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Less than 15% of the city’s K-12 public school students will earn a two- or four-year college degree after graduation. The
top ten high demand jobs in metro Milwaukee have 40,000 openings. The lack of qualifying education hampers individual prosperity, which in turn helps to perpetuate racial disparities through a generation-spanning cycle of poverty. 
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More than 25 years ago, stagnating K-12 educational outcomes for low-income
students in the city led MMAC to the position that families should have the resources to choose where their children were educated. MMAC’s advocacy helped to establish new law that provides public funding for students enrolling in independent public charter schools, or in private schools enrolled in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). This change gave rise to more quality schools serving low-income students. Today, Milwaukee parents enroll almost half of all students (45,000) in independent charter or private schools with public funding support. More than 80% of these students are attending charter or private schools rated as “meeting or exceeding expectations” on the State’s report card. By contrast only 60% of MPS students are in similarly rated schools (pre- COVID data). |
Parent choice has led to improving student outcomes, but it has also led to an
enrollment decline in MPS from 90,000 students in 2007 to 58,000 in 2022. While this document profiles disturbing trends in the city’s K-12 educational outcomes, it also provides recommendations for strengthening quality schools and improving student outcomes. The top recommendation is to increase funding for parent choice. Parents choosing to send their children to independent public charter schools, or private schools in the MPCP program are receiving funding that is $5,000-$6,000 less per pupil than MPS. This funding gap is not only a significant inequity, but it threatens the ability of schools to provide a quality education. We are asking schools to climb a Mt. Everest sized challenge, to serve disadvantaged students, and to do so without the oxygen of resources. Some will make it, most will not. |
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Equality for all K-12 publicly funded students
Supporting all publicly funded K-12 students in the city equally is the best way to ensure a quality education for all. Today students attending independent public charter schools or utilizing public funding to attend a private school in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) receives $5,000 - $6,000 less than MPS students. >VIEW DETAILS
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Raise the reimbursement for Special Education costs
The State covers 30% of the cost serving students with disabilities. This is particularly challenging for independent charter and private schools with lower per pupil funding. Increasing the coverage to at least 50% is a necessary first step. >VIEW DETAILS |
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Implement best practice governance for charter schools
Support the replication of existing schools and the addition of new high-quality schools in the City through improved charter authorizing policies and the creation of a new Local Education Agency (LEA). >VIEW DETAILS |
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Improve state report card data integrity
Ensure data can be compared year over year to access trends in school performance. Review assessment to better communicate the impact of actual student proficiency and student improvement. >VIEW DETAILS |
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Revitalize MPS
Revitalize the important role MPS has in educating students in a city with a robust K-12 system driven by parent choice. Better use of facilities, active support for charter options, and improved access to school board elections are part of a strategy to reinvest in MPS. >VIEW DETAILS |
In comparison to 20 peer metros Milwaukee has the highest percentage of households headed by a single female in the African American community at 24.1%, and the third-highest percentage of households headed by a single female (13%) in the Hispanic/Latino community. Single mothers strive to balance work and parenting but face significant financial headwinds: Single female-headed households struggle with poverty, with a median income half that of married couples.
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Milwaukee ranks last in its peer group when it comes to African Americans (14%) and Hispanic/Latino Americans (15%) who have achieved a bachelor’s degree or higher. With college attainment levels for the region’s White population at 42%, this gap is the largest in the 20-metro peer group. This disparity places many of the city’s K-12 students in the position of “they can’t be what they can’t see.”
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The environment is equally disparate when it comes to owner-occupied housing. Add in displacement from a stable home and violent crime, and many students are traumatized by the environment in which they live. While not all families and students in the city face such dire circumstances, it is all too common: Milwaukee’s poverty rate is 25% and its per capita income is just over $23,000, compared to $57,000 for the metro area.
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27 years ago, MMAC helped launch an effort to implement publicly funded parent choice. Since then, MMAC has led support from the business community for parental choice as an option — not as
a replacement — for MPS. There’s a success story hidden among all the dire statistics and outcomes: Low-income parents have more flexibility in the use of public resources for K-12 education than almost any other parent in a U.S. city. |
The advent of parental choice, and the authorization of independent public charter schools, gave parents the financial resources to choose where their children are educated. MMAC helped open this policy door -- but parents made the actual choices to walk their children through these classroom doors.
Whether MPS, independent charter or private schools better outcomes are the goals of parent choice. |
