WI: $2.6B for SPED in governor's budget; covering 60% of districts' costs

Feb 15, 2023, WI Public Radio: Gov. Tony Evers: 'Breakthrough budget' would create family leave plan, cut taxes and boost school funding https://www.wpr.org/tony-evers-wisconsin-budget-family-leave-tax-cut-proposal-school-funding

Framing the state's historic surplus as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Gov. Tony Evers proposed a budget Tuesday that would spend the state's reserves on a little bit of everything.

The governor's budget proposal — his first since reelection — includes a $1.2 billion tax cut, a $2.6 billion investment in schools and $244 million investment in a new paid family and medical leave program for private and public workers….

School spending would be the biggest driver of new spending in Evers' budget proposal, which calls for a $2.6 billion increase in education funding.

The largest chunk of that funding would go toward special education costs, which public school districts are obligated under federal law to pay. Evers would spend over $1 billion on special education, covering 60 percent of the costs, a benchmark advocates have been pushing for years. A 2019 study found the state funded about 25 percent of special education costs; that total has reportedly risen to about 30 percent in recent years. In the absence of state funding, the costs fall to local school districts.

Gov. Tony Evers delivers the biennial budget message Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023, at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR