There were over 70 school referendum questions on ballots across Wisconsin Tuesday, and according to preliminary results, about 62% passed and 38% failed.

The results determine whether school districts can keep up with costs, will need to make difficult decisions about cuts or even put themselves on a path to consolidation or dissolution. April ballot measures are just the latest round of school funding requests as school districts continue to struggle under the state’s current funding system.

Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Superintendent Jill Underly said in a statement that the slate of referendum requests this spring is a “clear signal” that the state is falling short of providing every child in Wisconsin with a quality education. 

“Years of chronic underfunding from the state, combined with rising costs, have pushed too many districts into an unsustainable cycle, forcing communities to repeatedly turn to voters just to meet simple, basic needs like keeping schools staffed and the lights on,” Underly said. “This is unfair to students, educators, and taxpayers alike, and it is placing an increasing strain on communities across our state.”

Underly called on the state to reinvest in students and the state’s public schools to ensure districts can “deliver the high-quality education students deserve, without being forced to rely on repeated referendums to survive.”

School districts in Wisconsin go to referendum in order to exceed state-imposed revenue caps by getting approval from voters. The practice became a part of Wisconsin’s school funding equation in the 1990s when lawmakers put caps on school revenue as part of an effort to control local property taxes. School districts’ revenue limits used to be tied to inflation, but that ended in the 2009-11 state budget, instead leaving increases up to state lawmakers and the governor, who have not provided predictable increases budget to budget. 

As a result, school districts have increasingly gone to referendum to secure funding through local property tax increases.

There were 56 nonrecurring operational requests on the ballot in April, which are revenue limit increases with an end date. In addition, there were six recurring operational requests, which do not have an end date — totaling over $1 billion in requests.

Of the nonrecurring requests, 32 passed and 24 were rejected. Of the recurring requests, five were successful and only Sauk Prairie School District’s request was rejected. 

There were 12 capital funding requests this April. Nine passed, including Howard Suamico’s $147 million funding request, and three failed, including Whitefish Bay School District’s $135 million request. 

The passage rate is a slight increase from the last election year and comes as Wisconsinites have become more concerned about property taxes, according to recent polling. In the spring of 2024, there was a passage rate of 60.2% with 103 requests on ballots. A Wisconsin Policy Forum report notes that passage rates tend to be higher amid the higher voter turnout of presidential and midterm election years. 

Some districts’ results were decided by thin margins. Butternut School District’s $2 million nonrecurring referendum request passed by one vote. Lena School District’s $6 million nonrecurring request failed by 17 votes. The Hustisford School District sought a two-year nonrecurring referendum for $1.875 million each year. It failed by about 200 votes and now the district is looking at possibly dissolving. 

A third attempt for an operational referendum by Dodgeville School District, one of three districts the Examiner profiled before the election, was rejected in a 1,680 to 1,619 vote. 

District Administrator Ryan Bohnsack said in a Facebook post that the failed referendum is not the “end of the conversation.” He told the Examiner ahead of Election Day that the district was already looking at going to referendum in November if the April request was rejected, and the request then will likely be higher. 

“It is a continuation of our next steps together,” Bohnsack wrote. “The financial challenges we face remain, and we will need to continue working through them thoughtfully and responsibly. Our focus will be on developing a plan that prioritizes our students and our staff.” 

Bohnsack also encouraged community members to advocate at a statewide level as Dodgeville’s challenges aren’t unique. 

“I encourage you to stay in contact with our state legislators and continue to ask for clear communication, transparency and long-term solutions to how schools are funded in Wisconsin,” Bohnsack wrote.

In February, a group of Wisconsin teachers, parents, students and other stakeholders represented by progressive firm Law Forward and the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state’s largest teachers union, sued the state Legislature over the school funding formula in Eau Claire County Circuit. The lawsuit argues that the current system is unconstitutional because it does not meet the state’s constitutional obligation to provide educational opportunities to all students.

Voters rejected the $5.8 million four-year nonrecurring request by Necedah Area School District, one of the parties to the lawsuit, that was aimed at replacing the district’s last nonrecurring referendum which was first approved in April 2022 and was expiring. The request would have allowed the district to access $1.2 million in the first year, $1.4 million in the second year and $1.6 million in the third and fourth year.

Tanya Kotlowski, who has served as superintendent of the district for nine years, told the Examiner that the district has been “blessed” to pass two referendums in the past, but the recent result is “disheartening.” 

“To have this one fail after that kind of devotion we’ve tried to create, it’s hard, it’s heartbreaking, but I also am very aware of the burden that we’re placing on our taxpayers because of how schools are funded,” Kotlowski said. 

