City Forward Collective

Ending Educational Inequity in Milwaukee

Policy Agenda

Policy Agenda

2023-24 Legislative Session

Milwaukee’s school options have evolved to offer a wide variety of choices to families. Unfortunately, the policies governing them have not kept pace.

A critical piece of our three-part strategy to add 5,000 seats in high-quality schools by 2025 is to foster a healthy and improving education ecosystem with sustainable, high-quality opportunities in all three school sectors – MPS, public charter, and private Choice.

To accomplish this, we advocate for a holistic, community informed policy agenda designed to address four key challenges that perpetuate educational inequities and hamper high-quality schools.

CHALLENGE 1

Inadequate and inequitable access to resources

STRATEGY: Fair funding and equitable resources

Provide adequate funding to meet the needs of diverse learners in all schools and sectors

Ensure equitable per-pupil funding for all students regardless of their choice of school

Responsibly steward publicly owned school facilities and maximize utilization by high-quality schools

CHALLENGE 2

Ineffective and fragmented governance structures

STRATEGY: Modern, coherent city-wide governance

Establish city-wide, cross-sector strategy and leadership

Establish a one-stop shop for enrolling in schools

Restructure the Milwaukee Board of School Directors and rebuild public confidence in Milwaukee Public Schools

Improve the authorization landscape for public charter schools

CHALLENGE 3

Limited accountability for school performance and student outcomes

STRATEGY: Clear reporting and accountability for outcomes

Fix the state Report Card to give an accurate picture of student outcomes and school performance

Intervene in schools that persistently fail to meet expectations, regardless of sector

CHALLENGE 4

Broken talent pipeline, especially for educators of color

STRATEGY: Diverse and equitable talent pipelines

Address the educator talent pipeline crisis

Remove licensure barriers and modernize teacher and leader licensure pathways

Collect and publicly present data on teachers