Fiscal Facts

The finances of Wisconsin’s two largest school districts are stronger than expected as they begin to grapple with their 2022 budgets, thanks to federal relief funds and voter approval of referenda allowing them to exceed state revenue limits.

Wisconsin K-12 school enrollment is down by more than 25,000 students for the 2020-2021 school year, one of many far-reaching impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic that may warrant a response from state and local policymakers.

A little more than six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Wisconsin had lost more than 150,000 jobs from the same point a year earlier. Yet there are signs that this sizable blow to employment in Wisconsin was less severe than in neighboring states and the nation as a whole.

As state and local governments mull appropriate uses for federal funds aimed at COVID-19 relief, they would be well-served to consider uses that avoid creating future budget challenges.

State and local governments in Wisconsin are on track to receive nearly $20 billion in federal aid from COVID-19 relief measures enacted in the last 13 months, more than double what the state received from the 2009 federal stimulus amid the Great Recession.

When K-12 classes resumed in Wisconsin last fall, urban schools with greater shares of students of color were more likely to offer virtual instruction than their suburban or rural counterparts, raising concerns about the potential for widening racial achievement gaps.

Federal relief funds are providing a temporary life raft to Wisconsin transit systems amid the plunging ridership of the COVID-19 pandemic, likely allowing most to maintain existing services for at least the next two years.

Wisconsin has a long way to go to improve the diversity of its teacher workforce. But local institutions are taking meaningful steps, and actionable state policy options hold promise to help meet that goal.

The state’s child care subsidy program for low-income families, Wisconsin Shares, is among those that saw sweeping changes during the last year — as enrollment in the program spiked early in the COVID-19 pandemic, then fell to its lowest level in at least five years.

The response to COVID-19 had an unprecedented impact on Wisconsin’s incarcerated population, as local jail and state prison populations plummeted during the pandemic after years of increases.