According to data from the state Department of Public Instruction, Wisconsin is scheduled to receive about $842 million in federal funding for education expenses this school year.
About 67% of that money comes from the U.S. Department of Education for programs including special education services, support for homeless students and student mental health. The rest of that federal money comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA. This money goes toward school meal programs.
However, the Trump administration recently announced its intention to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. If successful, the move would threaten aid to Wisconsin schools, and would move mandatory oversight of special education to the Department of Health and Human Services, currently headed by Robert Kennedy Jr.
School districts in Wisconsin’s poorest areas, including in Milwaukee and rural northwestern Wisconsin, receive a greater share of their budget from federal dollars than wealthier areas.
Lake Effect’s Sam Woods spoke with John Johnson, senior policy advisor at the state Department of Public Instruction, to discuss the relationship between Wisconsin schools and the federal government and the impact cuts to funding would bring.
Federal funding does not include federal interference in school curriculum
According to Johnson, the federal government does not control curriculum in Wisconsin schools, despite funding about 8% of Wisconsin’s education budget.
In Wisconsin, the Department of Public Instruction creates academic standards and guidance for local schools to use. However, it is up to local schools to fine-tune curriculum to meet those standards.
Even then, Johnson says local districts can rewrite state standards to fit their students’ needs if desired.
“If a district wants to use other academic standards, or develop their own standards, they have to notify their [school board] but they can do that,” Johnson says.
Mandatory programming may lead to higher local tax rates
Though federal dollars may go away, federal regulations remain. While the Department of Education is not involved in things like curriculum writing, drawing district boundaries or certifying teachers, it does enforce laws regarding the rights of students.
This includes laws regarding special education. The laws provide a guideline for educating students with disabilities, and often mandate education plans that require the presence of specially-trained educators or social workers.
These special education mandates will remain, even if federal dollars are no longer flowing into the state. This could mean that other school programs are defunded to pay for special education services, or local taxes will increase.
“So if federal funding changes or goes away, local school districts and the state will still have to fund those programs,” Johnson says. “So local taxpayers could potentially see significant increases in what they have to do if that federal funding goes away.”
The Trump administration has said oversight of special education mandates would be moved to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Johnson said it is unclear how Kennedy’s department would enforce special education requirements.
“Thousands of trained lawyers and special education professionals at the current Department of Education have lost their jobs, and are not being transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services,” Johnson says.
“So a major uncertainty is: Who is going to do the work?”
Private schools also benefit from programs funded by the federal government
Private schools in Wisconsin also benefit from federal dollars, notably through school meals, teacher training and professional development opportunities. Johnson says private schools across Wisconsin utilize federally funded school meal programs through the USDA.
Federal dollars also fund professional development opportunities for staff at private schools, through Title II funding. These opportunities are not exclusive to public or private school staff, and around 11,000 Wisconsinites enrolled in Title II programs in academic year 2022-’23.
“That is something that there is an equitable distribution of funding to private schools, which they could lose,” Johnson says.
As state and local budget cycles loom, uncertainty remains
While threats to federal funding at this scale would be disruptive at any point, they are coming at a particularly inconvenient time for future budgets.
At the state level, lawmakers are crafting a budget for the next two years, set to take effect this summer. Local school districts are also setting their budgets for the upcoming academic year.
Johnson says that the situation is fostering uncertainty at all levels of education in the state: from superintendent to families.
“By having high levels of uncertainty, and really no plan for these programs [...] you end up with a lot of anxiety and fear,” Johnson says.
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