MPS Will Have Fewer Students But Spend More

Enrollment drops… spending goes up. 

Facing the prospect of another large decline in enrollment in Milwaukee Public Schools, Superintendent William Andrekopoulos on Monday released a $1.2 billion budget proposal for the 2008-09 school year that calls for few changes in programs.

The budget proposal is based on a forecast for a decline of 4.5% in the number of students attending the main roster of MPS schools, to 77,541. That would continue a major trend in recent years that has led to numerous school closings and cuts in staff.

Overall enrollment in all the programs under the MPS umbrella, including charter schools and alternative schools, will decline 4.1%, according to the budget forecasts, and employment by MPS will fall more than 2%, to about 10,700.

As directed by the School Board several months ago, Andrekopoulos’ budget calls for an increase in total spending of only .25%. In a change from past practice, MPS budget makers did not make a forecast for what that would mean for property tax bills that will go out in December. The document says no forecast will be made until after state officials provide figures on how much state aid will be coming to MPS next year.

Last year, administrators forecast a modest property tax increase when the School Board took up the budget in the spring. But by fall, when figures were finalized, a shortfall in state aid led to Andrekopoulos proposing a 16.4% increase in the amount to be collected in property taxes. The School Board trimmed that to 9% after there was a large citizen protest.

I would like to see a financial study of just how much enrollment has to go down before MPS actually cuts spending.  in 1998, 101,253 students were enrolled in MPS.  This year, that number has shrunk to less than 80,000.  Yet in that same period, MPS spending has risen every year.  I realize that a decline of a few students doesn’t necessarily reduce the actual cost required to sustain the district, but at the point that the district has lost 20% of its enrollment, shouldn’t spending go down?  How long can MPS justify increasing spending while educating fewer and fewer children?