A Resource GUIDE from Fox Cities Advocates for Public Education (FCA4PE) - About school funding, value, challenges, and solutions. 2023-25*

DPI preK-12 School funding is complex and we hope to simplify it and bring clarity for a number of different potential audiences: citizens, candidates, legislators, media, organizations, and the general public. Our goal is to help get the truth out about Wisconsin public education and its funding.

We will share with you the many circumstances and challenges facing public education, so that you will be armed with the most objective, fair, and balanced information. Wisconsin continues to do well in education despite these challenges, but continued shortfalls as such will leave our future uncertain.

The presentation contains statewide and Fox Cities data for the twelve school districts we consider part of our tree, unless otherwise specified on a graphic. We don’t plan to present details- but rather a birds eye view with directions on how you can best utilize these resources. We tried to use unbiased and primary sources whereever possible.

The Resource Guide is live and is a continually evolving document. By linking in, now or at anytime in the future, you will be positioned to see all document changes as they happen. Refresh your browser upon open for the most current view.

You’ll find over a 100 direct source links in this document - and for this, we would like to thank all of you, our local and state journalists, and organizations who have worked so hard to get public education truths out to our public. This resource guide serves as a directory of these efforts.

The Resource Guide is divided into 7 sections. Underneath the graphics, you will find over 100 source links. You may use all, or any portion of this document, as often as you like. Should you want a copy of any specific graphic, please let us know. Because the link is live, each time you open the Guide, refresh your browser for the most current view.

On this OVERVIEW slide you can click on the links to bring you directly to a specific section. There are also RETURN TO OVERVIEW buttons at the end of each section to bring you back to this slide.

OVERVIEW

• FCA4PE - WHO WE ARE
• THE VALUE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
• HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS
• FUNDING BASICS AND CHALLENGES
• Basic Funding Info (Includes: Basic funding formula, Sources of school revenue, and Revenue limits)
• Impacts of INFLATION
• NATION
• REFERENDA
• Funding in name only
• ESSER & LOOMING FISCAL CLIFF
• ENROLLMENT
• PRIVATE SCHOOL VOUCHERS
• FUNDING CONCLUSIONS
• PRIORITY NEEDS
• NEXT STEPS

And now, the RESOURCE GUIDE

BUDGET SUMMARY - Here is a summary of the 2021-23 budget as prepared by the State Treasurer’s Office. A similar graphic is not yet available for the 2023-25 budget. But we know several things. The Education portion as a share of the budget has been decreasing. Also, only half of the education budget is for K-12 education; about $16B over the 2-year budget. (This includes funding for private schools.)

The rest is for higher ed and specialized agencies. As you will see later in the presentation, not all of these “education funds” are spendable on education.

State aid decreased from 38.1% of GPR in 2011 to 33% in 2023-25.

Every child in every public school deserves an excellent education.” This is the guiding principle of our Resource Guide. Approximately 85% of Wisconsin’s children are educated in our public schools. The thousands in your district are counting on you.

FCA4PE - WHO WE ARE

Who we are: Fox Cities Advocates for Public Education is a non-partisan, issue-oriented advocacy group that focuses on Wisconsin’s promise of a quality public education for every child. “Public Education” means education that is publicly financed, transparent and accountable to the public as well as accessible to all students. We have done this work for about 10 years by educating the public, presenting to candidates, connecting with media, and meeting with legislators. Follow our Facebook page and check out our website, where you can sign up for ‘educateAll’, our monthly newsletter.

THE VALUE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION

Wisconsin has a long history of excellence in public education. Wisconsin continues to have a great story to tell. Here you can see that Wisconsin’s public schools have consistently received high ratings nationally.

COLLEGE READINESS

Wisconsin is one of a handful of states that requires all students to take the ACT. Wisconsin ranks one of the highest in this group of states. States vary in the percent tested. East-coast states achieve higher scores but they test a much smaller segment of the student body.

MORE WISCONSIN RANKINGS

How do you measure success in schools? A word of caution about test scores. Standardized tests are merely a snapshot in time. They are an important tool in assessing the individual child’s educational progress and goals. 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 year, using new criteria, less than 50% were considered proficient or advanced. In addition, using average test scores to compare schools can be problematic, and ACT itself cautions against doing so. 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.

