Like a cop panhandling to put gas in a squad car

WAUPACA – A group of 12 school superintendents joined together to write a letter to Governor Tony Evers and the Joint Committee on Finance to urge them to reconsider the school funding model that has been hurting small school districts throughout the state.
Mark Flaten, the Waupaca school district administrator, as well as the district administrators from Almond-Bancroft, Manawa, Clintonville, Marion, Iola-Scandinavia, New London, Tri-County, Tomorrow River, Wautoma, Westfield and Wild Rose joined in the effort to write letter.
The need for operational referendums, where money is spent on day-to-day costs like salaries and utilities, has increased the last few years with more and more districts going to referendum on ballots, including both Waupaca and Iola-Scandinavia having operational referendums in the upcoming spring elections.
“To put it bluntly, asking a school leader to spend this much time on ‘funding advocacy’ is like asking a police officer to spend their shift fundraising to put gas into their squad car,” Flaten said.
The letter highlighted four areas that are creating the shortfalls. They include special education reimbursement rates, private school vouchers, revenue limit adjustments and rural-specific funding needs.

Currently, the state funds 35 percent of special education costs with school districts funding the additional 65 percent using a general fund, which then limits money that can be spent on things like literacy programs, STEM labs and co-curricular activities.
The superintendents are asking the state to adjust the reimbursement to 60 percent.
The letter states: “Fully funding special education is not a ‘niche’ issue; it is a budget-stabilization necessity for every district in the state.”
The private school voucher program was also highlighted in the letter stating: “While we understand that the decision many parents make to send their children to a private school is based on a variety of factors, our requests are not about changing the private school systems, but rather increasing the level of transparency involved/required to fund two separate educational systems.”
The transparency they are seeking is to clearly state on tax bills the money the amount of money that is going to the private schools and the amount going to public schools.
The letter also talks about how private and public schools do not operate under the same regulations, including regulations with licensing staff as well as policy regarding the acceptance of students, calling for the adjustment of how voucher funds are allocated and it would give taxpayers a better view of how their money is being used.
The letter notes that since the state implemented revenue limits in 1993, inflationary adjustments have been inconsistent and has resulted in a “referendum-to-survive” model with almost 50 percent of the districts in the state going to operational referendum during the 2024-2025 school year.
The letter states: “This ‘referendum-to-survive’ model is unsustainable. It forces staff into an emotional rollercoaster regarding job security and diverts administrative time away from our primary mission: educating students.”
The group also highlighted that rural districts have different challenges then larger districts, namely in the how students are geographically dispersed and in the class sizes, being that rural districts have smaller class sizes means instructional costs increase.
The superintendents have recommended the immediate formation of a task force, consisting of school administrators, elected officials, and business leaders—to analyze successful funding models from other states and identify why school spending varies so widely across Wisconsin.