55 School Referendums Passed State-Wide

On Tuesday, voters in dozens of Wisconsin school districts approved new resources for children in public schools.

School districts asked voters to endorse nearly $700 million in borrowing for new construction and building updates, and more than $150 million in increases in school district budgets — dollar amounts that were the largest put before voters at the annual spring election going back at least a decade. (For more on that, read our blog post from last week)

Voters approved 55 of the 71 referendums on the ballot, including $492 million in borrowing for building upgrades and construction projects, $128 million to expand school district budgets for a set amount of time, and $10 million to expand school budgets on a recurring basis.

This map shows the location of successful and unsuccessful referendums. You can hover over a shape to get information on the district that held the referendum, the outcome, the type of referendum, and the dollar amount. For more information on individual referendums, you can visit the Department of Public Instructions website.

The high number of referendums on the spring ballot in part stems from a freeze that state lawmakers have imposed on school district budgets. To keep up with rising costs, a larger number of school districts are asking voters to lift the legislatively-imposed budget caps. The high approval rate for these referendums shows that Wisconsin residents continue to place a great deal of importance on making sure that school districts have the resources they need to provide students with high-quality educations.