Parents should be asking serious questions about who is being allowed inside Milwaukee Public Schools to speak with students about elections, voting, and political participation.
Michelle Bryant, host of “Say Something Real” on WNOV 860 AM/106.5 FM, recently discussed visiting Rufus King International High School with the League of Women Voters to help register students ahead of the November election.
Voter registration itself is not the problem. Encouraging eligible students to participate in elections can be a positive form of civic engagement.
The concern is whether Milwaukee Public Schools is maintaining genuine political neutrality when deciding who is allowed to educate and interact with students during these events.
Michelle Bryant is not a neutral volunteer.
According to Civic Media’s profile of her, Bryant hosts a morning political talk program, works as a political strategist, serves as president of CMB Consulting & Associates, and writes a weekly column for the Milwaukee Courier. The profile also describes her as a former Wisconsin legislative chief of staff with experience in campaign management and public policy.
Those credentials may qualify her to discuss politics, but they also raise an obvious question as to why someone publicly identified as a political strategist is being placed in a position to have election related conversations with MPS students?
This is especially important when those students may be registering to vote for the first time.
During the referenced WNOV program, at approximately the 22:10 mark, Bryant discusses visiting Rufus King High School with the League of Women Voters and interacting with students through the school’s College Access Department.
She also talks regularly about spending additional time having “conversations” with students and encouraging them to seek more information about the elections. What exactly is being discussed? Are students being presented with balanced information? Are parents informed about registration drives going on in MPS schools? Did MPS review or approve the materials and talking points beforehand?
In 2020, Urban Milwaukee’s Bruce Murphy reported that Michelle Bryant, then chief of staff for state Senator Lena Taylor, was suspended from WNOV after criticizing then Mayor Tom Barrett on the air. According to the article, Bryant said she was suspended because she discussed what she considered failures of Barrett’s leadership.
The same article raised questions about Bryant working as a full-time legislative aide while hosting radio programs that promoted Lena Taylor’s mayoral candidacy.
This history makes transparency even more important. When someone has worked in political strategy, campaign management, legislative government, opinion media, and political talk radio, MPS cannot simply expect parents to view that person as an ordinary, politically neutral volunteer.
Would a group associated with supporters of Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany be permitted to enter Rufus King or another MPS high school, register students, answer their questions, and spend additional time having private or informal election-related conversations?
Without those safeguards, “voter education” can easily become political influence dressed in civic language.
The League of Women Voters describes itself as nonpartisan, meaning it does not officially support or oppose candidates or political parties. However, being nonpartisan does not mean being politically inactive.
The League’s Milwaukee County event calendar has promoted advocacy events, voter registration activities, community outreach, and political demonstrations. The League is promoting a voter registration event in a “No Kings” protest this weekend and is encouraging League members to attend in League attire.
MPS must determine whether an organization participating in public demonstrations and political advocacy should receive largely unquestioned access to students inside public schools.
Parents should not have to learn from a Democratic radio show that political strategists and advocacy organizations are spending time speaking with their children about elections.
Voter registration should not become political recruitment PERIOD!
Public schools must protect students from partisan pressure, whether that pressure comes from the left or the right.
