November 2023 Update:
Madison School District Budget: $763,014,097 www page [archive]
Abbey Machtig (30 October, 2023) mentions $579,000,000 $pending for 25,581 students. (10 October 2023)
Per student spending ranges from $22,633 to $29,827 depending on the spending number used (!)
March, 2023 $pending update:
MMSD Budget Facts: from 2014-15 to 2022 [November, 2022]. ## Just try to make sense of the year to year numbers!
November 1, 2022, via Scott Girard:
“The new budget totals $597.9 million in spending, up from the $515.7 million spent in 2021-22 and the $482.9 million the year prior. It’s also up from the June preliminary budget, which called for $561.3 million in spending.”
October 16, 2022, via Olivia Herken:
““The madison school district’s 2022-23 budget has increased from the preliminary $561 million budget adopted in June””
April 26, 2022: proposed 2022-2023 spending: $543,893,583 for about “25,000 students” or $21,720 per student, about a 7.8% increase from the 2021 to 2022 budget (!). Madison has received substantial redistributed federal taxpayer funds via various covid related packages. Article. District PDF summary.
Total 2021-2022 Spending: $537,995,501 for 26,704 students (Budget book 20MB PDF) or $20,146/student.
May, 2020 updates, below
Property taxes up 37% from 2012 – 2021.
– via a kind reader (July 9, 2020 update).
June 28, 2021 7% (!) spending increase via Elizabeth Beyer.
November 22, 2020 update: Latest financial statements and Wegner CPA audit information:
Source: US Census Bureau
The District spent $333,101,865 in 2007. A “same service” budget today would be $388,668,450, according to the inflation calculator. However, Madison plans to spend at least $449,482,373.22 for the 2016-2017 school year, $60,813,923 above a “same service” budget.
Property Tax data: excel | Numbers
The data [excel | numbers] is from the Madison School District, schoolinfosystem.org and kind readers.
The 2017 enrollment data is, for these purposes, identical to 2016, until the fall numbers are released. The 2017 budget numbers (via a kind Michael Barry email) are estimates, as well.
October 31, 2018 Madison School District 2018-2019 $518,955,288 budget, about $20k/student. [2 page pdf summary]
January 2020 Madison School District Budget book.
March 2019 [Excel Numbers]: Updated Wisconsin K-12 and higher education taxpayer expenditures, including
- Redistributed State Tax Dollars
- Property Taxes
- and other taxpayer expenditures (“tax credits”)
Thanks to Sara Hynek.
Madison School District Fall 2018 budget update [PDF]. Total spending: $518,955,288 for 2018-2019. Property Tax Levy $308,009,893, up 3.64% from 2017-2018 (tax base grew 8.75%)
Background links:
2005 Active Citizens For Education Historical Madison School District Data
2005 “In last year’s budget, there was an increase in the budget of nearly $8 million between the spring and fall approval date“. 2004-2005 comparison (.xls)
2005 Referendum: Three questions (2 failed). Audit? Where did the money go?. Academic analysis: Media & Public Spheres (p52)
2005 Citizens Advocating Responsible Education: Spending and Staffing charts.
2006 MMSD Budget Mystery #6: FTE’s
2006 Referendum: “One question with three parts“.
2008 Recurrent Referendum Notes and Links
2010 The long lost citizen’s budget
2012 Survey: Wisconsin Residents Believe K-12 Per Student Spending is $6,000, less than half of reality.
2012 City Treasurer presentation: moving to quarterly property tax payments [PDF] [PPT] The document includes a summary of payment and delinquency data.
2013 Comparing Madison, Boston & Long Beach.
2013 Derek Mitchell:
“The thing about Madison that’s kind of exciting is there’s plenty of work to do and plenty of resources with which to do it,” Mitchell said.
2013 Madison School District’s Fund 80 (certain expenditures outside of statutory spending increase limits) spending increases 45%
2014 Charts and a bit of history on Madison taxes and the District’s budget.
2014 City treasurer property tax settlement sheets [.xls]
2015 Madison School District’s Outbound Open Enrollment data
2015 City treasurer property tax settlement sheets [.xls]
2016 Let’s compare Madison and Middleton property taxes.
2016-2017 Madison School District Budget “Fall Book” 4MB PDF Property tax levy adoption (PDF).
2017-2018 Madison School District Budget Planning Document. Calendar
February 2017 Madison School District staffing data (3,069.807 total).
April, 2020 Draft 2020-2021 budget; operations work group notes.
This income chart is from Madison Mayor Paul Soglin’s February, 2017 Rotary presentation.
Budget references on the Madison School District’s website.
“The original sin of schooling as we know it is property taxes” – Justin Cohen.
September, 2018 US Census income data update. Madison’s 2016 Median Household income was $56,464.
BLS: Americans Spent More on Taxes Than on Food, Clothing Combined in 2017:
Americans on average spent more on taxes than on food and clothing combined in 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s new data on consumer expenditures, which was released this month.
“Consumer units” (which include families, financially independent individuals, and people living in a single household who share expenses) spent an average of $9,562 on food and clothing in 2017, according to BLS.
But they spent $16,749 on federal, state and local taxes.
November 2018: Consumer debt hits a record $13.5 Trillion.
Annual Madison School District Financial Audits:
Indeed.
It would be useful to compare Madison’s achievement data (reading, math) with other Districts, most of whom spend far less per student.
Please forward links and updates to zellmer@gmail.com
Madison School District Budget 