Last school year alone, over 62,000 students in our public high schools earned college credits, saving their families over $40 million. Keeping qualified teachers with Master's Degrees needs to be a priority to ensure this continues.

The Wisconsin Policy Forum also found that 91 percent of projected job openings with a median salary of $75,000 or more require a bachelor’s or advanced degree.

“We've known for years that the jobs of the 21st century and the future require more, not less, in terms of education and technical skills of workers. And it's hard to see how we can continue to lead in that economy as a nation when fewer and fewer students are going to college." - Doug Shapiro, executive director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

We know that workforce challenges in Wisconsin are intense. Therefore, Career & Technical Education programs in our public high schools are an important asset to our state’s economy. And, there are many.

Wisconsin public schools offer career & technical education opportunities to better prepare today’s youth for career and/college upon graduation. FCA4PE districts fall within New North Regional Pathways, and they include seven different vocations that you can see by this graphic. For more information, click on the button that follows it.

Many public high schools develop public-private partnerships with area businesses. More than 3,000 students in our area have participated in various apprenticeship programs.

Excellent public schools are a strong talent draw for local corporations and communities. High quality public schools provide innovation and solutions.

Arts education and experiences are alive and well in the Fox Valley. The Fine Arts improve the quality of life for students and communities. Arts are essential for thriving communities and attracting young professionals and families to them.

For 2 centuries, public schools have been the main institution in American society responsible for transmitting a common American culture. Public schools continue to be the chief institution that brings together kids and families of all backgrounds. Today, the mission of promoting cultural unity is more crucial than ever.

HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS

HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS: There were many important events throughout Wisconsin’s history that have shaped public education. The two dates highlighted in blue are especially important.

First, the year 1848 is when Wisconsin became a state. Because the missions of public education are greater than individual economic benefits, every state has incorporated public education into its state constitution. Wisconsin’s Constitution states: “The legislature shall provide by law for the establishment of district schools, which shall be as nearly uniform as practicable; …”.

The second date, 1993, was when the legislature first established Revenue Limits, the amount a district is allowed to spend per student. The Revenue Limit can only be adjusted by legislative action. Whatever a district spent in 1993 varied greatly throughout Wisconsin and that disparity continues today. There is some funding that is outside the Revenue Limit, but basically a District’s revenue limit is their spending cap per student.

This list of topics may look overwhelming, but we will cover them in a simple sequence. We begin with a review of the elements of school revenue and then raise issues that Wisconsin school districts face now and in the future.

BASIC FUNDING

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.

On the right is data for the seven districts in the Fox Cities. A significant amount of school revenue comes from the state. It’s called general aid and is determined by an equalization formula. The next largest component is property taxes. Categorical aid funds specific categories like student transportation. Federal aid helps and local districts raise funds through, for example student fees.

INFLATION

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 two slides explain 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.

Increasingly, communities see referenda as corrective action for state aid that does not enable them to stay pace with inflation. Taxpayers in communities that support their schools have been willing to pick up the tab. 2020 and 2022 were record years for referenda passed. $1.5B in referenda is on the ballot this Spring (2024).

School districts in communities that are unable to pass referenda are in very serious financial straits.

This graphic displays referenda that passed in blue and those that failed in red. It also separates debt referenda from operating referenda. School boards commonly fund new construction with a debt referendum. Now, they are turning to operating referendum in order to fund staff needs. It’s not an easy decision for a Board because they know that residents will ask why state aid is inadequate.

Of the state’s 421 school districts, 18% (76) have taken the difficult path of getting voter approval for operating funds outside the revenue limit. This Operating referenda are difficult to pass since residents are asked to accept a funding commitment that’s indefinite. They are living on the edge. And they are doing it because of the position that the state has put them in over the past 15 to 30 years.

Here you see the signs of success and failure. The blue and white pie charts show the voting, for and against. Red Xs mark the failures. Two (two questions each) referenda in Freedom, for example, failed in 2017 and again in 2019. One proposal in Hortonville passed while another failed. Neenah failed in its first referendum for a new middle school in 2019 before succeeding a year later with a larger scope, a new high school an expanded and updated 5-8 school, and other updates across its elementary schools.

