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Amani residents in Milwaukee on Tuesday took the opportunity to vote either to elect the candidate who could become Wisconsin’s first Black governor or return a Republican to the position for the first time in eight years. 

David Crowley, the Democratic candidate for governor and current Milwaukee County executive, is facing off against Republican Tom Tiffany, who represents the state’s 7th District in northern Wisconsin in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Crowley grew up near North 23rd and West Burleigh streets in the 53206 ZIP code area, the same block the COA Goldin Center is now located. 

Amani residents headed to the COA Youth & Family Centers, 2320 W. Burleigh St., early on Election Day to cast a vote in what could become a historic election. 

One of them was Amina Abdi, 19, a first-time voter who is desperate for change in the community. She said that’s why she chose to vote for Crowley.

“A lot of young people think our vote doesn’t matter, but I think ours matter the most because we’re the majority,” Abdi said. 

She studies education at Milwaukee Area Technical College and hopes the next governor will prioritize safety within Milwaukee Public Schools. 

“You see Rufus King High School on the news nearly everyday,” she said. “Somebody needs to step inside these schools and fix it.”

Abdi said she would be happy to see Crowley become the first Black governor in Wisconsin. 

“That’s what really needs to be celebrated,” Abdi said. “I’m tired of the Republicans messing everything up.” 

Priorities for voters

Patrick Jordan, director of operations at Adullam Outreach, voted for Crowley and also wants to see changes to education in his neighborhood.

He said his neighbor’s child, who has an Individualized Education Program plan, was enrolled at a private school and then turned away after that school received the state’s funding for his education. 

“I didn’t even know they could get away with that,” Jordan said. “I found something for the kid to do for like two months.”

Child care provider Carmella Brown, 40, said she’s also ready for a change, especially within the health care system.

“I have loved ones that are going through situations with health care and I recently just lost my sister,” Brown said. 

Brown said her sister passed away from respiratory system failure and had challenges with her insurance. 

“Her health insurance didn’t cover everything she needed,” Brown said. 

Ricky Welch, 62, a carpenter, said he has health insurance through Obamacare and hopes that it doesn’t go away. 

Living the past five years in Amani, Welch said he credits Crowley with recent changes that have helped reduce reckless driving in the neighborhood. 

Particularly helpful, he said, are curb bump-outs, which are part of a collaborative effort that includes Milwaukee County to improve safety through traffic-calming. 

“If he (Crowley) could keep all of those things going, then that would be good,” Welch said. 

A neighborhood connection

Kenyette Blue, clerk at House of Prayer Restoration Missionary Baptist Church, wants to see someone from her neighborhood become governor.

“It’s going to be a connection,” Blue said. “I do want to participate and see what’s the next step.”

Brother Rice Bey, a former president of the neighborhood group Amani United, said he came out to vote because it’s his civic duty.

Bey said if the state elects Crowley as its first Black governor, it would show a degree of progress. He said he hopes Crowley gets a chance to prove himself in the state’s highest position. 

“Just do your job as best as you can,” Bey said. 

Jordan said it would be fantastic if the next Wisconsin governor came from his neighborhood. He said people from the neighborhood don’t always get opportunities. 

“Even if we have businesses in this neighborhood, the city keeps us down,” Jordan said. “To get a position right in this neighborhood is hard to do, even if you do everything right.”

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Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

Milwaukee residents cast ballots on David Crowley’s childhood block is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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The Milwaukee Public Schools district still expels Black students in higher numbers than any other group. 

The findings come after the U.S. Department of Education announced last month it will investigate whether Milwaukee Public Schools uses race as a factor in expulsions.

MPS expelled 38 students in 2025-26, according to newly released district expulsion data. Of those students, 30 were Black. Black students made up 48% of the district and 79% of expulsions last school year.

No white students, who represent 8.5% of the district’s student population, were expelled. Five Hispanic and three Asian students were expelled last school year.

In 2018, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights detailed findings from an earlier investigation into whether the district was disproportionately disciplining Black students. 

Using data from the 2011-12 school year, the office found Black students made up 56% of MPS enrollment but 84.7% of its expulsions, including more than 100 incidents over two years where Black students were expelled while white students were only suspended for similar infractions. 

MPS entered an agreement with the department to address the disparity in 2018.

MPS has received little information about what prompted the current investigation, according to the district. In a statement, the Department of Education said education leaders in Milwaukee “derided facially neutral school policies as reflecting systemic ‘whiteness,’ seemingly encouraging school officials to consider race in disciplinary practices.”  

