So far this year, MPS students have earned upwards of $86 million in college scholarships and that number will rise as schools continue to report the numbers.
That's more than $24 million than last year, and, as you can see from the graph below, a massive increase over 2012, when $18 million was earned by students headed to college.
According to Milwaukee Public Schools, the Class of 2018 has so far received an eye-popping total of $86,247,467. This is the sixth year in a row that scholarship offers to MPS students have risen.
Scholarships to African-American students doubled this year, according to MPS.
And more students are getting scholarships, too, district representatives say. Nearly 900 students have received scholarship offers, which is an increase of more than 200 since 2015.
"Congratulations to the Class of 2018 for breaking the record for scholarships earned. Hard work and determination allowed our scholarship winners to accomplish this impressive feat. We know our students could not have achieved this result without the support of their parents, families, school counselors, teachers and administrators," said Interim Superintendent Dr. Keith Posley in a statement.
"We always have more work to do to close the achievement gap here in Milwaukee, but something so tangible, and this shows real progress," Posley said. This type of work is vital to the success of Milwaukee's future workforce.
"Growing scholarships and better preparing all students for success in college, career and life is critical to the future of our city."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
