Slicing the statewide school-funding pie

WAUPACA – With the April elections looming the Waupaca School District is working hard to educate the community on the operational referendum and what it will be used for.
There are multiple districts going to referendum this year, including Iola-Scandinavia and Clintonville, as school districts continue to brace for future funding woes.
The educational-funding algorithm has changed throughout the last ten years in the state, with fewer and fewer dollars being allocated to school districts while the rising costs of inflation are driving up the cost to educate a child.
According to research by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the cost to raise a child today is $414,000, while in 2000 it was $165,630.
Mark Flaten, Waupaca’s District Administrator, said if inflation goes up three percent and the state doesn’t account for that then school districts need to find the extra funding.

Austin Moore, business director for the district, said for the 2024/2025 school year the state budget funded education 50/50, with 50 percent coming from the state and 50 percent coming from local taxes.
This year it was decided at the state level that 57 percent would come from local taxes, while only 43 percent would come from state aid.
The decrease in state aid has led to an increase of districts going to referendum, with 170 referendums passing in 2024 and an additional 72 districts going to referendum for the spring election, this is out of 421 total school districts in the state.
Another aspect that is impacting districts funding is the funding of the school voucher system, where money is allocated away from public school and goes to a private school.
Flaten said about 10 percent of local tax dollars is given to private schools.
When a family decides to send their child to an alternate public school or private school the money allocated to educate that child would go along with them.
For the 2025-2026 school year that amounted to $1.55 million dollars, which is also the amount of the shortfall reported last fall by the school district.
This led to an increase in the mill rate to $5.35, which is still one of the lowest in the surrounding area.
The operational referendum, if voted to enact, would be $2.75 million each year for two years, which is uncommon as most districts will ask for operational referendums over a longer period of time, some up to five years.
“Our whole purpose for that is to say there are a lot of unknowns at the state and federal level and we’re relatively new in our positions,” Flaten said. “So we’re trying to build some trust up with the community.”
Flaten said school funding is like a pie with 421 pieces, the number of districts in the state, when you cut a piece of the pie larger for one district other slices are going to be smaller.
An operational referendum covers day-to-day costs like salaries and utilities, to keep the busses running.
Without the referendum, Flaten said, cuts will have to be made, although what kind of cuts would need to be evaluated within the district.
A slide show presentation can be found on the Waupaca School District website at www.waupaca.k12.wi.us.
The site also has a list of information sessions for the community to attend to ask questions and learn more about the referendum.
The next information session will be Feb. 16 at 5:30 p.m. at the Waupaca High School and at 6 p.m. at Lind Town Hall, there is also a session Feb. 17 at Dayton Town Hall at 6 p.m.