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• 911 centers across the country are experiencing a shortage of dispatchers. It’s affecting many Wisconsin communities, regardless of size or location.
• These shortages make a difficult job harder and shifts even longer. The work is mentally taxing, and that’s amplified when there are fewer people on staff. 
• Who is a good fit for the job? People who can multi-task, stay calm under pressure, talk to strangers easily and handle high emotions.
• Some counties have eased their shortages by boosting pay, focusing on mental health and opening up part-time positions. 
• AI is helping tackle some problems, but it’s not replacing dispatchers.
• A college education isn’t necessary for the job, but Wisconsin’s tech colleges are adding emergency dispatch programs that help people see if the job is for them.

Children love to dress up as firefighters and police officers. They imagine themselves rushing into danger, answering the call when people are in need. 

But how many of them realize they could literally be the one to answer those calls — as a 911 dispatcher?

 “Not many people know about this as a career field,” said Gail Goodchild, emergency preparedness director for Waukesha County, at a Wisconsin Watch virtual panel discussion on Wednesday. “I think about trick or treaters … Nobody walks around with a headset and says, ‘I’m going to be a dispatcher someday.’”

The panel of emergency telecommunications professionals and educators said the low profile of emergency dispatch is one of many reasons that 911 centers across the country struggle to fill openings.

In Wisconsin, rural and urban communities alike are regularly short of dispatchers. Wisconsin Watch reported last year on Brown County’s “relentless” shortage and what the city can learn from successful changes in Waukesha County. This panel, moderated by reporter Miranda Dunlap, continues that conversation by highlighting perspectives and solutions from experts across the state.

“We have a critical, nationwide shortage of 911 professionals,” said Chippewa County Emergency Communications Center Director and longtime dispatcher Tamee Thom, who is also president of WIPSCOM, a board representing 911 professionals across Wisconsin.

Solving the problem, panelists agreed, will require both attracting new dispatchers and supporting those already on the job. They recommend raising awareness about the career, improving pay and working conditions, providing mental health support and technology to reduce burnout, and officially designating these professionals as first responders, in the same category as paramedics, firefighters and police.

Lives on the line

Emergency dispatch work is mentally and emotionally taxing, panelists said. At any moment, a dispatcher must be prepared for everything from talking someone through delivering a baby to responding to an act of violence. 

“It can go from zero to 90 in seconds,” Goodchild said. “One minute you’re talking with your podmate, and then the (phones) are ringing off the hook for … a car accident or, God forbid, an active shooter at the local school.”

Dispatchers must remain calm to gather necessary information, relay instructions —  say, how to perform CPR or deliver a baby — and de-escalate tension if needed. Meanwhile, they’re doing multiple other tasks, including taking notes, using mapping tools to better locate the caller, and talking with law enforcement dispatchers. 

When a call ends, the dispatcher might never find out what happened afterward. Sometimes, they finish a life-or-death call and then pick up a mundane call about trash pickup or parking tickets, sending them on an emotional rollercoaster.

The job only gets harder when 911 centers are shortstaffed. Staff who typically work 8- or 12-hour shifts could have to work 16, Goodchild said. In some cases, they leave work only to clock back in eight hours later. 

“You might have time to go home, maybe tuck in your kids at night. You’re getting a couple hours of sleep … pack your lunch … then get back to work,” Goodchild said. 

But despite the challenges, veteran dispatchers say there’s a reason they’ve stayed in the field for decades. 

Billi Jo Baneck, communications coordinator at the Shawano County Sheriff’s Office, once quit dispatch work to direct events at a wedding venue. 

“I tried to leave … and I came right back,” Baneck said. “It just consumes you.”

What’s working

Waukesha County offers some clues about how to fix the shortage. In 2023, the department had 20 vacancies. By July 2025, it had just two. 

One of the most important changes was to start hiring candidates based on personality rather than specific skills, said Goodchild, who took over as director a year ago. 

“We can teach customer service. We can teach them how to read a protocol, but if they’re coming in with a bad attitude, it really messes up the culture in that environment and adds to the stress.”

The department also conducted a compensation study, which led it to raise the starting wage for dispatchers from around $27 to almost $29.50 to compete with other employers. 

“People were leaving for less stressful jobs … They were going into the private industry because they could get paid better to do less,” Goodchild said. 

