Make your voice heard!
12/27 Listening Session on Proposed Madison Charter School – Forward Career and College Academy
What: Listening Session on Proposed Charter School
Date: Friday, December 27
Time: 5:00 PM
Location: 2353 S. Park Street, Madison, WI
On Friday, December 27, 2024, a Listening Session will be held at 5 PM at 2353 S. Park St, Madison, WI for the proposed “Forward Career and College Academy” charter school.
A charter school is a publicly funded, tuition-free, nonsectarian school that does not have to adhere to the many state laws governing traditional public schools, lacks transparency, and takes away needed funds for our children in our public schools.
This charter school is being proposed by the McKenzie Foundation, led by local real estate developer John McKenzie and Paul Vallas, who has been involved in privatization efforts in New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Haiti. He was also a former mayoral candidate in Chicago who was defeated by the teacher union endorsed candidate Brandon Johnson.
The McKenzie Foundation has two proposals through the:
1. Madison Metropolitan School District, and
2. University of Wisconsin Office of Educational Opportunity.
a. The latter UW proposal requires public listening sessions.
The McKenzie Foundation scheduled the first listening session, aimed at educators, on 12/17 at 3 PM, a time that teachers, school staff, and workers could not make. They scheduled the second listening session for the public at 12/20, but postponed that one to 12/27 (during the holiday season on a Friday night). This may be one of the only opportunities for community and public input to the UW charter proposal.
Some reasons the public, especially union sisters and brothers, may want to learn more about the proposal is that if chartered through UW, it will likely be non-union with no oversight from MMSD.
Additionally, they claim to want to promote trades pathways for students, yet there is no clarity on their relationships with building and construction trades unions. Yet, the McKenzie’s do hire non-union trades to build their own properties.
We, the Madison community, clearly supports our Public Schools, as can be seen by the recent $600 million referendum in support of MMSD that was passed overwhelmingly.
In addition to attending the public input session, you can email UW leadership directly; Cynthia Gonzalez, UW Director for Office of Education Opportunities, Charter Schools for Wisconsin at cynthia.gonzalez@wisconsin.edu and UW President Jay Rothman at president@wisconsin.edu and/or jay.rothman@wisconsin.edu, and let them know it’s NO to a charter school with UW.
If you have questions about the charter process or want to talk more with a union public educator on the ramifications of this proposal, feel free to reach out to Leland Pan on the MTI Board of Directors.
Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement 
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