State Violates Wisconsin Children's Rights
June 29, 2001
Milwaukee's children have been in the news lately. Most
of the news has been unhappy.
Children in Milwaukee's state sponsored private school
voucher program are treated as if they were the pawns of voucher schools.
Many of these private schools threaten to go out of business and flood
the Milwaukee Public Schools beyond MPS's capacity. The voucher schools
want the taxpayers to continue to fork over more money per voucher than
non-voucher students pay for tuition. A recent expose in the Shepherd
Express reveals a balkanizing educational scheme, that is state financed
and out of control.
Children in Milwaukee's state-run foster care system are
at significant risk of continued neglect and abuse even when placed under
state supervision outside their homes. One infant recently died in foster
care. Meanwhile, the finger pointing has reached an unseemly level.
Children in some of Milwaukee's neighborhoods are victimized
twice by our failure to deal with alcohol and drug abuse. They are first
harmed when their neighbors or family members are addicted and engage
in unhealthy behaviors. These children are harmed again when governments
give more attention to arresting and imprisoning addicted parents and
siblings than on public health solutions to a public health problem.
Lead paint, gun violence, and W-2; the litany goes on.
According to the latest figures from U.S. Census Bureau, 28 per cent of
Milwaukee's children live in poverty. That's a disgrace.
Yet so-called leaders in the Milwaukee metropolitan area
and in Madison in state government allow this litany of horrors to continue.
Are they helpless? Are politicians merely responding to the will of the
voters? Are business leaders merely looking after the bottom line? Are
community activists merely fighting over scare resources? Or is something
else going on? Surely we don't hate other peoples' children. Surely our
children wouldn't be threatened, if poor children are not harmed by the
state system that is supposed to protect them or if poor children who
remain in MPS are not written off because of voucher backers in the Legislature
and conservative think tanks.
Children regardless of their socio-economic status have
constitutional rights relative to the State and moral claims on any society
that calls itself civilized. Children cannot be blamed for their parents'
actions. Being poor is tantamount to sin among a few Calvinists or Social
Darwinists perhaps, but people are usually not held responsible for conditions
beyond their control. Children may twist overly indulgent or stressed
parents around their little fingers, but for the most part children cannot
control their parents, much less public officials. Apparently, we are
deeply ambivalent over who's to blame for suffering children and on how
to ameliorate that suffering.
The members of the American Civil Liberties Union have
a different vision of rights and responsibilities. The ACLU of Wisconsin
has consistently opposed unfairly giving millions of dollars with no strings
attached to private voucher schools for the few, while the vast majority
of Milwaukee's school children attend deficit-ridden MPS. The ACLU is
helping Children's Rights, Inc. with a lawsuit seeking to remedy the horrendous
conditions in Milwaukee's state run foster care system. We're opposed
to the so-called "War on Drugs." and the prison industrial complex that
creates monstrosities, such as Wisconsin's super maximum prison in Boscobel,
which is the object of another ACLU lawsuit.
Yet lawsuits alone will never achieve lasting remedies
unless ordinary citizens see that it's in their self interest and their
children's self interest to make our so-called leaders responsible for
the future of poor children. Courts can do much to correct broken government
programs, such as Milwaukee's deadly foster care system, but ultimately
politicians have to provide adequate resources. Sometimes court orders
give the politicians just the encouragement or cover they need. However,
while constitutional rights protect citizens from government abuse, they
are not self-enforcing. In a democracy constitutional rights often have
to protect citizens from the tyranny of the majority. Even conservatives
should embrace the rule of law. The real test of our commitment to the
rule of law is how we treat the rights of the weakest among us, our children.
Chris Ahmuty
Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin
If you agree with the ACLU and want to protect diversity
in our schools and metropolitan areas, please consider joining the hundreds
of thousands of patriotic Americans who are members of the ACLU.
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