Kevin O’Connor, media relations manager for MPS, said the Department of Education has since requested MPS submit the district’s student enrollment and discipline data, student code of conduct, policies that “address discrimination based on race,” and staff training relating to race, discrimination and Title VI for the last two years, among other materials.

The Department of Education has declined to comment further on the issue, citing the open investigation.

Despite disparities, expulsions have declined

During the 2010-11 school year, 415 MPS students were expelled. That number dropped to 116 in the 2016-17 school year before spiking again in 2018-19 to nearly 200. The number declined to a record low 23 in 2024-25 before increasing to 38 last school year.

O’Connor said the district has managed to significantly reduce its expulsions in the last 10 years as a result of initiatives including Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, Social Academic Instructional Group curriculum, peer mediations and other restorative practices.

“Our principals and school administrators build relationships with students and work closely with them,” O’Connor wrote in an email to NNS. “They are intentional about putting plans in place to proactively mitigate behavior that may impede a student’s ability to have a quality educational experience.”

O’Connor said the district provides alternative educational services for expelled students. Some options include online learning, moving to another school or, for students with disabilities, being placed based on their Individualized Education Plan, known as an IEP.

Why students were expelled

Thirteen students were expelled for bringing weapons including firearms, BB guns and pepper spray, but over half the expulsions are grouped together in a general “other” category. Matthew Boswell, senior director of the district’s Department of Student Services, said in the board meeting that this mostly covers things like “substantial battery to staff.”

Monthly reports from the independent hearing officers who handle the district’s expulsions paint a more detailed picture behind the “other” category. 

A third of all expulsions represented an “endangerment of physical safety and mental well-being,” but other offenses in the general category included theft, inappropriate use of electronic communication devices and arson.

Race can’t be a factor in discipline, Department of Education says

The Department of Education has stated it is not interested in what disparities are revealed in the numbers. Rather, it wants to see policies that are “facially neutral” or do not explicitly reference race.

The department’s new guidance argues that”facially neutral” discipline policies do not violate federal law even if they produce racial disparities, as long as they’re applied evenhandedly. 

“Mere statistical disparities generally cannot show discriminatory intent or disparate treatment,” the guidance stated.

Angela Harris, an MPS teacher and chair of the Black Educators Caucus MKE, said it would be ridiculous for a child’s race to determine a consequence, but “if we’re seeing that there is a disparity that exists between how consequences are administered, that is absolutely something that we should be looking at.”

Harris said the district’s practice of examining trends of racial disparities and looking for potential biases in discipline decision-making is completely different from using race to decide how a child is disciplined.

“If the concern is that MPS is using race to determine an individual child’s punishment, then the Department of Education should be able to provide us what policy or practice is being referenced or that they found that is explicit in doing that,” she said.

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Meredith Melland contributed to this report.

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Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

Amid federal probe, Black students remain disproportionately expelled at Milwaukee Public Schools is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

The U.S. Department of Education is investigating  whether Milwaukee Public Schools uses race as a factor when considering disciplining students.

The investigation comes as the department on Tuesday issued new guidance to educational institutions. The department argues that using race as a factor when disciplining is a violation of Title VI. Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in programs that receive federal financial assistance. 

MPS media relations manager Stephen Davis said the district received notice from the department’s Office for Civil Rights on Tuesday morning. 

A statement released Tuesday by the Department of Education doesn’t specify what prompted the investigation, but says that education leaders in Milwaukee “derided facially neutral school policies as reflecting systemic ‘whiteness,’ seemingly encouraging school officials to consider race in disciplinary practices.”  

Davis said the district will need more information from the department to respond appropriately.  

New school discipline policy guidance

The Department of Education’s new guidance, referred to as a “Dear Colleague Letter,” is not a legal statute, but instead explains how the administration interprets existing laws. It details how discipline policies “must treat students even-handedly and must neither favor nor disfavor any student based on their race.” 

The letter argues that the Constitution protects against intentional discrimination, not unintentional impacts. 

“Mere statistical disparities generally cannot show discriminatory intent or disparate treatment,” the statement said.

If discipline policies are adopted and applied without wrongful racial intent, are facially neutral and applied even-handedly without regard to race, the Department of Education argues that those policies do not violate Title VI.

