Walker's $74 Million Cut To Milwaukee Schools' Teachers, Head Start, Nurses - - Even The Breakfast Program!

Thanks to Gretchen Schuldt over at Milwaukee Rising for posting a link to a PowerPoint about where Scott Walker's budget cuts to the Milwaukee Public School system could fall.

The PowerPoint, using data from Walker's proposed budget, discloses program and staff cuts - -  and even a 10% reduction in the school breakfast program.

That's the third dagger I see in the budget that Walker aims directly at poor, minority families - - the others being a) an increase the working poor would have to pay in state taxes because of a limitation Walker would impose on the use in Wisconsin of an existing federal tax break for low-income people - -  the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC) - - and, b) an arbitrary, $20 cut in all monthly W-2 welfare-to-work program checks.

This in a budget that increases the amount of public dollars shifted to private choice schools - - which upper-income residents will now be able to attend without means testing or other restrictions - - and which also subsidizes businesses and upper-income filers through greater capital gains write offs and other breaks.

Bottom line:

A state budget that deeply cuts educational, health, AODA and even meal programs in a public school system that is overwhelmingly minority and African-American, and in a city where the majority of residents are minorities, and in a state where minorities make up a disproportionate share of low-income residents - - is reprehensible.

And racist.

This isn't a rhetorical or even a political assertion.

Or an allegation about motives.

It's simply a factual description of the budget.