A Marquette University professor’s project focused on developing education in Milwaukee is losing grant funding under President Donald Trump’s administration.
In 2023, Melissa Gibson, professor in the College of Education and director of MKE Roots: The Democratizing Local History Project, received a $1.27 million grant to provide professional development to teachers at public and private Milwaukee County schools.
The project, run through Marquette’s Center for Urban Research, Teaching and Outreach, focuses on implementing local history and civics curriculum into Milwaukee classrooms with an emphasis on marginalized communities. Programming consists of a weeklong summer training institute for 25 teachers who apply, as well as additional classroom assistance throughout the year.
MKE Roots also has an online educational ecosystem where educators can view resources and lesson plans about Milwaukee.
In 2025, Gibson’s project, which was supposed to last through September 2026, was cut short. She received a letter in June from a U.S. Department of Education political appointee saying funding for MKE Roots would be discontinued Sept. 30. The department said the program no longer served the priorities of the federal government and provided a list of potential reasons for discontinuation.
Gibson said she didn’t believe her project fell under any of the cited reasons for termination. Some of these reasons included mismanagement of funds, failure to meet targets, harm to students and violation of a federal civil rights law.
“I would love for the government to tell us specifically what we did to be discontinued,” Gibson said.
Though not provided specifics by the Department of Education, Gibson said she suspects her grant is being discontinued because of the project’s focus on marginalized communities, like the LGBTQ+ and refugee communities.
Gibson said it’s hard to serve Milwaukee learners without talking about these groups, based on the city’s demographics and history.
“We wanted to fill in the gaps for students, given that Milwaukee Public Schools students are predominantly students of color and low-income students,” Gibson said.
Some similar projects losing funding are a St.Louis-area program that trained teachers in civil rights education and a Florida program that examined the slave trade and discussed Indigenous peoples.
The Joe Biden-era history and civics grant that served MKE Roots and other projects, and sought to help low-income and underserved students, is considered illegal diversity, equity and inclusion programming under the Trump administration.
The Marquette Wire reached out to the Department of Education’s media hotline for comment and was met with a message saying the press center is temporarily closed. The Wire left a voicemail and did not receive a response.
MKE Roots’ roughly $400,000 of annual grant funding covers all staffing costs, compensation for presenters, cost of materials and more, Gibson explained.
If the project doesn’t secure another funding source by the time the grant expires, Gibson said, she will lose her entire staff. The team comprises a program manager, four undergraduate interns and a graduate student assistant, all of whom Gibson said were devastated to learn of the grant discontinuation.
Lois Ella Dahlman, a junior in College of Arts & Sciences, worked as a MKE Roots undergraduate researcher since her first year of college, focusing on Milwaukee’s Indigenous and Latinx history.
Dahlman found out in July that she’d be losing her job for the upcoming school year.
“It was pretty disheartening to see how the federal government viewed our work as sort of disposable,” Dahlman said.
Gibson said there’s a “good chance” she will lose her staff before securing other funding. Then, the only person left on the project will be her, which means she’ll be back to square one.
“The teachers that participate in our professional development tell us repeatedly it’s the most meaningful professional learning they’ve ever done, and that it’s really transforming how they think about their work as teachers,” Gibson said. “It’s a shame that we would lose that.”
The project isn’t finished, Dahlman said, meaning years of effort could go to waste. To prevent that from happening, she said she encourages educators to use MKE Roots’ public-facing resources in their curriculum.
There’s still work to be done, and Dahlman believes the project will die out completely if Gibson can’t find a new funding source this year.
“There are still a lot of great resources, and I think it’s important stuff,” Dahlman said. ”Who knows? If lots of teachers and educators are using it, maybe there’ll be someone who sees it as something worth investing in.”
Gibson applied for a new civic education grant focused on cultivating “citizen competency and informed patriotism” in honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026. She has also reached out to local nonprofits for funding but said the Sept. 30 deadline is tight.
Gibson said Marquette has been supportive, sending an appeal letter documenting the potential illegalities of the grant discontinuation. But she hasn’t heard back from the Department of Education and said she doesn’t know if she ever will.
Marquette will share information as necessary. There are no new updates following an initial July 15 report, university spokesperson Kevin Conway said.
This story was written by Mia Thurow. She can be reached at [email protected].
