Southeastern Wisconsin schools behind rest of state

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Ryan Horton, M.U.P.

414-276-8240

Southeastern Wisconsin schools beh= ind rest of state

Report says region could suffer from lack of skilled workers

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin – November 21, 2005 ̵= 1; In its annual schooling report covering the 51 school districts of southeaster= n Wisconsin, the Milwaukee-based Public Policy Forum = found that the region’s schools underachieve compared to those in the rest = of the state, a finding that could adversely affect southeastern Wisconsin’s future economic performance.

The report is an in-depth a= nalysis of each school district’s enrollment, finances, participation, and performance.

“Lower levels of achi= evement in southeastern Wisconsin, particularly in = the Milwaukee, Kenosha,= and Racine school dist= ricts, could leave employers unable to find enough skilled workers to fill vacancies cre= ated by retiring baby boomers,” says Ryan Horton, Forum researcher and aut= hor of the report. “Coopera= tive regional efforts to improve academic performance may be the only practical strategy to ensure that southeastern Wisconsin has enough skilled and knowledgeable workers to meet the demands of a global economy.”

The report shows that the a= chievement gap in standardized test scores between students in southeastern Wisconsin and th= ose in the rest of the state ranges from 4.1% in 4^th grade reading to 1= 1.2% in 4^th grade science.

Forty-five percent of the region’s K-12 students attend schools in the Mi= lwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha districts. Low standardized test scores in th= ose three districts is a primary reason the region lags the rest of the state.<= /p>

Despite that, Horton says, = “you can’t have a strong region without the entire region performing well educationally, especially when almost half of southeastern Wisconsin’s students are in three districts. This is the region’s problem, not any one district’s.”

Overall, southeastern Wisconsin fared = worse than the rest of the state in attendance, truancy, and suspension rates. But this was mainly because of the negative impact of Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), which had a suspension r= ate 17 percentage points higher than the rate in the rest of the state.

Driven by higher spending in districts in Milwaukee, Ozaukee, and Waukesha counties, southeastern Wisconsin spends $407 per pupil more o= n K-12 education than the rest of the state. The region also relies more heavily on property taxes than the rest = of the state (37.2% vs. 33.9%).

“Per-pupil spending h= as increased 13.3% in the region over the last three years,” says Horton= . “Much of the increase is the direct result of the cost of teacher fringe benefits, especially health insurance.” Fringe bene= fits have risen 19.4% during the same period.

The report shows that south= eastern Wisconsin public school students were competitive o= n both college preparation exams. The region was just below the state average ACT score, 22.0 vs. 22.2, but higher than the state average of the percentage of students passing AP exams, 10.5% vs. 8.4%.

The number of schools in th= e region identified for improvement under the “No Child Left Behind Act”= went from 47 to 40, with most of the decline in Milwaukee County.

The schooling report and po= ster can be downloaded from the Forum’s Web site at www.publicpolicyforum.org.

Milwaukee-based Public Poli= cy Forum – which was established in 1913 as a local government watchdog –= ; is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing the effectiven= ess of government and the development of southeastern Wisconsin through objective research of regional public policy issues.

This year’s schooling= report was sponsored by GE Healthcare; Multiple Listing Service; Northwestern Mutu= al Foundation; and Griffin, Kubik, Stephens & Thompson, Inc.

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