MPS Residency Requirement

This is a little awkward.

Normally, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and public sector union leaders are allies on issues.

When it comes to the residency requirement for MPS teachers, Barrett and the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association part ways.

From FOX 6:

State lawmakers held a hearing Wednesday to debate Senate Bill 34, a proposal that would drop the residency requirement for teachers in Milwaukee Public Schools. The rule got its start in 1978.

SB34 is supported by the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association. Union leaders say they simply want their members to be able to live wherever they wish.

Republican State Senator Alberta Darling believes eliminating the residency requirement would increase the pool of qualified teachers that MPS can recruit. Darling also says the residency requirement often puts families in a predicament. "There are many teachers who have husbands and wives in other professions and they need to live in different places for different reasons," said Darling.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett does not support the proposal. He says eliminating the residency requirement would have a detrimental impact on the city.

...Milwaukee and Chicago are the only two major cities in the United States with a residency requirement for its teachers.

Barrett insists that eliminating the residency requirement for public employees would decimate Milwaukee's tax base and the city would go the way of Detroit.

That would only be the case if Milwaukee were a place people would want to flee. If the city provides a good quality of life, it won't be affected by dropping the residency rule. Why would people leave? Why would they want to move away?

Democrat Barrett claims to be pro-choice, but he's not when it comes to supporting public employees' right to choose where they want to live, and certainly not when it comes to school choice.

There's something very strange about hearing the mayor of a city argue that if workers are not forced to live within its limits, then there would surely be a mass exodus.

He's saying that he knows the city is such a hellhole that workers would choose to leave Milwaukee if given the chance. Obviously, Barrett doesn't have faith in the city and he doesn't trust public employees. He's so certain that if a rule isn't in place to compel MPS employees to live in Milwaukee, they won't. Apparently, Barrett doesn't believe in the city. He finds it necessary to keep the wall in place that forces people to stay.

Have union leaders organized protests against Barrett because he's in favor of preventing city employees from having the right to choose where they want to live? Have they planned to show up at his home and march and chant? Where are the 'Barrett is Hitler' and 'Recall Barrett' signs? Are throngs of protesters wearing matching t-shirts, red-faced and angry, screaming "SHAME, SHAME, SHAME!" at Barrett?

When will Jesse Jackson show up and join with teachers to fight for their basic human right of choosing a place to live? When will Michael Moore come to Wisconsin to stand in solidarity with the public employees and rally them against Barrett?

Doing away with the residency requirement is really a civil rights issue. Barrett's opposition to granting workers the freedom to choose where they live is wrong.


Video, from FOX 6: