According to a new Wisconsin Policy Forum report, Wisconsin’s per-pupil education spending in 2023 lagged the national average.
The state spent $14,882 per pupil on public elementary and secondary education in the 2023 fiscal year (the most recent year for which U.S. Census Bureau data are available), which was 9.9% less than the U.S. average of $16,526.
When adjusting for inflation, Wisconsin preK-12 education’s per-pupil spending has increased slightly (2.4%) since 2002, the earliest year for which Census Bureau figures are available.
In that year, Wisconsin spent $14,522 per pupil in inflation-adjusted, or real, dollars, compared to $14,882 in 2023. The national average per-pupil real spending amount increased much more during this period (21.1%), from $13,043 in 2002 to $16,526 in 2023.
Wisconsin ranked 26th among the 50 states in the per-pupil amount it spent on public schools in 2023. This was down from 25th in 2020, the latest data available at the time of the Forum’s most recent analysis of this issue.
This continues a long-running decline in the state’s rank for per-pupil education spending, which was 11th in 2002. Wisconsin ranked seventh among 12 Midwest states in 2023, compared to first in 2002.
