hallway in Madison school
On Nov. 3, Madison voters will be asked to approve $317 million in facilities investments and $33 million in operational expansions for Madison schools. Quite frankly, the Madison Metropolitan School District’s referendums do not ask for nearly enough for our students. Not only do these two funding requests come at a time when COVID-19 has severely destabilized our education system and strained local resources, they also follow the years-long abandonment of our districts by our state government.
The Republican-controlled Legislature has yet to author any new legislation addressing COVID relief since April. The relief package passed then provided no economic support for Wisconsin schools nor did legislators seek to bridge the immense gap in funding that districts like ours will face very soon. Before COVID, the Madison school district was anticipating a $30 million budget gap over the next three years; now, with the prospect of state budget shortfalls because of the pandemic, they could face up to $18 million in budget cuts this fall alone.
When money is cut from the classroom, especially this much, it is not a political party that suffers — it is our children who stand to lose. The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated the rips in our educational fabric that already exist; our teachers are not paid nearly enough, resource gaps in technology, food security and internet access are huge, and academic setbacks are unavoidable with online education. What we cannot afford now is to tear that fabric any more by withholding much needed aid to bridge some of those resource gaps. If the state has chosen a political stalemate over the well-being of our students, then the burden unfortunately falls on our local school entities to make ends meet for the time being. We must pick up the tab as taxpayers for the sake of the collective good — there is no other option but to stand up for our children in the moment and work to make sure we elect representatives who are champions of public education.
If a budget is a moral document, then a referendum is a moral post-it note that flags our fiscal priorities as a community this election cycle. Madison cannot buy into the legacy of Walkerism — just because legislative Republicans have signaled their disdain for public education doesn’t mean that here in Madison we abandon our students, teachers and staff as former Gov. Scott Walker and his co-conspirators have done since Act 10.
Comparatively, other districts around Wisconsin are asking for much more for their students and are setting an example of the moral responsibility sorely lacking in the state Capitol. In April, Racine passed a $1.3 billion 30-year referendum, though by a very small margin. Milwaukee, on the other hand, overwhelmingly approved a $87 million referendum. According to the Madison school district, 91 percent, or 52 of 57 referendum questions, passed on ballots across Wisconsin in April 2020, totaling more than $1.7 billion across 44 school districts.
Wisconsin knows that its children are worth the investment. And while Madison’s referendums, if approved, would levy a $470 tax on the average $311,000 home once they are implemented in the next few years, the burden on children who fall behind will far outweigh the burden on taxpayers. I am a young professional and already pay around $1,000 a month in rent; while I don't directly pay property taxes we know that rents reflect property tax increases. I am willing to find a way to cover the increase if it means that my siblings and Madison’s children would receive the quality education that has gotten me here.
As for the calls from Blacks for Political and Social Action, a local political action committee, to oppose the referendum because of the racial inequity in our schooling system, they cannot be further from relevancy to the current moment. Public expenditures in education increase the quality of education overall, while systemic issues keep BIPOC from reaping the benefits of those expenditures. A restructuring of our education system then is incredibly important to bridging the opportunity gaps that exist between Black and white students. Rerouting revenue streams to programming geared towards equity is the solution, not cutting off funding completely and further perpetuating the resource scarcity that keeps our children of color down. Give our district the tools it needs to help our students and hold the administration accountable to higher standards — don’t tie their hands during a global pandemic.
To continue opposing this referendum on the basis of racial equity is a bad faith attempt to hijack an economically vulnerable time to further vested political interests at the expense of Black children. We don’t need that.
I am therefore voting yes on both referendum questions because our children, the teachers who instruct them, and the support staff that run our district deserve our constant attention and service. Collective responsibility is a part of our proud progressive tradition here in Madison — we each need to do our part on Nov. 3.
Nada Elmikashfi recently ran for state Senate, her first race for public office. She is set to become chief of staff to Francesca Hong, the favorite to win a Madison state Assembly seat in November.
