Here & Now

A Chasm Between Wisconsin's Special Ed Needs and Resources

Frederica Freyberg:

In education coverage, it is a tale of two schools. One, a small charter serving special needs, middle, and high school students. The other, a traditional public school serving similar learners. They are both in the Minocqua district but worlds apart when it comes to funding and services. “Here & Now” reporter, Zac Schultz, shows us how and why the state budget line designated towards special education funding is woefully underfunded.

Man:

Good morning, Cody.

Zac Schultz:

Lakeland Star Academy is not your typical school. For starters, it is technically two charter schools and part of the Lakeland Union High School in Minocqua.

Teacher:

Later this week, we will explore —

Zac Schultz:

From inception, Lakeland Star was designed to serve middle and high school students with sensory needs, primarily students with a diagnosis on the autism spectrum.

Eric Mikoleit:

Right out of the gate, when they came through our front door, meeting their sensory needs.

Zac Schultz:

The first thing you might notice is each ceiling light is covered by a blue cape. Eric Mikoleit is the director. He says bright lights and noises can be a barrier to learning.

Eric Mikoleit:

If we would meet their sensory needs from acoustics and lightings and sounds — the many students on the spectrum — we knew they come regulated before we could even touch math and English.

Zac Schultz:

Indigo, the dog, roams the hall looking for pets and the occasional treat.

Eric Mikoleit:

Some of our students, Indigo is just — he’s there but some students really flock to that.

Zac Schultz:

For some students, the first class of the day is 45 minutes north at Scholl Community Impact Group, where working with horses forces kids to communicate verbally.

Student:

Cooper coming through.

Zac Schultz:

And learning to ride doubles as occupational therapy, teaching balance and coordination.

Eric Mikoleit:

We’ve seen great growth when it comes to communication in OT and just having a place to kind of relax.

Teacher:

All right. I have all your dinosaurs.

Zac Schultz:

Mikoleit says the biggest gains are not found in test scores, but in the personal growth of kids who may have never felt comfortable in a school environment before now.

Man:

Nice, Sam.

Eric Mikoleit:

They are increasing confidence. Where they’re looking at school now as not as an adversary.

Zac Schultz:

Lakeland Star was created four years ago because local parents did not like the services available for their children in the traditional public school setting. It’s modeled off of school in Minnesota called Lionsgate, and Mikoleit remembers his feeling during his first visit.

Eric Mikoleit:

The more they talked, it was jaw dropping, like, literally, I had to kind of — okay, we gotta go back to Wisconsin, you know, and it just went from there.

Zac Schultz:

The difference is in Minnesota the state provides the funding to run Lionsgate. As a Wisconsin charter school, money follows the Star Academy students over from the high school, but that isn’t enough to pay for the staffing they need.

Eric Mikoleit:

We have a full-time speech and language. We have a full-time occupational therapist. We have a full-time BCBA, which is unheard of in traditional public schools here in the state of Wisconsin.

Zac Schultz:

So the parents started fundraising. A local foundation came on board, then they held a golf tournament.

Eric Mikoleit:

When we had our first golf outing four years ago and we raised about, let’s say $400,000. No one knew what to expect. I think if we raised a dollar, great. If we raised $400,000, you got to be kidding me. Then the second year was almost double. Then the third year we had COVID and this past year was close to $1.3 million.

Zac Schultz:

It’s a stunning amount of money for a school with 38 students.

Eric Mikoleit:

I’ve never been in a community that have supported it the way they do.

Zac Schultz:

Mikoleit says their biggest problem now is a lack of space.

Eric Mikoleit:

We have a lot of phone calls. It’s tough to say “no.” It’s tough to tell families outside of our district, in our district that, sorry, we’re on a waiting list.

Zac Schultz:

Students who can’t get in to Star Academy go across the parking lot to Lakeland Union High School, where the majority of kids with special education needs are taught.

Rebecca Jablonski:

There’s no shortage of need.

Zac Schultz:

Rebecca Jablonski is the director of special education. She would love to be able to offer the same set of services.

Rebecca Jablonski:

Therapy dog, smaller case management sizes, more instruction available for speech and language, if I could have that here, that would be great. I would be in heaven.

Zac Schultz:

Her budget for 118 students is half that of Star Academy. Jablonski is happy for Stars’ fundraising and what it means for those kids, but it’s also frustrating.

Rebecca Jablonski:

But it doesn’t frustrate me because we don’t have it available. It frustrates me because I can’t offer it to all the students.

Zac Schultz:

But why not?

Rebecca Jablonski:

In comparison to the amount of services that special ed kids need, the amount of money that’s funded is very low.

Zac Schultz:

The problem is the state knowingly underfunds special education. But schools are required by law to provide the services so they have to take money from general education or shortchange special ed.

Jeff Spitzer-Resnick:

We’ve intentionally set this system up.

Zac Schultz:

Jeff Spitzer-Resnick is a civil rights lawyer who has sued multiple school districts on behalf of special education students in order to force schools to provide the services they need.

Jeff Spitzer-Resnick:

I hope I’m helping to change the system. Sometimes it is one step at a time. Sometimes it’s bigger picture.

