Per-pupil spending by Wisconsin’s public schools climbed by 3.1 percent, to $9,963, in the 2003-04 school year, the smallest rise in a decade, according to a new report.
Helping to keep a lid on spending were drops in capital expenditures and in outlays for school support staff, whose ranks declined by 15 percent, according to “SchoolFacts04” by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, a nonprofit research organization based in Madison.
Overall, the number of full-time-equivalent positions in Wisconsin’s school districts dropped by 7.6 percent.
Still, instructional costs climbed 3.5 percent, to $5,827 per pupil, while administrative expenditures rose 4.8 percent, to $774 per student, the alliance reports.
Meanwhile, statewide student enrollment dipped by 1,775, to 871,136 students, for the first decline in two decades, the report says. It adds that enrollment fell in 60 percent of the state’s 426 school districts.
