(The Center Square) – Wisconsin school districts will be eligible for $2,000 per student extra in funding for the first year if a series of bills in the state are passed into law.
A group of Republican lawmakers are pushing the bills as the state’s K-12 student population declines by an estimated 10,000 students. The state’s largest school district, Milwaukee public schools, saw a total enrollment drop of nearly 30,000 students (32.8%) between 2006 and 2024.
The five consolidation bills were introduced Wednesday by lawmakers.
They include a bill for a statewide consolidation feasibility study, a $25,000 grant for each district to conduct its own consolidation or shared services study, grants for districts that consolidate but have differing levy limits and school board consolidation grants of $500 per student for whole grade sharing.
The bills come after legislative Republicans announced they would be pushing for legislation to encourage school consolidation in early September.
“Our goal is to provide support, give tools and provide incentives for voluntary consolidation,” Wisconsin state Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, said in September while teasing the bills.
Nedweski is a co-sponsor of two of the bills, including the whole grade sharing bill along with Senate President Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk.
The bill allows for the $500 per student grant if a district agrees to share an entire grade of students with another district for one or more years, according to the Department of Public Instruction’s program requirements.
Nedweski and Felzkowski are also sponsors of the levy bill, which would provide aid for if a consolidated district’s levy is higher than the lowest allowable levy at the district that were consolidated to create the new district. The consolidation must take place after July 1, 2026.
The grant would be worth the “amount equal to the consolidated school district’s equalized value multiplied by the difference between the maximum allowable levy rate of the consolidated school district and the lowest levy rate of the underlying school districts.”
The per-student grant bill is sponsored by Rep. Joel Kitchens, R-Sturgeon Bay, and Sen. Romaine Quinn, R-Birchwood.
The state currently provides consolidated district with $150 per pupil for the first five years after a consolidation but the new bill would raise that number to $2,000 for a new consolidation that takes effect in 2026, 2027 or 2028.
Rep. Shannon Zimmerman, R-River Falls, and Sen. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield, sponsored the bill providing $25,000 grants to districts for a feasibility study on either consolidation or whole grade sharing.
Quinn and Rep. Cindi Duchow, R-Delafield, are sponsoring the statewide feasibility study to examine school district boundaries, facilities, student populations and 10-year projections and recommendations on potential consolidation.
