Lawsuit against choice program by ‘singing brewmeister’ will do nothing but leave African American kids singin’ the blues!

Here we go again. 

Just when we thought the educational playing field was covered with new ‘financial sod,’ the groundskeeper sprays it with toxic ‘Negro weed killer.’ 

As many proponents of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) feared in light of the ideological shift of the state supreme court, the so-called progressive (liberal Democrats) groundskeeper has introduced yet another lawsuit to stop the program. 

The lawsuit comes shortly after state lawmakers passed a billion-dollar educational appropriation that includes major subsidies for government schools and closes the gap between them and private schools participating in the MPCP. 

Kirt Bangstad is a rejected, dejected, idiosyncratic state assembly candidate who is apparently trying to promote himself and get into the good graces of his party and the ‘educracy’ by funding a lawsuit in which he claims the parental empowerment program is unconstitutional. 

In essence, Bangstad wants to negate the hopes of 50,000 students participating in the state’s four school choice programs and replace Milwaukee’s groundbreaking initiative with an updated Fugitive Slave Act. 

The fact that school choice is widely popular (including among a majority of Democrats), serves primarily low-income African American families seeking to break the chains of poverty, and has a proven track record apparently holds no weight with Bangstad. 

I can only assume the other hand-picked plaintiffs are guided by prejudicial images of African Americans and apathy toward their plight. 

While some may be surprised Democrats continue to fight to block the school choice doors given the hypocrisy of their opposition but more so because it has created a national disconnect that is only widening, I am not. 

From my vantage point, the Dem’s loyalty to the educracy and teachers’ union over faithful Black voters merely striving to break the chains of poverty is nothing short of insulting, and the reason why I remain politically independent. 

That dichotomy is becoming a matter of great debate locally and nationally, as more African American men are questioning what benefits we accrue from the party other than being the alternative to Donald Trump, who saw his Black vote double in the last presidential election. 

Some are also starting to redefine the tenets of racism to include the paternalization of Democrats who claim to be champions of the downtrodden and us ‘po, ignit’ darkies but are instead making money from our poverty and poor educations. 

An elderly brother I ran into at my ‘Fro’ shop posited that only the rhetoric of Democrats has changed since the days of their opposition to Black progress. 

The brother said today’s Democrats are the educated children of leaders like the late Alabama Governor George Wallace, who stood in front of the schoolhouse door in the late ‘50s blocking Negro children from entering while declaring, ‘segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.’ 

The senior said he found it interesting that ‘public schools’ are today more segregated than they were when Wallace made his statement. 

I’m not suggesting every plaintiff associated with the new lawsuit is racist, but you cannot ignore the fact that it is based on a racist paradigm and would set back civil rights and Black empowerment. 

How else can you label its ramifications? 

Instead of locking out Black folks, the lawsuit would lock them in…failing schools. 

Even opponents of school choice admit that if the lawsuit is successful, it would create significant havoc in that MPS could not accommodate 30,000 students. There are not enough teachers or resources. 

Classroom space may be another matter, given that taxpayers are paying for dozens of empty schools. 

Many others are operating at less than capacity, like North Division, with 400 students in a facility built for 1,500. 

Of course, that’s assuming Democrats and the court can force children to attend schools they feel are unsafe or offer inferior education. 

Imagine telling a student attending Messmer High School, a premier private academy, or the Howard Fuller Academy Charter they have to now attend North Division High School, with its zero proficiency in math, reading, and science and the lowest graduation rate in the state! 

Lost in the body of the lawsuit is the fact that most parents made a conscious decision to remove their children from MPS. There are many good MPS schools. Most of them, however, have entry requirements for which most Black children are ineligible because they attended lower quality-graded elementary schools or come from households where education is not a high priority. 

For the parents of those children—private or charter—these alternatives to MPS provide an option to break generational failure. 

But, make no mistake, this lawsuit, nor previous suits over the past 30 years, is not about what’s best for the children. 

It never was. 

It’s about controlling resources and reestablishing an education monopoly to ensure jobs and benefits for special interests. 

If it was about the welfare of the children, why are so many teachers and educrats sending their children to the same private schools they are trying to remove from the choice program? 

