Wisconsin Republicans point to increases in planned education spending

(The Center Square) – The heads of the Wisconsin Legislature’s powerful budget-writing panel, The Joint Finance Committee, on Thursday said they are ready to invest $500 million more into Wisconsin public schools in the new state budget.

But they were quick to say that’s just a tiny fraction of the $2.5 billion that Wisconsin has received in school-only federal stimulus money.

“Our average school district in Wisconsin will receive $2,898 per-pupil from federal funds alone,” said Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam. “This is over 10 times larger than the largest annual per-pupil adjustment since 1993.”

Born said many bigger, urban school districts, like those in Milwaukee and Madison, will receive hundreds of millions more in federal Title One money.

Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, said that $2.5 billion in school-only stimulus money is in addition to the nearly $2.5 billion in stimulus dollars that Gov. Tony Evers has to spend.

“The investment in our K-12 schools will continue to be our number one investment,” Marklein told reporters.

Democrats at the Capitol say lawmakers need to spend more on schools. They are accusing the Republicans who control the Legislature of underfunding schools as they come out of the coronavirus.

But the Republicans say they are providing more money. Born and Marklein said spending on K-12 schools has gone up in every budget since 2013. Republicans say spending on schools, federal spending is factored in, will be record-setting.

“If someone wants to tell a different story, they are really ignoring the facts,” said Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Cedarburg.

The Republicans say their education budget will:

• Increase special education spending by nearly 10%, which is $86 million. That brings the state’s share to 30% of eligible costs.

• Double mental health spending by providing an additional $12 million.

• Provide $7 million for school-based mental health collaboration grants – a 54% increase, which meets the governor’s proposal.

• Guarantee a minimum of $781 per pupil to all school districts, as long as the schools were in-person for more than half of the 2020-21 school year.

• Set aside $350 million. Lawmakers said that would be for future costs.

The school portion of the new budget will be the largest part of the state budget. It remains to be seen if Gov. Tony Evers will sign the budget as-is, or if he will veto certain parts of it.

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