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Every time third-year Milwaukee Area Technical College student Devin Hayden comes to the Office of Multicultural Services, student service specialists welcome her with open arms.

“It’s literally just nothing but ‘hi Devin, how are you doing? How’s your parents?’ ” she said. “I felt like I could talk to them about anything that was going on.”

Now, students like Hayden are wondering where they’ll find support once the office closes on Sept. 18. 

In August, MATC announced it is restructuring the office into a new Office of Community Impact and eliminating four student service specialist positions to comply with federal recommendations to end race-based practices.

Some are questioning whether the decision aligns with the message the college sends regarding inclusivity and diversity. 

‘Safe space’

Walter Lanier remembers students walking through the doors of the Office of Multicultural Services saying, “this is different when I walk in here.”

Lanier, who ran the department until 2020 and left MATC in 2022, said many students of color consider the office their “home base.” He thinks it will be almost impossible to fill the gap left by eliminating four student support specialists.

They specialize in serving the needs of Black, Indigenous, Asian and Hispanic students but also work with students from other backgrounds.

The office also rescued leftover food from the cafeteria and gave it out to students free of charge, Hayden said. She said some students came to the office for food every day.

“I would cash in on that because sometimes I don’t have enough money for lunch,” Hayden said.

Crystal Harper, a student who’s taken classes at MATC for nine years, said the office is her “safe space.” She credits the office for supporting her growth in school, even connecting her with an internship and supporting her candidacy for MATC governor.

“When eagles fly, they don’t have to move their wings. They’re just soaring. So they told me to be like the eagles — continue to soar,” Harper said. “That’s what my plans are, to continue to soar.”

Hayden, who identifies as a Black queer woman, said she didn’t just feel like a number at the Office of Multicultural Services like she does in other spaces on campus. 

Eliminating that space contradicts the college’s message of “community and inclusivity,” Hayden said. 

“The message that (the college is) spreading that yes, we promote students, we promote students of different walks of life but then at the same time we’re going to eliminate this entire department is ridiculous to me,” Hayden said. “None of us are trusting that. None of us think that that decision is right.”

MATC to ‘champion holistic support for all students’

The four student service specialists received an email on Aug. 19 informing them that the Office of Multicultural Services will be restructured into the Office of Community Impact and their positions would be eliminated.

The office will “champion holistic support for all students,” MATC told NNS in a statement.

The decision comes amid the Trump administration’s efforts to revoke federal funding from colleges and universities that use “race-conscious practices” in programs or activities. 

MATC leaders said they restructured the office to align with the administration’s guidance because the office solely serviced students who identify as a specific race or ethnic group. 

“Fulfilling our mission to serve all students in our community while adjusting to this guidance from the U.S. Department of Education has been challenging,” read the statement from MATC. “We want to continue to stress our commitment and focus on supporting each and every one of our students, providing them with the resources they need to succeed.” 

In August, U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland determined that the way the Trump administration attempted to threaten revoking Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs was unconstitutional. 

MATC leaders said they are equally committed to supporting the employees whose positions were eliminated.

In the email, Michael Rogers, vice president of student engagement and community impact, invited support specialists to apply for two new positions within the Office of Community Impact: one that focuses on “specialized training and student events” and another for “mentorship programs,” if they wished. 

Additional concerns

In an Aug. 26 MATC District Board meeting, student service specialist Floyd C. Griffin III, who worked in multicultural services for four years, asked the board why the college eliminated his position. 

“I’m living through the indignity of working day after day knowing that my service, my dedication and my livelihood have already been dismissed by leadership,” Griffin said. “After years of commitment, this is how the college treats its employees of color — rushed, silenced and discarded.” 

The four service specialists are people of color. 

Tony Baez, the former MATC vice president of academic affairs, implemented bilingual programs at MATC in the 1990s. He said MATC President Anthony Cruz should rethink eliminating support specialists.

“MATC is an institution that is so large that with each (support specialist), you can ease them into other kinds of positions to help those students that need the support systems,” Baez said. “He had options.”

Milwaukee tech college’s multicultural service cuts prompt pushback 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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When Kristen Payne learned her child’s classmate at the Golda Meir Lower Campus tested positive for lead poisoning earlier this year, she said Milwaukee Public Schools had underestimated the amount of lead dust in the school. 

