Milwaukee
COVID Gave Wisconsin Charters a 7,500-Student Boost They Never Gave Back
In a single school year, Wisconsin's charter sector gained more ground than it had in the previous five years combined. Between 2019 and 2021, charter schools added 7,570 students -- a 17.5% increase ...
Nearly Half of Milwaukee Students Are Chronically Absent
Milwaukee Public Schools is Wisconsin's largest school district and its largest attendance problem. In the 2024-25 school year, 46.2% of Milwaukee's 61,367 students were chronically absent — meaning t...
Wisconsin Lost 8,121 Students in a Single Year — and It Wasn't Even the Worst Recent Drop
The number that flashes brightest in Wisconsin's enrollment data is the one from the pandemic: 25,024 students gone in a single year, 2020-21. That was the crisis everyone saw. What the state is livin...
150,000 Fewer White Students in 19 Years
Wisconsin lost 67,640 public school students between 2006 and 2025. White students alone lost 150,475.
Milwaukee Has Lost One in Four Students
In 19 years of Wisconsin enrollment data, Milwaukee Public Schools recorded a single year of growth. It was 2016-17, when the district added 473 students. Every other year, the line moved in one direc...
Wisconsin Hits an All-Time Low: 805,881 Students
Every year since 2014-15, Wisconsin's public schools have opened with fewer students than the year before. The streak has now reached 10 observed years with no interruption, no plateau, no sign of a f...