Waukesha’s success has caught the attention of emergency telecommunications leaders across the state. Still, Goodchild said, the county’s work isn’t done.

“While we’ve made changes and we’ve seen improvements,” Goodchild said, “we’re still not at full staffing … We have to continue to stay vigilant and identify those gaps and issues before they get to be bigger problems, and remain adaptable in meeting the needs of the center and certainly the communities that we serve.”

Thom agrees. In Chippewa County, her department has created part-time positions for dispatchers who wanted to cut back their schedules, and it’s passed some administrative and training duties to once-retired dispatchers who don’t want the stress of taking calls. 

That kind of “innovative” scheduling is essential, she said. 

“These days, people are really looking for that work-life balance … so I think any way that we can help add to that … I think we’re going to retain staff,” Thom said.

To support dispatchers’ mental health, some departments have created peer support programs for dispatchers and other first responders to supplement existing mental health services. 

Meanwhile, Waukesha County has hired a specialized therapy contractor called First Responder Psychological Services to meet with new hires and check in once or twice a year with every employee. All the company’s staff have worked in public safety, so they understand the specific stresses of the job, Goodchild said.

A role for AI?

Another way departments are easing the burden on overworked dispatchers: artificial intelligence. Waukesha is among the Wisconsin departments that now use an AI agent to answer non-emergency calls. That could include questions about how to pay a parking ticket, or what time the local fireworks show starts. 

“I just want to be clear, because I know everybody’s fear is that you’re going to get an AI agent (when you’re) calling 911: That’s not the case,” Goodchild said. 

That change, Goodchild said, means dispatchers get a little more down time and don’t experience so much of an emotional rollercoaster.

“You’re not going to send a law enforcement tactical team to go get a kitten out of a tree, right?” Goodchild said. “We train our 911 dispatchers at such a high level to provide CPR instructions, childbirth instructions, the de-escalating skills, multitasking skills. Why are you having them focus on a caller that’s calling in about when the fireworks are?”

Some schools and 911 centers are also using AI to train new dispatchers, said Shawano County’s Baneck, who also teaches emergency telecommunications at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. 

Tech colleges step in

Wisconsin’s tech colleges can play an important role in fixing the shortage by raising awareness about the field and helping potential dispatchers figure out whether the job is right for them, panelists said.

Andrew Baus, associate dean of human services at Moraine Park Technical College, helped create the college’s new emergency dispatch certificate program. Baus worked for years as a paramedic, the third generation in his family to work as a first responder. 

“Growing up, the options were always fire or criminal justice. It really never dawned that dispatching was right there with them,” Baus said. Now, he said, he’s trying to show students that dispatch is another “great option.”

To excel in dispatch, a person must multitask and be friendly with strangers, Baneck said. Those people can be hard to find.

“People with customer service experience that are used to angry customers, angry shoppers, (and) people that have been in the food service industry that are used to running back and forth, taking multiple orders … they do really well in this kind of job.”

You don’t typically need certifications to get a job as a dispatcher, Baneck said, noting that departments usually offer a 40-hour basic training in-house or send new hires for training elsewhere. 

But taking those classes in advance can help a person figure out whether dispatch work is right for them, before they ever apply for a job. That, in turn, can reduce turnover.

“Your heart’s got to be all-in to be able to work nights, holidays, weekends, around the clock, serving your community,” said Baneck, who also urges students considering dispatch to contact a 911 center and ask to shadow a dispatcher at work. “This is a good way of knowing whether their heart’s going to be in it or not, or whether they’re going to be capable of doing it.”

Thom agrees. “They see what it’s really like, and not what it looks like on TV,” Thom said. 

Meanwhile, Thom said WIPSCOM is still pushing Wisconsin lawmakers to include dispatchers in newly adopted legislation that lets first responders diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder apply for worker’s compensation benefits. Some states have officially reclassified dispatchers as first responders. Such a change can mean dispatchers qualify for  higher pay, better benefits and even the chance to retire earlier.

“There’s a difference between what we do every day and being a clerical worker. We are part of the emergency services world and are, honestly, the first first responder there,” Thom said. “We will continue to be a thorn in their side … speaking on behalf of our 911 professionals across the state.”

Who you gonna call? Wisconsin 911 dispatchers discuss fixes to national, statewide shortage is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• The Trump administration has frozen $715 million in previously appropriated adult education funds nationwide, including $7 million in Wisconsin. 

