‘Further behind each year’: Wisconsin school districts fighting to stay alive as referendums continue
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — On Tuesday, there were 79 school referendums on ballots across the state of Wisconsin.
“School districts are finding themselves a little further and further behind each year,” Wisconsin Association of School Boards Executive Director Dan Rossmiller said.
Rossmiller says a school revenue limit law caps the amount of money a district can collect from the state and property taxes.
“Since 2009, roughly, those limits have not been adjusted to match inflation, so costs are going up for all kinds of things in school districts,” Rossmiller said. “Insurance, fuel for the buses, health insurance for the employees, food for the cafeterias.”
Decreased enrollment is also a factor in the need for referendums.
“As their costs are going up, their revenues are going down,” Rossmiller said.
State Superintendent Jill Underly released a statement Wednesday morning about the high number of referendums.
"Too many communities are forced to make an unfair decision,” Underly said. "The school funding formula is broken, and it has failed our children."
Rossmiller says fewer than half of the operational referendums failed to pass on Tuesday.
“We’re gonna have school districts having to make some difficult decisions about how they are balancing their budgets, given that the money they were asking for to help them balance their budgets is not gonna be coming from property taxpayers,” Rossmiller said.