The Takeover of the Milwaukee Public Schools didn’t just start with Senator Alberta Darling and Representative Dale Kooyenga’s MPS Takeover bill. It started decades ago and one of the ways it has pecked away at MPS is through the proliferation of 2R city charters. These third party operators are issued charters by the city of Milwaukee. They have a poor track record for performance and like all other schools that are not publicly run, they have no restrictions on who they educate, allowing them to push out students they deem undesirable. They are also not accountable to a public school board elected by the people of Milwaukee, but rather they are an appointed commission with a dubious record of oversight.
Milwaukee Alderman Tony Zielinski has authored a resolution for a 5-year moratorium on any new City of Milwaukee charter schools. It’s a significant step in the right direction to start to turn back the Takeover of MPS. This resolution will be introduced at the Steering & Rules Committee hearing on Thursday, June 11. We need to turn out a large crowd for this hearing, in order to begin the process of putting Milwaukee schools back in the hands of the people, and not unelected commissions!
![Parents, Educators and Staff, Students and Community members protest at Senator Darling's office June 4. Public education supporters brought petitions with 6,000 signatures demanding: Hands Off Milwaukee Public Schools! [Photo: Joe Brusky]](https://wibailoutpeople.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/darlings_office_june_4_2015.jpg?w=300&h=200)


![A large gathering and Walk-In took place outside of North Division High School before the school day started June 5. It is clear, Milwaukee doesn't want their public schools taken over by unaccountable capitalist corporations, banks and their political servants [Photo: Joe Brusky]](https://wibailoutpeople.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/milwaukee_north_division_hs_6-5-15.jpg?w=300&h=200)