“We have come to find out that Golda Meir had one of the highest levels of lead dust of any of the schools tested,” said Payne, founder of the advocacy group Lead Safe Schools MKE. 

After MPS replaced the windows at Golda Meir in the 1990s, she said, district officials thought they eliminated a major hazard. But after starting remediation work earlier this year, they realized the problem was worse than they thought, she said. 

Payne said the experience broke her trust with the district. She’s one of several advocates calling for MPS to be more transparent with its lead action plan. 

As the school year approaches, lead safety groups want the district to share more documentation, open up about the money being spent on the plan and keep an eye on subcontractors doing remediation. 

Advocates urge transparency

As of Aug. 29, the Milwaukee Health Department had cleared 39 MPS schools, meaning lead hazards have been removed and it is safe for children to return. 

The district has posted full health department clearance reports for six schools and interim clearance reports for three schools, including Golda Meir. 

An interim clearance report means all indoor lead hazards have been addressed, even if there are still lead hazards outside, said Caroline Reinwald, marketing, communications and public information officer for the Milwaukee Health Department. 

“Some schools receive interim clearance reports because completing all exterior work can take months or even years,” Reinwald wrote. “In these cases, the buildings are still considered safe to occupy.” 

As of Aug. 29, the district had sent letters to families at 28 schools saying the Health Department cleared their school for occupancy, yet few of the full clearance reports are available online. 

“Trust is not going to be rebuilt if they continue to withhold information,” Payne said. “There’s many of us who aren’t clear or sure that truly these schools are safe.”

Richard Diaz is the co-founder of Coalition On Lead Emergency, which works to prevent and respond to lead poisoning in Milwaukee. 

He said he wants to know how much money MPS is spending on abatement efforts and how long the cleanup keeps students safe from lead exposure. 

Lead hazards can reappear after abatement, so the district will need to monitor schools for future lead risks, according to the Milwaukee Health Department clearance reports. New lead hazards can also appear as the building deteriorates, the reports read. 

“Because these aren’t full-fledged abatements, these are, you know, kind of just Band-Aids on a solution that will need to be addressed in years to come,” Diaz said. 

Contractor concerns

JCP Construction, the company MPS hired to assist with lead remediation, started the work with about 150 painters, but about 30 painters have since left due to difficult work conditions and high temperatures, MPS Interim Chief Operating Officer Mike Turza said in the July 31 school board meeting. 

Turza said JCP Construction hired Illinois-based Independence Painting to fill the void, a decision that raised concerns among advocates and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. The district currently has 172 painters working across buildings.

Andy Buck, political affairs director with the painters’ union, said safety is a big concern. He said people want to know and ensure contractors doing lead remediation have the necessary qualifications.

“How’s that being documented?” Buck asked.

MPS media relations manager Stephen Davis said the district holds the contractor, JCP Construction, accountable for ensuring subcontractors are compliant with state regulations and licenses. 

When the public raised concerns about out-of-state contractors like Independence Painting, the district worked with JCP to ensure it had all the necessary qualifications, Davis said.

There are generally no restrictions on the use of contractors from outside the area or state, but the district mandates that any staff meet the qualifications of state and building code requirements, Davis said.

Payne said the situation is another example of why she struggles to trust the district. Like Buck, she wants to see the documented qualifications of the subcontractors. 

During the July 31 school board meeting, Turza said a district staff member was always monitoring each worksite and that certified lead stabilization staff or Wisconsin Department of Health Services workers were always present. 

“It’s not clear to me who is correct,” Payne said. “I would want to see actual data on that before coming to any conclusion.”

What’s next

The first day of class for most Milwaukee Public Schools was Sept. 2. As of Aug. 29, there were still 11 schools that had not been cleared by the Milwaukee Health Department. 

Remediation efforts are ongoing with clearance of all schools expected by the start of the school year, according to the district’s most recent lead action plan report.

You can check on the progress of lead remediation efforts on this website. 

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

Advocates want more transparency in Milwaukee Public Schools lead action plan 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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Jesús Daniel Ruiz Villamil wanted to be proactive, so before he started his junior year at Milwaukee’s South Division High School, he asked his counselors about courses beyond normal high school classes. 

