Milwaukee’s Schools are Full of Poison, What went wrong?

In the last month, seven  Milwaukee Public Schools have been found to be lead contaminated. Four of the schools temporarily closed and three remain closed to date. These closures are the correct course of action for the moment, despite the disruptions they cause to families. Unfortunately as of writing MPS has been unable to communicate a timeline by which students will be able to return to their schools. This is indicative of a broader pattern of failure in leadership at the city and state levels.

Who are the major players,what have they done, not done, and what do they need to do going forward to effectively deal with the MPS lead crisis? 

Milwaukee Public Schools:

MPS Schools new Superintendent Dr. Brenda Cassellius has been in her position for less than a month, but has indicated that the lead crisis is her “number one priority.” While the crisis is not a result of her leadership, it is now her responsibility and we urge her to act quickly on this issue. She is preceded by Superintendent Keith Posley, who held his position for 6 years and resigned with a huge severance package instead of being fired for his years of terrible leadership. 

MPS is facing several critical problems which all need to be addressed. Many of these problems are due to the attack on public school systems that occurred over the last few decades. Even if there had been better and more transparent leadership, a district of Milwaukee's size would be hamstrung by the consistent efforts at privatization (Charter and voucher schools) and the overall trend of defunding public schools. Even if Dr. Cassellius is above reproach, Republican leadership in the legislature are likely to continue their attack on our public school system. In fact, it is the state’s consistent defunding of our public schools and use of taxpayer funds to for private schooling that directly led to the current crisis.

More than 85% of MPS schools were built before the US banned the use of lead pipes for water distribution in 1986. The pipes that go into MPS are now lead free, but the internal pipes at these schools likely still have lead in them. Furthermore, many of these schools have a great deal of lead paint in them, and the paint chips from them are incredibly toxic. MPS needs to make it a priority to get the lead out of these schools without further impacting students, and they need to be transparent about how long this process will take.

Milwaukee Health Department (MHD):

MHD is currently involved in assessing MPS school buildings for lead hazards. They were tipped off that schools may be a source of lead exposure after a child was lead poisoned and they ruled out residential routes of exposure. But there are around 150 school buildings to assess and MHD has to continue to follow-up on all cases of childhood lead poisoning which includes those coming from residential routes of exposure.

MHD reached out to RFK Jr’s Center for Disease Control last month for assistance in this monumental task. This request was denied because the entire group of lead experts was dismissed from their posts. In response, activists with Lead-Safe Schools MKE are encouraging MHD to declare this a public health emergency to mobilize resources and cooperation among institutions.

Common Council:

Our alderpeople are specifically important in the mobilization of a response to this crisis. Lead Safe Schools MKE outlines what they have specifically asked of the Common Council:, to pressure the MPS School Board to host a special session on the lead emergency, pressure MPS to publicize work orders on these buildings  over the past 10 years, and to pass policy that will prevent future lead exposure to staff and students. The Common Council does not always act with the best interests of students in mind, but this is the opportunity to show that they care about the safety of children in more than a performative way.

Additionally, the Common Council needs to show they care about the safety of all children. In 2018 the Common Council adopted a resolution towards the annual testing for lead in charter schools. No such initiative exists for public schools, which begs the obvious question “does the Common Council see the health and safety of students at charter schools as more valuable?”

The Mayor:

This brings us to our mayor. As the landlord for these public school buildings, Cavalier Johnson has a lot to answer for. He has taken to an uncharacteristic silence on the issue, beyond gesturing towards asking the state legislature for money  “to allow us to be able to provide some additional opportunities to catch these things.” The city owns these buildings, and the upkeep of them ultimately falls on the mayor’s office (despite the decentralization of this responsibility, for which MPS also shares some of the blame). As things are currently, the city has failed to maintain these facilities in a way that is suitable for humans to occupy safely.

As the financial agent for the schools we believe we were brought to this point by a lack of leadership from City Hall. It is Cavelier Johnson’s responsibility to now fix these lead problems, to fund efforts for yearly lead testing in the buildings, and to provide free lead testing for every school child. We recognize that these are not free, and that the federal government is incapable of providing assistance. Thus, the City needs to find the money to pay for it.

We know that the Mayor is best friends with Robin Vos, and he has recently gone to Madison to petition to get cops back in schools. He has more power on this issue than he has chosen to wield, but since it doesn’t involve giving money to cops or his friends, it hasn’t been his priority. Maybe instead of metal detectors for students, we fund detection of the neurotoxic heavy metal that is poisoning children? 

More has been written about how the state government has failed MPS, but this is our house. The modus operandi for those in power who have brought us to this point have blamed each other, and while that blame is not misplaced, it is not a substitute for accountability for the failings by any individual party. The mayor, the common council, MHD and the new leadership of MPS need to come together to address this issue collectively. 

And you can tell them that yourself! Lead-Safe Schools MKE has their information and some important talking points to help you communicate these issues to your alderperson, and our Poison Mayor.