Notes on ongoing k-12 tax & $pending growth; special education budgets
Jill Underly’s proposed DPI budget would eat up 65% of the state’s budget surplus, all while allowing property taxes to continue to go up. We fund students at approximately $20k per student on average. When is it enough?
State Superintendent Jill Underly is proposing more than $4 billion in new spending for Wisconsin public schools to increase special education funding and to allow school districts’ spending limits to match the rate of inflation.
The Department of Public Instruction’s 2025-27 budget request also proposes free school meals for all Wisconsin students, and more mental health and early literacy programming, along with a $10,000 stipend for student teachers.
The new spending would decrease the number of school districts turning to local taxpayers for more money through referendums, Underly said. In 2024, nearly half of Wisconsin’s more than 400 school districts asked voters to approve increases in local funding.
But here is what NCES says: 2022 special education state revenue for districts divided by IDEA students.
We are middling, not top nor bottom.
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Our govt’s decision to remove all subject area requirementsfor teachers will make things worse.
The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic”
My Question to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Teacher Mulligans and our Disastrous Reading Results
2017: West High Reading Interventionist Teacher’s Remarks to the School Board on Madison’s Disastrous Reading Results
Madison’s taxpayer supported K-12 school district, despite spending far more than most, has long tolerated disastrous reading results.
“An emphasis on adult employment”
Wisconsin Public Policy Forum Madison School District Report[PDF]
WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators
Friday Afternoon Veto: Governor Evers Rejects AB446/SB454; an effort to address our long term, disastrous reading results
Booked, but can’t read (Madison): functional literacy, National citizenship and the new face of Dred Scott in the age of mass incarceration.
When A Stands for Average: Students at the UW-Madison School of Education Receive Sky-High Grades. How Smart is That?
