A group of five school districts, along with teachers’ unions and other advocacy groups, is suing the Wisconsin Legislature, alleging that the state is failing to provide adequate public-school funding.
The complaint also criticizes the state’s funding of parental choice programs, claiming such programs take aid from public schools (in reality, they do not reduce funding available to districts).
State aid represents just one component of public-school financing. Districts also levy property taxes and receive federal aid as well. All the sources combined yield a “comparative revenue per member” — that is, per pupil — figure the state publishes annually.
Of the five districts included among the plaintiffs, three — Green Bay, Adams-Friendship, and Necedah — collect more than the state public-school average of $18,592 in revenue per pupil, according to the state’s most recent publicly available figures, from the 2023-24 school year.
The two districts that were lower, Beloit and Eau Claire, still had more in revenue per pupil than what the state permits families to use in the state parental choice programs. Such choice schools, in 2023-24, received $9,893 per pupil in kindergarten through 8th grade, or $12,387 for students in grades 9-12, and cannot charge any additional fees to families using the program.
