(The Center Square) – Wisconsin public schools broke a record with the most staff ever employed in the state this year with 113,171 despite decreasing student enrollment, according to a new report from the Institute for Reforming Government.
The state educates 791,794 students in public schools, the fewest since 1991.
“Teacher pay is down and referenda are up, in part, because schools have added staff while losing students,” Quinton Klabon, senior research director at the Institute for Reforming Government, said in a statement. “School boards and parents must realize no one is served well by the status quo: not students, not teachers, and not taxpayers.”
Klaxon concluded that the increasing staff sizes while the student population which funding is based upon drops has led to many of the school referenda seen across the state.
The staff increases aren’t just teachers as the state’s public schools had 187 less licensed staff than in 2020 while adding 1,581 other staff and educating 63,165 less students according to numbers from the Department of Public Instruction.
The state added 973 teachers, added 11,108 non-teachers and lost 65,381 students between 2020 and 2025 according the numbers from the National Center for Education Statistics.
The numbers of special needs diagnoses have increased from 12% of public school first graders having an Individual Education Plan in 2010 to 15% in 2020 to 19% in 2026.
“When enrollment declines, adding staff suppresses teacher pay,” the report concluded. “Teacher compensation is down significantly in inflation-adjusted dollars from 2010 to 2024. But states like Iowa and South Dakota, which have kept staffing ratios stable, have raised teacher pay.
“Enrollment will continue to decline. Fewer newborns and incoming families are causing this decline. Private and home enrollment have not changed significantly since the pandemic.”
