Numbers compiled by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance show per school student spending rose just over one percent during the last school year.
A new report by the Madison-based non-profit finds per student school spending rose 1.1 percent.
WISTAX spokesperson Dale Knapp says the latest numbers reflect the legislature's move in 2012 that cut district revenue limits by more than 5 percent then increased them modestly last year. Knapp says school districts used the changes brought about in the controversial ACT 10 legislation...
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"....the flexibility that ACT 10 provided in terms of benefit costs, the impact from district to district really varies and it depends on how much savings districts were able to generate...by using ACT 10...."
School levies were nearly flat after falling one percent the prior year. The two-year decline is the largest since school taxes fell just over 14 percent in 1997-98. Knapp says school enrollments also increased....
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"....part of it was participation in online schools, which tends to bring in some students which had been home schooled, or home schooled in the past...."
After declining for three years, school staffing rose about a thousand jobs, with half of the increase being more teachers hired.
More information is online at wistax.org
