As your Elmbrook School Board member, I want to address concerns about how the potential closure of the Department of Education would affect our schools.
Simply put: It wouldn’t impact our educational quality or standards at all.
Here are the facts:
- Elmbrook only receives federal funding for our lunch program ($680,000/year) from the USDA, not the Department of Education. If needed, this could be offset by a $0.93 increase to our current lunch prices ($3.10 elementary/$3.95 high school) – which remain well below typical restaurant prices for lower quality meals. (Check out what our current food service team is doing here)
- Our curriculum and educational standards come entirely from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Our local leadership team builds upon these state standards to deliver excellence in education.
- The financial reality is striking: After removing higher education funding, the DOE’s $148 billion budget for primary education, if distributed directly to America’s 50 million public school students, would provide:
- $2,960 per student
- $23,088,000 for Elmbrook School District
- $177 million for Milwaukee Public Schools
This demonstrates the significant inefficiency at the federal level. Our schools would continue operating at the same high standards without the DOE, likely with less bureaucratic overhead.
Rest assured: Any changes to the Department of Education will not diminish the quality of education at Elmbrook. Our commitment to educational excellence remains firmly rooted in our local community and state standards.
In Your Service,
Sam Hughes
Elmbrook School Board Member
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