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.”

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Each day she goes to school, Hmong American Peace Academy senior Eva Vang feels so welcomed among her teachers and peers that she’s received awards for perfect attendance.

“Maybe it’s just because we’re at a predominately Hmong school, but we kind of connect in a lot of ways,” Vang said. “It’s easy to kind of relate to them and relate to the same experiences that we have.”

Aside from a brief stint at a different school in the third grade, Vang has spent each year since kindergarten at Hmong American Peace Academy, or HAPA, in Milwaukee. The Northwest Side charter school serves students from kindergarten to 12th grade with a curriculum rooted in Hmong cultural values and heritage.  

In 2025, the Elementary School and Secondary Education Act Network recognized HAPA as a distinguished school for exceptional student performance and academic growth. It was one of only two Wisconsin schools to receive the national honor last year. 

The school achieved the recognition largely through its efforts to address chronic absenteeism, retain teachers and expand their college and postsecondary career programs, HAPA Chief Academic Officer Brendan Kearney said.

Here’s how it did it.

‘Amazing sense of purpose’

Middle school English language arts teacher Austeen Yang is in her fourth school year at HAPA, and she said the school’s respect for teachers keeps her coming back. 

“HAPA is amazing at asking for our advice and then making decisions based off of that advice,” Yang said. 

Each year, the school solicits teacher feedback through annual surveys, then reports the findings and plans to respond to suggestions and concerns. 

“I think it’s a really big part of the culture, and we’ve seen a lot of things change because of those surveys,” Yang said. 

HAPA recently reported a 96% staff retention rate.

Sara Shaw, deputy research director at Wisconsin Policy Forum, said many schools across the state have struggled with teacher retention since the pandemic. Researchers observed a spike in teacher turnover going into the 2022-23 school year, and while numbers have decreased slightly, they’re still above pre-pandemic levels. 

Shaw attributes the retention issues to both a change in labor market conditions, where inflation rose and it became more favorable for workers to negotiate employment elsewhere, and problems specific to education.

Shaw said the strains from COVID-19 caught up to a lot of teachers, who originally worked to support students during the pandemic but left when things became too difficult. 

HAPA administration recognized that attracting and keeping good, quality teachers would be critical to accomplishing the school’s academic goals, Kearney said.

The school made several adjustments to meet the needs of new educators and returning teachers, including reducing minutes in the workday and the number of workdays in the calendar year. The school also made changes in compensation, class sizes and professional development opportunities, Kearney said. 

“We won’t get done what we need to if we can’t keep good teachers in the building getting better year after year and serving our scholars,” Kearney said. “We don’t want our scholars to show up and see a bunch of new people.” 

Something else that Yang appreciates about HAPA is the school’s focus on providing a culturally based education. 

Yang, being of Hmong heritage, said she feels a “great, huge amazing sense of purpose” and connects with the school’s commitment to preserving and teaching Hmong cultural values.

Supportive teachers and postsecondary success

HAPA senior Angelina Yang, who’s attended the school since kindergarten, said she felt motivated to come to school this year because of HAPA’s Money Coach program, where senior students learn financial literacy skills. 

“I don’t really have a strong knowledge or education on financial literacy,” Yang said. “Going to that program really helped me understand why it’s important to be present in that program because it betters me.”

Vang appreciates the school’s college and career office, which focuses on postsecondary success. She said the office helped her figure out what she wants to do after school and apply for colleges and scholarship opportunities. 

“It is a time right now where it’s very overwhelming, but because we have such a great college and career team, they do support us a lot,” Vang said. “In a way, I think they did also kind of grow my expectations for college.”

Vang said she knew she wanted to go to college since her freshman year. 

She has choices – she’s been accepted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Loyola University and DePaul University. She’s looking to study medicine and become an emergency physician. 

The office has also supported Yang, who plans to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

“A lot of the students here are first generation,” Yang said. “Having that support really builds our self-esteem and making sure that we know what we want to do in the future and how we can go to college or enter the workforce.”

After seeing how transportation barriers to hospitals in Laos impacted her uncle during her freshman year, she decided to study health promotion and equity. 

“That really made me recognize the health disparities in my community and in my family,” she said. “Going into health administration … would help me at least try to help remedy those uncertainties.”

Kearney said HAPA has invested in greater college support in the past five years. 

Traditionally, counselors at the school helped students in a more one-size-fits-all fashion. Currently, the school has four college advisers, a coordinator and a director of college and careers who work to personalize the experience for students and connect their work now with their post-graduation goals. 