Aren’t government schools equal, if not better? 

Just last week, I posted an interview with Chicago Teacher Union president Stacy Davis Gates, who is African American, in which she attempts to justify sending her son to a private school, even as she expressed ‘hatred’ for school choice. 

In the same breath, she said she was ‘forced’ to send her child to a private school because the public schools are inferior. 

In fact, the hypocrisy of that scenario is illuminated by the revelation that our state superintendent of public instruction, Jill Underly, has publicly stated she opposes Black families leaving MPS for private schools under the MPCP paradigm but sent her own child to one. 

Her rationale? She actually stated on Black radio that she is ‘privileged.’ 

Bangstad, who lost in his bid for a state assembly seat by a two-to-one margin, even though his beer business, Minocqua Brewing, is a significant employer in that northern community, knows little of the quality of education in Milwaukee and less about the challenges of poor Black families. 

Interestingly, he uses his brewery’s PAC to promote ‘progressive’ causes, which apparently includes the Fugitive Slave Act and Manifest Destiny. 

I’ve dug deep to investigate if any of his ’causes’ include anything that would empower African Americans. Still, aside from stating that U.S. Senator Ron Johnson ran a racist campaign when he defeated Mandela Barnes last year, there is nothing of note. 

Indeed, I assume the only person of color to ever visit his home was on the box of Uncle Ben’s rice. 

It’s also apparent that neither Bangstad nor his co-plaintiffs are interested in the welfare of poor minority children because if they were, they would focus their time and energies on figuring out why so many of them are deserting the Milwaukee government school system. 

Is it because the ‘choice schools’ have higher graduation rates? Are safer? Or because they have higher test scores, college acceptance rates, and parents have input into the educational environment. 

Is it because some teach prayer instead of having their children ‘preyed’ upon? 

Then again, maybe it’s because MPS (a misnomer since any school that receives a majority of its funding from ‘our’ tax dollars is a public school) has been assessed by the federal government as hosting the broadest racial achievement gap in the United States of America? 

Even worse, MPS has the distinction of being home to the lowest Black reading proficiency rates for 4th and 8th graders this side of Cuba? 

Naw, the lawsuit is not about the kids nor the quality of education offered by private schools since most agree with the rationale of parents with resources—including government school teacher and their leaders—for sending their children to private schools. 

This lawsuit’s sole purpose, despite the legal double talk, is about maintaining a monopoly and appeasing special interests. It’s about Democrats’ repaying the teachers’ union for their support over that of disingenuously loyal Black voters. 

The truth is if poor parents have the ‘right’ to choose where their children will attend school (versus educrats) the entire poverty industry will fall apart. 

And I’m not exaggerating. 

Poor education contributes significantly to criminality, poverty, and social dysfunction, each an element that fuels and funds the poverty industry. 

As I’ve posited, the Republicans own the rent-a-centers, and Democrats make sure the poor have just enough money to pay a down payment for a $55,000 television. 

If Bangstad and his cronies were interested in the welfare of children, why pay for a lawsuit that would discontinue a much-needed and successful program. Instead, they should use those resources to sue MPS, as has been suggested by the state NAACP. 

I have doubts whether the local NAACP would join in a discussion about a lawsuit similar to two others that contend the government school system is not educating its charges. 

But as I noted in a three-part series earlier this year, Wendel Harris, state president, is open to the idea. 

Not by coincidence, Harris was an adamant opponent of school choice. Until that is, he was elected to the Milwaukee School Board. 

During his tenure, and seeing the toxic nature of government education, he made a 180-degree turn. 

His reward for ‘seeing the light’ was to be attacked by the teachers union and cast off the board. 

What Harris realized is that schools like Carmen and Milwaukee College Prep offered far better quality than MPS and should be part of a system of schools, versus children being forced to navigate a singular ‘school system.’ 

My research of Bangstad revealed he was a professional singer before managing his brewery. 

That explains a great deal. 

One is that he is singing the polka while Black children are singing the blues. 

And Secondly, maybe he’s drinking too much of his own brew and is intoxicated on power and a desire to make a name for himself—at our children’s expense. 

Hotep.