Children in an elementary school classroom. (Getty Images photo)

Gov. Tony Evers is on a back-to-school tour, visiting classrooms around the state and touting the budget deal he recently struck with Republicans after declaring 2025 the “Year of the Kid.” Evers “proudly signed a pro-kid, bipartisan state budget into law earlier this summer that invests nearly $1.4 billion in spendable revenue for K-12 schools,” according to a press release from his office celebrating Back to School Week.

You would never know from that announcement that the amount of new general aid schools receive from the state in the current, two-year budget cycle is exactly zero. Or that, as a result, about 70% of school districts across the state are starting the year with less money in the budget than they got in the last, austerity-level biennial budget deal. 

True, the budget includes a total of about $500 million in special education funding, with the state increasing the share of special ed costs it covers from less than 30% to 42% in the first year and 45% of costs in the second year. As Evers’ office puts it, that’s “the largest increase to the special education reimbursement rate in state history.” But it follows decades of decline and amounts to significantly less than the 60% rate reached under former Gov. Tommy Thompson, and which Evers originally proposed. And the zeroed-out general aid from the state seriously undermines the impact of those long-awaited special education funds. 

The lion’s share of the $1.4 billion in “spendable revenue” Evers is celebrating comes in the form of increased taxing authority the state gave to local school districts — meaning the amount by which they are allowed to raise local property taxes to cover their costs. But local property taxpayers are getting weary of the constantly increasing demand on them to pay more for schools, and local school officials are dismayed that the state did so little to take on some of that cost.

Since special education is a federally mandated expense, the state’s shrinking reimbursement rate has taken a heavy toll on all school programs. For years, schools across Wisconsin have had to cut art, music, sports and other programs to pay a larger and larger share of special ed expenses. That’s why, at budget hearings throughout the state, so many people showed up to say a top priority for the new budget was an increase in the state’s share of special ed. 

“But never did anyone in those budget hearings come to the mic and say, ‘you should either give us general aid or special ed funding,” says Heather DuBois Bourenane, director of the Wisconsin Public Education Network, a statewide group that lobbies for public schools.

DuBois Bourenane says she’s already been getting calls asking her to help local communities put together springtime referendum campaigns asking local property taxpayers for more money on top of what the budget allows them to raise — something that’s never before happened this early in the year. She predicts another record-breaking year of school referendum efforts. Meanwhile, “we’re hearing in some districts they’re afraid to use the authority because local taxes are so high,” she says. “They’re talking about cuts.”

“It’s scary,” she adds. “The belt-tightening is going to be really bad.”

Advocates and school leaders had high hopes that Evers, a former science teacher and state superintendent, would fight to adequately fund public schools. Determined to get a deal, and negotiating with Republicans who seemed all too willing to let schools starve, Evers got what he felt was the best deal he could. And now he’s selling that deal as a good one. But the victory lap is misleading. Public school leaders across the state say the budget leaves teachers, students and local taxpayers in a bad situation. 

“Allowing an increase is one thing — paying for it is another,” LaCrosse News8000.com TV reporter Allyson Fergot explained in a story on how the state budget leaves schools strapped. “This summer lawmakers opted not to fund [a per pupil school funding] increase with state money, so if districts want it, they’ll have to raise district property taxes.”

“The state of Wisconsin currently has a $4.2 billion surplus, but no new general state aid has been provided to help schools meet rising costs,” Madison Metropolitan School District Superintendent Joe Gothard told Wisconsin Public Radio.

How did this happen?

During the budget debate, it was clear that Republicans were outraged by Evers’ line-item veto of the 2023-25 state budget, which extended a provision that increased the amount by which school districts could raise property taxes for the next 400 years.

In retaliation, Republicans promised that there would be no new state aid for schools in the current budget. And they stuck to their word. Wisconsin kids, not Evers, will pay the price of that maneuver. Clearly, it didn’t pay off. 

“It did real harm,” DuBois Bourenane says of Evers’ 400-year-veto. “This was a spite budget. It was petty.” And it wasn’t worth it: The amount of the increase Evers locked in for the next four centuries, at $325 per kid, didn’t even cover inflation. Overall, spending on schools in Wisconsin hasn’t kept pace with inflation for nearly two decades.

“We’re about a little over $3,000 short per kid just because of inflation over the past years,” Cochrane-Fountain City Superintendent Troy White told News8000.com

Could Evers have held out for a better deal? DuBois Bourenane thinks so. She was impressed by the massive public outpouring of support for schools at budget hearings, and the way public pressure helped shape bipartisan consensus on the need to support schools, take the burden off property taxpayers and increase state funding for special ed.

“And schools still came out with nothing,” she says.

