A Wisconsin superintendents survey last fall found state budget cuts prompted school districts to eliminate thousands of staff positions, increase class sizes, raise student fees and reduce extracurricular offerings this school year….To offset the cuts, most districts in the state negotiated higher pension and health insurance premium contributions from employees. Andrew Reschovsky, a UW-Madison economist, said the pension contributions could explain why they didn’t raise student fees or cut extracurricular programs as they did in past years when teacher contracts guaranteed annual raises. Reschovsky said interpreting last fall’s survey results has become a “glass half-empty or half-full” scenario.
Office of Strategic Communication