Direct Response: City Forward Collective (CFC) is a Milwaukee-based education advocacy organization working to secure an excellent education for every Milwaukee child at every school.
- Mission: Transform Milwaukee’s educational ecosystem so every child—regardless of the school they attend—has access to an excellent education.
- Scope: CFC’s work spans all three Milwaukee school sectors: district (MPS), public charter, and private Choice schools that enroll students through the Parental Choice Program.
Direct Response: CFC’s work is organized around four strategic priorities: informing, engaging, catalyzing, and advocating.
- Inform: Shares policy and data analysis so families and the community have the information they need.
- Engage: Convenes parents, educators, civic leaders, and policymakers.
- Catalyze: Supports the growth of excellent schools for Milwaukee students.
- Advocate: Champions policies and candidates that support excellent schools, in partnership with the CFC Action Fund.
Direct Response: City Forward Collective 501(c)(3) informs, engages, and catalyzes better schools through research, convening, and school-growth support, while its affiliate, the CFC Action Fund 501(c)(4), leads the lobbying and advocacy work—supporting candidates and elected officials who champion excellent schools.
- City Forward Collective 501(c)(3): Focuses on policy and data analysis, stakeholder convening, and supporting school growth.
- CFC Action Fund 501(c)(4): Lobbies and advocates for policies and elected officials that support our mission.
In short: CFC informs and convenes; the CFC Action Fund takes on the lobbying and advocacy work.
Direct Response: CFC’s 2025–27 legislative priorities focus on three areas: fair funding, transparency and accountability, and stronger governance at Milwaukee Public Schools.
- Priority 1 — Fair funding for every child:
- Eliminate funding gaps so every school receives “core” funding equal to the state average.
- Increase reimbursement rates for special education, English learners, and 4-year-old kindergarten.
- Modernize Wisconsin’s funding formula to be student-centered.
- Priority 2 — Honesty, transparency, and accountability for every family:
- Fix the Wisconsin school and district report card for a clearer picture of achievement and growth.
- Realign state standards and assessments with NAEP and ACT benchmarks.
- Require DPI to maintain consistent academic performance trend data over time.
- Build a cross-sector, student-centered accountability approach focused on school quality.
- Priority 3 — A high-performing district for every resident:
- Improve MPS school board governance by moving elections to even-numbered years and adding appointed members with academic, financial, and operational expertise.
- Strengthen the board’s ability to right-size the district’s footprint and turn around its lowest-performing schools.
- Refocus the Milwaukee Board of School Directors on educating students in MPS-operated schools.
Direct Response: Milwaukee families can choose from three main school sectors—traditional district schools, public charter schools, and private Choice schools—and roughly half of Milwaukee students currently attend a school outside the traditional MPS system.
- Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS): The traditional public school district, run by an elected school board.
- Public charter schools: Public and tuition-free, but overseen by an independent “authorizer” and governed by their own Board of Directors rather than the district’s central office.
- Private Choice schools: Accept publicly funded scholarships, letting eligible families attend at little or no cost.
All three sectors are common, established parts of how Milwaukee families access education.
Direct Response: MPS is Milwaukee’s traditional public school district—the kind most people picture when they think “public school”—and it runs the largest number of schools in the city.
- Governance: Overseen by the Milwaukee Board of School Directors, whose members are elected by Milwaukee voters.
- Scale: Operates more schools than any other sector in Milwaukee.
Direct Response: These are private Choice schools that accept publicly funded scholarships through one of Wisconsin’s parental choice programs, giving families access to a private education regardless of income or ZIP code.
- Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP): For families in the City of Milwaukee—the first program of its kind in the country, started in 1990.
- Racine Parental Choice Program (RPCP): For families in the Racine Unified School District.
- Wisconsin Parental Choice Program (WPCP): For eligible families elsewhere in the state, including families that live just outside of Milwaukee who enroll their children in Milwaukee private Choice schools.
- Special Needs Scholarship Program (SNSP): Allows an eligible student with a disability to receive a state-funded scholarship to attend a participating private Choice school.
Direct Response: A public charter school is a public, tuition-free school open to all students, just like MPS; however, it is overseen by an independent “authorizer” and governed by its own board of directors rather than the district’s central office.
- Authorizer: The entity that governs a public charter school’s creation, oversight, and closure, ensuring it meets academic, operational, and accountability standards while allowing flexibility to innovate.