A letter sent to Milwaukee Public Schools did not provide information about the investigation past a basic notification and information on how to get in contact with the Office of Civil Rights.

MPS was one of only two school districts, the other in Fayetteville, Arkansas, being investigated.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, a conservative public-interest law firm, issued a statement praising the Trump administration for investigating race-based discipline practices at MPS.

“(Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty) has sounded the alarm on race-based approaches to school discipline for years, beginning with federal guidance issued during the Obama administration and renewed under the Biden administration,” read the statement.

Oversuspension of Black and Latino male students at MPS

David Castillo, who was part of the founding team of the district’s Department of Black and Latino Male Achievement, helped establish the curriculum formed largely as a solution to the oversuspension of Black and Latino boys in the district. 

The Office of Civil Rights pushed MPS to reform its disciplinary policies in 2018 after a multi-year investigation found over 100 instances over a two-year span where Black students were expelled when white students were suspended for similar infractions. Black students also received harsher discipline than white students.

Castillo said he saw lower suspension rates for Black and Latino boys for fighting while participating in Black and Latino Male Achievement because the program helped to see students like them reflected in a positive light.

Because the data showed that these students were disproportionately suspended at higher rates, Castillo said, it was important to target that demographic specially. 

Castillo said focusing on solutions for those most marginalized and affected by an issue opens the potential to find solutions for everyone else. 

“You’re going to want to start where you see things are ineffective,” Castillo said.

Racial disparities in suspensions remain

Black students are still disciplined at disproportionate rates at MPS.

Black students were involved in 54% of the incidents that resulted in disciplinary action during the 2024-25 school year but made up 78% of suspensions and 86% of expulsions, according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

White students at MPS were involved in 9.5% of discipline incidents, made up 2% of suspensions and had no expulsions. 

Henry Leonard, an MPS board member until 2025, pushed for the district to experiment with restorative practices as an alternative to suspensions and expulsions. He saw student behavior successfully change after trying restorative practices in his own classroom when he was a teacher.

He said when he got evaluations, the district’s administration was impressed by how his students listened to and respected him.

“They would say … you have almost no suspensions and fights are to a minimum,” Leonard said. “Over time, it became really clear … this was by far a better way to at least work in a classroom.”

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Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

US Education Department investigates Milwaukee Public Schools over race-conscious discipline practices is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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If you’re looking to help your 4-year-old be ready to start elementary school, you may be in luck.

Earlier this year, Gov. Tony Evers secured $65 million for Get Kids Ready, a new school readiness initiative that pays child care providers to help prepare children with “academic, physical, social-emotional, self-help skills, and much more that kids will need to succeed in school,” a Wisconsin Department of Children and Families spokesperson said. 

About 900 providers across Wisconsin are participating in the program.

“The state pays child care providers for the time kids spend in Get Kids Ready, making that part of the day free for families,” said the spokesperson in an email to NNS.

There is no deadline to apply.

Is my child eligible?

Parents of any children who are 4 years old or will be by Sept. 1 are eligible to join a Get Kids Ready program.

Free?

The state covers the cost of the 437 required hours of Get Kids Ready instruction per year, making this instruction free for all 4-year-olds in the state of Wisconsin.

Child care providers can charge families for additional time children are receiving care beyond the Get Kids Ready instruction hours, according to the Department of Children and Families.

How do I apply?

To participate, a parent must submit this Department of Children and Families application to a participating provider.  

To complete the application, you will need the provider’s name, address and their provider and location numbers. 

Have your child’s name and birthdate and the phone numbers ready, as well as the child’s parents’ or caregivers’ addresses and emails.

Give the form to a participating provider of your choice, not the Department of Children and Families. 

The provider must accept the child’s application to attend that facility’s Get Kids Ready program.

Where can I find a participating provider?

Hundreds of providers across Milwaukee are participating. Find a provider and call to see if there are open seats for Get Kids Ready.

The Department of Children and Families keeps a running list of participating providers in all Wisconsin cities here. COA Youth and Family Centers announced Monday that the organization had received a grant to implement the program at its Riverwest Campus, 909 E. Garfield Ave., Milwaukee.

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Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

Get your 4-year-old ready for elementary school for free through new Wisconsin program is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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In Milwaukee at H.W. Longfellow School’s Community Learning Center, which is operated by the South Side nonprofit Journey House, staff are always finding new ways to immerse students in art and culture.

To help, Cherise Myers, Journey House director of community partnerships, said the nonprofit utilizes state Child Care Bridge payments to bring in instructors specializing in art, dance, digital media and more.

