Today, Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius released the following statement in response to the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association’s (MTEA) filing of a prohibited practice complaint against the district:
MPS must make hard fiscal decisions to ensure the district is protecting resources for classrooms and presenting a balanced budget proposal for the next school year. We cannot spend money we do not have. MPS is investing in our classroom educators and will add nearly 90 more teaching positions to our schools next year to help lower class sizes. MPS has bargained in good faith with MTEA since our first session in February and will continue to do so. Our team is committed to reaching a fair, lawful, and fiscally responsible agreement that delivers the maximum allowable wage increase to every MTEA-represented employee while honoring the District’s obligation to adopt a balanced budget for the 2026-27 school year.
The District has presented three structured proposals, each delivering the full 2.63% wage increase to every member of the bargaining unit – the maximum increase permitted under Wisconsin law without a referendum. The District later expanded one of those proposals to provide the full increase on July 1, 2026, to even more employees. The District has answered more than 230 written information requests from MTEA, provided an outside school finance expert to address the union’s questions about the District’s audited benefit costs, and twice requested mediation before filing unilaterally with the Commission on April 15, 2026, after MTEA initially declined.
MTEA itself confirmed in writing on April 14, 2026, that all three of the District’s proposals deliver the full 2.63 percent base-building wage increase to every employee, that the only difference between the parties’ positions is when the increase takes effect, and that the District’s $46 million negative fund balance is not disputed. The dispute, by the union’s own written admission, is about timing.
The District remains committed to Monday’s mediation before the Commission and to reaching a fair, lawful, and fiscally responsible agreement that delivers the maximum allowable wage increase to every MTEA-represented employee while honoring the District’s obligation to adopt a balanced budget for the 2026-27 school year. The District will continue to bargain in good faith.
