Junjie Guo and Ananth Seshadri
Executive Summary:
- Wisconsin’s K-12 education expenditures per pupil have been declining relative to
other states both before and after 2011. - In contrast, Wisconsin’s ranking in terms of student performance dropped before
2011 but increased afterwards. - The evidence suggests that Wisconsin’s Act 10 of 2011 improved the efficiency of
the state’s public K-12 education system, allowing student performance to improve
relative to other states despite a decline in Wisconsin’s ranking of K-12 education
expenditures per pupil. - Among other things, Act 10 limited the scope of salary negotiations to base pay,
prevented unions from negotiating salary schedules and including them in collective
bargaining agreements. This allowed school districts to set pay more flexibly and
without union consent, detaching compensation from seniority and credentials.