MADISON – A grassroots parent campaign returns to the state Capitol on Thursday, June 12, to call on legislators writing the state budget to provide 60% sum sufficient funding for special education.
The “Learn in My Shoes” campaign has collected stories of students with disabilities, their teachers, and their schools from across the state to deliver to lawmakers. Each story is attached to a pair of children’s shoes. Families and children impacted by special education funding will gather Thursday at 12:30 p.m. in the North Hearing Room to tell their stories and meet interested legislators and members of the media.
“The barriers to education for our kids are not abstract. We live them every day,” said Tiffany Schanno, Learn in My Shoes co-founder and a special education parent from Sheboygan. “Children with disabilities have the right to these supports and services in school. When they don’t get them, the consequences for them and their communities are very real.”
EVENT DETAILS
Date: Thursday, June 12
Time: 12:30 p.m. (prior to Joint Finance Committee meeting scheduled for 1 p.m.)
Location: State Capitol, North Hearing Room (2nd floor, North wing)
Visuals: Children’s shoes with stories attached and posters with quotes from families
Speaking:
Tiffany Schanno, Melissa Custer, Melanie Grosse, and other parents
Sen. Jodi Habish Sinykin, D-Whitefish Bay
Every classroom in the state has children with special education needs. Students with disabilities make up nearly 16% of all children in the Wisconsin school system. There are more than 120,000 students with disabilities in the state, according to the Department of Public Instruction.
The Learn in My Shoes campaign first brought stories from students with disabilities to lawmakers in March. Since then, families, teachers, and school officials from all over the state have testified in Joint Finance Committee public listening sessions, written letters to the editor, and asked legislators directly for the funding schools need.
A majority of Wisconsin residents (76%) favor a major increase in funding for special education in the schools, according to the most recent Marquette Law School poll.
“Parents are tired of competing for limited resources. They’re tired of excuses, of being dismissed. I know your head’s nodding like you understand, but you really don’t. It’s time for special education to be reimbursed at at least 60% sum sufficient, and we aren’t going anywhere until we have it,” said Melissa Custer, Learn in My Shoes co-founder from Grafton during the public listening session hosted by the Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance in West Allis on April 4.
Why are we asking for 60% sum sufficient funding for special education, instead of sum certain? Because kids in special education should not have to accept a lesser education than they have a right to. Here’s an explanation in plain language everyone can understand:
Sum certain: Imagine you’re bringing a birthday treat for your child’s class. You bring a package of 24 cookies because two years ago, the class had 24 kids. But now, there are 32 kids in the class. That means some kids get half of a cookie instead of a whole one. That’s sum certain: a fixed, predetermined amount that is not based on a school district’s actual costs to fund special education.
Sum sufficient is equivalent to making sure that every child receives a whole cookie. You check the current number of students and, to make sure you have enough for everyone, you pick up two 24-packs of cookies. That means everyone receives a whole cookie, no matter what. Sum sufficient means school districts know they will receive enough money to help fund their actual special education costs.
Since the current state budget was passed two years ago, two-thirds of Wisconsin’s 421 school districts have gone to referendum, according to the Wisconsin Public Education Network. Some districts have had multiple referendums.
WATCH: PBS Wisconsin: Why special education is a focus of Wisconsin’s 2025 budget https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/why-special-education-is-a-focus-of-wisconsins-2025-budget/
READ:
Op-ed from school district officials: “Your property tax hike: A direct result of state failure to fund students with disabilities“
https://www.gmtoday.com/the_freeman/commentary/your-property-tax-hike-a-direct-result-of-state-failure-to-fund-students-with-disabilities/article_90b4310e-bfec-5568-82bf-473a1d0574a3.htm
New story from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “Educators, parents from about 40 Wisconsin K-12 districts have urged lawmakers to increase special ed funding” https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2025/06/09/state-budget-hearings-drew-dozens-of-comments-on-special-education-funding/83824156007/
BACKGROUND: Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo that shows 1 in 5 school referendums held in 2024 could have been avoided if special education costs were fully reimbursed.