When you add in the massive increases in funding for private schools through the state’s voucher programs, the outlook at the start of this school year is grim.

As the state mulls whether to accept a federal voucher program that has the potential to turbocharge the already rapidly expanding system of taxpayer-supported private schools, the Wisconsin Public Education Network is launching a voucher transparency project this month, to help taxpayers get a clear picture of how much they are spending on school vouchers on their property tax bills.

Meanwhile, “everyone should call their legislators and give them the numbers on how much less their districts are coming back to school with,” says DuBois Bourenane. “We need more leaders to do what they can with the leverage they can to fix this.”

Correction: An earlier version of this column misstated the special education reimbursement rate under former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson.

Anne Chapman (with the microphone), research director for the Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials Association, called the lack of funding “unprecedented" during a panel discussion. From left, WPEN Executive Director Heather DuBois Bourenane moderated the panel with Chapman, Julie Underwood, and Chris Thiel. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

GREEN BAY — After putting in a significant amount of time advocating for school funding during the most recent state budget cycle, public education advocates are looking towards their next effort — helping local communities show how much  private school vouchers cost taxpayers.

Advocates met at Preble High School, the state’s fourth largest high school, for the Wisconsin Public Education Network’s annual summit last week, an opportunity to connect and discuss the state of school funding and an array of other issues schools face. Denise Gaumer Hutchison, northeast regional organizer for the network and mother of two Green Bay students, told the Wisconsin Examiner that the importance of advocacy and working together is “at an all time high.” 

“It’s not just one type of people that are understanding that we have to have high quality public schools and we have to advocate for it now,” said Hutchison, a member of a variety of advocacy groups including Citizen Action and the League of Women Voters. “The Wisconsin State Legislature showed us that they are not advocates for public schools.”

Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly told attendees in a video message she was grateful for the partnership with WPEN and advocates during the budget cycle that concluded in early July, when Gov. Tony Evers signed the 2025-27 state budget. 

“You are without question the strongest and most consistent advocates for public schools in our state. You are the link between policy and practice. You lift up what’s working and you fight for what’s needed,” Underly said. “Your voices have been loud, clear and grounded in what matters most kids, and you’ve reminded Wisconsin that public education isn’t just a line item. It’s a promise.” 

The budget set state aid for districts for the next two years. To the disappointment of many, however, it  included no general aid increases. Increases to the special education reimbursement rate didn’t reach the goal advocates had set.

“This is the gas you put in the tank,” Milwaukee Public Schools Legislative Policy Manager Chris Thiel said about the lack of general state aid during a panel discussion. “You can’t say the funding system is broken, if you didn’t fund it.”

Anne Chapman, research director for the Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials, called the lack of funding “unprecedented.” School districts have a $325 per pupil revenue limit increase, but without state funding, school districts will have to raise property taxes to benefit from it. 

Chapman noted that the state did significantly increase the special education reimbursement rate, but said the actual reimbursement would likely fall below the estimated rate of 42% in the first year and 45% in the second year. 

“When you hear the governor and others say that this budget provides $1.4 billion in spendable resources for schools, that is not state money,” Chapman said. “About $577 million of that is state money. The rest is mostly going to be borne by property taxpayers.”

Thiel noted that a recent Wisconsin Policy Forum report found that the state’s national ranking for school funding has fallen from 11th place in 2002 to 26th place now. 

“Were it not for local communities lifting their school districts up against these cuts from the state, we conceivably will be worse than 26th,” Thiel said, noting that increased local property taxes made the difference. “We didn’t get into this to do referenda every year, and we’ve got a really concerning situation.” 

Green Bay Area Public School Board Vice President James Lyerly said at the conference that without general aid and without a 60% special education reimbursement rate from the state budget, the district will have to go to referendum again. The district currently gets funding through a 10-year operating referendum that voters approved in 2017.

“It ensures that the district will once again need to seek voter support for a referendum to replace our current $16.5 million dollar per year non-recurring operational referendum that ends in 2027,” Lyerly said. The district’s current operational and recent building referendums, including one in November 2024, have ensured “our students are able to attend schools that meet their instructional needs and provide for safe learning spaces,” he said. 

“The continued underfunding of public education at the same time that there is an increased funding and expansion of unaccountable choice schools, not only creates these budget challenges, but it widens the opportunity gaps for students who rely on the comprehensive support systems that public schools provide,” Lyerly said.

The new state budget did include increases in per-pupil funding for voucher schools in Wisconsin, along with a $325 annual per-pupil revenue limit adjustment to keep parity with public schools.

Publicizing voucher programs’ cost

Advocates are turning to transparency on the cost of the voucher schools programs as the next item on their agenda.

