Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional comments from leaders.
Local leaders and educators are seeking clarity on the U.S. Department of Education’s investigation into whether Milwaukee Public Schools considers race when disciplining students.
The Tuesday announcement of the investigation into MPS and another school district in Fayetteville, Arkansas, coincided with the department issuing new guidance to educational institutions that explains how the administration interprets existing laws.
It details how discipline policies following an April executive order “must treat students even-handedly and must neither favor nor disfavor any student based on their race.”
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.
“No child’s race should determine the consequence they receive,” said Angela Harris, chair of the Black Educators Caucus MKE and an educator in Milwaukee Public Schools. “That’s ridiculous. 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.”
More reaction
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, through his spokesperson Jeff Fleming, declined to comment on the investigation and deferred to MPS.
MPS received notice from the department’s Office for Civil Rights on Tuesday morning but will need more information from the department to respond appropriately, according to Stephen Davis, MPS media relations manager.
Ald. Sharlen Moore said the school district should take the investigation seriously and use it as an opportunity to look for ways to improve its policies and practices.
However, she said, any discipline policy would require training to address implicit bias to be effective.
“If teachers aren’t trained appropriately, we’ll have a policy that is administered several different ways, based on my own bias, my own upbringing, my own experiences,” she said.
Individual discipline versus analyzing practices
While not detailing any specific complaints or incidents, the Department of Education in a statement said education leaders in Milwaukee “derided facially neutral school policies as reflecting systemic ‘whiteness,’ seemingly encouraging school officials to consider race in disciplinary practices.”
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.
History and administration changes
The Office for Civil Rights reversed its stance on the issue under the second Trump Administration after initially supporting it under Barack Obama’s administration.
The office previously 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.
“This wouldn’t even have to be a conversation if disparities didn’t already exist in discipline,” Harris said.
State Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, said this president’s Department of Education is not interested in preventing racial discrimination or students’ civil rights.
“They subscribe to a perverse view of reality that sees any efforts to recognize, study or combat our nation’s embarrassing racial disparities as somehow racist in their own right,” he said.
State Sen. Dora Drake, D-Milwaukee, agreed.
“I question how this new guidance helps improve educational outcomes given the source and will remain committed to policy solutions driven by facts to improve educational outcomes for all kids,” she said.
Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, a conservative public-interest law firm, issued a statement Tuesday praising the Trump Administration for investigating 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.
Racial disparities in suspensions
Black students are still disciplined at disproportionate rates at MPS.
Black students made up 48% of the population at MPS and 75% of suspensions during the 2024-2025 school year, according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. In comparison, white students made up 9% of the total in the district and 2% of suspensions, while Hispanic students comprise 29% of the population and 16% of suspensions.
Black students were involved in 54% of the incidents that resulted in disciplinary action during the school year but made up 78% of suspensions and 86% of expulsions. White students at MPS had no expulsions during the 2024-2025 school year.
“It used to be significantly worse, and to their credit, MPS has made efforts to reduce this disparity over the years,” said Larson in a social post.
Peggy Drana is a retired MPS teacher and secretary of the MICAH Education Task Force. The group advocated for MPS to follow through on corrective action from the previous investigation by the Office for Civil Rights. She said the task force’s goal is for every student to have the opportunity to be successful.
“I think MPS is trying to be even-handed and trying to make sure that there is fairness in discipline,” she said.
Harris said while the district has made some progress, it still has a long way to go. She is concerned the investigation could be an excuse or a reason for districts like MPS to stop examining racial disparities in discipline altogether.
“It’s my opinion that Milwaukee Public Schools should be doing more as it relates to discipline disparities, not less,” she said.
Harris said the district needs to better understand why suspensions occur.
“It should be our goal to figure out why children are being suspended, how they’re being suspended and address the root to that so that it stops happening,” she said.
Alex Klaus contributed to this article.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
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