by Ben Yount
A new report says most students in Milwaukee schools are not getting any better of an education now than they were 30 years ago.
The Wisconsin Policy Forum released the study recently. It shows children are doing just as poorly now as they were in 1994, despite the billions of dollars spent on education since then.
“In 2024, total public funding for schools in Milwaukee fell to its lowest level since at least the late 1990s, but per student funding was largely even with two decades ago,” the report stated.
The Policy Forum said the largest drop in MPS comes from a sharp drop in enrollment over the past three decades.
“Traditional MPS schools (i.e., not including MPS-authorized, independently run charters) have felt the brunt of this decline, with a total enrollment drop of nearly 30,000 students (32.8 percent) between 2006 and 2024,” the report added. “Over the same period, both charter school and private choice program enrollment – both funded publicly – expanded in the city by 8,372 (114.3 percent) and 14,239 students (89.8 percent) students, respectively.”
The report also shows school choice students in Milwaukee are doing better than traditional MPS students when it comes to both test scores and attendance.
“Charter schools in Milwaukee led the city from 2017 to 2019 in the largest share of students educated in highly rated schools, the highest Report Card achievement scores, and the lowest share of students scoring below basic on the Forward exam,” the report stated. “Results from the private choice programs also improved from 2017 and 2019 and largely remained steady through the pandemic such that they now vie with the charter schools for the top spot across various metrics in Milwaukee. MPS has not yet recovered from the pandemic and remains the lowest rated on average across all metrics examined.”
The report went on to say that there is “little evidence” that “the average Milwaukee child receives a higher quality education today.”
Wisconsin’s superintendent of schools says the report is proof that Wisconsin lawmakers need to spend even more money on Milwaukee Public Schools.
“This troubling report makes it clear all publicly-funded school models in Milwaukee — traditional, private and charter — need to improve to better serve the community. Kids in Milwaukee across all sectors have very real, distinct needs that are not being met, no matter the type of school,” Superintendent Jill Underly said in a statement. “We can and must invest in the future of our kids, create environments where they can thrive, provide robust support to our educators and schools, and make real progress in closing longstanding gaps.”
School choice supporters say the numbers show the value and need for more school choice in the city.
“Any plan to address K-12 education issues in Milwaukee must include more parent choice,” School Choice Wisconsin President Nicholas Kelly said. “DPI data show that students in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program have outperformed MPS students despite often entering the choice program at lower levels of achievement. Those results, which we know could be even stronger, occurred with per pupil funding at about 60 percent of public school funding.”
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Benjamin Yount is a contributor to The Center Square.
Photo “Classroom” by Max Fischer.
