Ahead of referendum, here are the facts about MPS funding and staffing

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Whether or not funding for Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) has kept up over the last two decades is a matter of perspective. The district's revenue data are among the facts voters have at their disposal ahead of Tuesday's spring election.

MPS gets the vast majority of its funding from two sources: general state aid and property taxes, which are limited per district by a state-imposed formula.

A review of the district's finances by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy forum found MPS receives considerably less funding, in raw dollars, than it did two decades ago when adjusted for inflation.

"In 2024, the district received 46% less funding from its two major funding sources than it did 20 years ago, and that is a fact," said Sara Shaw, a senior education researcher for the policy forum.

Adjusted for inflation, MPS collected $1.3 billion from those two main sources in 2004. The district collected $903.2 million from those sources for the 2023-24 school year.

At the same time, MPS funding per student has been stable over the last 20 years. That's because the district has seen a 31.5% decline in enrollment, which has affected the district's property tax levy. MPS had 98,663 students in 2004 while enrollment at the start of this school year is 67,577.

"When we account for the effects of the district's declining enrollment, and instead look on a per pupil basis, the district is receiving just a little bit more money today than it did in 2004, adjusted for inflation," Shaw said.

Staffing and a shortfall

MPS officials maintain the district will face a $200 million shortfall if the referendum fails. According to a breakdown MPS provided the policy forum, the biggest driver is $45.1 million that accounts for fewer staff vacancies.

Shaw questioned whether the district would really fill that many positions.

Currently, MPS has 292 vacant teacher positions and 639 total vacancies across the district. Shaw noted many of those funded positions have gone unfilled for years.

"The question arises of how many of those vacancies does it truly need to fill," she said. "Not only because it's managed to make do without them for a number of years, but also because the district is in a declining enrollment state."

The district's student-to-teacher ratio has slightly improved over the past decade. In 2013, it was 15.17 students for each teacher. In 2024, the ratio is 13.78 students for each funded teaching position.

When the district passed an $87 million referendum in 2020, it allowed MPS to expand art, music, library and gym programs across the district.

In February, Superintendent Keith Posley said an additional $252 million would allow the district to keep implementing those added offerings.

"Maintaining what we have," Posley said. "We're trying to maintain."

MPS told the policy forum it has filled 265 of the 358 positions funded by the 2020 referendum. 

"And this is where we'd love to see some details from the district on a staffing plan that kind points to acknowledgment of being in a declining enrollment state," she said. "And what that means for how they're gonna invest in staff."

Close to a decision on closing schools?

How the district's staffing situation relates to actual classroom experiences varies since some of those vacancies are for special education teachers. At the same time, the drop -off in enrollment has led to a number of underused schools across the district.

"It's not a direct proposition," Shaw said. "I think what comes into play is looking at what does a facilities plan say about where closures, consolidations, or some other way of thinking about, 'How do we best serve students with our limited resources?'"

Currently, dozens of the district's schools have enrollment totals well below their building's capacity. According to a building inventory report MPS is required to give the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, 36 schools have an enrollment number than is than 70% of capacity.

23 schools are operating at less than 60% of their buildings' capacity, and 14 schools are less than half-full.

MPS Board Director Missy Zombor, who was one of seven board members who voted yes on putting a referendum on the spring ballot, said she was opposed to closing schools.

"Not one person, when I was campaigning and asking them what they wanted to see the district do, asked me to close schools," she said.

Director Aisha Carr, one of two board members who did not support going to referendum, said there were too many funded positions in in too many low-enrollment schools.

"When you're talking about tracking the dollars, that in and of itself, shows it's not necessarily a funding issue that we have," she said. "It's gross mismanagement."

MPS is in the midst of updating its long-term facilities plan, which was last done in 2018. The district expects to have a new plan for its buildings this fall.

How MPS funding compares to other districts

Currently, MPS' per pupil funding from its two main sources ($13,366) ranks third among Wisconsin's 10 biggest school districts, trailing only Racine and Madison. 

Among districts in Milwaukee County, MPS is currently in the middle of the pack. The district receives less funding per student than Shorewood and Brown Deer, but it takes in more than Whitefish Bay and Wauwatosa.

If the referendum were to pass?

"Milwaukee would be at the top of per pupil funding in both of those [groupings], and you can interpret that in various ways," Shaw said.

MPS also receives more federal funding than those districts, but Shaw said that's because Milwaukee has an exceptionally high percentage of students from families living in poverty, as well as comparatively large number of special needs students and English learners.

That means MPS is especially affected by special ed aid not keeping up with rising costs. In the current state budget, Wisconsin reimburses 31.5% of districts' special ed costs.

Beyond that, the MPS vote is one of 91 school referenda being held across Wisconsin Tuesday. Districts of all sizes have pointed to federal pandemic aid drying up, a lack of updates to the state's funding formula and the Legislature's decision to not increase state aid in the 2021-22 budget, citing the pandemic dollars.

"It's not a question that there's a school funding moment that we're in right now," Shaw said.

Of course, Milwaukee voters will be weighing the increased school funding against the impact it could have on their cost of living.

If the referendum passes, property taxes on a home valued at $200,000 would increase by $432 per year. For a $250,000 house, it'll mean a $540 tax hike.

Those increases would come at a time when the city just implemented a new 2% sales tax and Milwaukee County increased its sales tax from 0.5% to 0.9%. 

"Voters really need to think about where their values lie, given the information they have about where this money would go," Shaw said.