In some high schools, more than three-quarters of students have truancy problems. Not surprisingly, kids who go to school regularly do better than kids who don't. Expulsions were down, suspensions were up. In 1997-'98, there were 266 expulsions from MPS, including 14 elementary school students. Last year, there were 173, including seven elementary school students.
Results vary widely.
A source of hope and frustration is the success of some schools within MPS compared with other schools in the system dealing with students coming from much the same backgrounds. Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Jan. 31, 2001. Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved.