I have no idea who Annie Woodward is. I never heard of her before last week. All I know is that she’s running for a seat on the Milwaukee School Board.

Today I had the pleasure of getting one of her fliers. And was immediately saddened at how obviously clueless she is. So here’s a little math lesson for her…

Annie’s flier says the following:

A WORKABLE BUDGET
Increased funding leads to higher achievement. The city and state need to adjust the funding formula to get the money our students deserve.

Where do I start, Annie?

First, the problem is not the funding formula. It never has been the problem. So let’s quit crying wolf about the funding formula.

Second, increased funding does not lead to higher achievement, and Milwaukee Public Schools has demonstrated that well.

Here’s how bad MPS sucks: The majority of students in the upper grades cannot read and cannot do math. Yet more money than ever is being spent per child in school. As you can see here, the district is now spending more than $14,000 per child per school year. This is a 48% spending increase per student since 2000. That is obscene.

So please… if you really want to be taken seriously, do your homework before distributing fliers with such nonsense on them. We don’t need to spend more money. We need a new school system.