- Independent board: Creates the conditions for the school to succeed, holds leaders accountable, and represents the community.
- Milwaukee’s three public charter authorizers:
- MPS (authorizes 2 types of public charter schools that operate within the district)
- Instrumentality public charter schools are staffed by MPS employees, are governed by the MPS Board, and operate in a building provided by MPS. Some examples are ALBA and Honey Creek Elementary School.
- Non-instrumentality public charter (NIC) schools are staffed by non-MPS employees, are governed by an independent board, and operate in buildings that they own or lease. Some examples are Hmong American Peace Academy (HAPA) and Highland Community School.
- The City of Milwaukee, through its Common Council’s Charter School Review Committee.
- The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UWM).
- MPS (authorizes 2 types of public charter schools that operate within the district)
Public charters authorized by the city, UWM, or as MPS non-instrumental public charters are called “independent” public charter schools because they can operate outside the MPS district structure, even though they remain public schools.
Direct Response: Milwaukee’s public charter and private Choice schools outperform MPS on the state report card, while MPS receives the highest per-pupil funding of the three sectors.
- State Report Card—Exceeding Expectations (% of Students Enrolled in 4- or 5-Star Schools: Charter 59%, Private 42%, and MPS 19%.
- State Report Card—Failing to Meet Expectations (% of Students Enrolled in 1- or 2-Star Schools: MPS 48%, Private 19%, Charter 10%.
- Citywide proficiency, 2024–25 (ELA/Math): MPS 22%/17%, Charter 30%/29%, Private 30%/27%, Milwaukee city average 25%/22%, and state average excluding Milwaukee 53%/54%.
- Per-pupil funding: MPS $16,774; public charter $12,369; Private (K–8) $10,877; Private (9–12) $13,371.
About 15,000 more Milwaukee students need to reach proficiency for the city to match the state average. These per-pupil figures don’t include state or federal categorical aid, such as special education funding.
Direct Response: The Third Friday Count is Wisconsin’s official student enrollment snapshot, taken every September and used for school finance calculations and enrollment reporting across all publicly funded school sectors; however, it is not a one-day event that locks in a full year’s funding regardless of what happens afterward.
- Second count: Wisconsin also conducts an official enrollment count in January.
- The facts:
- If a student leaves any school mid-year, that school does not necessarily keep the full year’s funding for that student.
- A public charter or private Choice school that removes a student after the September count still receives 50% of that student’s annual funding until the January count.
- A student added after the September count only generates 50% funding once officially added at the January count.
- A student dropped late in January still generates 100% of that year’s funding; one added late in January generates none.
- Oversight: Enrollment counts undergo independent audits for private Choice schools and state audits for public school districts; schools that overreport enrollment can face funding recoveries and other sanctions.
Direct Response: Not entirely—MPS and public charter schools serve students with disabilities under the same legal requirements; however, private Choice schools are not required by state and federal law to identify and serve them in the same way.
- Special Needs Scholarship Program (SNSP): Lets an eligible student with a disability receive a state-funded scholarship to attend a participating private Choice school.
- Reported enrollment of students with disabilities: 21% at MPS and 12% at public charter schools; comparable data isn’t available for private Choice schools in the same way, and CFC notes that public data likely undercounts the actual number of students with disabilities at private Choice schools.
Families should ask a private Choice school directly about its special education supports before enrolling if this is a priority.
Direct Response: Parents can check the quality of any Milwaukee school using two free tools from City Forward Collective: the SchoolFinder Quality Map and the Milwaukee School Quality Data Table.
- SchoolFinder Quality Map: An interactive map showing nearby schools and their performance in both student achievement and student growth.
- Milwaukee School Quality Data Table: A searchable, sortable table of 2024–25 performance data for every publicly funded Milwaukee school, sourced from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
Private Choice schools that only report a Choice Students Report Card (rather than an All Students Report Card) are marked with an asterisk (*) on CFC’s data table.
Next step: Visit CFC’s SchoolFinder Quality Map to look up a specific school.
Direct Response: CFC publishes Milwaukee education news and analysis through three channels: the CFC Newsroom, CFC Corner, and a weekly Substack newsletter.
- CFC Newsroom: Publishes news articles and reports on Milwaukee education topics.
- CFC Corner: Opinion and analysis curated by Executive Director Colleston Morgan Jr.