• That’s left program staff scrambling to figure out how they’ll continue providing free services that prepare people for the workforce, such as helping people learn English and educating people in prisons and jails. 

• Education leaders say the cuts could kneecap efforts to grow Wisconsin’s thin workforce.

• Attorney General Josh Kaul has joined a coalition that is suing the federal government over a freeze he calls “unconstitutional, unlawful, and arbitrary.”

On a recent Wednesday evening, a handful of adults sat around a table in a classroom at Madison College’s Goodman South Campus. They chatted about the week, their plans for the weekend and, finally, the day’s discussion question: Are human rights universal? 

The Literacy Network’s “Transitions” class is designed as a final step for immigrants with advanced English skills, preparing them for college or careers. Students spend a year learning to set goals, write resumes and interview for jobs. On this day, the lesson was about finding reliable sources for their next big assignment: a college-style oral presentation on a historical human rights struggle.

The Madison-based adult education nonprofit has surpassed many of its goals in recent years, with particularly high enrollment in Transitions. It scored a $72,000 annual federal grant to grow the program from 100 to 150 students.

But in June, the organization learned the money wasn’t coming.  

On June 30, the Trump administration said it was withholding the nearly $7 million Wisconsin was previously set to receive for adult education — threatening programs that help adults complete high school, learn English and improve their literacy skills, among other services. 

If the funding isn’t distributed, the shortfall could shrink remedial programs in a state where around 340,000 adults don’t have a high school diploma, Wisconsin providers warn.

“Reducing funding from programs that have been proven to be effective — and impact not just individuals but whole communities — is really short-sighted,” said Literacy Network executive director Robin Ryan.

The administration has frozen $715 million in adult education funds nationwide, its largest blow to community college program funding to date. It’s part of $6.8 billion in total federal education funding frozen while the administration ensures “taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the President’s priorities,” a U.S. Department of Education memo said. 

While the majority of funding on hold is for K-12 education, federal dollars make up a greater share of the adult education budgets. That’s left staff scrambling to figure out how they’ll continue to provide their free services, which range from helping people learn English to educating those incarcerated in prisons and jails. 

Sixteen technical colleges and seven community organizations in Wisconsin have received federal funding through a competitive process for adult education and literacy programs. More than 17,000 people attended these institutions for services during the 2023-24 school year, many of whom are people of color or are from low-income backgrounds.

“To me, that’s something that we should be doubling down on and tripling down on, not cutting funding,” said Wisconsin Technical College System President Layla Merrifield.

Wisconsin leaders are fighting to get the promised funds. On Monday, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, joined 23 other states in suing the Trump administration, calling the freeze “unconstitutional, unlawful, and arbitrary.” 

“The Wisconsin Technical College System Board has already begun canceling professional development activities, and staff layoffs may soon follow, further disrupting services,” Kaul said in a statement. “This sudden funding loss leaves Wisconsin’s technical colleges facing budget shortfalls that threaten the stability of these essential programs.” 

Trump officials allege ‘dismal’ results

Funding fears began swirling in the adult education community months ago. In early May, President Donald Trump sent Congress a fiscal year 2026 budget outline that called for the elimination of grants under the Adult Education Family Literacy Act, asserting the funding produces “dismal” results. Organizations braced for the possibility of not receiving federal funding beyond the next year. 

“K-12 outcomes will improve as education returns to the states, which would make remedial education for adults less necessary,” the administration’s discretionary funding request read. “The budget redirects resources to programs that more directly prepare students for meaningful careers.”

The shock came two months later, when Trump’s administration withheld the money adult education providers had budgeted for the upcoming year — funding already approved under the Biden administration. 

Ryan of the Literacy Network felt déjà vu when she heard the news.

The Trump administration in April informed her it was canceling a different previously approved grant: $74,000 to help prepare students with green cards to take the U.S. citizenship test. 

“It used to be you would always fight for the next budget, the next grant, but once you got a grant, you knew you had it,” Ryan said. “Since this administration started …we’re in a new climate.”

Monday’s lawsuit argues Trump officials are violating the law in refusing to spend the money. The administration has not indicated whether it will eventually release the frozen funds. 

Ryan isn’t holding her breath, and she’s preparing for the worst. 

