of freedom finally reached their weary but ready ears.

>> The center for Black Excellence continues to raise funds to help pay for staff operations and programs.

It's expected to open by the end of next year.

In other news, outside auditors have until Monday to submit proposals taking a fine tooth comb to Milwaukee Public Schools financial manager sent a separate audit ordered by Governor Tony Evers, will examine the district's instructional practices and the audits are on a fast track after financial scandal rocked Mnps earlier this month, resulting in the resignation of its superintendent.

The loss of millions of dollars in withheld aid over missing financial data and a chorus of naysayers even calling to dissolve the district .

Milwaukee Democrat Chris Senate Education Committee and is an NPS parent.

He's here with his thoughts on this mess.

And, Senator, thanks very much for being here.

Frederica.

So you support MPs and send your children there.

>> But how shocking was all of this for you?

>> Yeah, I mean, it was a surprise, when we got our first call, right before the memorial Day weekend, that there was reports that had not been adjusted for audits, going back months, and that there had been a problem in communicating between DPI and the administrators at Milwaukee Public Schools and that that was going to result in the delayed aid payments for special education reimbursement and possibly larger, so, yeah, I was surprised as, as everybody about this, especially given the implications.

constituents this week offered a lesson in kind of how this went down.

First, you dipped back into history explaining how in the 1990s, the business office at NPS was consolidated into the superintendents office.

How in your mind did that pave the way for what's happening now?

>> Yeah.

So bac, originally as it had been functioning, it was divided, so you had the superintendent who was in charge of instructional, management, and then you had the financial side that was governed by the board.

Howard Fuller, who is the superintendent of NPS at the time, asked for the power to shift from the board over to have it completely under the superintendent, there needed to be a state law change.

They went to the state legislature and the governor who made that change in the budget and then shortly thereafter, the school board consolidated those powers under the superintend audit.

What they did is they eliminated financial , check of making sure that what was happening over there was going to be checked not just by the superintendent, but by the school board.

So since then, they've only been able to trust whatever the superintendents office is saying because the financial manager is over on that side.

>> So you also point out that the district's finance office has been critically understaffed, resulting in these failures.

>> Whose fault is that?

>> Yeah, I mean, look, they are down 12 positions, two key ones by their, their own definition on that is something that the school board actually asked about in a meeting back in December, about staffing issues, because trying to make sure that they were staffed up, was a priority for them, the superintendent's office said point blank that they were staffed up and that they were only short two, so they tried to the best of their ability.

The school board tried to make sure that these positions were filled and that things were being done in a proper way, but again, if you don't have a proper check, you don't actually know what's going on.

And I would add, I think it's worth noting that I think, you know, for viewers, a lot of times they view all elected officials as being on the same plane.

But for school board members in Milwaukee, much part time, mostly volunteer positions where they are each paid less than $20,000, which, to put it in perspective, people working minimum wage job, make just about that for the number of hours that they're putting in, all of them have full time jobs beyond this.

And so their ability to be able to do their own financial research is, is fairly limited.

They do not have staff as legislators do, as other people in other offices do.

So they can ask the questions, but they're really at the mercy of the superintendent, his office, and what they're going to present to them.

>> And so you're suggesting that there surprise in this information is kind of not their own fault?

>> Well, I would say, look, if you want to have a professional board, of people who are governing the largest school district in the state, and this is a, a budget that is larger than any municipality in the state of Wisconsin, including Milwaukee, you might want to have them be in full time positions to do that work.

And there's been a reluctance to elevate them that to that level, but you would avoid a lot of these problems, right?

>> So you, you take issue, though, with people who malign the district or call for its dissolution, but is this not an outrage that hurts the students?

Some of our most vulnerable students, the most?

>> Yeah, I mean, indeed.

And I am frustrated as well.

But I think it's better to put the frustration right where it belongs.

And I would put that at the state, not at the school board level.

There has been a malicious and deliberate underfunding of public education in our state for decades, you can mark on a, on a chart that 15 years ago on a per pupil basis, students were worth more than they are today.

They they are not even keeping pace with inflation.

And so to expect better outcomes, especially for kids in public school, many of whom are homeless, many of whom are, malnourished and have other needs.

And if we're not funding those underlying problems, funding solutions to those, well, we're going to get these exact same results.

So it's a little disingenuous to try and go to the same people who have been carving up MPs and attacking it for years and asking them what they think we should be doing.

It's kind of like a cow asking the butcher how to be able to live a long life.

life.