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In There Is No “Responsible” Way to End School Choice, Colleston Morgan, Executive Director of City Forward Collective, argues that phasing out Wisconsin’s Parental Choice Programs would harm 30,000 low-income Milwaukee students by forcing them into an underperforming public school system while pushing Democratic candidates out of step with most voters.

Read full article here.

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.

Milwaukee ranks in the 1st percentile nationally in reading for years, according to new national data.

Last year, the city’s schools, philanthropies, and civic leaders united behind the Milwaukee Reading Coalition, a citywide effort to train every K3-5 teacher in the Science of Reading, with real accountability for outcomes. CFC is a member. Leaders worked with DPI to try and access Act 20 dollars targeted for the Science of Reading.

This week, Mayor Johnson, Dr. Howard Fuller, and the Presidents of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation and Herb Kohl Philanthropies called out DPI’s refusal to fund the coalition:

• DPI reversed course: Superintendent Underly’s office declared DPI lacks the authority to support the Milwaukee Reading Coalition, directly contradicting guidance DPI provided throughout the prior year.
• Public dollars matter: Philanthropic partners invested because this model combines public dollars with private accountability. Without a state commitment, private funders cannot hold long-term.
• The bureaucracy is the obstacle: As the local leaders wrote, “the bureaucratic apparatus meant to implement that shared goal is instead standing in its way.”

CFC sent its own letter to Superintendent Underly: “The Milwaukee Reading Coalition spent a year doing everything right — building an unprecedentedly broad, citywide coalition, securing funding, standing up infrastructure — only to be met with shifting guidance and bureaucratic delay.” 

CFC and the Coalition are pressing DPI to re-engage and deploy existing literacy dollars now. Milwaukee’s kids have waited long enough. Read the letter of support below.

• 80% of voters say they’re more likely to support a candidate who would hold all publicly funded schools accountable for student outcomes—the strongest message tested
• Wisconsin voters support school choice by a 2-to-1 margin (57% more likely to support a candidate who backs school choice vs. 22% less likely)
• Public charter school support jumps from 45% to 60% once voters learn that charter schools are publicly funded, free, open to all students, and held accountable to academic standards
• Nearly half of Democratic primary voters remain undecided, and undecided voters are more supportive of school choice than those already committed to a candidate

Read the full press release about the survey below.