Kids and schools need your help. They honestly do. They need you and all your family, friends, colleagues and coworkers to tell legislators that public education is important and we need to improve its funding.
*First some background….. Although there is some missing data on this slide, we know that more than 85% of Wisconsin kids are educated in our public schools, which includes public charter schools.
“Public Education” means education that is publicly financed, accountable to the public and accessible to all students. It is often described as the cornerstone of our economy, our democracy, and our society. That is why Wisconsin, and every state, has incorporated public education in its state constitution.
Also note that approximately 59% of students in private schools are on publicly funded school vouchers.
This chart includes school district populations of Fox Valley public schools as reported in September 2023. Enrollment numbers have now stabilized or are increasing in our area schools. Of the state’s 421 school districts, half have a total student population of less then1,000 kids. Only about 35 districts have more than 5,000 students. Appleton is the 6th largest in the state. Oshkosh is 11. (1-6: Milwaukee, Madison, Kenosha, Green Bay, Racine, Appleton)
In addition to district enrollment, here you can see the priority needs populations in each school district: Students of color, English learners, economically disadvantaged, and students with disabilities populations. RED in this table indicates the highest population level of each demographic. Notice especially the column on the right. Later in this presentation you will see how this impacts overall budgeting.
*A word of caution about the obsession with test scores. Standardized tests are merely a snapshot in time of one student in a limited number of academic areas. They are an important tool in assessing the individual child’s educational progress in those areas. But, it is important to remember that criteria used in standardized tests have changed over time and differ in every state. For example, in 2012, 80% of Wisconsin public school students were considered proficient or advanced in reading and math. That same year, using new criteria, less than 50% were considered proficient or advanced. In addition, using average test scores to compare schools can be problematic. Keep in mind that public schools educate all students of all abilities, even those who bring down the school’s average test score. Here you can see some of the many ways student success can be defined in addition to standardized tests.
Fox Cities Advocates for Public Education supported school districts all around the state who advocated for three budget priorities for the 2023-25 Budget: Overall Revenue, Special Education, and Mental Health. The GREEN bar indicates the NEED. The RED bar is how the budget met that need. We will explain each of these areas of need. Jim is up next to explain how Revenue was impacted in the budget.
NOW WHAT? There are ACTIONS TO TAKE NOW
There are monetary and non-monetary actions our legislators can take NOW to help our kids thrive in schools.
MONETARY: Revenue limit adjustments, fund Special Education at 60%, increase mental health funding.
NON-MONETARY: Improve transparency and accountability in private schools.
The bulk of state aid to schools is constrained by a revenue limit or revenue cap. This aid flows from an equalization formula that seeks to equalize educational opportunity by sending more aid to poorer districts. This aid is also called "state general aid".
The state also provides other funding that isn't constrained. Per pupil aid reflects a felt need to fund schools equally. Categorical aid enables the state to fund specific needs like transportation. Communities who seek more support can exceed their revenue limit through referenda.
Your school district might, for example, have a revenue limit of $11,000 per pupil. If state equalization aid was $6,000, then the property tax would come to about $5,000 per student.
The 2023-25 Biennial Budget allowed the low revenue caps to increase to $11,000 per student. You can see the progress here as you compare the map on the left with the one on the right.
Many of the Fox Valley schools moved from approximately $10,000 per student to $11,000 per student. This is still about $1000/student below the state average.
The different size circles represent the varying revenue limits around the state. Basically, the value of a student varies depending on where you live. The current budget increased the low revenue limit authority for most districts to $11,000. Unfortunately, those districts that had a failed operational referendum in the last 3 years could not take the increase and may still be around $10,325. (A bipartisan bill was introduced to fix this but it seems to have stagnated.) Some districts are way above the estimated state average of $12,500. We are waiting for exact data to be released on revenue
Now we turn to issues facing schools and inflation is a major one. Because 75% of district operating revenue goes to staff salaries and benefits, educators and other staff expect their salary increases to at least keep pace with inflation. If not, they consider leaving the district or the profession of education.
Unfortunately, increases in school revenue have lost pace to inflation since 2009.
The above slide explains the erosion of school funding and its shortfall relative to inflation. When control of the legislature and governor's office shifts from one political party to the other, the method of increasing funding shifts from the equalization formula (green and red here, which gives more per student to poor districts) to per pupil (grey here, which equalizes funding per student.)
In the last two years, no increases were granted in either the revenue limit or per pupil funding. A practical and effective way to solve this problem of underfunding is to index the revenue limit for inflation. That way, districts won't fall behind.
$3,380 behind LFB DOCUMENT
The legislature has learned how to disguise property tax reduction as school funding. In the current year, $1.35 billion will be spent to reduce local property taxes while labeled as school aid.
Legislators can claim that they spent more on education and simultaneous reduced taxes - we call those claims a shell game.
The revenue limit can lead to manipulation of funding. Increasing general aid while freezing the revenue limit diverts the money to property tax reduction. Legislators can claim that they spent more on education and simultaneously reduced taxes - but it isn't so.
Because of federal ESSER funding provided during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wisconsin legislature severely limited state aid to schools in the 2021-23 budget, That budget created a fiscal cliff that districts are now trying to navigate. There isn't enough state aid to retain talented staff. District with a fund balance (savings) are now depleting it.
