Contact Us| wispolicyforum.org
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Gov. Tony Evers and lawmakers negotiated a wide-ranging budget deal on key issues including income tax cuts and funding for K-12, child care, transportation, corrections, the Universities of Wisconsin, and payments to hospitals. Though the budget addresses many top issues, it also leaves unanswered questions such as funding for juvenile corrections, the timeline for closing an aging adult prison, and potential K-12 property tax increases. Gov. Tony Evers and lawmakers struck a deal this month...| Research – Wisconsin Policy Forum
Spending per pupil by Wisconsin public schools has lagged inflation in recent years and fallen further behind the U.S. average. This is due to a series of policy choices, including a recent two-year freeze on state-imposed caps on school district revenues, that have also helped to hold down state and local taxes. In a related trend, the share of Wisconsinites’ incomes spent on public education has fallen below the national average. Wisconsin spent $14,882 per pupil on public elementary and ...| Research – Wisconsin Policy Forum
More Wisconsin high school students than ever before are participating in dual enrollment programs that offer them both high school and college credit. Many see these programs as a way to accelerate students into the job market while reducing their tuition costs. Dual enrollment opportunities have a wide reach across Wisconsin, but their availability is not yet consistent across all schools, leaving some students with fewer opportunities. The number of Wisconsin high school students who parti...| Research – Wisconsin Policy Forum
Many local governments in Wisconsin have reported efforts to improve energy efficiency and utilize renewable energy. Our review of a state sustainability program finds that large investments in water and wastewater treatment systems have produced the greatest reported reductions in energy costs. Understanding the full range of costs and benefits of local governments’ energy-related projects remains a challenge, however, because reporting on these efforts is complex, resource intensive, and ...| Research – Wisconsin Policy Forum
Wisconsin school districts received more than $2 billion in one-time federal relief funds to address the effects of COVID-19 and boost student recovery and district finances. Early spending focused on educational technology to help students and schools adapt to virtual learning, while later spending focused on catching students up academically following setbacks from the pandemic and long-term school closures. Despite these efforts, Wisconsin’s students have yet to fully catch up. Wisconsin...| Research – Wisconsin Policy Forum
The list of challenges facing new Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) superintendent Brenda Cassellius when she arrived in March certainly was daunting. First and foremost was the academic performance of MPS students, whose scores on standardized tests reveal alarmingly low levels of proficiency in math and reading and lag almost all other large urban districts nationally. In addition, she inherited a dysfunctional administrative infrastructure that, according to a state-ordered operational review...| Research – Wisconsin Policy Forum
Total enrollment at Wisconsin’s public and charter schools declined by 25,000 students from fall 2019 to fall 2020 and has continued to fall in the years since then. While declining birth rates and apparent movement of some students to private| wispolicyforum.org
The reported number of homeless students hit a high mark in Wisconsin’s public schools in the 2023-24 academic year, likely due to both an increase in family homelessness and improved identification of existing need. In light of these reports, school| wispolicyforum.org