Report on Milwaukee schools: Lots of choices, few of them good

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A new report released Friday found Milwaukee students are far too likely to be attending an underperforming school, whether it's public, charter or choice.

The nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum completed is first overall review of K-12 education in Milwaukee since 2014. In addition to poor classroom outcomes, the report also noted an overall decline in enrollment that is likely to continue, challenges driven by socioeconomic disparities and a new problem that has recently emerged.

The analysis finds Milwaukee's educational outcomes have not improved much more than 30 years after the city became the first in the nation to adopt a school choice program, where low-income kids can attend private schools with publicly funded vouchers.

At the same time, the achievement gap between Black and White students, already among the worst in the U.S., got particularly worse in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), according to the forum's deputy research director, Sara Shaw.

"The state of education in Milwaukee right now, as a whole, if we think of it as how well is the system serving children, is not at the standard we think the community wants," Shaw said.

Enrollment decline

One of the most noticeable changes is a steep decline in the number of youths across Milwaukee. The under-18 population in Milwaukee has dropped by nearly 27% since 2000. The effects of that decline have been particularly felt by MPS, which has nearly 30,000 fewer students than it did in 2006.

At the same time, charter school enrollment has grown by 8,372 students and private choice schools have seen their enrollment increase by 14,239 over that period. Currently, 55% of all Milwaukee students attend an MPS school.

Milwaukee is likely to continue seeing its overall number of students drop due to birth rates that continue to decline and migration away from the city. 

Poor classroom outcomes continue

For years, Milwaukee has lagged most other major cities when it comes to standardized test results. That trend has held, according to the most recent national testing from the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

The NAEP scores found about 25% of 4th graders in the average big city school district were proficient in math and reading. Milwaukee, the proficiency rates were between 10% and 15%.

Those numbers did not include private choice schools, which Shaw said demonstrated less learning loss than MPS schools since the COVID-19 pandemic, but overall, outcomes in Milwaukee schools across the board were worse than in the average major U.S. city. 

"While there are pockets of success in each of the school sectors, and it is possible for families to find a school that they think is serving their child well, the average child is not seeing their outcomes transform in the way that we'd really like to see," Shaw said.

State Superintendent Jill Underly released a statement Friday in response to the report. Underly noted researchers found Milwaukee families were lacking quality options across the city, regardless of whether the school is public or private.

"Kids in Milwaukee across all sectors have very real, distinct needs that are not being met, no matter the type of school," she said. "We must work together to find realistic, innovative solutions and ensure kids in Milwaukee and across our state — our future leaders — are set up for success."

Unique challenges suburban schools don't face

Whether a Milwaukee school is part of MPS, charter or choice, the vast majority of their students are likely economically disadvantaged. In both MPS and choice schools, 82.2% of students are economically disadvantaged. In the 17 other school districts in Milwaukee County aside from MPS, 35.8% of students are economically disadvantaged.

Among the 100 biggest school districts in the U.S., only five have a higher share of kids living in poverty than Milwaukee.

"There are more likely to be resources concentrated where there is more affluence, where there is more generational wealth," Shaw said. "There are also fewer difficulties that students are coming to school with or that teachers may face in thinking about how to best serve their children."

Across Milwaukee County, there is a wide range in economic strain from one district to another. 63.7% of West Allis-West Milwaukee students are economically disadvantaged while that number is just 1.8% in Whitefish Bay.

MPS also has a disproportionately high share of students with disabilities. 20.1% of MPS' students are reported to have a disability. That rate is 11% in charter schools. School districts across Wisconsin have called for the state to increase the share of special education costs it covers.

Gov. Tony Evers proposed boosting the reimbursement rate to 60%, but the Legislature opted for a much more modest increase, going from 30% to 33% in the current two-year state budget.

The report noted private choice schools do not offer the same level of access to disability rates and students' economic backgrounds. Shaw said that makes it impossible to make a true apples-to-apples comparison between all Milwaukee schools. 

Funding future

The report found school funding in Milwaukee has risen in recent years to the point where, adjusted for inflation, it is now on par with what school funding was in 2004. 

Choice schools got a boost in state funding through a compromise in the 2023 shared revenue agreement that also increased state aid for local governments and allowed Milwaukee to implement a city sales tax.

Meanwhile, a policy forum analysis found the 2020 referendum Milwaukee voters approved brought MPS to the middle of the pack among Milwaukee County school districts in terms of per pupil revenue. The narrow passage of a larger, $252 million referendum will mean MPS will have one of the highest per pupil revenue rates in the county.

The district is in the process of overhauling its fiscal management office in the wake of a financial scandal that led to the ouster of both former Superintendent Keith Posley and CFO Martha Kreitzman.

The district is now in the process of searching for a new superintendent; interim Superintendent Eduardo Galvan is expected to lead MPS for the full 2024-25 school year, even though he doesn't have a state license for that position. Milwaukee is the only district in Wisconsin where someone can serve as superintendent without such licensing.