Kotlowski said the school board has not had a conversation about whether they will try again, but that cuts are likely.

“We do not have enough fund balance or enough savings to offset the costs that we’re going to have the next two years, so if, you know, if our board doesn’t have that, and we can’t run a deficit budget because we don’t have enough money in our savings account to run a deficit budget, it forces them to have to make decisions, so they will be in that position, for sure,” Kotlowski said. “Certainly we will have that conversation in April and beyond when we’re talking reductions and what the next game plan will be.”

Kotlowski said her district’s previous referendum was helping cover the full costs of special education, which are federally mandated services. The state currently picks up a little over a third of special education costs for public schools, despite promises during the state budget cycle to cover 42% this school year.

Even with the referendum, Kotlowski said her district will need to pull some money from savings to balance the budget. Now that the referendum has failed, the district will be looking at cuts, including to staff and programming. 

“We’re going to come up with as much as we can,” Kotlowski said. “If we came up with $1.4 million in one year of reductions, it would be pretty devastating, so we will come up with what we can. We’ve had conversations already today… I can say with certainty, everybody’s going to be impacted in our community.”

Kotlowski said the referendum result and the school district’s circumstances are one example of why the state’s funding formula is unsustainable and why the lawsuit is needed. 

“We’re really trying to figure out a path to financial stability, where we can anticipate and plan and predict adequate funding for the needs that we have of children within our school district,” Kotlowski said.

Wisconsin has fallen to 26th in the nation in per pupil K-12 education spending and is spending 10% below the national average, according to 2023 census data. In 2002, the state was ranked 11th and spent 11% above the national average.

“For our Necedah School District, when you look at our revenue limit, which is the authorized revenue we can bring in annually based on state law, when you look at the percentage our local taxpayers pick up and what percentage the state picks up, we have a significant gap. Our taxpayers are picking up almost 80% and the state’s picking up 20[%],” Kotlowski said. “Is it a state responsibility or local taxpayer responsibility?”

Kotlowski said that since the announcement of the lawsuit, a group of about 40 residents in the county have formed a taxpayer advocacy group. She said she thinks that the residents, who will show up to vote in November, will have a louder voice when it comes to advocating for a change in the way the state funds schools. In November, Wisconsin voters will decide who should fill the governor’s office as well as who should control the state Assembly and Senate.

“I had a taxpayer who said to me, ‘My first question for anybody who’s running for office is, How are you going to change the formula for how you fund public schools?’ That’s their first question, and depending on your answer, will decide if I vote for you,’” Kotlowski said. “We are at a breaking point, and if our community doesn’t represent that … I don’t think there’s any story that can express the lack of tolerance we have right now to fund schools the way that we have done it now for decades.”

The Joint Finance Committee voted to approve releasing funds for the Department of Public Instruction’s operations after putting it off last month. 

The committee approved the release of $1.75 million, including $750,000 for 2025-26 and $1 million for 2026-27. It is about $250,000 less than what was placed in a supplemental fund during the budget cycle as a part of a deal negotiated between lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers. Republicans on the budget committee initially were going to cut the funding from the agency, but instead made it es a supplemental appropriation, requiring the JFC to release it before it was available to the agency.

JFC was scheduled to vote on the proposal last month, but the committee delayed action after a report from the Dairyland Sentinel, a nonprofit publication published by longtime GOP strategist Brian Fraley, that the agency spent over $368,000 on its standard setting meeting held at a water park in the Wisconsin Dells in 2024. It acquired the information through open records requests.

After the report and delayed vote, JFC co-chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said that lawmakers had been having conversations and having its answers answered by the agency. 

According to information released by DPI Tuesday, the meeting costs totaled about $219,225, which included lodging, meals, travel reimbursement, meeting expenses, laptops and hotspots. The remaining cost was for the work done by Data Recognition Corporation, the vendor DPI works with each year to update the assessment and ensure it is valid, reliable and up to date. The vendor planned and facilitated the meeting and wrote a final report.

The total cost of the standards setting work equated to about $30,740 per grade and subject. Similar work done by DRC for other states has ranged from $48,500 to $94,000 per grade/subject, according to DPI.

The $2 million makes up about 10% of the DPI operating budget, and the agency had warned that it could need to delay recruitment, continue to restrict travel, conference attendance and professional development participation, modify the replacement cycle for IT equipment and lay off staff.

A Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo to the budget committee said that approving just $1.75 million would ensure that there is sufficient funding for the projected staffing costs, but limit the amount available to cover supplies, services, professional development and other costs not directly related to staff.

Chris Bucher, director of communications for DPI, said in a statement that the funding is critical for the agency to serve students, educators, schools and libraries.

