A new report from the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy (CROWE) highlights a funding disparity between Wisconsin's technical colleges and public universities, with technical colleges receiving twice as much money per student than universities.
Wisconsin gave $14,099 per full-time student to its two-year technical college system in 2025, compared to $6,974 per its public university students, according to the report. Wisconsin ranked 43rd nationally in per-student funding for four-year universities and seventh for two-year technical colleges — making it the only state with a funding gap that wide.
The disparity, researchers argue, is not a difference in how much Wisconsin spends on higher education. It is the result of a funding system built more than a century ago that has not kept pace with the state's shift toward an economy increasingly reliant on services, information and jobs requiring four-year degrees. The report argues Wisconsin could narrow the gap by redirecting existing higher education funding toward its universities rather than increasing overall spending.
The report was written by Junjie Guo, a research economist at CROWE, and Ananth Seshadri, an economics professor and co-director of the Center. CROWE is a University of Wisconsin-Madison based research group dedicated to studying the state's economy.
In 1911, the State Legislature passed a law that made Wisconsin the first state in the country to build a system of technical schools. The law required any city with 5,000 or more residents to establish a trade school and a local board with the power to levy taxes for the school.
Wisconsin backed the system with direct funding and created the State Board of Industrial Education to oversee it. This early network, funded and expanded over the following decades, grew into today's Wisconsin Technical College System.
The report argues the State Legislature never readjusted the funding as the economy shifted toward services, information and knowledge work.
"The economy moved," Guo and Seshadri said in the report. "The plumbing did not."
Wisconsin's technical colleges can levy property taxes, issue debt and own their buildings, while UW system campuses can't — a large difference in financial freedom.
Two La Crosse building projects highlight this difference. Western Technical College proposed a $79.8 million renovation plan to voters in 2012 and the funding was approved on the same day it was voted on. The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse waited seven years and four state budgets for a new science building.
The funding system worked when it launched in 1911, according to the report but it argues the state kept pouring resources into the same places despite the economy shifting.
Today's highest-paying jobs increasingly demand a four-year degree, yet Wisconsin's university system sits "near the bottom" nationally in funding, the report found.
The authors don't think Wisconsin needs to spend more overall. As they put it, "the problem is where the money goes" — they suggest the state legislature should shift more money and resources toward its universities.
The gap has shown up in recent budget fights as well.
Gov. Tony Evers signed Wisconsin's 2025-27 state budget in July 2025 — securing a $256 million increase for the University of Wisconsin System — a fraction of the $856 million that was requested.
University of Wisconsin-Madison's share went largely toward maintenance and renovation — including more than $160 million for Science Hall repairs —rather than new construction. The university's request to build a new residence hall went unfunded, and a request for $292 million to demolish the aging Mosse Humanities building was cut to $5 million.
"Future budgets should rebalance toward the four-year sector rather than presume that a larger total higher-education budget is required," Guo and Seshadri said.
