Education Funding Is Big Issue at West Allis State Budget Hearing

People from across southeast Wisconsin gathered in the Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Center Friday. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner.)

People from across southeast Wisconsin gathered in the Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Center Friday to call on legislators to fund a range of priorities in the next state budget — from education to a new public safety building for Milwaukee to public transportation to child care.

The public hearing of the Joint Finance Committee was the second of four across the state this month. A hearing was also held in Kaukauna last week, and Republican and Democratic lawmakers on the committee agreed Friday morning that education funding was one of the top issues discussed.

Committee co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein said at a press conference that funding for school districts and the fate of the Green Bay prison were two of the biggest issues discussed during the first hearing. He said lawmakers haven’t discussed any specifics yet when it comes to actions they may take on public school funding, adding that K-12 funding has historically been the No. 1 largest item in the budget and it’ll likely be that way in the future.

“We’re here to listen and input today may influence what we decide to do down the road,” Marklein said.

Co-chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) added that the lawsuit over Gov. Tony Evers’ partial veto that extended increases in revenue limits — the cap on how much schools can bring in — for 400 years will play a role in the discussion. The case was heard by the Wisconsin Supreme Court last year, but a decision hasn’t been reached yet.

Lawmakers also have a $4 billion budget surplus that they will be considering as they write the budget in the coming months.

During a separate press conference held by Democrats on the committee, Rep. Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay) called attention to education funding, saying that lawmakers need to “stand up and fund education, particularly special education.” Andraca said lawmakers should adopt Gov. Tony Evers’ budget proposal, which would invest an additional $3 billion in K-12 education.

“I’m looking forward to hearing more today from all the people at this public hearing about what their priorities are in the state budget. I certainly hope my Republican colleagues are listening and will follow our lead,” Andraca said.

A focus on education at the hearings continued as members of the public started speaking on Friday.

School leaders and advocates emphasize dire situation

Three days before the town hall, voters approved 57 referendum requests and a total of $952 million in new funding through property tax hikes for Wisconsin school districts. This was an approval rate of about 58% of the nonrecurring operating referendum requests, 65% of requests for building costs and 20% of recurring requests, which contain increases across multiple years.

While the successful results will help school districts meet costs in coming months, voters also denied over $640 million in requests from other districts, including for Kenosha Unified School District.

Kenosha school board member Todd Price said the failed referendum, which was a $115 million nonrecurring request for operational expenses, leaves the district of 18,500 students in 31 schools facing a $19 million fiscal deficit.

“As we are frozen in what we can raise due to revenue caps, we needed to go to our local tax payers for approval of the money,” Price said. “Our aim was to keep our class sizes reasonable, vital programs intact like advanced placement programs… which are popular for students aiming to go to college, and we want to retain our staff.”

KUSD Superintendent Jeff Weiss, who spoke alongside Price, told lawmakers that they have the power to “be a strong partner of public education.” He said the passage of Act 20, a 2023 law to change literacy education in the state is a recent example of lawmakers using that power.

“I am asking you to do this in the area of finances,” Weiss said. “By raising the reimbursement for special education to 60%, KUSD will receive $13 million of spendable money. We are currently facing a $19 million budget shortfall. $13 million as well as raising the revenue limit… will go a very long way to helping prevent the district from having to seek an operational referendum in the coming year.”

Weiss emphasized that the resources needed to pursue a referendum are “immense.” He said the district held four town halls, 20 small meetings, and five interviews with TV and radio stations in a six-week period ahead of Election Day.

“This is not how I want to spend our time in the school district,” Weiss said. “I would much rather be using that time to increase student learning and improve our educational program.”

Swallow School District Superintendent Jill Ries said that the small district in Waukesha County has a history of being fiscally responsible, a trait that has helped it weather the “storm” caused by the state’s funding formula.

“We can no longer weather the storm, and we are facing a multi-million-dollar deficit in the future. We have reached the fiscal cliff. We can choose to have barebones public education, but is that what we want our state to become?” Ries asked.

Ries also called on lawmakers to increase revenue limits and at a minimum increase the special education reimbursement to 60%.

Zachary Geiger, a physics teacher at Greendale High School, also voiced his support for Evers’ budget request, telling lawmakers that teachers have been trying to accomplish more teaching and learning with fewer resources for the last decade and a half. He said this is catching up with the district, which has had to go to referendum and recently had to cut an engineering course for the first time in 12 years.

“Instead of supporting students in pursuit of their futures and responding to the needs of the industries in Wisconsin, this course was cut with many others to reduce costs in order to balance a budget dependent on insufficient funding from the state,” Geiger said. “Please fund public education.”

The tension between public schools’ financial challenges and the growing costs of the state’s school voucher programs was also on display at the hearing.

Glendale River Hills School Board President Carla Pennington-Cross called on lawmakers to stop using school boards as a “laundering service” by sending an increasing amount of taxpayer money to private schools that don’t have “equal accountability, equal transparency and equal legal obligation” to students.

Pennington-Cross called on lawmakers to increase per pupil funding to keep up with inflation.

“Your long-term failure to do so means that my district has lost more than $3 million in real spending power since 2009 under your revenue limits,” Pennington-Cross said.

Pennington-Cross called attention to the significant increases that voucher schools received in the last budget cycle. She also spoke to the disparity between the rate that public schools are reimbursed for special education costs and the rate that private and charter voucher schools receive.

