Milwaukee Public Schools’ administration has submitted a balanced-budget proposal to the school board that would help bring more resources to students and classrooms in the 2026-27 school year, while addressing the district’s $46 million budget deficit. 

“This gap — identified by our external auditors in January — directly impacted our budget planning and made it significantly more challenging,” said Superintendent Brenda Cassellius, EdD. “Through it all, we have prioritized protecting resources for classrooms, keeping schools safe, investing in student achievement and restoring the district’s finances.” 

The $1.6 billion plan, which would serve as the district’s roadmap for the school year ahead, was submitted to the Milwaukee Board of School Directors on Monday, May 4. The board’s Committee on Strategic Planning and Budget will begin its review of the plan on Thursday, May 7, at 5:30 p.m. at MPS Central Services, 5225 W. Vliet St. The committee will begin taking public testimony that night. 

The submitted figures are estimates in the 2026-27 proposed budget. The proposed budget must be adopted before the new fiscal year begins July 1. Final budget numbers will be based on enrollment, and the final budget will be approved in the fall.  

The full budget proposal, and answers to frequently asked questions, is on the district's 2026-27 budget planning page. These are some key aspects of the proposed budget for the next school year: 

Investing in classrooms 

• 150 more classroom teaching positions will be added to manage and reduce class size, giving students more one-on-one attention so all students learn to read.
• 138 more paraprofessional positions will be added to support classrooms and schools.
• Strong support for art, music and physical education teaching positions will be maintained, with a slight increase of six positions next year. This includes full-time art, music, and physical education teachers in the district's investment schools, which are in historically under-resourced communities.   

Investing in valued employees 

• All employees will receive a cost-of-living increase totaling 2.63% by January 2027. The increase will be phased in with a 1.5% increase in July 2026 and another 1.13% in January 2027. The proposed budget includes increases that reward employees for their years with the district and any advanced degrees or certification they earn, known as steps and lanes. Those increases are to be brought to the school board for formal approval in the coming weeks.
• Paraprofessionals and children’s health assistants (CHAs) would be scheduled for up to 40 hours of work, based on school need and employee interest. This supports many of the MPS employees who are among the district’s lowest paid. The district also is budgeting for an additional stipend for CHAs.

Making tough decisions 

• The district will have 53 fewer administrators/administrative staff positions. 
• The district will have 53 fewer assistant principal positions while maintaining one assistant principal for every 350 students in a school. This ratio is stronger than in other large urban districts.
• The district will decrease purchased services from outside vendors by about $46 million. This includes contract reductions and short-term savings related to charter schools no longer authorized by the district. (It creates longer-term enrollment challenges that the district will work to address.)

The district recognizes the impact of these difficult but necessary decisions on affected employees, and it remains committed to placing those affected in vacant MPS positions wherever possible.

Input from budget meetings, stakeholder conversations and meetings with high school students helped to shape the budget proposal.

“All of our decisions are based not only on balancing the budget now but setting our district up for long-term success based on the resources we have. The state stopped inflationary increases in general aid for Wisconsin public school students more than 15 years ago, and the voter-approved referendum was a lifeline, but it only fills part of the gap,” Dr. Cassellius said. “We will continue to advocate for funding at every level, but we must make decisions based on what we have access to now.”