The list of challenges facing new Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) superintendent Brenda Cassellius when she arrived in March certainly was daunting. First and foremost was the academic performance of MPS students, whose scores on standardized tests reveal alarmingly low levels of proficiency in math and reading and lag almost all other large urban districts nationally. In addition, she inherited a dysfunctional administrative infrastructure that, according to a state-ordered operational review, “hinder(s) the district’s ability to drive student success.”
Also topping the list was a financial structure that makes the district highly dependent on decisions made 90 miles away in Madison and that, over time, has failed to provide increases in overall revenues that have kept pace with inflation. This particular challenge led MPS leaders to propose a pair of successful voter referenda in 2020 and 2024 that provided vast sums of additional resources, which they argued were vital to maintaining competitive compensation for teachers and sufficient programming in areas like career and technical education, art, and music.
The superintendent’s first budget begins to put her imprint on the organizational challenges she inherited while also using increased revenue authority provided by the 2024 referendum to delay many difficult decisions on facilities and staffing that appear inevitable. Her 2026 proposed budget holds the line on overall staffing levels (adding about 21 positions district-wide) and per pupil school spending, grants a 2.95% cost-of-living adjustment to district workers, and makes enhanced investments in the district’s facilities. The budget also reflects her plans for redesigning several central offices and fortifying her top-level management team, and it makes changes to the budget document that demonstrate a new commitment to transparency.
A key factor in the avoidance of position and spending cuts is the influx of $51 million in revenue above state caps from the second year of the 2024 referendum’s phase-in. While final state aid figures won’t be determined until the fall, the budget assumes the entire revenue increase afforded by the referendum will come from state aids, thus sparing district property taxpayers.
The lack of considerable budget pain in 2026, however, should not mask the severity of MPS’ longer-term fiscal challenges, which are likely to emerge with greater intensity as soon as 2027. Not only will the positive impacts of the referendum begin to wane, but the district has balanced its budget in each of the past three years on the back of its hundreds of vacant positions, including a $76 million savings attributed to vacancies and position turnover in the 2026 proposal. The likely unsustainability of that approach – coupled with the uncertain outcome of state budget deliberations – reinforces the precarious nature of MPS’ temporary budget calm.
In the pages that follow, we provide greater detail on how the proposed budget is balanced and how key decisions will impact students, staff, and taxpayers. Overall, our aim is to provide an independent assessment of MPS’ 2026 budget that will encourage informed deliberations by school board members and shed greater light on the overall financial state of Wisconsin’s largest school district.