User:Orlady/Stuff I'm working on/Charter schools in Milwaukee

Under Wisconsin state law, four entities can authorize charter schools in the city of Milwaukee. Authorities empowered to authorize charter schools are the board of the Milwaukee Public Schools, the Milwaukee City Council, the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee (UWM), and the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) Board. As of the 2010-2011 school year, there were 35 charter schools in the city, including 18 schools operating under Milwaukee Public Schools authority, five schools operating under the city's chartering authority, and 12 schools operating under UWM's authority. MATC has not sponsored any charter schools.

The first charter school in Milwaukee was the Highland Community School, a Montessori elementary school authorized by Milwaukee Public Schools in 1996.

Individual schools
Milwaukee's first charter school, the Highland Community School, was established in 1968 and became a charter school under Milwaukee Public Schools in 1996. The school follows the Montessori philosophy of teaching. Initially it was located in the Victor Schlitz mansion at 20th and West Highland Avenue. Soon after becoming a charter school, it moved to its current location, an historic mansion at 3030 West Highland Avenue that once belonged to the Pabst family. Highland admits children from 18 months old through the fourth grade.

Downtown Montessori Academy is a pre-kindergarten to grade 8 elementary school that was founded as a private school in 1976 and became a charter school in 1998 after the state legislature passed enabling legislation and the Milwaukee Common Council authorized chartering by city ordinance in May 1998. It was one of the first two schools in Milwaukee to be chartered by the city government. As of 2009, it was one of four schools chartered by the city council. The seventh and eighth grades were added in the 2008-2009 school year.

A pair of Milwaukee charter schools were established primarily for Hmong American children. The Hmong American Peace Academy, an elementary school (extending through twelfth grade), and the associated high school, the International Peace Academy, both operate as charter schools under the authority of Milwaukee Public Schools. The Hmong American Peace Academy was established in 2004 for Hmong American children and other children with southeast Asian heritage. Initially it enrolled students up to fifth grade, but now extends from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade. Enrollment is about 700 students, of whom 98 percent speak a language other than English. The International Peace Academy was started in 2008 when the ninth grade was established, and it added an additional grade each year, with twelfth grade scheduled to be added in the 2011-2012 school year.

Woodlands School, formerly a private school, became a charter school in the 2004-2005 school year after state legislation was enacted to allow its current tuition-paying students to continue to attend the school on a tuition-paying basis after it became a charter school under UWM authority. This pre-kindergarten-to-grade 8 elementary school was established in 1936 as the Alverno Campus Elementary School. It became an independent school in 1988 and operated in that status until becoming a charter school.