They suggested dual enrollment, where Ruiz Villamil could get college credit for taking university-level courses like Latin American and Caribbean studies and advanced Spanish taught by his high school teachers.

Now a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Ruiz Villamil credits the dual enrollment classes he took at South Division for the success he’s experienced so far in college. 

“I think those college classes … helped me to improve my writing and reading skills to be prepared for my English classes, psychology classes and political science classes,” he said.

Dual enrollment gives students the opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school. South Division is one of several Milwaukee Public Schools that offer dual enrollment in the school – MPS teachers teach college classes in the classroom.

MPS high school students at any school can also take advantage of dual enrollment on a college campus – where students can earn high school and college credit at the same time for taking college classes – through the district’s M-Cubed partnership with UWM and the Milwaukee Area Technical College. 

Participation in dual enrollment is growing in Wisconsin, but Milwaukee lags behind many other districts in the state, a Wisconsin Policy Forum report found. 

In Milwaukee Public Schools, 2.8% of high school students participated in dual enrollment, the study found using 2023-2024 state report card data. The report card data is based off enrollment data from the previous school year. 

In Oak Creek-Franklin Joint School District, the rate is 47%, while at Racine Unified, the dual enrollment participation rate is 40%.

Concerns with state funding

Vicki Bott, UWM outreach program manager, said she thinks dual enrollment could grow at MPS, but limits in state funding force schools to weigh the benefits of increasing access with other pressing district needs.

The district covers nearly the entire cost of programs like M-Cubed or in-classroom courses like those at South Division, MPS postsecondary engagement coordinator Hannah Ingram said. Wisconsin does not give school districts funding to help cover these dual enrollment costs. 

For each UWM course that a high school teacher teaches, MPS pays $330 per student at no cost to the student. For this coming school year, the district is paying a little over $3,200 per student to participate in the M-Cubed program, Ingram said.

“It’s too much of a burden on school districts and high schools, so that’s where we’ve got some inequity,” Bott said. “If it’s a matter of like, you know, repainting to prevent lead poisoning or providing tuition for dual enrollment, they’re going to choose the lead poisoning prevention.”

Other hurdles

Some schools don’t have dual enrollment courses inside the classroom because no teachers have the necessary qualifications to teach a college-level course, MPS career and technical education manager Eric Radomski said. Teachers also don’t get incentives to teach dual enrollment courses. 

South Division can offer several courses in the high school because several teachers already had the necessary qualifications, including master’s degrees, Principal José Trejo said. 

Trejo said not many South Division students participate in M-Cubed. He said students tend to just participate in the courses within the high school.

Most dual enrollment courses across Wisconsin are similar to South Division’s program, where high school teachers get credentialed to teach courses for college credit in the classroom, Wisconsin Policy Forum researcher and report author Don Cramer said. 

South Division is one of 10 MPS schools that offer classes through UWM in the high school, Ingram said. Radomski said 15 high schools have career and technical education classes, eight of which offer dual enrollment career and technical education courses. 

Despite the financial constraints, Radomski said, “We have seen a gradual trend in the right direction with more and more (career and technical education) teachers offering dual enrollment courses over the past several years.”  

The district adds about one to two career and technical education dual enrollment courses in the high school each year, he said. 

Different schools, different priorities

Another reason dual enrollment access varies, according to Ingram, is because some MPS schools choose to prioritize other programs over dual enrollment in the classroom, like Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, the Rising Phoenix program through the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, or Early College Credit Program and Start College Now, Wisconsin’s two dual enrollment programs. 

At Pulaski High School, for example, three students dual-enrolled during the 2022-2023 school year, but 84% of students completed AP or IB courses. 

Not all students who take AP courses take the exam, and not everyone who takes the exam receives college credit. Students need to take and score high enough on an AP exam to earn college credit. 

AP exams are graded on a scale of one to five. Students typically need to score three or higher depending on the course and the requirements of the university to which the student is transferring. Students can check what AP scores their prospective college accepts using the College Board’s AP credit policy search.

Radomski said despite the benefits of advanced courses like AP and IB, a lot of MPS students see greater success in dual enrollment courses because they need to pass an entire class to receive college credit, not just a test. 