Now Longfellow and other Milwaukee Public Schools-based before- and after-school programs must grapple with how to continue exposing students who don’t often get exposure to art while losing thousands of dollars in stabilization payments.

“This is kind of putting the nail in the coffin,” Myers said. “Not being able to have the money to contract or work with these opportunities.”

The Child Care Bridge Payments Program was the state’s temporary solution to the federal government sunsetting Child Care Counts, a monthly federal child care stabilization program born out of the pandemic that supported nearly 1,400 child care providers in the city of Milwaukee. 

The Wisconsin Legislature budgeted for a year of Child Care Bridge payments, which ended last month. 

Journey House received over $6,300 from the state in 2026 to support the Longfellow Community Learning Center. About 90 MPS-based before- and after-school programs collectively received $1.2 million in 2025.

Activities to be cut

Milwaukee Recreation, which received Child Care Bridge funding to operate child care as part of its programming at MPS locations, has struggled to attract and retain high-quality staff with competitive wages.

The monthly Child Care Counts and later state Child Care Bridge funding were critical in raising wages and giving employee bonuses, Community Learning Center coordinator Leighton Cooper said. 

Cooper, who coordinates Community Learning Centers through Milwaukee Recreation, said the funding helped staff stay longer at their programs overall.

“It’s causing us less and less to have to go out and find and recruit more and more staff to operate our programs,” he said. 

Now that Child Care Counts and Child Care Bridge payments have ended, Cooper said Milwaukee Recreation may have to cut funding for some supplies and activities, stop giving bonuses and cut staff positions beyond the required ratios from the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families.

“Our staff wages certainly can’t be changed,” Cooper said. “Staff are paid and that’s going to help us to keep staff in spaces.”

Journey House received less funding than other Community Learning Centers, and Myers said the organization already can’t always compete with wages at other schools.  

Myers said the ended funding may not affect new employees who were hired on starting pay, but veteran employees may leave if pay drops. Many already rely on other jobs to make ends meet, she said. 

Still, Myers said the money helped Journey House bring in instructors from local colleges, universities and community organizations to lead activities because those instructors aren’t always free.

Myers said Journey House programming depends on student needs, but the organization runs chess and Lego clubs, flag football, basketball and cheerleading classes, painting and metal classes and more.

500 programs across state losing funds

Across Milwaukee, about 90 MPS-based Community Learning Centers and before- and after-school camps received $1.2 million in 2025, according to Wisconsin Department of Children and Families data. 

Randy Neve, lead of the Wisconsin Out of School Time Alliance, estimates more than 500 before- and after-school programs serving school-aged children statewide are losing monthly stabilization payments. Milwaukee’s MPS-based programs are among them.

Many of the providers who received state and federal stabilization payments were early-childhood centers serving infants and toddlers, NNS reported in June. 

But Neve said these programs, including the ones across MPS, serve thousands of 4- to 12-year-olds. The loss of stabilization payments will affect that population of children and families. 

“In the long run, the kids are the ones that lose out and are hurt,” Neve said.

Push for the state

The state budgeted for one year of Child Care Bridge payments in the biennial budget. 

Legislators including state Sen. LaTonya Johnson, who represents District 6 on Milwaukee’s North Side, proposed SB 322 to support child care providers, but the bill didn’t get a hearing, NNS reported. 

Neve said the Wisconsin Out of School Time Alliance is working with other organizations to advocate for greater funding for before- and after-school programs like the one Journey House hosts at Longfellow. He and other partners are educating policymakers about what the loss of this funding will mean for providers and families. 

Myers said many of the families at Longfellow are already struggling with the rising cost of living, and the loss of stabilization payments will ultimately hurt students and families. 

“Things are tough, and it’s sad to say that this is just going to make things tougher,” Myers said.

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Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

After-school programs lose thousands each month as child care stabilization funding ends is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Every morning, rising senior Chris Hutcherson takes two Milwaukee County Transit System buses to get to Audubon Technology and Communication Center on Milwaukee’s South Side.

Hutcherson said he doesn’t mind his daily commute on MCTS, except when the buses are delayed. If his bus hits traffic, he sometimes misses his transfer.

“Then the 57 don’t come for like a good, good 20 minutes,” Hutcherson said.

