The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.
Funding K-12 public education is always a much-discussed, and (sadly) increasingly contentious issue in Wisconsin, and this budget cycle was no different. Unfortunately, after 16 consecutive years of Republicans deliberately underfunding public schools behind inflationary increases, it has happened again! This budget will have negative consequences for us. Let me explain what is likely coming and why.
Let’s start here: Wisconsin’s funding formula for our schools is complicated, but here are a few basics. Our state has what is called a “revenue limit;” a ceiling on the amount of money each school district can spend which is different for each district. The revenue limit funds come from two sources; general state aid (determined on a per student basis) and local property taxes.
Second, when these revenue limits were created in 1993, they were directly tied to inflation and adjusted automatically. Smart! This allowed our schools to adequately respond to inflationary increases in operational costs; costs that aren’t really seen but are always rising, such as heating prices, insurance costs for staff, gas for transportation, up-to-date technology, building repair costs, etc.
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Unfortunately, state aid was de-coupled from inflationary increases in 2009, and public schools have received proportionally less state aid compared to inflationary costs, thus requiring a higher dependence on local property taxes to keep them afloat. By the end of 2025, Wisconsin’s spending on education will be behind inflation by $3,300 PER pupil! Under Republican control, our state’s per-pupil public school spending sits in the bottom half of the country. (However, the proportion of total Wisconsin education dollars spent on unaccountable private voucher programs has risen to top three in the nation.)
In this year’s biennial budget, Governor Evers asked for an increase of $1.2 billion (from our $4.4 billion surplus) in general school aid which would have allowed a freezing of property tax increases. However, Republicans refused to increase general aid at all in their negotiations; not one penny! Senate Democrats did offer a substitute amendment to the budget asking for this increase in state spending to protect an increase to our property taxes. Republicans unanimously voted no. This is the first time since the 1970’s that for two consecutive years there will be no increase to generalized state aid in Wisconsin. Thus, an already dire economic position for public schools has just gotten worse. Republicans have concurrently overseen the increase of public tax dollars funding voucher schools. In the new budget, almost one billion of our tax dollars will be siphoned from our public schools to voucher and independent charter schools each year. Each. Year! (You might want to ask your school district how much of their budget is being sent away to fund them.)
The Governor’s line-item veto in the previous budget did initiate a work-around of Republican’s gross underfunding of schools by allowing an increase of $325 per pupil spending each year for schools. While that amount is over ten times less than inflationary needs, it will help. Sadly, the Republican’s refusal to provide any increase to the state’s general aid to fund this, means local property taxes will carry the burden. This was a deliberate choice Republicans made.
So, here’s the reality: Republicans refused to allow this budget to give our public schools any increase in general school aid, so most districts will be forced to go to referendum again to afford basic, operational costs. The likelihood of higher property taxes worries me greatly at a time when many Wisconsinites are already just getting by. When every one of the 30 school districts in the 14th Senate District have had to go referendum to help pay for inflationary-increased operational costs, we must recognize this is not due to any local school district’s fiscal mismanagement. Instead, it’s part of the Republican strategy to underfund our public schools, then blame them for performance issues, and use it as a rationale to advance more funding for voucher schools. So, if/when your local school district goes to referendum and your property taxes increase, please know that it is our Republican legislators who are to blame, not our schools.
– Keyeski, D-Lodi, represents the 14th Senate District.