“We have over a 75% pass rate, for example, in Career Tech Ed, but the number is not nearly that high for students getting a three or four on their (AP) test in order to get that credit,” Radomski said. 

Ruiz Villamil said the rigor of AP courses helped him prepare for college classes, but he preferred dual enrollment. He said he failed two AP exams and didn’t earn credit despite taking the classes for a year. 

Helping students find their path

At South Division, principal Trejo has seen dual enrollment courses help students gain better clarity about what they want to do after graduation. With this clarity, Trejo said, students can avoid pursuing a college degree only to realize they don’t like it.

“It’s a really good experience in terms of understanding ‘maybe that’s not what I want to do’ and it’s OK,” Trejo said. “But at least you found that out early enough so that you’re not spending so much money in college.”

For example, students interested in becoming a teacher can learn how they like working in a classroom by taking college-level education classes and participating in an internship at an MPS school — an opportunity Trejo said students might not have if they didn’t start their education career until college. 

Ruiz Villamil said his dual enrollment courses helped expose him to new pathways of study. 

“That’s one of the reasons that I’m doing a Spanish minor, probably major,” Ruiz Villamil said. “Nowadays, I can look back to it and appreciate that I took those classes.”

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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.

Dual enrollment helps Milwaukee Public Schools students prepare for college success. Why are participation rates low? 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 a county where one in four adults read at or below a third-grade level, Literacy Services of Wisconsin is doing what it can to help break down adult literacy barriers. 

“We are here to provide educational opportunities for those who maybe either didn’t feel engaged in traditional classrooms or are just looking to improve their skills now,” said Holly McCoy, executive director of Literacy Services of Wisconsin.

On July 16, the organization opened its new headquarters, at 1737 N. Palmer St., in the Brewer’s Hill neighborhood. Literacy Services provides free help to Milwaukee-area adults looking to continue their education, including GED prep, help in the transition to college and more.

More space brings bigger opportunities

The organization’s new headquarters includes several classrooms, space for virtual learners and a lounge. 

Students can learn directly from Milwaukee Area Technical College professors teaching on site in the new dedicated MATC classroom.

MATC works with Literacy Services to help students transition from “community to college,” McCoy said. Classes typically build the necessary literacy and numeracy skills to succeed in college courses. Last year, 63 students transitioned from Literacy Services to a post-secondary school.

“We are kind of known for GED, whereas, like when people think of MATC, they think college,” McCoy said. “We kind of create the bridge.”

Literacy Services is also raising funds to develop a GED testing room with four stations. As the organization works to raise funds, it did receive good news recently as a $235,000 freeze in federal funding was lifted. 

Frozen funds had presented major challenge

Literacy Services was one of many adult education programs waiting on federal funds frozen by the Trump administration. The Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, which supports adult education programs, covers about 10% of Literacy Services’ budget.

The Trump administration had frozen nearly $7 million in federal funding for adult education programs in Wisconsin, impacting Literacy Services of Wisconsin and MATC. It was announced Friday, July 25, that the Trump administration had released $6.8 billion in frozen federal education funding.

McCoy said before the funds became available that losing them would have a “tremendous impact” on her organization’s programming.

“We’ve thought about these things and we definitely don’t want to see a disturbance to our students,” McCoy said.

‘Open to the community’

As the headquarters moves from downtown to Brewer’s Hill, McCoy looks forward to growing roots in a more accessible and centralized location. 

“I love the fact that we are in a neighborhood,” McCoy said.

Ray Hill, executive director of Historic King Drive Business Improvement District 8, is excited the new center is in her district. 

“This location matters. It’s not tucked away. It’s in one of Milwaukee’s most historic and visible neighborhoods. It’s accessible, it’s walkable, and, most importantly, it’s open to the community,” Hill said. “Having invested in partners like LSW here creates an effect.”

Mayor Cavalier Johnson said the new location opens doors for Milwaukee adults who want to grow, learn and thrive. 

“Here in our city, we believe that it’s never too late to finish your education, to earn a diploma, or even to pick up a brand-new skill,” Johnson said. “Literacy Services is making all of that possible, and I’m proud that Milwaukee is a place where opportunity doesn’t stop, it actually expands. It grows.”

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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.

New center helps Literacy Services of Wisconsin expand adult education in Milwaukee 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.