Zac Schultz:

Spitzer-Resnick explains the way the state funds special education is each school submits their estimated costs to the state, and then the available money is split proportionally.

Jeff Spitzer-Resnick:

For every dollar that’s requested from every school district in special ed, we’re going to give 28 cents.

Zac Schultz:

Spitzer-Resnick says that 28% reimbursement level is the lowest in the nation for states that use that method. The federal government also shortchanges what they’ve promised for special education, contributing another 24% of costs. That adds up to 52% of the costs being covered leaving the rest for each school district to figure out on their own.

Jeff Spitzer-Resnick:

The legislature, sooner or later, unless it’s all going to crumble, needs to accept their responsibility to provide appropriate education for all our children.

Zac Schultz:

Funding levels are a budget decision. Republicans in the legislature have kept special education reimbursement to around 28% for the last decade. In the last school year, districts estimated $1.6 billion in services needed. The state provided just $450 million. Democratic Governor Tony Evers proposed a massive increase in special education spending in his last budget proposal. His plan would have increased state funding by $400 million a year, bringing reimbursement levels to 50%. Instead, Republicans added $85 million, which will bring reimbursement levels to 30%.

Rob Swearingen:

I think, overall, it was a pretty darn good budget.

Zac Schultz:

Rob Swearingen is a Republican in the Assembly and Lakeland Star’s biggest champion in the legislature.

Rob Swearingen:

I’m not an expert on autism. I can tell you this. It’s not going away, and the state better start addressing it more than what they are doing now.

Zac Schultz:

In the last two budgets, Swearingen has been able to get his colleagues to insert funding specifically for Lakeland Star. Governor Evers has vetoed that funding each time saying he does not want to pick winners and losers by targeting individual schools.

Rob Swearingen:

It was a personal gut punch to me from Governor Evers when he vetoed it the second time, and he claims winners and losers.

Zac Schultz:

Swearingen says other districts should look to copy Lakeland Star.

Rob Swearingen:

That model could be maybe duplicated in other parts of the state, but you certainly would have to have, you know, the community support.

Zac Schultz:

Eric Mikoleit says he’s been getting calls, but without million dollar fundraisers, just starting a charter school is not enough.

Eric Mikoleit:

That would be difficult in the current model to be able to replicate that without actually having changes in Madison and so forth in how we fund our schools.

Jeff Spitzer-Resnick:

When they start to siphon off money from already shortchanged public schools, that’s a problematic public policy decision.

Zac Schultz:

Jeff Spitzer-Resnick says even charter schools that are part of the larger district double up overhead costs and take away from the other students.

Jeff Spitzer-Resnick:

Now, I want to be clear. It doesn’t mean that’s a bad school. Doesn’t mean those kids aren’t getting a good education. It doesn’t mean that the parents and educators who formed it did it with ill-intent. They saw a sick system, unhealthy system, and they’re doing what they can to address it, but that’s not a systemic fix.

Zac Schultz:

Whether or not Lakeland Star Academy can be replicated, the larger question is whether their success with students should be considered exceptional or the baseline for what special education students deserve.

Rob Swearingen:

Where’s the benchmark? Where’s the start? Where’s the ceiling? Is this a high benchmark?

Zac Schultz:

There are more than 13,000 students diagnosed on the autism spectrum in Wisconsin, and Lakeland Star Academy is teaching fewer than 40 of them. In the last budget, Republicans prioritized $2 billion in tax cuts. The state currently has a $1.7 billion surplus. Rob Swearingen says just because Republicans won’t spend more on special education doesn’t mean they don’t care.

Rob Swearingen:

Core Republicans are going to always say we need more tax cuts, you know, but I guess I wouldn’t call — I wouldn’t paint them as anti-education.

Eric Mikoleit:

As they say, pay me now or pay me later type of model where, sure, there might be a sticker price when you first look at it.

Zac Schultz:

Eric Mikoleit says his students are all the evidence you need to prove it’s worth the cost. Another program at Lakeland Star is located in donated space at a nearby medical center. This is a lab where students do hands-on work to find out what real world jobs they may be suited for and what jobs they enjoy doing.

Rob Swearingen:

It is a business atmosphere. The kids actually have to punch in on the time clock.

Zac Schultz:

It’s one of Rob Swearingen’s favorite things about Lakeland Star.

Rob Swearingen:

These kids are learning real world skills that they can pick up on and move out into the community and have done so.

Zac Schultz:

There’s even a driving simulator where students can get their driver’s license. Mikoleit says most parents of his students never dreamed their children would drive a car to a job.

Eric Mikoleit:

That look was like, really Eric, you want to do driver’s ed in the north woods, students with developmental disabilities.

Zac Schultz:

Mikoleit says while they are not cheap, these are the programs that give these kids a chance to be full participants in society, making the expense worth every penny.

Eric Mikoleit:

What we are saving actually to the taxpayer, where we are not feeding a prison pipeline, where we’re not being additional cost to the healthcare system, where we’re addressing it now in a way where it actually is less money, etc., to the taxpayers, and that’s something — just has to flip, a lens that has to flip, and we hoping to continue with our success, that we can flip that lens.

Teacher:

Good job, everybody.

Zac Schultz:

Reporting from Minocqua, I’m Zac Schultz for “Here & Now.”