Freedom’s referendum was on the ballot this spring with a Debt referendum for April 2024 - $62.5M.

“Be it resolved by the School Board of the Freedom Area School District, Outagamie County, Wisconsin that there shall be issued pursuant to Chapter 67 of the Wisconsin Statutes, general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $62,500,000 for the public purpose of paying the cost of a school building and facility improvement project consisting of: construction of additions and/or renovations at the Middle-High School, including for technical education, music education, classrooms/labs, safety improvements, a cafeteria/kitchen and a fitness center; construction of a greenhouse for agriculture education; district-wide capital maintenance and site improvements; and acquisition of furnishing, and equipment.”

“Seymour Community Schools is proposing a three-year operational referendum that would allow the district to access property tax money beyond the revenue limit: $3.8 million for the 2024-25 school year, $5.2 million for 2025-26, and $6 million for 2026-27.”

“If the referendum passes, the additional money would help the school meet its operational budget without increasing tax rates. The reason the district can do this is because property values in the district have gone up, and the district has restructured and paid off some of its debt early.”

“Currently, the tax rate in the district is $8.16 per $1,000 of property tax value. Regardless of whether the referendum passes or fails, Bohn said the tax rate will remain the same. Either the school gets the money requested in the referendum, or the district would over-levy in order to keep paying off its debt, beyond what they owe on premiums and interest….Bohn said the district had already slashed its budget by almost a third from the past year, mostly by not replacing teachers that left due to resignations or retirement. She said there isn't much room left for further cuts. The district's enrollment has been declining — from 2,435 students a decade ago to about 1,800 this year — and with it, the amount of state aid the school receives, because aid is allocated on a per student basis. On top of that, the district's revenue limit hasn't kept pace with inflation.”

Voters in the Shiocton School District approved a $7.4 million operational referendum last month — but rejected a measure seeking $35.8 million for school building upgrades, leaving district officials considering their next steps.

The capital referendum, which failed on a 789-601 vote, would have upgraded the building infrastructure, especially the plumbing and electrical systems, and added new facilities like a second gym, new centers for technical education, fine arts and childcare and replace the playground equipment.

In the meantime, Schweitzer said, the capital referendum failure means the school building will continue to have physical, electrical and mechanical limitations that will "impact student learning and teacher instruction….The needs don't go away after the polls close," she added.

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.

ESSER

We haven’t talked about alternatives to the public schools that consume taxpayer funding. Although the vast majority of children attend public schools, other alternatives exist including private schools and independent charter schools with tuition paid through taxpayer-funded vouchers.

Fifty nine percent of private school students are now funded through taxpayer-paid vouchers.

The Fox Cities has more relatively large school districts than the rest of the state. Of the state’s 421 school districts, half have a total student population of less then 1,000 kids. Only about 35 districts have more than 5,000 students. We have four of them.

Schools in Wisconsin can be grouped into four categories. You are familiar with public schools. Many of those districts operate charter schools referred to here as district charters. They are authorized by and operated by a school district. Independent charter schools are authorized and operated by some other body that is not directly accountable to taxpayers. Schools traditional considered private now accept public funding via vouchers.

There are four types of voucher programs in WISCONSIN. The counts of these combined voucher programs are outlined here (Wisconsin, Racine, Milwaukee, and Special Needs). For every 100 kids on vouchers, there are now 60 more in the combined program relative to the 2016-17 year.

The breakdowns of the various types of voucher program growths over time is reflected below.

This detailed chart displays comparisons between the four school types. Note that, although all four receive public funding, only independent charters and private vouchers are not held accountable by an elected school board.

This table compares public schools with private schools who receive vouchers. Again, a major issue is accountability.

Here is an example of the first page of an extensive district-wide school performance report on Neenah High School vs an empty school performance report from a private school; latter of who only reports demographics. If we are going to fund private voucher schools in the interest of parent choice and Wisconsinites, we must demand full public school-wide reporting so that parents can make educated choices and community members can see their return on investment.

President Reagan, “Church and State are and must remain Separate:”

With incredible legislative requirements on public schools including oversight, programming, assessments, licensure, certification, and mandatory acceptance and service for ALL students, how can we now justify paying over $1,400 more PER STUDENT in the Fox Valley for private high schools (that have none of these) than public ones?