“The goal is that every student here leaves with a plan,” Kearney said. “For very many of them, it’s college, but we also support students who want to pursue career or technical education.”

Chronic absenteeism

Neither Yang nor Vang has struggled much with attendance at HAPA. Still, the school has not been immune to chronic absenteeism, especially after the pandemic. 

HAPA tackles absenteeism through a multi-tiered system of supports, a collaborative group of staff members who help identify the causes of absenteeism and support the scholars and their families, Kearney said. 

“A big part of making that work has been investing in student services staff,” Kearney said. “Post-pandemic, we’ve added several staff members who can help to serve different parts of the scholar.”

The team helps design an intervention or support plan based on what’s causing the student to miss school. Sometimes that includes connecting students with social workers, counselors or helping those dealing with homelessness, Kearney said.

If a student hasn’t been to school in a while and can’t be reached on the phone, HAPA sends impact coaches to check on students at their homes.

Austeen Yang said the system works well for teachers because they talk with other educators about the student of concern and collaborate to address issues. When teachers have exhausted all their options for helping the student, the support team comes in to support students. 

Kearney said the system came from teacher feedback. 

“It’s a part of why we’ve invested in student services staff,” Kearney said. “When teachers are expected to do all things for all students, it becomes an unsustainable job.”

Angelina Yang said the supportive teachers keep her coming back and her attendance strong. 

“HAPA does a really great job at hiring teachers who actually really care about their students and their well-being,” Yang said. “Having that support makes me feel more inclined to go just because I have a space that I know that I am welcome in.”

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Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

Hmong American Peace Academy received national recognition for exceptional performance. How did it do it? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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I have visited many after-school and summer programs across Wisconsin, from large urban sites to small rural schools, and what I’ve seen has stayed with me. I’ve watched students immersed in creative writing, acting and robotics. I’ve observed staff working one-on-one with kids navigating intense emotional challenges. And I’ve seen the smiles on middle schoolers’ faces as they reconnect with trusted mentors at the end of the school day. These programs are not “extras”; they provide crucial support to kids, families and entire communities.

The access gap

And yet, for far too many Wisconsin families, these opportunities remain out of reach. According to the latest America After 3PM report, nearly 275,000 Wisconsin children who would participate in after-school programs are not enrolled because none are available. Four in five children who could benefit from these supports are missing out. Parents cite cost, lack of transportation and a simple lack of local programming as the biggest barriers.

The benefits are clear

The impact of these programs is undeniable. Parents overwhelmingly rate their children’s after-school programs as excellent or very good, reporting that they keep kids safe, build social skills and support mental wellness. Research in Wisconsin shows that students who participate in extracurricular activities are less likely to report anxiety or depression and more likely to feel a sense of belonging.

Out-of-school-time programs often provide the space for deep, long-term mentoring, a powerful protective factor in a young person’s life. While teachers are often stretched thin during the academic day, out-of-school-time staff can focus on the relational side of development.

The cost of instability

When funding is unstable, it undermines the very connections that make these programs transformative. Recently, a Boys & Girls Club director shared the human cost of budget constraints: They were forced to reduce a veteran staff member to part-time. This didn’t just trim a budget; it severed a multi-year mentorship. When that bond was broken, several youths stopped attending entirely.

Wisconsin lags behind national trends

Across the country, after-school and summer programs are increasingly viewed as essential to youth development. Twenty-seven states provide dedicated state funding for these programs; Wisconsin provides none. States as different as Alabama and Texas recognize that federal funding alone is not enough. So do our Midwestern neighbors.

• Minnesota and Illinois have invested in these programs for years.
• Michigan established a $73 million grant program to expand before-school, after-school and summer learning statewide.
• Pennsylvania created the $11.5 million Building Opportunity through Out-of-School Time (BOOST) program.

The opportunity to act

Public support for these programs is strong and bipartisan. Families across Wisconsin want safe, enriching opportunities for their children. With a significant budget surplus, Wisconsin is uniquely positioned to invest in its future.

State leaders should view out-of-school programming as a foundation for safety, mental health and long-term economic opportunity. We have the resources; now we need the will. By committing to consistent state funding, we can ensure that every young person in Wisconsin has a place to belong when the school bell rings.

Daniel Gage is a consultant with the Afterschool Alliance and Wisconsin Out of School Time Alliance, focusing on advocacy and outreach. He co-founded the Wisconsin Partnership for Children and Youth, a coalition that promotes after-school and summer programs as vital for healthy youth development and future citizenship.

Opinion: After-school programs are essential. Wisconsin should fund them that way. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.