in a statement opposing the bill that the proposal could disproportionately affect students with disabilities who represent more than 34% of school referrals to law enforcement despite accounting for 14.5% of the state's student population.

'Students and faculty need to feel safe'

Under the legislation, a school district would be required to hire an armed school resource officer for schools experiencing at least 100 incidents of serious crimes on school grounds within one semester and at least 25 of those result in an arrest.

The rule would apply to crimes of homicide, sexual assault, burglary, robbery, theft, battery, possession or use of illegal drugs, firearm possession and disorderly conduct.

"Students and faculty need to feel safe when they’re at schools," bill co-authors Rep. Nik Rettinger of Mukwonago and Cindi Duchow of the Town of Delafield said in a co-sponsorship memo to colleagues seeking support for the proposal.

Rep. LaKeshia Myers, a Democratic lawmaker who attended and previously worked as an educator in MPS, said state lawmakers should respect the school board's decision to employ security staff to avoid unnecessary arrests during behavioral incidents as opposed to contract with the police department.

Under the bill, school district costs of hiring officers would be partially reimbursed with federal pandemic relief funding. But a fiscal analysis of the legislation by the state Department of Administration said the funding source specified in the bill could not be used. Vos has dismissed the memo's findings.

If the state Legislature approves either the Assembly bill or the shared revenue bill as currently written, MPS could be required to post armed officers inside its buildings for the first time in seven years. In 2016, school district officials ended the practice in response to complaints about police unnecessarily citing and arresting students for incidents that could have been handled as disciplinary matters by the district.

K-12 reporter Rory Linnane of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: MPS share of costs to place police in schools placed at $1M a year