DPI Asks Evers to Cut School Aid in the Next Budget

Wisconsin’s public schools don’t need so much aid in the next state budget, according to the Department of Public Instruction’s (DPI) latest budget request.

It recommends that the state reduce total aid by $12.5 million (0.7%) over the next biennium. All of it would come out from general purpose revenue (GPR). That would bring the total amount of aid down from $17.26 billion in the current budget to $17.25 billion in the next budget.

School aids make up the bulk of DPI’s budget. The agency's total funding level is $17.79 billion (All Funds). It wants $17.80 billion in the next state budget; an increase of $12.9 million or 0.07%.

DPI’s request to cut aid to school districts is baffling given the agency’s position on school funding. State Superintendent Jill Underly’s letter that accompanies DPI’s budget request states that “schools and libraries continue to be under resourced.” And yet, that very same document proposes to reduce school aid.

Adding to this mystery is Gov. Evers’ budget guidance. He told most state agencies to not ask for any additional funding. However, he did make some exceptions, which included K-12 school aids and the University of Wisconsin System.

The University of Wisconsin System understood that to mean that the sky’s the limit. It submitted a request that included an $857 million increase in GPR. For some reason though, DPI took a pass on Evers' offer.

DPI does not go into much detail on how it plans to cut aid to school districts. Underly admitted that she was only submitting a partial budget request for now, and that she focused this “first portion” on “Educational Leadership” and library aids. She says she will submit her "full budget request" later this fall that includes details about her plan for school aids (even though the deadline was Sep. 16^th.) 

If she intended to ask for additional school aid funding later on, it would be a very unusual move to ask for a funding decrease first. Rather, it's more likely she will provide critical details that are missing from this "first portion." The most important is what kind of aid does Underly want to cut. That answer determines who will be impacted by the reductions. If the reduction is to General School Aids, that will impact property taxpayers. If the reduction is to Categorical Aids, that will impact schools.

Although this initial budget request lacks those details, DPI does provide the specific figures on how much funding it wants for each of its broad program areas and from which funding source. That includes the $12,528,200 reduction in GPR funding to “Aids for Local Education Programming.”

Will Underly come back later and radically alter her request? Of course, that is possible, but for now, all we can do is take her at her word.