{"id":11204,"date":"2024-06-13T21:59:01","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T21:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=11204"},"modified":"2024-06-13T23:03:24","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T23:03:24","slug":"milwaukee-public-schools-referendum-will-sap-aid-from-other-wisconsin-districts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=11204","title":{"rendered":"Milwaukee Public Schools\u2019 referendum will sap aid from other Wisconsin districts"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/milwaukee-public-schools-referendum-will-sap-aid-from-other-wisconsin-districts\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Fiscal memo details how much of a hit taxpayers in other parts of Wisconsin will take<\/em><\/h4>\n

Passage of the controversial $252 million Milwaukee Public Schools referendum means hundreds of other districts statewide will get less aid.<\/p>\n

Madison, Waukesha and Racine school districts could lose $2 million or more in one year, Appleton and West Bend between $1 million and $2 million, and New Berlin, Fond du Lac, Green Bay and Mukwonago at least $760,000, according to calculations made by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"fiscal<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe impact is huge,\u201d state Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, who asked the LFB for the estimates, said. \u201cThis was a wakeup call for me on the impact of these big referendums on state aid. Huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The April 2 MPS referendum passed by a narrow margin and, many critics believe, would have failed if the extent of the district\u2019s financial mismanagement had been known beforehand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is deeply concerning, as this news may have changed the results of the referendum,\u201d state Rep. Scott Allen, R-Waukesha,\u00a0 said. \u201cIn the private sector, such activity is regarded as fraud and would be legal grounds for voiding a contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s now becoming clear, in addition, that reverberations will be felt statewide.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has become a State of Wisconsin problem to fix Milwaukee schools,\u201d Allen told the Badger Institute. \u201cThis is no longer a \u2018local issue.\u2019 The scandal we see at the top of the administration of MPS is merely the tip of the iceberg of financial mismanagement, not to mention academic mismanagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the weeks leading up to the election, Wanggaard said discussions with other lawmakers prompted him to ask the Legislative Fiscal Bureau to calculate the impact of the district that is by far the largest in the state getting that kind of financial windfall based on the tiered equalization aid formula<\/a> in place since 1995.<\/p>\n

In theory, the formula ought to equalize the tax base statewide, according to the LFB report. \u201cIn pure form, this means that a school district\u2019s property tax rate does not depend on the property tax base of the district, but rather on the level of expenditures,\u201d according to the report. \u201cDistricts with low per pupil property valuations receive a larger share of their costs through the formula than districts with high per pupil property valuations.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is a formula, however, that the Legislature has sidestepped for more than a decade as the financial straits narrowed for the Milwaukee Public Schools, Dale Kooyenga, who served in the Assembly and Senate during that period, told the Badger Institute.<\/p>\n

Kooyenga, now president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, said the Legislature got around the formula by adding funding to \u201cper-pupil categorical aid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis aid simply gave school districts more money per child regardless of property tax base or other factors,\u201d Kooyenga said.<\/p>\n

The exact extent of the loss of aid in coming years cannot be calculated exactly, but the Legislative Fiscal Bureau has come up with close approximations based on finances in a prior year.<\/p>\n

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau did its calculating based on the $5.34 billion of state aid appropriated in the 2022-23 school year. Had MPS added $140 million in revenue in that year (as the district has said it plans to do in the 2024-25 school year while gradually phasing in the full $252 million approved by voters) MPS would have received $48.8 million more in state aid the school year following the referendum year, according to the report.<\/p>\n

In the LFB\u2019s calculations, Milwaukee\u2019s aid increase sets off a redistribution of $87.9 million, leaving 357 of the state\u2019s 421 districts with less aid than they normally would have gotten, the report said.<\/p>\n

It would then be up to people in those districts to make up for those losses through property tax increases.<\/p>\n

\u201cRacine Unified is aware of the potential loss of revenue,\u201d Jeffrey Serak, chief financial officer for the district, told the Badger Institute. \u201cAny loss of revenue digs our deficit a little deeper, resulting in more cost reductions across the district.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while its total state aid is much less than the bigger districts, the School District of Tomahawk stands to lose the largest percentage of aid because of the referendum, a drop from $1.8 million to $1.5 million, or 17.4%, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Bill Andrekopoulos, a retired MPS superintendent who was an outspoken opponent<\/a> of the referendum, said it was \u201cbeyond startling\u201d to realize not only what a big impact it would have on education in the state, but that such important information is only now getting to the taxpaying and voting public.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuess what: All of these districts, whether small or large, are going to have to ask their local taxpayers for more in property taxes,\u201d Andrekopoulos told the Badger Institute. \u201cThe more stuff like this gets out, the more people are going to see the need to make a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The change might have to come from Madison to stabilize what Kooyenga called the \u201cconstant water balloon motion of property tax shifts\u201d in response to all the impacts on the state aid formula. Despite its intentions, the state system \u201cis not equal funding,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Wanggaard said he called on the LFB initially because of statewide concerns. \u201cI wasn\u2019t focusing on the referendum. It\u2019s not my district. I\u2019m not a Milwaukee taxpayer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When he got the results of the report and the daily disclosures from Madison and Milwaukee, Wanggaard said he was spurred to keep the reform of MPS and the school aid formula alive until the next session of the Legislature, which begins in January 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our \u2018Holy crap!\u2019 moment. We\u2019re at the starting line, just at the beginning,\u201d Wanggaard said. \u201cI can tell you we\u2019re going to get to the bottom of it. We\u2019re not going to let it go.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mark Lisheron is the Managing Editor of the Badger Institute. Permission to reprint is granted as long as the author and Badger Institute are properly cited.<\/em><\/p>\n

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