Milwaukee public school teachers, parents, students and supporters staged a large picket line outside MPS administration building on Vliet Street on Milwaukee's west side late Tuesday afternoon.

The purpose was to protest yet another round of funding cuts to K-12 schools in Milwaukee. Classrooms and students are already suffering the effects of previous cuts including desks that are falling apart and books with spines that need to be taped together. Currently, Milwaukee, a mainly African-American and Latino city, spends less money per pupil than other, richer suburbs like Wauwatosa and Shorewood. Milwaukee is the state's largest school district.

Governor Scott Walker shares at least part of the blame for the messy situation. Over the past few years he's cut $1BN from the state's education budget, including $792 million from K-12 schools. Supposedly, some of that will be restored this year due to a budget surplus. Of course, the teachers aren't holding their breath that this will actually happen. At the same time he was cutting funds for public education, Walker was using some of that money to pay for tuition to privately run charter schools.

Other proposals for dealing with the budget shortfall include ending busing programs thereby forcing students to take public transportation, shifting more health care costs onto employees, and closing schools altogether.

What's happening in Milwaukee is similar to what has been happening in school districts all across the country symbolized by teacher strikes and walk-outs in states like West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky and lately Arizona. Public schools are being deprived of cash and devalued in favor of privately operated charter schools that are not accountable to the public. Our students are being reduced to mere commodities for someone else to make a profit off of. And a real education be damned.

So the priorities are obvious. Walker will give untold sums of money to Foxconn to build a plant in Racine County. Supposedly, this will create a lot of jobs; but that's what the politicians always say because they think that will win them votes come election time. There is some doubt that Foxconn can uphold its end of the bargain. In the meantime, money that went to Foxconn could be used to fund public education.