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Milwaukee County · Wisconsin

Milwaukee, WI public schools

Enrollment, school count, staffing and per-pupil spending for Milwaukee School District — federal education data, not a star rating.

Yellow public school bus parked at dusk, illustrating local school district data

Quick answer

Milwaukee School District is the primary public district for Milwaukee, WI. It enrolls 67,500 students in 156 schools with 4,034 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $17,506 per pupil, 1% above the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
67,500NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
156Operating school count
Students per teacher
16.7Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$17,506Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Milwaukee

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
27.2%
$353,711,000
State revenue
56.3%
$732,865,000
Federal revenue
16.5%
$214,019,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Milwaukee property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 51 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Milwaukee numbers

What the 2021-22 NCES and FY2020 Census finance numbers say about this district.

Spending of $17,506 per pupil sits close to the $17,320 metro median — within 1 percent of it, so budget is not what sets this district apart. Instruction takes 51 cents of each dollar — $8,953 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Funding is split roughly evenly — 27.2% local, 56.3% state — so both the local tax base and the WI aid formula matter to what this district can spend. Federal dollars are an outsized 16.5% of revenue, a share that tracks concentrated student poverty (Title I) and special-education enrollment.

67,500 students across 156 schools averages 433 students per building, and the district is larger than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). The 16.7:1 student-to-teacher ratio is ordinary for this set of districts (median 15.2:1). It counts all FTE teachers district-wide, so actual class sizes run higher.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Milwaukee School District is a large city district; figures are the district total (LEAID 5509600) and individual schools inside it vary widely. Independently authorised charter schools, private schools and regional vocational programs are counted separately by NCES and are not in these totals. Enrollment is the 2021-22 NCES collection; dollars are the FY2020 Census F-33 survey, the latest complete national release. The two years differ, so per-pupil spending is a stable indicator rather than a live budget line.

Other Milwaukee datasets on this site.

Statewide: Wisconsin cities · Wisconsin ZIP codes · Wisconsin sales tax · Wisconsin counties

Source: NCES Common Core of Data + Census F-33, via Urban Institute Education Data · rates as published for 2021-22 / FY2020

NCES LEAID 5509600. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.