At least 120 school districts are asking voters for more funding this fall

As Wisconsin’s school funding crisis continues, school districts across the state continue to rely on voters to keep the lights on, with at least 120 districts holding referendums on increasing property taxes and issuing bonds to fund schools this fall.

It’s a trend precipitated by lagging state funding under the Republican-controlled Legislature. Wisconsin law imposes a limit on how much funding school districts are allowed to receive through local taxes, loans and state funding, and since 2009, state lawmakers haven’t raised these limits to keep up with inflation. Coupled with declining enrollment statewide — which is also used to determine school funding allocation — rising costs, and federal COVID-19 funding that is set to expire this fall, school leaders said districts are at a breaking point.

School referendums give districts the ability to raise taxes or take on more debt in excess of revenue limits. An operational referendum helps schools pay for day-to-day expenses, while capital referendums are used for construction projects. Funding increases by referendum can be temporary or indefinite. 

As a result of the stagnant state funding schools are facing right now, more and more districts are turning to referendums to fill funding gaps, and more schools are using them to pay for expenses like staffing and utility bills. In April, 86 school districts held referendums.

“The decisions by the state have essentially passed the buck on to the community members to fund public education through referendums,” said Jackson Parker, the director of finance for St. Francis School District, a public school district just north of Milwaukee.

St. Francis is asking voters to approve an operational referendum that would fill the funding gaps that were covered by a 2021 referendum that expires at the end of this fiscal year.

The district, which enrolls about 1,100 students between grades 3K prekindergarten and 12, estimates it’s receiving about $3,000 less per student than it would be if the state’s revenue limits were adjusted for inflation.

“We’re like other school districts having challenges with rising costs for salaries, benefits, technology, utilities, other operations; we’ve had to defer maintenance, to defer curriculum purchases, find cost savings for staffing efficiencies to meet the challenges of having those revenues not keep up with the cost of inflation,” Parker said.

The district had to hire an instructor to teach computer science online because the district couldn’t fill the position, while the school’s math teachers are being trained to eventually take over teaching the subject. Other open positions have gone unfilled, leaving other teachers and even principals to cover classes, spreading everyone thin.

The district also has plans to roll out a new science curriculum, but not enough money to implement it. It will be a top priority if the new referendum is passed, said Deborah Kerr, the superintendent of the St. Francis district.

“There comes a point you can’t cut anymore, or else you can’t offer a quality program, a comprehensive educational program,” Kerr said. “So we’re kind of at that critical turning point where we need additional support from the community.”

The funding crisis is hitting smaller districts particularly hard. Michael Lichucki, the superintendent of Rio School District, said the approximately 360-student district has fewer resources but still has the same costs as larger districts, such as roof replacements.

The Rio School District will ask voters to approve a $6.2 million operational referendum that would be used to cover staffing costs, to update learning materials and to complete overdue maintenance, including the replacement of 60-year-old windows in the elementary school.

Staffing is one of the largest expenses for Rio, and this referendum would help the district maintain its current levels, a critical investment for a school with an already small staff and in the midst of a statewide teacher shortage.

“Especially in a smaller school district, if you have to make cuts to the staff, you are eliminating programs because you generally only have maybe one art teacher or just one or two music teachers. So staff cuts in a small district eliminate programs,” Lichucki said.

Rio has depended on an operational referendum for the last 12 years, he said, underscoring how reliant districts have become on voters in order to stay afloat in the absence of state support.

If state funding had kept up with inflation, Lichucki said, Rio would be receiving $3,300 more per pupil. “That gap means that the local taxpayers are asked through referendum to fulfill that responsibility from the state. And it also means that certain communities that are perhaps more affluent can go to operational referendum more often, creating a gap between the haves and have-nots throughout the state,” he said.

Districts of all sizes and in all corners of the state are going to referendum this fall, from larger urban districts like the Madison School District, which has a $507 million capital referendum and a $100 million operational referendum on the ballot, to smaller rural schools like the Ithaca School District in southwest Wisconsin, which will put a $5.2 million operational referendum before voters.

Kerr said funding schools this way is unsustainable.

“Not if but when 90% of the schools across Wisconsin are having to go out for an operational referendum over the last 5-10 years, that’s a signal that the state funding is not adequate, at all,” Kerr said. “I think this is going to deteriorate the quality of education if something is not done to fix the school funding formula and how schools are funded across the state and across the country.”