From Jill Gaskell

Blanchardville

To the Editor:

Here we are. It’s Groundhog Day. But for Wisconsin’s Public Schools, every day is Groundhog Day. Like the movie starring Bill Murray, it is another day of the same old thing… another day of too few resources to meet the needs of students and budgets too small to pay teachers what they deserve.

Wisconsin implemented revenue limits in 1993 which was supposed to hold down property taxes by requiring schools to go to referendum if they needed more money to operate. It limited schools’ budgets to an increase of about 4% per year. This did not keep up with inflation then, and it never has since.   

The result of the revenue limit was to shift the responsibility of funding schools to the local districts rather than the state. Rural schools often have less value in their tax base, so are forced to go to referendum more frequently than urban schools with higher tax bases. This has lead to huge disparities in how schools operate and what courses and extra-curricular activities they can offer. The Wisconsin Constitution says schools “shall be as nearly uniform as practicable”. Currently, we are far from that standard.

The Legislature has a surplus of over $7 billion and could be putting money into public schools or re-writing the funding formula so it is more equitable. Like in the movie, they have the chance to make this day better for public schools.