Wisconsin K-12 Spending 18th in the USA, 4th Largest School State Tax Dollar Redistributions

Todd Finkelmeyer:

he Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reviewed budget documents from 48 states that "publish education data in a way that allows historic comparisons," with Indiana and Hawaii being excluded from the review because they don't do so. Overall, 35 states still are funding K-12 education below pre-recession levels, according to the paper.

"There is no doubt Wisconsin has deprioritized K-12 spending," says Sen. John Lehman, D-Racine, who chairs the state Senate's Committee on Education and Corrections. "Education took the biggest cuts in the history of the state" over the 2011-13 biennium.

"The cuts counteract and sometimes undermine education reform and more generally hinder the ability of school districts to deliver high-quality education, with long-term negative consequences for the nation's economic competitiveness," the report states.

Some, however, say there are significant problems with the review by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Todd Berry, the president of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, notes that while the report purports to show changes in per-pupil spending in each state, what it's really showing is the amount of state aid appropriated per student. He says such numbers are "particularly useless in Wisconsin given the significant role that local property taxes" play in per-pupil funding here.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 15, 2012 1:36 AM
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