Hutcherson is one of about a fifth of Milwaukee Public Schools high schoolers who district officials say ride MCTS buses to school. The district is now deciding on whether to send more students on county buses as part of a transportation system overhaul. 

To hit its transportation budget for the year that began in July 2026, MPS needs to cut roughly $3.5 million, according to figures the administration presented to the school board in June.

MPS Senior Director of Transportation Services David Fifarek said the district will not implement most changes until the 2027-28 school year, to allow for community engagement and to determine which recommendations are most practical.

Betting on the bus

Hutcherson tracks county buses on Google Maps, which he said is the most reliable of the apps he’s tried, though it isn’t foolproof. 

“I was actively watching that app on my phone, and I remember getting on the bus, and it’s saying that it didn’t leave,” Hutcherson said. 

MCTS buses are on time 80% of the time, which, by its definition, is within one minute before or five minutes after the scheduled departure time, according to transit officials. 

Fifarek said students who live more than seven miles from their high school are assigned to MCTS, while those within seven miles typically ride a yellow bus. 

“You can’t have a yellow bus running effectively more than seven miles from starting point to destination without having to run at least an hour long to do it,” Fifarek said.

MCTS buses will likely be most effective for students in high-density areas who can take a bus to school with no transfers, Fifarek said. It also alleviates some safety concerns because students are quickly on and off the bus without having to get off the bus and wait for another one to connect them to school. 

He said things get tricky when students live on the opposite side of town and children have to transfer buses in an area that is unfamiliar to them.

Fifarek described a “tug of war” between MCTS covering more of the city with county buses and running them often enough so riders aren’t stranded waiting for a transfer.

MCTS is weighing that very dilemma as the agency begins its own overhaul of the county bus system to provide efficient service amid a looming budget deficit. 

For the next 12 to 15 months, a spokesperson said MCTS will engage with stakeholders including MPS as part of the MCTS Forward system redesign.

MCTS has already made tough decisions to recover from a $14 million deficit, reducing frequency on routes like Hutcherson’s 57, and running the 55, the main line for commuting Reagan High School students, during peak hours. Midday service has since returned for the 55.

Fifarek said the district’s future plans will largely depend on how MCTS will change its coverage and ride frequency in the next year. 

“If that coverage model changes, then we’re going to have to pivot and then reinstate some yellow buses or some other form of transportation to replace the void that might be created by the county transit system,” Fifarek said.

On July 15, MCTS proposed cutting bus service by 25% in 2027 to address the deficit.

Chronically late

McQuinn Coleman said his yellow bus is late multiple times each school year. When he has too much trouble with the bus, he stays home.

Four other students at Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education, Lynde and Harry Bradley Technology and Trade School and Milwaukee High School of the Arts said their buses are routinely late in the morning. They sometimes take MCTS buses as a result. 

A district-commissioned analysis by 4MATIV presented at the June board meeting found that 73% of trackable bus trips to MPS are on time. But, looking at all trips, including about a third that have no GPS data, less than half of MPS bus trips could be confirmed as arriving on schedule.

Coleman said he dealt with so many transportation issues that he lost a credit and had to take summer school.

‘On point ever since’

One day, Coleman said he got robbed as he left summer school. 

He said he doesn’t feel safe waiting at stops anymore and stays vigilant on his walks to and from the bus.

“I’ve been on point ever since,” Coleman said. 

Hutcherson said he generally feels safe taking MCTS buses, but he also makes sure to stay aware of his surroundings. 

Other male high school students who spoke to NNS said they feel safe walking to and from their stop and waiting for the bus.

Students like Coleman are the ones School Board Director Darryl Jackson thinks the district should consider when forming a transportation plan. 

He said cost saving measures are important, but safety shouldn’t be overlooked in favor of cost. 

“Currently, a lot of adults don’t want to walk through certain neighborhoods,” Jackson said. “We got to keep that in mind with having our students walk through certain areas.” 

Fifarek said safety is one of the biggest concerns as MPS reviews the recommendations and overhauls the district transportation system.

The report presented to the school board in June estimates $11 million in savings if the district consolidated stops, for example. But Fifarek said implementing such a step by only considering distance could potentially send young children crossing busy streets like Capitol Drive or Fond du Lac Avenue.  

“Eleven million dollars of savings in stop consolidation would have to completely wipe out this concept of no cross streets,” Fifarek said. “You might create some safety issues and risks in the process.”

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Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

Milwaukee Public Schools weighs sending more students on county buses to cut transportation costs is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.