The truth about MPS, who makes it to graduation and who doesn’t

This post originally appeared at https://www.badgerinstitute.org/the-truth-about-mps-who-makes-it-to-graduation-and-who-doesnt/

The flacks for the Milwaukee Public Schools put out a press release the other day, the sort of thing they issue at this time of year, bragging that 1,056 recent high school graduates had secured $113 million in grants and scholarships.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel took the bait, of course, reporting that MPS is breaking records and quoting the new superintendent as saying that “remarkable things can happen.”

Kudos, to be sure, to every single graduate, about two-thirds of whom are economically disadvantaged, able to make it through that labyrinth with an eye on a trade school or college. Many are smart and diligent enough to win scholarships. The rest are, I guess, at least apparently better than the people running the district at getting important financial paperwork in on time.

What’s really remarkable here, though, are some other numbers.

That $113 million this year is the same amount in grants and scholarships offered graduates in 2024 and a little less than the $121 million in grants and scholarships offered to graduates in 2023 — the year I’ll focus on because there is a lot more data available for those who graduated that year.

And those who didn’t.

Most of those kids who graduated in 2022-23 started high school in MPS way back in the fall of 2019.

They were among a “cohort” of more than 5,000 kids who started MPS high school together that fall and, basically, never moved out of state or transferred to a private school.

Approximately 3,300 graduated in four years, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. And approximately 1,600 of those graduating from MPS that year went on to some sort of post-secondary education.

For what it’s worth — just to put these annual press releases in perspective — MPS bragged that year there were 900 or so grant and scholarship awardees.

But that’s really just a small part of the picture.

The bigger picture here is that for every kid who enters MPS as a freshman each fall and eventually goes on to some sort of post-secondary education, there are at least two who do not, at least not in the year after high school ended.

So what about the rest?

A lot of those kids drop out and are headed for a life of turmoil and struggle. Some, to be fair, would struggle no matter what MPS did, but closing schools for so long during the pandemic didn’t help. Nor did violence in classrooms and hallways where the school board banned cops. Nor did the district’s financial mismanagement or its chronic absenteeism. To name just a few factors.

Graduation is key, and graduates can still have good lives without going on to higher education. Some of the kids who started ninth grade together and stuck it out to graduate from MPS probably landed decent jobs right out of high school or joined the military.

But post-secondary education makes a difference, and the 600 or so kids who went on to a two-year school and the more than 900 who went on to four-year schools — if they persevere — will be more secure.

Perseverance is, of course, another wrinkle and another story for another day. Only about a third of Black students entering the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where many MPS students go, graduate within six years. But at least they and the rest of their classmates going to other schools are taking a shot and have a chance at success. And a reason, as high school comes to an end, to celebrate.

It’s all those other kids, the ones never mentioned in the press releases, that we need to worry about.

Mike Nichols is the president of the Badger Institute.

Any use or reproduction of Badger Institute articles or photographs requires prior written permission. To request permission to post articles on a website or print copies for distribution, contact Badger Institute Marketing Director Matt Erdman at matt@badgerinstitute.org.

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