Our public deserves transparency to see how their money is spent on both public and private schools.

Want to see how much your local public school district is losing to vouchers? The Wisconsin Public Education Network (WPEN) tool makes it easy. Click on the button below for a district to see the voucher payment breakdowns.

One initiative to improve accountability has been to itemize the voucher charge on property tax bills received by residents. This bill is stalled in the legislature. Milwaukee and Racine distribute explanatory inserts with tax bills.

Below, is information from the Appleton Area School District that outlines the money that is redirected from public schools to private ones in their area via vouchers.

The costs of vouchers are mounting. 2022-23 private voucher payouts for the same Fox Cities schools amounted to just over $18M. The 2023-25 cost is $28M.

Here is an example of the harm unaccountable voucher schools harm students. Look at the test scores for yourself via the button below:

“Current law imposes a limit on the number of pupils from a given school district that can enroll in a private school under the PCP and WPCP, expressed as a percent of the district's membership. The limit started at one percent in 2016-17 and increases by one percentage point each year, to ten percent in the 2025-26 school year. Beginning in 2026-27 there will be no limit on the number of pupils to those who qualify within the income cap who can receive a voucher under the PCP and WPCP.”

As you have heard, public schools have their challenges: a. Adequate and predictable funding; b. The disparity in revenue limits; c. The looming fiscal cliff; d. Explaining taxes and educational spending in a transparent way; e. Ensuring accountability for all schools receiving public funding.

V. PRIORITY NEEDS

We’ve presented funding challenges for school districts, there are problematic areas for schools with rising costs that make limited budgets even more precarious. We present them here today as PRIORITY NEEDS.

These are the needs covered by the bipartisan Republican Blue Ribbon Commission via their recommendations, and we addressed them all with every local legislator. We spoke up at Joint Finance Hearings. We wrote our local legislators, and we wrote to members of the Joint Finance Committee.

Yet, none of these needs came close to being met in the 2023-25 budget.

This slide offers information regarding your school districts enrollment, students of color, English learners, economically disadvantaged, and students with disabilities populations. You will most likely want to come back to this slide later to review it in greater detail. This is a very helpful slide that speaks to the priority needs populations in your school districts. Red in this table indicates the highest population level of each demographic.

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 map via the button below shows the amount of Unfunded special education per pupil costs in Wisconsin school districts after accounting for state and federal funding. Hovering over a district displays demographic and special education funding information

This tree graphic shows the amount of underfunded special ed reimbursement levels in the Fox cities school districts in the 2019-21 biennial budget. An increase of 3% to 33% did not cover inflationary increases.

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 budgets to cover the unfunded costs. ALL kids and programming suffers when this happens. Across WI, this amounts to a billion $ deficit. A blue ribbon expert called WI WORST IN NATION because of this.

Our world has become increasingly global, and WI is no exception with more than 53,000 English Learners. Enrolling districts must provide English Learners with instruction in English to help students acquire English. They also must use the student’s native language in instruction to develop academic proficiency and literacy. With over 137 different languages spoken in our schools, you can imagine what a challenge the latter must be!

Special classes are required by law to English Learner pupils at schools that enroll 10 or more EL pupils in a language group in grades K-3, or 20 or more in grades 4-8 or 9-12. This adds to the complexity of running underfunded and mandated programming.

Educational outcomes are one of the key areas influenced by family incomes. Children from low-income families often start school already behind their peers who come from more affluent families, as shown in measures of school readiness. The support at home -whether there’s stability, clean clothing and toiletries, an accessible guardian for coaching, food on the table, a good night’s rest, a support network- all impact a child’s ability to perform in school. Lack of these elements creates more challenges for teachers and staff to reach and engage learners.

A concerning digression. Further, almost 37 percent of students from low income households were chronically absent compared to 12.6 percent of students who aren’t economically disadvantaged.” See button below for more:

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.

WI is ranked 33rd in the Nation for its early childhood programming based on the number of students enrolled. In Wisconsin schools, when a child attends a full-time 4K program, the district only receives funding for 0.6 of that full-time student. We feel a full-time student should be funded as a full-time student.

A fully-funded 4K program would provide stability and a network of resources for students, teachers, and parents.

