Trump Admin Cuts Funding For MPS, UW-Madison Teacher Training
Teacher partnership grant would have trained 36 special education teachers.
Rufus King. file photo by Christopher Hillard.
The U.S. Department of Education terminated more than $600 million in teacher training grants this week, including funds for a program designed to bring more special education teachers into Milwaukee Public Schools.
In 2023, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and MPS announced a partnership providing on-the-job training through a teaching residency, paired with a special education master’s degree program.
The partnership was funded by a five year, $3.28 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
On Monday, the department abruptly canceled the grant, along with dozens of other Teacher Quality Partnership grants.
A press release from the department said taxpayer funds were being used to “train teachers and education agencies on divisive ideologies.”
“Training materials included inappropriate and unnecessary topics such as Critical Race Theory; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); social justice activism,” the release said.
The partnership between MPS and UW-Madison did not have a DEI focus.
The purpose was to recruit 36 teachers to help alleviate the school district’s special education teaching shortage.
“It’s not at all a DEI program,” said Project Director Kimber Wilkerson. “It’s a program that’s meant to attract and prepare and retain people in special education, which is a field that has a lot of turnover and is critically important for students with disabilities.”
Wilkerson said UW-Madison’s grant application, under the Biden Administration, described the ways the school would recruit teachers from as “diverse a pool as possible.”
“In my view, that doesn’t make this a DEI initiative,” Wilkerson said. “So, it feels unfortunate to be targeted for that language that was requested of us just a couple years ago.”
Wilkerson said UW-Madison has already appealed the grant termination. In the mean time, there are 10 people currently in the program and 14 more signed up for the upcoming school year.
During the program, students receive a living stipend of at least $55,335 and were eligible for free tuition through UW-Madison’s Teacher Pledge.
In exchange, teachers would commit to working in a special education classroom at a high-need MPS school for three years.
Wilkerson said The Wisconsin Center for Education Research and the School of Education are looking for resources for the original 10 people to continue their program.
UW-Madison is working with MPS on placements for the 14 people accepted into the program for next year.
“Milwaukee has a shortage of special education educators, so to them, this is a real boon,” Wilkerson said. “These are people who want to be special education teachers, who are from the Milwaukee community and who are agreeing to stay and teach for at least three years. We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to figure it out. But it’s very much up in the air right now.”
MPS officials did not return requests for comment.
A report released last spring by the state Department of Public Instruction found educators are leaving the workforce at an alarming rate.
DPI surveyed 165 school districts and found nearly 75 percent of respondents had a vacancy in special education. Only about 35 percent of those districts were able to find a qualified special education teacher to hire.
Gov. Tony Evers released his 2025-27 budget proposal this week that included increasing K-12 spending by a substantial $3.15 billion. That includes $1.1 billion for special education.
“As the Trump administration presses forward with its reckless and destructive slash-and-burn operation impacting Wisconsin’s children and families, historic state investments into public education are not just needed, they are critical to our state’s survival,” State Superintendent Jill Underly said in a statement.
Trump administration cuts funding for UW-Madison teacher training program at MPS was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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