Adult education departments at technical colleges receive most of the adult education dollars allocated to Wisconsin. They are being  “extra tight” with their budgets, said Peter Snyder, associate dean of adult education at Moraine Park Technical College. Snyder expects community organizations — like Literacy Network — to feel the impacts of cuts even more because more of their work centers on adult education. 

“With our Technical College System colleges, we’re doing a lot of other work, so for us, it’s more of a matter of managing what we have,” Snyder said. “My heart goes out to those other programs that are doing really great work that are solely reliant on that funding.”

Milwaukee Area Technical College runs the state’s largest adult education program, serving more than 12,000 students between the 2020 and 2022 school years. It’s currently missing $800,000 in promised grant dollars, plus around $500,000 in other funds that were contingent on the federal money.  

“The loss of (this) funding would result in a significant negative impact for supplying the region’s talent pipeline and would negatively affect our students’ economic mobility and career success,” MATC spokesperson Darryll Fortune said in an emailed statement. 

Worsening workforce woes

Education leaders say the cuts could kneecap efforts to grow Wisconsin’s thin workforce.

In the 2023-24 school year, the most recently available data, more than 2,700 Wisconsin adult education students earned a high school equivalency credential, and over 2,500 enrolled in college or workforce training, preparing them for jobs for which they may not have otherwise qualified. 

Literacy Network associate director Jennifer Peterson said programs like the Transitions class are a wise investment. 

Recipients of these federal dollars must test students throughout their studies and report how many achieved at least one of the benchmarks the federal government tracks, which include raising scores by approximately two grade levels, earning a high school equivalency or enrolling in postsecondary education. 

Of the 77 Transitions students tested over the past three years, 71% showed that type of improvement. 

The funding freeze unfolds as Wisconsin employers struggle to find workers qualified for jobs in many key industries. 

“This is definitely not a case of not aligning with the priorities, because the priority is labor, and that’s what this work is doing,” Peterson said. “Wisconsin needs more workers and will continue to need more workers.”

Anna Mykhailova, a cardiologist who fled Ukraine after the 2022 Russian invasion, landed a new job after taking the Transitions class. 

Licensing laws make it complicated for many foreign-trained medical professionals to practice in the United States, so Mykhailova took what she learned in the class and became a phlebotomist — someone trained to draw blood — at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison. 

She later moved up to a role as a cardiac sonographer, taking ultrasounds with the skills she’d used as a doctor in Ukraine. Literacy Network, where she still attends tutoring to improve her English, awarded her scholarships to cover the cost of her board certification exams.  

Mykhailova’s husband Sasha Druzhyna, who worked as an anesthesiologist in Ukraine, took the same class. In fall, he’ll start a graduate program at the Milwaukee School of Engineering to become a perfusionist, a specialist who operates a heart-lung machine during open-heart surgery. 

That class won’t expand without the frozen funds, and Literacy Network has already cut some classes. 

Message to public: Please help 

Trump’s move to withhold already-appropriated funding surprised even those who have seen priorities ebb and flow under previous presidents.  

“This has historically, for many decades, been very stable funding that has strong bipartisan support. It has been, up until now, pretty outside of political winds blowing,” Peterson said. “It’s a big change in our field.”

Staff at Neighborhood House of Milwaukee had already found a way to do without these funds before the news came down. The nonprofit offers ESL and citizenship classes for around 150 immigrants each year, many of them refugees from the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America. 

The organization previously received a $75,000 annual federal adult education grant, but staff didn’t submit all the necessary paperwork when the latest applications were due, so it wasn’t expecting a fresh round of funding. The organization instead turned to private donors and other grants — a shift others who long depended on federal funding may soon need to make, too. 

Liliane McFarlane, who manages the organization’s International Education program, said the organization raised enough to replace the federal funding for a year. 

The Literacy Network is bracing for the possibility of additional federal cuts. It relies on three other federal grants, with about 15% of its $2.6 million budget coming from Washington.   

“We consider all of that to be endangered,” Ryan said.

For now, Ryan said, the goal is just to keep all programs afloat and hope so the organization can scale up during a future presidential administration.  

“We are hoping that this is a Trump administration duration of difficulty,” she said. “We are very much reaching out to the public and saying, ‘Please help us. These are important, effective programs that affect the whole community and help people thrive.’”

Natalie Yahr and Miranda Dunlap report on pathways to success in Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus.

Trump funding freeze threatens programs that prepare thousands for jobs in Wisconsin is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.