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The battle over whether Wisconsin's public schools are doing the same, better or worse after reforms signed into law by Gov. Scott Walker took another turn Tuesday when the state Department of Public Instruction released a heap of new school staff data.

The latest annual staff report shows a loss of 2,312 full-time positions in Wisconsin's 424 districts during the 2011-'12 school year, which represents a 2.3% loss in school staff statewide from the previous year.

For teachers specifically, the state's schools reduced educator positions by 1,446 in 2011-'12, a loss of 2.4% from the previous year. Student enrollment in the state remained stable over the past year, according to DPI officials.

School staff decreased during the last year that Gov. Jim Doyle was in office, too, but less so than under Walker. From the 2009-'10 school year to 2010-'11, statewide school staffing dropped by 1.5% and teacher staff positions dropped by 1.3%.

The report's data comes from staffing information districts submit to the DPI each year, which is finalized in early spring and generally uploaded to a searchable website with little fanfare.

But since a dispute arose last week between the state's largest teachers union and Walker's office about a set of school climate surveys, the DPI released the most current year's school staff data alongside comparison data reaching back eight years to 2003-'04. The data show how many full-time administrators, teachers, aides, pupil services workers and other workers districts employed.

The dispute between Walker and the Wisconsin Education Association Council centered on a budget survey conducted by the DPI and the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators in the fall of 2011, which had a 90% response rate from superintendents. The results of that survey made the state of schools appear better now than in years past when it was compared to results of anonymous surveys the union collected from superintendents.

The new report provides a closer look at full-time staff data for all districts, and how those numbers changed from year to year.

"Surveys are surveys," John Johnson, a spokesman for the DPI, said Tuesday. "This is data reported that everyone takes seriously" because it's used to fulfill federal reporting requirements.

Cullen Werwie, a spokesman for Walker, said that the DPI's data serve as proof that Walker's reforms are working. He said that's because more than 43% of the staff reductions in the state took place in three districts - Milwaukee, Janesville and Kenosha - that have teachers contracts in place that shield them from the effects of legislation signed into law by Walker in 2011. That legislation limits collective bargaining and allows districts to collect more pension and health care contributions from workers, as well as to make significant changes to work rules, compensation and benefits.

Johnson pointed to the fact that among the 52 districts Walker publicized in April for saving an average of $220 per pupil by changing or restructuring health insurance plans, 37 still saw a reduction in full-time staff positions from last year.