Wis vouchers gain and community schools lose for 14 years. Time to reverse it

I see that Gov Evers is going to add at least some funding for K-12 public, community schools in the upcoming budget.

Evers used his partial veto authority in the 2023-25 budget to write into state law an annual increase of $325 per student over the next four centuries. The increase applies to the cap on how much schools can increase spending through a mix of state aid and property taxes. GOP lawmakers challenged Evers’ move with the state Supreme Court.

Vos, R-Rochester, suggested last month if the court upholds Evers’ veto, “schools are mostly off the table,” and GOP lawmakers will focus their attention on other areas of the 2025-27 state budget.

“Honest to God, that is a joke,” Evers told reporters on Friday as he previewed his coming budget and answered questions.

Evers added, “there’s going to be more” for schools when he introduces his budget next month.

This is where we need to take a step back and remember that there are 2 items that are key when we talk about “K-12 public school funding”.

The first is the total amount of state tax dollars that are given into K-12 education, which is mainly General Aid from the state (which is adjusted based on property values in a certain district, with districts with a lower property tax base getting more aid) and per-pupil aids, which are separate payments that are sometimes (but not often) OK’d by the State Legislature, and are based on student enrollment.

The second are revenue limits, which give a combined total of per-student General Aids and property taxes that are allowed for each district, with the revenue limits not accounting for funds paid for by categorical aids such as funds to deal with high poverty or special education (although special ed is horribly underfunded in Wisconsin with most of its costs being used by funds that are part of the revenue limit).

The revenue limit is what Evers’ creative veto was about, putting in a $325-per-student increase in K-12 public school resources for every year until the law is changed. That was a rare increase in the per-student revenue limit over the 14 years that the GOP had a gerrymandered majority in the Legislature, and even that $325 per student is not likely to keep up with the rate of inflation in the coming years.

To show how far in the hole K-12 community schools are, let's take the state’s average per-student revenue limit of $10,316 for school year 2010-11, and look at how the base revenue limit would have changed under state law for a K-12 district that was at that average level. Then let's look at what's happened to inflation over the same time period, and I’ll assume a 2.5% annual inflation rate for both 2024 and 2025.

You wonder why so many K-12 districts have ended up having to raise property taxes via referendum under the GOP Legislature? And do you see why we are in need of a sizable increase in state spending to not only increase those sub-standard revenue limits, but also to give some relief to homeowners by not having so much of K-12's costs be put onto the property tax? Also, do you see how the per-student spending limit made a jump in 2024 and then plateaued? That’s not because of Gov Evers’ veto that er-student increases, but is instead because of a GOP-authored provision to increase the revenue limits for the districts with the lowest limits in the state. Yet another reason that it’s been near-impossible to avoid going to referendum to keep the lights on.

Also, do you see how the per-student spending limit made a jump in 2024 and then plateaued? That’s not because of Gov Evers’ veto that the $325-per-student increases, but is instead because of a GOP-authored provision to increase the revenue limits for the districts with the lowest limits in the state. If going under the GOP's revenue limits make an average spending district in 2011 into an unacceptably low-limit district by 2023, you have yet another reason that it’s been near-impossible to avoid going to referendum to keep the lights on.

Now compare the near-zero increase in revenue limits with what's happened to the per-pupil payment in state tax dollars that have gone to voucher schools over the same time period.

The increases for voucher payments were already near or above inflation before 2023, but then the GOP Legislature used budget negotiations to work out an agreement with Gov Evers that traded a relatively small increase in funding for public schools for a huge jump in voucher payments to private schools.

It's pretty clear that gerrymandered GOP control of the State Legislature has corresponded with K-12 community schools having funds and resources taken from them and moved into school vouchers at a sickening level. And I'm not even bringing up how vouchers outside of Milwaukee are funded by literally taking money away from the public school district that the child lives in, even if the kid never attended a day of public school in that district. And that the public school districts are often forced to raise property taxes to make up for those funds being sent out to voucher schools.

Seems like Governor Evers and Legislative Dems could put together a budget that does all of the following:

1. Significantly raises state aids and revenue limits for K-12 community schools to make up some of the significant gap with inflation since 2011. And do it in a way that also cuts property taxes for K-12 schools.

2. Stops increasing payments to voucher schools. I can wish for a decrease back toward parity with state aids to public schools, but at the very least, tell the voucher lobby "You got a big boost in 2023, so you get nothing for the next 2 years." And dare Robbin' Vos and company to defend putting any additional money going in.

3. Remove the funding flaw that takes money from public school districts and sends it into voucher schools. You want 2 tax-funded school systems? Then pay the full costs of both instead of penalizing one for the other.

When you look at the numbers involved and the fact that we will likely have at least $4 billion available to use in this upcoming state budget, there is no reason not to be able to demand these things, and see just how far Robbin' Vos and Devin LeMahieu want to go to keep Betsy DeVos and other oligarch donors happy. Let's see if Gov Evers and a less-gerrymandered Legislature makes a public effort to make it damaging if they try to pass up the chance to cut both property taxes and income taxes because they'd rather keep up Wisconsin's expensive voucher scam instead.