(The Center Square) – Milwaukee Public Schools are getting failing or near-failing grades from half in the city, according to a new poll.
The poll from the City Forward Collective – a school choice organization – on Wednesday reported that most people in the city are disappointed in the city’s public schools.
City Forward Collective’s CEO Colleston Morgan said 55% of people polled gave MPS a D or F grade.
“Milwaukee residents continue to send a clear and unmistakable message: they are deeply concerned about the continuing cascade of challenges at Milwaukee Public Schools,” Morgan said.
The same poll found that 11% of people in Milwaukee give the city’s schools an A or B grade.
Pollsters also say that 70% of people are paying at least some attention to MPS’ multiple scandals and that 64% of people “do not believe DPI has done enough to address the challenges at MPS, vs just 15% who believe they have.”
MPS has been dealing with a financial scandal since last summer. That’s when the DPI, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, informed parents that the school district was a year late with a required financial report and audit. The two reports have still not yet been turned- n.
Those missing reports have cost MPS nearly $60 million, and could cost as much as $81 million.
“[People] lost confidence in MPS and school board leadership – and they’re not buying Jill Underly & DPI’s shifting of blame and abdication of responsibility for holding MPS accountable,” Colleston said.
In addition to MPS’ financial scandal, the city’s school district has the worst racial learning gap in the entire. And last month’s National Report Card showed Milwaukee Public Schools had some of the worst reading and writing scores in the state.
The pollsters asked about those scores.
“Nearly 80% are very concerned about MPS’ failing NAEP scores, with just 9% of students proficient and Black students ranking worst in the nation,” the poll showed. “About three-quarters worry about declining academic outcomes, despite over $1 billion in new funding since 2020 and a 30% property tax hike.”
Polling was conducted by Change Research between Feb 4-8, using Dynamic Online Sampling to attain a representative sample. Polling included 502 respondents from registered voters in the city of Milwaukee; post-stratification was performed on age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, and 2020 presidential preference. The margin of error for the full sample is 4.6%.