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Public school funding in Wisconsin is at a political crossroads, with the two candidates for governor disagreeing over how state aid should be distributed in the future.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers wants $2 billion more spent on public schools, noting a projected $4.3 billion budget surplus by mid-2023.
His Republican challenger, Tim Michels, vows to “spend as much money as any governor” on K-12 schools, but would do that by removing all limits on the school choice program so that any parent could use a state-issued voucher to send their child to a private school.
In this important controversy, this statistic is important: State government will collect $20.8 billion in general-fund taxes — corporate and personal income taxes, sales taxes, cigarette, alcohol and utility taxes — this year. Of that, $6.6 billion — or almost one-third — will go for K-12 public schools.
Evers also directed $90 million in federal Covid relief to public schools, bringing total state aid for public schools to $6.7 billion this year, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. That’s an 11 percent increase over three years.
Four issues frame the controversy over state aid to K-12 schools:
*Voters are being asked to approve a record number of referendums to exceed state-imposed revenue limits to build and maintain local schools and staff classrooms. The Wisconsin Association of School Boards says 44 of 50 referendums passed in April, and 40 more referendums will be decided on Nov. 8.
*Test scores show student learning declined during the pandemic. In the Madison school district, only 22 percent of African American third- through 11th-graders, and 33 percent of Hispanics in those grades, were proficient or better in English language arts in the 2020-’21 school year, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. But 83 percent of white students scored proficient or better that year.
In nine schools, no student scored as reading proficiently, Michels said at an Oct. 14 debate with Evers.
*Wisconsin per-pupil spending was $12,740 in 2020 — 5.6 percent below the national average and 25th in the nation, the nonprofit Wisconsin Policy Forum reported. In 2002, Wisconsin’s per-pupil spending ranked 11th nationally.
*The number of public school students continued to fall this year, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction reported. Public school students statewide fell by 0.8 percent, while enrollment in private schools increased by 6.7 percent.
If state K-12 aid already takes one-third of all state taxes while test scores are falling and school districts remain so pinched for cash that they must ask voters to raise their own property taxes, what should happen next?
Public schools “need more resources,” Evers said during the Oct. 14 debate.
Specifically, Evers said $2 billion more in state aid would help students read, expand mental health and nutrition services, add staff to limit class sizes, increase per-pupil state aid, and pay special education costs local school districts now subsidize.
In a new ad, former President Barack Obama said Evers has to be re-elected to protect “public education.”
But Michels said statewide school choice was the answer as it would “get parents involved” and mean that future K-12 state aid would be spent “wisely.”
“We’re going to let parents decide — not a couple woke educrats,” Michels said. “Every parent is a taxpayer.”
Statewide school choice is necessary so public school educators don’t “confuse and cloud” children, Michels added.
Michels said Evers, a former state superintendent of public instruction who started his career as a science teacher, “has been in charge of education his whole life. You would think that education would be going well under his leadership, but it’s not…It can’t get any worse.”
The Republican linked failing schools to crime. “We’re going to get education scores up to provide opportunity for the young men and women that have no option but to be on the streets.”
Evers said Michels’ “radical” plan for statewide school choice would take 40 percent of funding away from public schools,” which would “defund” them.
Dan Rossmiller, a Wisconsin Association of School Boards official, says public schools continue to be hurt by spending — or “revenue” — limits that were enacted in 1993 to control property taxes. They have continued with annual inflation increases but no inflation increases were approved in the last two years.
“State funding to public schools has lagged inflation by more than $3,100 per Wisconsin student since inflationary adjustments were ended in 2009-10,” according to Rossmiller.
“One-time federal COVID relief was a fiscal lifeline,” he adds, “but now a ‘fiscal cliff’ looms when that one-time federal funding runs out.”
Steven Walters started covering state government in 1988. Contact him at stevenscotwlters@gmail.com
