MADISON, Wisconsin, August 20, 2026 – The Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy (CROWE) released a new report, Wisconsin’s Love Affair with Its Technical Colleges: Seventh and Forty-Third, Wisconsin, by CROWE economists Junjie Guo and Ananth Seshadri, examining how Wisconsin divides public support and financial authority between its technical colleges and universities.

In fiscal 2025, Wisconsin provided $14,099 per full-time-equivalent student to its public two-year sector, seventh in the nation, and $6,974 per student to its public four-year sector, forty-third. The national averages are almost identical at about $11,100 per student.

“Wisconsin taxpayers are not stingy toward public higher education,” said Ananth Seshadri, Mary Sue and Mike Shannon Distinguished Chair and CROWE Co-Director. “Combined support has exceeded the median state for two decades. The striking fact is where the money goes: technical colleges are funded near the top nationally, universities near the bottom, and the better-funded sector also has more taxing and capital authority.”

The report finds that:

  • Wisconsin is the only state combining top-ten public support for its two-year sector with bottom-ten support for its four-year sector. It has occupied that corner throughout the seven years of published national data.
  • Wisconsin’s unusually occupational technical-college mission does not explain the gap. Across several comparison groups of eleven to thirteen states with similar two-year missions, Wisconsin still ranks first or second in two-year support and seventh to tenth in four-year support.
  • The difference extends beyond funding. Wisconsin’s sixteen technical-college districts may levy property taxes, issue debt, acquire and own property in the district’s name, and put major projects to voters. UW campuses have no levy and cannot issue their own debt; major capital projects remain in the state capital process.
  • In La Crosse, Western Technical College put a $79.8 million facilities plan to voters in 2012, and voters approved it that night. Across town, UW–La Crosse waited seven years and four state budgets for its science building. The cost ultimately rose to $194 million, roughly twice the original estimate.
  • Over the past four decades, the labor-market return to four-year education rose while Wisconsin’s public funding mix moved in the opposite direction. The bachelor’s earnings premium over an associate degree increased even as Wisconsin’s four-year-to-two-year public funding ratio fell.

The report recommends rebalancing future budgets toward the four-year sector, allowing the Board of Regents to issue non-state-obligation revenue bonds for self-supporting projects, keeping tuition decisions separate from state appropriations, and strengthening accountability for appointed technical-college boards that levy taxes and incur debt.

“Technical education will remain important,” Seshadri said. “But that is not a reason to preserve the same funding and capital rules forever. The economy moved. The plumbing did not.”

The report is being released as the Board of Regents meets today to consider the Universities of Wisconsin’s 2027–29 operating and capital requests.

To download the report, visit https://crowe.wisc.edu/2026/08/20/wisconsins-love-affair-with-its-technical- colleges-seventh-and-forty-third-wisconsin/.

About CROWE

The Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy (CROWE) was established in 2017 in the Department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. CROWE supports and disseminates economic policy research from a market perspective, with a particular focus on Wisconsin and state-level policy. Its work combines original research, student engagement, and public outreach.

For more information on CROWE, visit crowe.wisc.edu

For questions on the report, email Ananth Seshadri at ananth.seshadri@wisc.edu