“In the past year public schools were reimbursed for only 32% of special ed costs, while private schools received 90%. Why are students with disabilities worth less when they go to public schools? They should get the same financial support from the state regardless of their school choice,” Pennington-Cross said. “Your funding model causes people to blame kids with disabilities for budget shortfalls in public schools, reinforcing stigma and discrimination. It is unconscionable.”

Choice advocates appreciative of last investments, seeking more

Advocates for more state funding for the charter and private schools that participate in the state’s voucher programs were also out in full force.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks for the additional funding for school choice. Your decision has made an incredible difference for families like mine,” one parent of a student at Living Word Lutheran High School in Jackson said.

In the last state budget, lawmakers implemented the largest increase for the school voucher program in Wisconsin history. The change increased payments for schools at a minimum by 18% and at most by 44%.

Many of the parents who testified for school vouchers wore matching bright green “Parent Power” t-shirts. A group of about 75 parents were organized to attend the listening session by the City Forward Collective, a Milwaukee-based organization that advocates for school choice.

Executive director of City Forward Collective Colleston Morgan told the Wisconsin Examiner that the last budget was an example of state leaders moving past “partisan rancor” to take action, something he is hoping they’ll be able to do again.

“We saw the Legislature come together on a package that in our understanding benefited everybody — increases in the low revenue ceiling, lifting of the revenue limits and, yes, a significant increase for students in charter and private schools,” Morgan said. “Nobody got everything they needed… but everybody got something.”

Morgan said that there were many participating charter and private schools that were “in existential crisis” during that cycle, and the historic increase to the program helped stabilize the situation. He said many schools have been able to increase staff pay.

“There’s still more work to do, but we’re not today talking about schools on the precipice of closing like we were two years ago,” Morgan said.

Morgan said his group wanted to attend to express thanks and encourage legislators to continue to work in a bipartisan way to get more accomplished, including raising the special education reimbursement rate, lifting the low revenue ceiling and putting additional funding into the voucher program.

Milwaukee leaders on their goals for next budget

Local leaders who spoke at the hearing included Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, who thanked lawmakers for their work last session to secure an increased sales tax in the city. He said the investments in the last budget show that “working together and investing in Milwaukee benefits all of us because a strong Milwaukee means a strong Wisconsin.”

Johnson called on lawmakers to invest in young people in the next state budget, including by increasing funding for Milwaukee’s Earn & Learn program, a summer employment program where youth can gain experience working with local businesses, nonprofits, community and faith-based organizations. He also called on lawmakers to support Evers’ proposal for investing in 4-year-old kindergarten and increasing state funding for special education and child care.

“It’s our responsibility to ensure that the youngest residents here and young families have the support they need to start off on the right foot as they enter school and the workforce,” Johnson said.

Sarah Kazell, an advocate with Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed (WECAN), is attending all the budget listening sessions.

“Child care is a public good and without public investment, it just dwindles and dies in the private market, which is what we are seeing,” Kazell said. “We cannot find teachers willing to do a really essential, really high-skilled, high-stress job for $14 an hour, which is the average pay in my field. I’m personally making $12.50 an hour to take care of eight children.”

Evers has requested the state place $480 million towards the Child Care Counts program, which gives facilities funds to help pay staff without raising costs for parents. However, the program, which has been funded with federal money, is quickly approaching the end of those funds.

“We need at the minimum to make the investment that’s in the governor’s budget for child care, but that’s honestly just a starting point to be able to stabilize the field,” Kazell said.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said the “most important” investment for public safety would be to fund the removal and replacement of the Public Safety building.

“We have steered clear of a fiscal cliff. We kept the Brewers in Milwaukee, we shared the burden of funding important services and investments with some of our region’s most urgent issues being addressed,” he said, listing accomplishments in the last budget cycle. Now, he added, it’s time to focus on the “generational impact that we can have in our community on public safety.”

Crowley said that the removal and the replacement of the Milwaukee County Public Safety building, which was built in 1929, would cost $495 million. Milwaukee County has requested $250 million for the project from the state. According to the capital budget, due to the integrated nature of the county’s Courthouse Complex, the Historic Courthouse and Criminal Justice Facility will need to be renovated in addition to the new Public Safety building.

Evers’ budget proposal included $25 million for the project — a tenth of their request.

“Many of you have seen this crumbling, unsafe and inefficient facility firsthand and that’s why, in order to improve outcomes for all, strong partnerships will be key in this endeavor,” Crowley said.

Crowley said almost 80% of Milwaukee County’s property tax levy is dedicated to state-mandated services and the county has invested an additional $70 million in state-mandated public safety services over the last five years.

“The cost continues to rise and outpace our revenues and challenges our ability to continue funding these critical services and make any additional investments in local priorities like transportation, mental health, [services for children ages] birth-to-3,” Crowley said. “That’s why a partnership with the state is essential.”

Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball expanded on the request to replace the deteriorating building that houses the jail.

Ball said the current set-up of the building, which places victims, family members, visitors and defendants together, has created tension and resulted in 852 security incidents that required a response from the sheriff’s office in 2024.

“It is not sustainable to continue working as we have, and it is not fair to those who come in contact with our justice system,” Ball said. “In order to address the significant safety concerns and preserve the comfortability of core operations, funding from the state of Wisconsin will be critical.”

Other public hearings will be held in Hayward and Wausau during the last week of April.

Education funding takes center stage at West Allis state budget hearing was originally published by the Wisconsin Examiner.