According to a new study from the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, controversial public-sector union reforms passed in 2011 have not harmed Wisconsin’s public schools.
The study finds the law had no effect on the student-teacher ratio and did not have any disparate impact on the state’s urban, suburban or rural school districts. It also found that base salaries for certified teachers dropped, but that gross salaries haven’t changed because of the law.
Teachers now have less teaching experience on average, but the decline is less than one year and there’s no evidence showing it has affected student learning.
Interestingly, the study found a slight increase in the diversity of the teaching workforce since the law passed, with a very small increase in the share of Hispanic teachers and similar decline in the share of white teachers. Furthermore, the number of district-level administrative support staff and school administrators increased per students have increased.
“As it was designed to do, Act 10 has resulted in substantial cost savings to taxpayers,” the study concludes. “Our study shows that those savings to school districts had, at worst, a relatively modest impact on the teaching and educational workforce in Wisconsin.”
The law eliminated collective bargaining for state government workers, causing more than 100,000 pro-union protesters to storm the state capitol in dramatic fashion as the state legislature considered it. The law was signed by Gov. Scott Walker on March 11, 2011.
The report was authored by Marty Lueken with the Friedman Foundation, as well as Will Flanders and CJ Szafir with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.
“Opponents were loud and consistent in their arguments that Act 10 was a death knell for Wisconsin education,” the study says. “This study has shown that these claims were greatly exaggerated and failed to materialize.”
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
