City Forward Collective’s latest polling data confirms what many of us have sensed in community conversations across Milwaukee: voters are hungry for bold leadership focused on outcomes for all Milwaukee’s students, and are responding well to the candor and honesty that new MPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius has brought to her role.
As we have consistently done throughout the past few years (July 2024, February 2025), we regularly take the pulse of Milwaukee voters to understand what they want and expect from our education system.
This fall’s survey of 535 Milwaukee residents delivered some clear messages:
- Milwaukee’s publicly-funded school sectors continue to receive similar levels of support – though we found a notable uptick in net favorable perceptions of public charter schools.
- In a political environment where telling uncomfortable truths usually gets punished, Superintendent Cassellius’ candor about MPS’s deep challenges is resonating.
- The School Board still has work to do to repair broken trust—and faces broad public support for state intervention if it doesn’t resolve MPS’s fiscal challenges.
- And when it comes to more tax increases? Voters have once again made their position clear: in the midst of an affordability crisis, they want bold action on rightsizing, not another referendum.