{"id":16775,"date":"2025-06-13T02:35:40","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T02:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=16775"},"modified":"2025-06-13T03:06:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T03:06:30","slug":"without-legislative-change-dwindling-ranks-of-young-accountants-will-flee-wisconsin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=16775","title":{"rendered":"Without legislative change, dwindling ranks of young accountants will flee Wisconsin"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/without-legislative-change-dwindling-ranks-of-young-accountants-will-flee-wisconsin\/<\/a><\/p>\n

As nearby states reform, Wisconsin clings to licensure requirements that add little value<\/em><\/h4>\n
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The numbers don\u2019t lie, and nobody knows that better than all the kids who no longer want to be accountants in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

The number of people getting\u00a0accounting degrees at University of Wisconsin System schools plummeted from 868 in the 2019-20 school year to 625 in the 2023-24 school year.<\/p>\n

The kids becoming actuaries or finance majors or math teachers instead of accountants can probably do the arithmetic in their heads but, for all the English majors out there like me, my calculator says that\u2019s a 28 percent drop.<\/p>\n

Other states have had the same basic problem. But, unlike Wisconsin \u2014 at least thus far \u2014 many have enacted\u00a0the same basic solution: elimination of unnecessary and expensive CPA licensure requirements that currently cost many kids about $100,000 in extra tuition and lost earnings.<\/p>\n

This is an old problem.<\/p>\n

About 20 years ago, states across America \u2014 led by Florida \u2014 started to require a minimum of 150 credit hours of coursework plus actual work experience before anyone\u00a0 could sit for the exam to become a certified public accountant. That means, in essence, another year of school beyond what\u2019s needed to get a just single bachelor\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n

A typical bachelor\u2019s degree requires 120 credits so, in other words, Wisconsin students right now need to add another 30 or so credits \u2014 the equivalent of a year of school.<\/p>\n

Some just take a bunch of other undergrad courses. Some get an advanced degree. Numbers of both are decreasing.\u00a0In 2019-20, University of Wisconsin System schools awarded 728 bachelor\u2019s degrees in accounting and 140 master\u2019s degrees for total of 868. In 2023-24, it awarded 545 bachelor\u2019s degrees and 80 master\u2019s degrees for a total of 625, according to data from the University of Wisconsin System\u2019s Office of Policy Analysis and Research.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have said for 20 years this (150-hour requirement) was a horrible, horrible mistake made by the profession,\u201d said Dale Kooyenga, an accountant and former legislator who is now president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. \u201cIt really limits the numbers the profession needs to be healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

This sort of \u201cfencing\u201d has happened in all kinds of licensed professions. The ones who get in use government to fence out as many others as they can in order to protect their realm. Academia, in the meantime, also had motivation to increase requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always said this 150 hours was pushed by the universities to make money,\u201d said state Sen. Chris Kapenga, who also is an accountant. But the \u201cacademic elites\u201d\u00a0 also think that more education automatically means kids are more prepared, he said. He disagrees. Wisdom often comes from work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt used to be a 120-hour (requirement) \u2014 that\u2019s what it was for me \u2014 and there were no issues with quality in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says we should go back to that, the way other states are.<\/p>\n

Nearly 20 states have already amended CPA licensing laws so far this year, according to the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin is pretty much surrounded by reformers. Minnesota and Iowa already have passed laws lowering requirements, and Illinois appears likely to do the same soon, according to Geno Fragnito, government relations director for the Minnesota Society of CPAs.<\/p>\n

Fragnito says there was a \u201cfirestorm of pushback\u201d from national groups when they started pushing for reform of licensure requirements in Minnesota in 2023. That\u2019s changed.\u00a0 The American Institute of CPAs and the National Association of State Boards of\u00a0 Accountancy have now approved model legislation.<\/p>\n

In Minnesota, where the new law kicks in next January, there will be multiple paths to licensure, but basically aspiring CPAs no longer will need five years of school. Four years will suffice as long as they work two years before trying to pass the famously difficult CPA exam.<\/p>\n

Michigan, our other neighbor, appears headed toward change as well. Bob Doyle, CEO of the Michigan Association of CPAs, said he hopes a bill similar to the one in Minnesota will be introduced this summer and effective by Jan. 1, 2026.<\/p>\n

All that is going to leave Wisconsin in a precarious and isolated position if we don\u2019t move in the same direction. Why would any aspiring CPA stay in Wisconsin rather than use reciprocity to go to school in, say, Minnesota \u2014 or just take her degree from UW-La Crosse across the river and immediately get a job instead of paying for another year of schooling here?<\/p>\n

Kids will be \u201cincentivized,\u201d as Kapenga puts it, \u201cto go to other states.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tammy Hofstede, president and CEO of the Wisconsin Institute of Certified Public Accountants, said her group is hoping to see something introduced in Madison in this calendar year and effective in early 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all on the same page with other states,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it is just a matter of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time, though, is getting short.<\/p>\n

If Wisconsin\u2019s neighbors all remove the 150-hour requirement and Wisconsin does not at the same time, kids will just do the math and leave the state.<\/p>\n

Kooyenga figures kids from Wisconsin lose $100,000 in that first year out when you add up the cost of further education and lost earnings. First-year accountants in Milwaukee can make mid- or high-60s, according to a little informal survey I did Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Kapenga said Wednesday that he expects Wisconsin will follow suit and address the licensure issue that is going to drive away accountants who already are in short supply.<\/p>\n

Can\u2019t happen soon enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just consider the numbers.<\/p>\n

Mike Nichols is the president of the Badger Institute.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Any\u202fuse or reproduction of Badger Institute articles or photographs requires prior written\u202fpermission.\u202fTo request permission to post articles on a website or print copies for distribution, contact Badger Institute Marketing Director Matt Erdman at\u202f<\/em>matt@badgerinstitute.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

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