Wisconsin is spending more on education, says report

Wisconsin state spending on education has increased slightly, according to a report from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, which showed an approximately 1 percent increase in fiscal support for total school costs.

State's coverage of effective costs rests at 62.7 percent, up from 62.3 percent in 2014 and 62 percent in 2013.

The proportion of fiscal support provided varies widely, and is calculated from relevant variables including district property values, poverty levels and specific-targeted aid. Norris, Wauzeka-Steuben, Beloit, Boscobel and Norwalk-Ontario received the most state support, according to the Associated Press. Washington Island received the least state support with only 20 percent of its budget coming from state funding.

There has been a sharp decline in state support for education in the past several years.

“From 1996-'97 to 2002-'03, the state had a commitment to fund two-thirds of K-12 partial school revenues,” the Legislative Fiscal Bureau stated in their report. “The 2003-'05 biennial budget act [2003 Act 33] eliminated the state's two-thirds funding commitment and the associated statutory provisions.”

Funding remained relatively stagnant until the Walker administration, when the legislature’s 2012 budget enacted "the biggest cuts to education in our state's history,” according to a Politifact report. “The $1.2 billion in reductions included $792 million in direct state aid to kindergarten-through-12th grade schools.”

These cuts amounted to a 6.2 percent decline in state funding for education. Wisconsin public schools receive 48 percent of support from state money, which was the primary area of reduction. Another 44 percent is provided by local funding that has stagnated due to a freeze in property tax rates. The remaining 8 percent of schools’ budgets is provided by federal funding.