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General Aid Certified to Districts
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | October 16, 2014
From WisPolitics.com . . .
Just over half the state’s school districts will see an increase in state funding during the current academic year, according to an annual report on K-12 aid from the state Department of Public Instruction.
According to the report, 220 of the state’s 424 public school districts will see aid increases totaling more than $120 million, while 204 will see no increase or an aid drop. The 202 districts with aid decreases will see their funding drop by a total of nearly $35 million.
DPI said although overall aid increased by $94.4 million, the districts themselves will only see $85.5 million due to “statutory reductions to general state aid for private voucher schools in Milwaukee and independent charter schools supported by state tax dollars.”
Milwaukee Public Schools — by far the state’s largest district — will see an increase of 0.73 percent, although DPI said the district’s aid was reduced by more than $60 million for the city’s school choice program.
Most other large districts also saw aid increases, including Madison (4.06 percent), Kenosha (2.84 percent) and Green Bay (3.66 percent). Among the state’s 10 largest districts, only Eau Claire and Sheboygan saw aid drops, at 3.98 percent and 0.32 percent, respectively.
The Northwood School District in northwestern Wisconsin saw the largest aid decrease, with an aid level more than 30 percent below its 2013-2014 total. Pewaukee saw the largest increase at more than 150 percent, which DPI attributed to increased enrollment and a loss of property value in the suburban Milwaukee district.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, touted the overall aid increase, saying “our communities are continuing to see the benefits of the fiscally responsible policies of the last two legislative sessions.”
Minority Leader Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, countered the report “exemplifies how our school finance system is broken and inequitably chooses winners and losers among classrooms across our state.”
See the DPI release here.
See state aid totals by district here.
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