Busing issues in Milwaukee Public Schools always get the big headlines -- sometimes too big. Take, for instance, a recent banner announcing a new plan for MPS that would reduce "massive busing," a plan envisioned by new School Board member Michael Bonds.

Bonds' plan would cut $20 million out of the busing budget and put that money towards improving schools. Perhaps forgotten in this idea was a little thing known as the Neighborhood Schools Initiative, which spent five times as much money and had little to show for it.

That 2000 plan, too, touted a drastic reduction in busing and promised to spend $100 million to build new neighborhood schools to eliminate the need for busing. The theory was that the money saved would be greater than the $100 million in seed cash. But it didn't exactly work out that way.

Savings came to only about 58 percent of the forecast since the district had difficulty persuading parents to change their kids' schools. A 2006 report noted the goals of reducing busing were close to being met, but only because enrollment dropped substantially.

It also found that 60.5 percent of students in 2000 were bused and 53.5 percent were bused in 2006, not exactly a major drop. Busing was also tinkered with when the board chose to change school starting times in order to save money on its transportation contracts.

Finding the $20 million should be an interesting and painful process since the total cost of the busing the board can cut is $27.5 million.

Bigger Roads Don't Mean Faster Commute: A $1.9 billion plan to expand I-94 south of Milwaukee to the state line won't improve travel times in Kenosha and Racine counties, the state Department of Transportation admits. The admission was found in the state's final environmental impact statement by the Citizens Allied for Sane Highways, which opposes expansion.

"So pigs fly and Sasquatch lives," said Robert Trimmier, co-chair of CASH. "WisDOT's story about paralyzing traffic congestion is just one more fairy tale. Surprise, surprise."

CASH argues that a design change would work the same as expanding lanes and gobbling up private property. It would also save some $200 million.

The DOT also said in the final EIS that freeway expansion would decrease travel time by 10 minutes between Howard and College avenues -- 27 years from now. That improvement would only be realized by drivers heading south, and only during the evening rush hour, asserts CASH.

Junket Time: Milwaukee County Exec Scott Walker and Mayor Tom Barrett jetted off to Prague last week with the city's business brain trust in tow, courtesy of the law firm Reinhart, Boerner, Van Duren. They no doubt supped with former state GOP chair and Reinhart law firm CEO Rick Graber, perhaps even tipping a few Pilsner Urquells along the way. The two were there to try and drum up some trade, but it's hard to imagine we'd need anything from Prague besides Pilsner. No one complained, though, since the event had bi-partisan overtones.

Gov. Jim Doyle, on the other hand, did not go unscathed for his junket to Ireland this week. The folks at the right-wing Wisconsin Club for Growth take exception to Doyle's Emerald Isle tour, making the strange connection that he's gone into hiding because he's dodging some bad press.

 Page 1 of 2 (view all on one page)

Next >>

Post a comment / write a review.