“While we received slightly less in the current fiscal year than we requested, our agency will make it through the year without layoffs or additional staffing reductions,” Bucher said. 

The committee voted unanimously to release the funds, though Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) criticized Republicans for not releasing the full $2 million.

“Every time we gather together as a body and there’s an opportunity to do the right thing and allocate money towards anything that helps public education, anything that helps our kids, the Republicans on this committee find a way to not do it, to offer less money than has been requested and needed, to fail once again to give our kids what they need,” Roys said.

Update: This story has been updated to include comment and additional information from DPI.

An empty high school classroom. (Dan Forer | Getty Images)

The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee has delayed the release of $2 million for the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) operating budget following a report on the cost of a meeting held at a water park resort in 2024. The agency says continued delays in the release of the funds could lead to layoffs and other cuts.

The powerful budget committee’s agenda for Tuesday, Feb. 2 included a DPI request, originally submitted in September, for the release of $2 million over the biennium. However, at the start of the meeting, committee co-chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) said the vote on the money would be delayed. 

Born cited a report from the Dairyland Sentinel, a nonprofit publication published by Brian Fraley who is a longtime GOP strategist, that found through open records requests that the agency spent over $368,000 on its standard setting meeting in 2024. 

“We are not going to take up the DPI agenda item today. Within the last couple of hours a media report came out, Dairyland Sentinel report, regarding taxpayer use of funds at a resort for a conference,” Born said during the meeting. “Since it’s so new, we just want the opportunity to at least review what’s going on there with this questionable use of funds at least according to that report that’s very new, so just want to hit pause on that.”

The records request had been submitted about a year ago and was released after the Institute for Reforming Government (IRG), a conservative think tank, issued a demand letter on Jan. 21 on behalf of Dairyland Sentinel. The records were subsequently released. 

The report noted that the four-day event that included 88 educators and DPI staff was held in June 2024 at Chula Vista, a water park resort in the Wisconsin Dells. 

The Dairyland Sentinel report noted that Chula Vista is “a premier destination known for luxury amenities, including massive indoor and outdoor water parks, spa services, and multiple bars” and that “the agency did not provide receipts for staff time, food, travel, or lodging,” leaving taxpayers to “wonder how much of that $368,885 was spent on resort amenities, alcohol, or water park access for the 88 educators and various staff in attendance.” 

Chris Bucher, director of communications for DPI, told the Examiner in an email that the number cited by Dairyland Sentinel included all costs related to the standards setting meeting. Bucher said the agency works with its vendor for the Forward Exam, Data Recognition Corporation, each year to update the assessment and the work includes review of test questions at offsite, secure locations. 

“The department uses federal and state money directed to support the exam to pay for these events. The funding cited in the blog post includes salaries, hotel costs and vendor costs to perform the work – it is not all directed to Chula Vista,” Bucher said. “We conduct these meetings in Wisconsin to support our local tourism community and to cut down on associated travel costs for all involved. This is a common approach used by at least 24 other states who also contract with the DRC.”

Dairyland Sentinel emphasized that the fulfillment of the open records request did not include an itemized list associated with the overall cost.

Bucher said the Data Recognition Corporation provides the facilitation of the Forward Exam for more than 400,000 public and private school students as well as the standard setting workshop. Bucher said in response to why a breakdown of the costs wasn’t available that as the facilitator, Data Recognition Corporation plans and maintains the information related to costs and the agency is “working with them as we speak.”

Born said JFC expects to meet several times in the next four to six weeks as the end of the legislative session approaches and there “should be an opportunity to look at this again down the road, but we just wanted to make sure we had all the information necessary as we’re considering this request.” 

The $2 million, which makes up 10% of the DPI operating budget, was placed in a supplemental fund as a part of a deal negotiated between lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers. Republican lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee initially wanted to cut those funds from the agency’s budget. Since it is in a supplemental fund, it must be released by lawmakers on the JFC. 

Bucher said the agency is “deeply disappointed” by the delay. He said the agency had been in contact with committee members and staff leading up to yesterday’s meeting and lawmakers indicated that the committee was going to approve the request.

“The department was singled out for a set aside of 10% of its operating budget and without that money, will need to consider layoffs which will impact our ability to investigate educator wrongdoing, license teachers, pay choice schools and operate the agency,” Bucher said.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is running for governor, also weighed in — calling for an audit of the agency. 

“Their priorities are completely misplaced if they can waste nearly $400,000 on a water park junket to lower standards while claiming they need more funding. It took them over a year to respond to an open records request, and taxpayers should never have to wait that long for basic transparency,” Tiffany said in a statement.