The Wisconsin Policy Forum issued a budget brief on the Milwaukee Public School budget for 2025. Leaders say a recent referendum helps with the district's budget problems, but challenges still remain.
Milwaukee Public Schools successfully passed a $252 million referendum in April, and shortly afterward released a budget that included 288 staffing cuts and possible "right-sizing" strategies.
The Wisconsin Policy Forum released a brief on Friday saying those staffing reductions are largely due to issues not related to the budget. Currently, many positions that could be cut are already unfilled. At the time the Wisconsin Policy Forum was analyzing MPS's referendum, it found 600 vacant positions in the district.
The authors of the brief say "MPS has engaged in eliminating positions steadily in the past years as its student enrollment has decreased," but go on to say the decline in teachers has been larger than the decline in students.
The study found that after voters passed the referendum and the district's revisions to fiscal assumptions the district's projected $200 million budget gap dropped to $20-30 million a year.
"Families who are looking at MPS should actually take greater comfort in the fact that as we look forward there certainly should not be the need for the need of the types of draconian budget cutting that otherwise would have been required has that referendum not been passed," Wisconsin Policy Forum president Rob Henken told TMJ4.
While the additional referendum funds will help "steady the district's five-year fiscal outlook," The Wisconsin Policy Forum says more changes will need to be made to tackle problems like declining enrollment and lack of state funding. Leaders say the district's plans to streamline and right-size the district will help build on MPS' strategic financial plan.
You can read the entire budget brief below.
MPS Budget Brief by TMJ4 News on Scribd
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