Delafield, Wis. –  Wisconsin public schools now employ 1 adult for every 7 students, breaking the all-time record from 2025. Wisconsin public schools employ 113,171 staff in 2026. Unfortunately, Wisconsin educates just 791,794 public-school students, the fewest since 1991. Educating fewer students with more staff is a major cause of school referenda.

This information comes from the 2026 Public School Staff Reports released in May by the Department of Public Instruction, which the Institute for Reforming Government (IRG) analyzed.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Staff additions largely are not teachers. From 2020 to 2026, DPI says Wisconsin public schools lost 187 licensed staff, added 1,581 other staff, and lost 63,165 students. From 2010 to 2025, NCES says Wisconsin public schools added 973 teachers, added 11,108 non-teachers, and lost 65,381 students. Wisconsin public schools now employ 1 adult for every 7 students.

Special needs diagnoses are contributing to hiring. In 2010, 12% of Wisconsin public-school 1st graders received a disability IEP. In 2020, 15% of 1st graders did. In 2026, 19% of 1st graders did.

However, many school districts purposely have increased staffing. As IRG demonstrated in its COVID-19 aid report, some districts have passed referenda to maintain staff once supported by 1-time federal pandemic aid. Districts that did so like Eau Claire and Wauwatosa now face difficult cuts next year – arts, physical education, elementary educators – that still leave them with far more staff and far fewer students than in 2020.

When enrollment declines, adding staff suppresses teacher pay. Teacher compensation is down significantly in inflation-adjusted dollars from 2010 to 2024. But states like Iowa and South Dakota, which have kept staffing ratios stable, have raised teacher pay.

Enrollment will continue to decline. Fewer newborns and incoming families are causing this decline. Private and home enrollment have not changed significantly since the pandemic.

THE QUOTE

“Teacher pay is down and referenda are up, in part, because schools have added staff while losing students,” said Quinton Klabon, Senior Research Director at the Institute for Reforming Government. “School boards and parents must realize no one is served well by the status quo: not students, not teachers, and not taxpayers.”

WHAT’S NEXT

School districts will finalize their 2027 budgets in the coming weeks. Community members can ask their public schools whether they will employ more staff next year than before the pandemic and why.