Gennea Gaughan

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction announced that the Milwaukee Reading Coalition (MRC) may need state legislative approval to access a portion of $19.7 million in remaining Act 20 literacy funds to launch its planned Milwaukee Reading Commission. While city and coalition leaders urge immediate investment to address Milwaukee’s youth literacy crisis and maximize secured private funding, DPI maintains that statutory limits prevent “forward-funding” the program without a formal legislative process. Shifting the focus from bureaucratic friction back to the classroom, City Forward Collective Executive Director Colleston Morgan Jr. emphasized that the city’s reading challenges transcend individual school systems and require a unified, urgent response: “Adult problems have stood in the way of our kids’ education in the city for far too long… We are unified in our perspective, and we’ve got to deal with this in terms of identifying resources to train our teachers.”

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A recent WUWM investigation asks whether Milwaukee has the will to close its racial achievement gap — and the answer is sobering. Milwaukee has the largest Black-white achievement gap in the country, and it’s only grown wider: the gap between Black and white fourth grade readers increased from 39 points in 2019 to 45 points in 2024. City Forward Collective Executive Director Colleston Morgan is featured in the piece, rejecting the notion that this is simply “the way things are” and pointing to CFC’s recent north side schools report as evidence that solutions must involve — but can’t rely solely on — Milwaukee Public Schools. Read the full article.

As Milwaukee Public Schools and the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association clash over when cost-of-living wage adjustments should take effect, Colleston Morgan, Jr., Executive Director of City Forward Collective, is weighing in on the district’s $46 million budget gap. Morgan expressed confidence in MPS’s improved financial oversight following recent state audits, and said City Forward Collective — which advocates for both public and private schools — believes the district must be aggressive in closing the gap, even if that means delaying wage adjustments. “We’ve gotta get this budget in order,” Morgan said.

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Milwaukee native and City Forward Collective Executive Director Colleston Morgan Jr. argues that Wisconsin Democrats have lost their edge on education by defending the status quo and opposing school choice — programs already serving nearly half of Milwaukee’s students. He calls on Democrats to embrace a “both/and” vision: strong public schools plus robust school choice, with all publicly funded schools held to the same high standards.

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City Forward Collective, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit education advocacy group led by Executive Director Colleston Morgan Jr., released a new report examining school performance on Milwaukee’s north side — and the findings demand urgent action. Morgan is calling on the district and state officials to move aggressively to address longstanding inequities facing students in the area.

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