- Substack newsletter: Delivers ongoing updates weekly.
Next step: Sign up for CFC’s newsletter on Substack for ongoing updates.
Direct Response: Parents can get involved through CFC’s Parent Power Hub, which is organized around three steps: Get Informed, Get Engaged, and Get Active.
- Get Informed: Use the SchoolFinder Quality Map to find the right school for your child.
- Get Engaged: Use Go Beyond Grades to check on your child’s progress and partner with their teacher.
- Get Active: Sign up to become a parent leader.
- Additional tools: Find Your Elected Official and look up your District Profile for school performance and enrollment data in your area.
Next step: Visit the Parent Power Hub to start with Get Informed.
City Forward Collective Glossary Terms
A quick-reference list of words you’ll likely run into as you explore Milwaukee’s school options.
School Sectors & Types
| MPS (Milwaukee Public Schools) | School sector |
| Public charter school | School sector |
| Private choice (voucher) school | School sector |
| School Choice | Term |
Data & Common Terms You’ll See
| DPI (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction) | State Agency |
| Proficiency | Term |
| Per-pupil funding | Funding |
| Economic disadvantage | Term |
| School Report Card (Choice Students/All Students) | Reporting |
| Third Friday Count | Enrollment Data |
CFC Tools and Resources
| SchoolFinder Quality Map | CFC tool |
| Milwaukee School Quality Data Table | CFC tool |
| Go Beyond Grades | CFC tool |
| Parent Power Hub | CFC program |
| District profile | CFC resource |
Definitions
School Sectors & Types
- MPS (Milwaukee Public Schools): The traditional public school district serving Milwaukee, overseen by an elected school board. MPS schools are free to attend and open to all resident students.
- Public charter school: A publicly funded school that operates independently of a traditional school district under a performance contract (“charter”). Charter schools are tuition-free and open to all students but may have their own curriculum, calendar, or teaching approach.
- Private choice (voucher) school: A private school that participates in parental choice programs, allowing eligible students to attend using a publicly funded voucher instead of paying tuition.
- School Choice: This refers to Wisconsin’s private school choice programs, which allow eligible families to use state-funded vouchers to enroll their children in participating private schools. Wisconsin offers three programs based on where a family lives:
- Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) for families residing in the City of Milwaukee. Established in 1990, it was the first private school voucher program in the United States.
- Racine Parental Choice Program (RPCP) for families living within the Racine Unified School District.
- Wisconsin Parental Choice Program (WPCP) for eligible families living in all other areas of the state outside Milwaukee and Racine.
Data & Common Terms You’ll See
- DPI (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction): The state agency that oversees K-12 education in Wisconsin, including school funding, testing, and the School Report Card system used to evaluate schools statewide.
- Economic disadvantage: A status typically based on eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch or other income indicators, used to identify students from lower-income households in school data and reporting.
- Proficiency: A measure of whether students have met grade-level expectations on state academic tests, typically reported as a percentage of students scoring “proficient” or above in subjects like reading and math.
- Per-pupil funding: The amount of public money a school receives for each enrolled student, used to cover the cost of educating that child.
- School Report Card (Choice Students/All Students): An annual DPI-issued rating for publicly funded schools. Private choice schools receive a report card covering just their voucher (“choice”) students and can opt in to an additional card covering all enrolled students.
- Third Friday count: The official pupil count for Wisconsin public and choice schools takes place on the third Friday of September (with a second count on the second Friday of January) and is reported to DPI. This count is used to determine the funding a school is eligible for in the subsequent school year. (For more information)
CFC Tools & Resources
- SchoolFinder Quality Map: An interactive online tool from City Forward Collective that helps families find schools near them in Milwaukee, layered with quality data to compare options by location.
- Milwaukee School Quality Data Table: A searchable table of school quality data for every publicly funded Milwaukee school, sourced from the Wisconsin DPI.
- Go Beyond Grades: A CFC resource designed to help families look past a single letter grade or rating and consider a fuller picture of school quality, things like academic growth, school culture, and student support.
- Parent Power Hub: A City Forward Collective program that equips Milwaukee parents with information, tools, and training to advocate effectively for their children’s education.
- District profile: A City Forward Collective resource that summarizes school and enrollment data for a specific district or sector within Milwaukee’s education landscape.
