Here & Now

Wisconsin Boosts State Funding for Public, Private Schools

Frederica Freyberg:

For more on how the state budget will treat school funding and the numbers negotiated between the Legislature and the governor, “Here & Now” reporter Steven Potter has details.

Woman:

I ask that you support closing the funding gap across all sectors of education in the state of Wisconsin.

Steven Potter:

As students prepare for another summer, lawmakers have now decided on details for one of the most contentious and expensive parts of the state budget process and that’s funding for Wisconsin’s K-12 schools. Like past budgets, everyone from education officials to teachers and parents have been asking for an increase in school funding.

Heather Dubois Bourenane:

I’m really scared about the state of Wisconsin’s public education system right now. We’ve historically under-resourced our kids for 40 years now, imposing just measure after measure that makes it harder and harder for kids to keep up and catch up.

Steven Potter:

That’s Heather Dubois Bourenane with the nonprofit advocacy group known as the Wisconsin Public Education Network. She says that some 40% of the testimony at the recent Joint Finance Committee hearings around the state have been educators, school board members, and other state residents asking for an increase in public education funding.

Kathleen Davis-Phillips:

It is absolutely crucial for Deforest and all Wisconsin public schools that this biennial budget makes up for what failed to do the last time by providing schools with an adequate and recurring funds by which we can operate effectively on.

Steven Potter:

Dubois Bourenane says one of the primary problems facing the state’s public education problem is a teacher shortage.

Heather Dubois Bourenane:

One of the reasons that we have such a teacher crisis right now in Wisconsin is because we don’t have a system where every district can afford to provide a living wage level of pay for all educators.

Steven Potter:

According to early details about a deal between Democratic Governor Tony Evers and Republican leaders in the state Legislature, the two sides have agreed to an increase in education funding in the upcoming state budget by $1 billion. That money will come from a mix of state aid and property taxes. It includes an increase of $97 million for special education and an increase of $30 million for student mental health initiatives. The new education funding package also includes state money for the private school choice voucher program. Specifically there, students in kindergarten through eighth grade voucher programs will get about $1,000 more annually and high school students in the voucher program will get $3,000 more per year. Nic Kelly is the president of the nonprofit advocacy group known as School Choice Wisconsin. He says there are many reasons why people choose private schools.

Nic Kelly:

Some people do it in terms of academics. Some do it in terms of situations that they resulted from a relationship with the public schools. They want out. Some people do it for religious reasons. But it’s really what a internal dynamic of a family wants.

Steven Potter:

Kelly says that the $7 billion state revenue surplus provides a lot of incentive for the school choice funding increase.

Nic Kelly:

Now is the time because parents are calling for it, right? It’s not an agenda of any one individual group. It’s the voice of the parents and the families across the state that want these opportunities and finding an education that is going to fit their child’s needs.

Steven Potter:

Dubois Bourenane says an increase in school funding is the right thing to do right now.

Heather Dubois Bourenane:

What kids need is pretty simple, and if we just put our funding priorities where those priority needs are, we could fix most of what’s wrong with how we do school funding in the state tomorrow. Let’s just do it.

Steven Potter:

For “Here & Now,” I’m Steven Potter.