After a funding scare in summer 2025, MKE Roots — a Marquette University professor’s project focused on developing local education — is officially back.
In 2025, the U.S. Department of Education terminated funding for the program, which promotes local history and civics education in Milwaukee area schools. Though the initial grant serving MKE Roots was supposed to last through September 2026, Melissa Gibson, program director and professor in the College of Education, was informed June 2025 that the funding would stop on September 30, 2025.
On Sept. 29, just a day before the expiration, program staff received word that funding was renewed under a new application. The new $1.5 million grant extended the life of MKE Roots by three years, closing the book on a process that the program had spent months preparing for.
From the 2024 presidential election to the initial funding cut, Gibson and other program staff were on high alert because most of the students served through MKE Roots come from minority backgrounds.
“We knew that our specific grant application was not 100% aligned with the new, current administration,” Lauren Instenes, MKE Roots program manager, said.
After receiving news of the cut, Gibson got to work writing a new grant application for MKE Roots. Under previous administrations, the program’s work with students of color and low-income students was a focus. This time, the application was reworked and rewritten, keeping the program’s mission while emphasizing the priorities of the federal government.
The new grant proposal had to meet two federal requirements, Gibson said. First, it had to include programming to commemorate the United States’ 250th anniversary celebration in 2026. Second, it had to include seminar-style instruction. There is an additional preference given to universities with independent civic institutes, like Marquette’s Lubar Center, which MKE Roots hopes to work alongside in the future.
“Dr. Gibson and the staff at MKE Roots looked at those new standards and found a way that we could fit into them while still maintaining what we’re trying to do,” Sergio González, program faculty affiliate and associate professor of history, said. “And at the heart, what MKE Roots is trying to do is create civically-minded students.”
Those combined standards resulted in a new grant, giving MKE Roots $1.5 million over three years. While it was an increase from the initial $1.27 million grant, it was also an extension of the program itself, which was set for an uncertain future without federal funding.
“That was scary,” Raylee Nelson, a program intern and graduate student in the College of Arts & Sciences, said. “Not only for financial security of myself, the other interns, the permanent workers there, but also we were losing something that we were very passionate about.”
Nelson wasn’t the only one feeling the pressure of the funding pause. As program manager, Instenes’ job at Marquette is fully funded by grant money. With that funding up in the air, she began to search for a new job, accepting another position before receiving word that MKE Roots was back under a new grant.
“I didn’t want to leave,” Instenes said. “I love this position.”
In addition to returning Instenes, the new grant also allows for a larger team at MKE Roots, which is currently working with eight interns — its largest group to date. Additionally, the program is hiring another full-time position and is working with more local teachers, increasing that number from 25 to 35.
Curriculum-wise, the program is also expanding, continuing its original mission while maintaining the overarching goals of the federal government. With a heightened focus on civics, Gibson said MKE Roots is in the process of designing a partnership with the Lubar Center, with the goal of teaming up for programming to commemorate the 250th anniversary celebration.
“The big question driving MKE Roots always is, ‘How should we tell the story of our Milwaukee?’” Gibson said. “So we’ve added a second question to that, which is, ‘How can everyday citizens bring democracy to life in Milwaukee and beyond?’”
However, while the program is largely dependent on federal grants, Gibson learned over the summer that there may be a future where that isn’t the case.
During the time of the funding scare, she said, partners in the community and city contacted her to ask about contributing to the program. While the federal grant is now renewed, she said local partnership may be an option for sustainable funding.
But above the funding and paperwork is a desire to serve students in Milwaukee, which drives MKE Roots further than any sum of money.
“Governments change, politics change, funding streams change,” Gibson said. “But we are all committed to doing this work and we’ll continue doing it, regardless of if someone’s paying us to do it or not.”
This story was written by Lance Schulteis. He can be reached at [email protected].