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 as outlined earlier in this presentation.

Pretty sad when UW-Madison has to offer full tuition reimbursement to lure students into teachers degrees and get them to commit to stay in the profession for 3-5 years. But that’s where we are. If teachers are compensated, supported, and respected appropriately, we could turn this around. Another professional development challenge of the pandemic is that with sub shortages, teachers have had little opportunity to take classes/learn more in order to help kids in their classrooms better. (i.e. a writing class). Teachers are having to give up their prep times in order to sit in for other teachers, because of under-staffing. This adds to teacher and staff stress.

School safety is high on the radar for everyone. It comes with a lot of costs. New construction code requires the ability to lock down sections in schools in case of active shooters. Schools are upgrading security and entrances to buildings and all of this comes with significant costs. The Neenah Joint School district funded many upgrades through a mix of grants and referendum. Not all schools across Wisconsin are receiving grants.

TOGETHER, WE CAN CREATE HIGH QUALITY LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS FOR KIDS

It has been 16 years since public schools have received an annual increase that met inflation. The 2023-25 budget made some progress. The increase of $1000 per student to the low revenue limit was desperately needed. This helped our Fox Cities schools but they still remain about $1,500 below the state average. Many challenges still remain and are growing. Funding schools via local referendum only creates more haves and have nots, not to mention puts more burdens on local property tax payers.

The GOOD NEWS is that another biennial budget season planning is underway. There are critical ways that you can help as this process develops. We at FCA4PE put together a budget planning guide that you can use to help navigate through this process over the coming months.

FIRSTLY, DPI has launched their initial budget recommendations. Here are some highlights:

Here you can see some of the highlights from DPI’s preliminary announcement this November. Again, making the top 10 are: Revenue Limits, Special Education, and Mental Health.

The increase in the Special Education reimbursement rate will benefit all students since districts will not have to cover mandated services from their general fund.

Mental health is an ever-increasing problem and the proposed additional funding is so needed.

Increasing the low revenue limit must be a priority. Our Fox Cities districts are about $1500 per pupil below the state average.

The DPI proposed budget totals about $4B.

Keep in mind that the state is expected to have a surplus of over $3B in June at the end of this biennial budget. So, yes, we can afford it. Also note that the total of all the school referendums in 2024 was over $4B, some of which would not have been needed if schools had been adequately funded over the years.

Because of the threats to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, it is extremely important that we fortify Wisconsin's support for public education. There are many unanswered questions.

Will our schools continue to receive federal funding, which covers 8-10% of their budgets? What will happen to programs like Title 1, Title 9, IDEA, and government grants?

Will there be any enforcement for sex discrimination? What will happen to protections for students with disabilities? State elected officials need to feel the pressure to come through for our kids, especially with this budget.

Our U.S. Senators and Members of Congress also need to hear our concerns. It is up to us to get the message across!

The process for the 2025-27 Budget has begun. We challenge you to get loud, starting now. We all depend on quality public education, whether we have kids in school or not. We all want to live in a civic-minded community with great amenities and services.

To summarize, the challenges facing our public schools are many and complex. The good news is Wisconsin currently has an estimated $3.25 billion dollar surplus and a plan.

Public education is the cornerstone of our economy, our democracy, and our society. As Thomas Jefferson said: “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” It takes commitment and resources to continue Wisconsin’s long tradition of excellent public schools. That's on all of us.

The 2019 report of the bipartisan Blue-Ribbon Commission continues to remain a good resource for solutions. The report is linked below and the Commission members are listed on as the next slide.

These are the legislators who served on the bipartisan Blue-Ribbon Commission. The Blue Ribbon Commission Committee was a bipartisan group. Let’s work together NOW in bi-partisanship spirit and effort to create innovate and forward-thinking youth for our great state to thrive!

Each school district is unique in its funding situation and challenges. Please contact your local school district superintendents to learn about their priorities.

Follow our Facebook page, like and share our posts. Check out the FCA4PE website and Facebook page. Sign up for EducateAll. And, please reach out with any questions or suggestions.

Again, thank you for taking the time to meet with us. We hope you find this resource guide helpful. There is a lot of work to do, but together we can make a difference and keep Wisconsin’s public education strong and proud.

And, please reach out with any questions or suggestions.