"The grants, known in education circles as ESSER I, ESSER II and ESSER III, were intended for a host of uses, but generally were supposed to help schools plan provide virtual learning to their students, safely reopen their schools and deal with the learning loss that came as a result of the disruption."
Because state aid is appropriated to school districts on a per pupil formula, enrollment is a major determinant of school funding. When enrollment declines, state aid also declines. So, when a classroom loses a student, for whatever reason, the costs of instruction, administration, school specialists, student transportation, facility maintenance and food service remain unchanged. Even though state aid to the district is reduced by thousands, the only real reduction in costs to the district is the price of a textbook.
91 referenda with over $1.5B is on the ballot for the Spring 2024 election.
From the FCA4PE area, Freedom, Seymour and Shiocton have referenda coming to voters.
Seymour’s is an operational referendum that lands after a reduction in staff the prior year by almost 1/3, much of which was through attrition.
Shiocton’s referendum is for $43M in two parts; a new capital projects bundle of $35.8M “new gym, new centers for technical education, fine arts and childcare and replace the playground equipment” and $7.4M non-recurring operational referendum. “The district is going to referendum again because of "growing needs of students and rising costs of goods and services," the district said. If this year's referendum doesn't pass, the district will be faced with reducing programs and classes and increasing class sizes to balance the budget.”
Freedom’s referendum is $62.5M to “address the district’s most pressing needs at the middle-high school and create space at the elementary by moving 5th grade.”
Fox Cities citizens want to fund their public schools and vote to do so consistently. We need to send this message to our legislators so they will step up and do the same.
When we force citizens to fund at local levels, we shift greater financial burdens onto them. We have the means to fund more from our state level without even raising taxes.
In 1980, WI funded 66% of special needs programming in public schools, in 2021-23, 30%. The 2023-25 had only a meager 3% increase, it's 33%. Meanwhile, our state funds 90% in private schools. Public schools must also pay for and provide transportation to private schools.
Public schools have also been known assist special needs programming in private schools. This is grossly inequitable.
This chart superimposes a long history of special education funding costs vs reimbursements and the green bars represent recent years.
Special needs programming is mandated, meaning that the school districts MUST provide the services. This means, school districts across WI have to take funds from (what typically amounts to 10% of) their general funds to cover the unfunded costs. ALL kids and programming suffers when this happens. Across WI, this amounts to over a billion $ deficit. A blue ribbon expert called WI WORST IN NATION because of this.
Sad statistics. Mental health has been a problem and underfunded issue for WI long before the pandemic. But, the pandemic exacerbated needs.
Youth with poor mental health may struggle with school and grades, decision making, and their health. Mental health trauma and or problems in youth are also often associated with other health and behavioral risks. This lack of support for mental health drives teachers to supplement as coaches, and as you can imagine, this has been an incredible challenge for teachers that's been driven upwards in the pandemic and current political climate. A challenge indeed as more time and effort is needed to create a culture of comfort for learning in classrooms.
On top of these funding gaps, priority needs are increasing while their funds are not. Underfunding these service-mandated populations negatively impacts ALL students. In conversations, ask for increased funding for two blue ribbon areas: SPECIAL EDUCATION & MENTAL HEALTH. Adequate funding for them would provide immense help to schools across the state.
Let’s also not forget the Teacher/Staff crisis that we’re in. Fund those needs of students adequately, and you will provide relief to many staff and teachers. Teachers are the backbones and miracle workers upon which our economy past, present, and future, depends on!
We all know this is real, and if we funded the needs of students and compensated teachers appropriately, we wouldn't have a teacher crisis. Teacher benefits and wages are not keeping up with like professions and degrees in industry.
Compensation also doesn't justify Masters degrees, so fewer teachers have them. Many of those that do are approaching retirement. These masters degree teachers are the CAPP and college credit instructors, social workers, nurses, special needs teachers, etc. upon which our families, workforce, and economy depend.
We know and have the solutions to create a high quality learning environment for kids. Fund the needs of ALL students, index salaries to inflation, provide incentives to retain and attract quality staff, and foster a culture of appreciation, respect, and joy.
Just to remind you, there are four types of voucher programs in WISCONSIN. For the combined voucher programs, (Wisconsin, Racine, Milwaukee, and Special Needs) every 100 kids on vouchers, there are now 60 more.
The various growth of voucher programs by type over time is outlined below.
The two that mostly affect our Fox Cities area are the Wisconsin Choice program and the Special needs voucher programs. Here are the breakouts by voucher type. For every 100 kids on the Wisconsin parent choice voucher, there are now over 600 more.
Non-monetary actions legislators can do now
All schools funded with public money need to be publicly transparent and accountable to Wisconsinites.
This includes a publicly elected local board of oversight, public assessment reports, public financials, certification, licensure, service for all students, opt-outs, and school-wide performance reports.
Thanks to our Statewide Network, the Wisconsin Public Education Network (WPEN), we have data tools that track education votes for YOU.
Do you have questions about public education? Reach out to your local Superintendent. Join our FCA4PE group. Follow our Facebook page and newsletter.
Our RESOURCE GUIDE is continually updated and has over 100 direct source links and details in an easy to follow format. Refresh your screen each time you open the document to ensure you have the most current version. Follow the table of contents to jump right into specific areas of interest. Reach out to us with questions. Also - please share our guide, tips, and this presentation with friends. We can only do this together.
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