Green Bay recently became the first municipality in the state to add the cost of private voucher schools as a line on residents’ property tax bills. 

Private school vouchers are paid out of school districts’ general state aid, and school districts have the option of raising property taxes to make up for the lost revenue. Property tax bills currently include information on the money going towards the town, the county, the technical college and local public school districts, but costs for private voucher schools are lumped in with public school costs.

A handful of Wisconsin municipalities have added inserts about voucher costs to their tax bills, but Hutchison said having it on the tax bill will be more effective at informing people, who often throw inserts away.

“[People] were totally appalled that they didn’t know that their taxes were going to support private schools and it wasn’t so much that they objected to supporting private schools, it was the lack of transparency and the knowledge they didn’t have the knowledge of where their tax dollars were going,” Hutchison said. 

The proposal to add a printed line on private voucher costs was introduced by Ald. Alyssa Proffitt. The city council voted 6-6 in April, with Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich breaking the tie to approve it. The council worked with the school district administrative staff, the school board, Brown County, the Wisconsin Department of Revenue and the City Legal department to determine the legality and feasibility of adding another line to the printed city tax bill.

Genrich said at the conference that Green Bay residents will have a better understanding of how much they are paying for private schools, and he hopes the practice spreads.

“We really believe that we’ve created a template that other communities across the state of Wisconsin can use and adopt,” Genrich said at the conference. “I’ve been a supporter of this at the state level for some time. That is what we’re hoping to build towards, so we create some momentum within municipalities across the state of Wisconsin and actually get it done at the state level hopefully here in the near future.”

Genrich, a former state representative, supported a similar policy in the Wisconsin Assembly, but a bill authored by former Democratic Rep. Dana Wachs never received a public hearing. Similar bills have faced the same fate in recent years under the Republican-led Legislature.

WPEN is planning to launch an effort in the fall to help communities interested in going through a similar process. 

“If the Legislature won’t support transparency on tax bills for communities, then the communities are going to support transparency on their tax bills, and it’s going to go municipality by municipality by municipality,” Hutchison, the network’s Northeast regional organizer, said in an interview. “We’re not going to wait any longer, because this has been needed for a very long time, and we have some momentum now.”

Transparency on voucher costs is essential, she said, especially as public school districts continue to rely on property taxes for funding and must seek increases by referendum.

“We have a constitutional responsibility to fund our public schools, and people think in their communities that they’re doing that,” Hutchison said. “They’ve been misled, because the private school dollars are hidden inside of the tax bill, and all we’re asking for is to be transparent so that people can make informed decisions.” 

She said it can be difficult to ask taxpayers to vote to increase taxes if they don’t understand their tax bills.

“If you’re going to somebody’s door saying, ‘Hey, the Green Bay Area public school district or XYZ school district is going to referenda to help pay their bills because there’s no new money from the state of Wisconsin… and they say, ‘Look at my tax bill. Look how much money I’m paying in taxes to support schools.’ That’s not really the whole story,” Hutchison said.

“It’s a challenging conversation to have at somebody’s door. If I now can go to somebody’s door and say, ‘Did you see your latest tax bill? Did you see what percentage is being taken out and what dollar amount is being taken out of that amount to go to private schools?’ you may get somebody to say yes to increase their taxes because now they have a clearer picture of what’s really happening.” 

Hutchison said WPEN has a tool kit with resources on the issue. Changing the tax bill information has to start with a resolution from the school board asking the city or the township to support the effort, she said, and it then has to get approval from the city or local government. 

“We’re doing it district by district, community by community, and we’re having conversations with people that have come to us to see what we’ve done in other communities,” Hutchison said. “So we’re going to support them in how they approach this.” 

Hutchison said she has been having early conversations with some communities, including having three communities reach out following the summit. One superintendent, Amy Starzecki of Superior Public Schools, thanked the Green Bay community for its work around voucher transparency at the conference, saying Superior would be looking into the issue.

The effort to publicize private voucher costs comes as caps on Wisconsin’s school voucher programs are set to lift in the 2026-27 school year. Since 2017, the cap, which limits the percentage of students in a district who can participate, has been increasing by 1% until it hit 9% this year.

“Next year, there will be no limit. Those caps come off,” said Julie Mead, a professor emerita in UW-Madison’s department of educational leadership and policy analysis, during a session titled “It’s just not fair: Unpacking Fairness from Special Education to Funding-by-Referendum to Privatization.”

Eliminating the caps could make it hard for districts to plan, Mead said. 

“The ability of Green Bay superintendent to predict what’s going to happen next year in terms of the money coming in and going on and what their membership will be is going to be really, really difficult,” she said, “and it means our school districts are frankly going to be in a world of hurt.”

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