Why Special Education Is a Focus of Wisconsin's 2025 Budget

Frederica Freyberg:
On the issue of K-12 school funding in the state budget, a push to increase funding for special education. Proponents want more state money for students with learning challenges to release the pressure that special education costs put on local property taxes. “Here & Now” reporter Steven Potter has more.

Tiffany Schanno:
Education is a right that we all have. They have a right to every bit of as good of an education as anyone else.

Steven Potter:
Students with disabilities make up nearly 16% of all children in the Wisconsin school system. There are more than 120,000 students with disabilities in the state. These students can have cognitive or emotional behavior issues, speech, health, or physical impairments, learning disabilities, or a range of other conditions that require them to have special help at school.

Jack:
This is my friend.

Steven Potter:
Tiffany Schanno’s son is one of those students.

Tiffany Schanno:
My son Jack is seven years old. He is a lot of fun. He’s a brilliant little boy and he’s also autistic. We’ve struggled finding him the right supports that he needs to be successful in the community and in school. Jack cannot write, so he is able to use assistive technology like speech to text. And he also has a 1-to-1 aide. So someone who’s with him all the time to help him navigate school.

Steven Potter:
Right now, Schanno’s son is enrolled in a public school in Sheboygan.

Tiffany Schanno:
I think that they try their best.

Steven Potter:
But she’s worried about Jack’s educational future, primarily because there aren’t enough school staff trained to do the work he needs.

Tiffany Schanno:
We have a special education educator shortage. We have a shortage of paraprofessionals who are those adults who work one on one with our kids. There are shortages of school psychologists. We don’t have enough speech therapists, occupational therapists. We’re expecting general education teachers now to also kind of step into that special education role. And I don’t think that we set them up for success with that.

Steven Potter:
Shawano says that the money public schools in Wisconsin get for special education just isn’t enough.

Tiffany Schanno:
The funding isn’t there. For every dollar that a school spends on special education, they’re reimbursed about 30 cents from the state. We believe that that number should be a lot higher.

Tony Evers:
During my first term, I fought to secure the first special education aid increase in over a decade.

Steven Potter:
Democratic Governor Tony Evers agrees. As part of his state budget proposal for the 2025-2027 biennium, Evers would like to double the amount the state spends on special education.

Tony Evers:
And we’re going to guarantee the state reimburses special education costs at 60% to ensure every kid gets a public education they deserve.

Steven Potter:
But that still needs to pass the Republican-controlled state legislature. Stakes are high for parents and their kids.

Melissa Custer:
My older son is eight and my younger son is five. My older son has — is neurodivergent. He’s got ADHD. He also has some other complex health needs. And then my younger son is five and he has autism and ADHD, and he also has a speech language disorder. Say hi Corbin.

Corbin:
Hi!

Steven Potter:
Melissa Custer says that because of the special education staffing challenges at her elder son’s Grafton School District, she removed him from the local school and now teaches him at home. Custer and Shawano created the “Learn in My Shoes” outreach campaign earlier this year. Together, they’ve been speaking up with other parents about the need for more special education funding.

Melissa Custer:
Parents are tired of competing for limited resources. We are tired of excuses, of being dismissed and of your heads nodding like you understand when you really don’t. It’s time for special education to be reimbursed at at least 60% sum sufficient, and we aren’t going anywhere until we have it.

Steven Potter:
In addition to testifying before the state budget committee, parents with “Learn in My Shoes” are also taking their demands directly to lawmakers in the Capitol, dropping off stories about their special education struggles tucked into their kids’ shoes. Milwaukee Democratic state Senator Chris Larson is a longtime advocate for increased special education funding. He says that not increasing funding at the state level will continue to cause problems at the local school level.

Chris Larson:
We need to get to that 60% or bust, because otherwise those kids are costing those schools, right? And we shouldn’t penalize schools for taking in every child that enters their classrooms.

Steven Potter:
What will happen if funding for special education remains at the current level of 30 or less than 30%?

Chris Larson:
If it goes lower, or if it stays what it is, it’s going to go — it’s going to result in property tax increases, which is what we’ve had, right? But beyond that, they are cut to the bone. People are kind of sick and tired of having to make up for the difference, and people are starting to see that this is the state’s problem, not their local school board, that they’ve been blaming.

Steven Potter:
Potentially blaming school districts for going to referendum seeking more funding from taxpayers. If Governor Evers proposal of doubling reimbursements from 30 to 60% passes the state legislature, that would be an extra $1.1 billion spent on special education over the next two years. Republican State Representative Jessie Rodriguez of Oak Creek says that that amount is a very big financial request.

Jessie Rodriguez:
It’s very difficult to say that that’s something we could possibly do when it costs $1 billion.

Steven Potter:
Rodriguez, who sits on the Joint Finance Committee, says she and her Republican colleagues are listening.

Jessie Rodriguez:
Special education is something that’s supported by pretty much everyone.

Steven Potter:
Last week, however, Republicans on JFC removed hundreds of Governor Evers’ funding proposals, including more money for special education, but Rodriguez says that special education funding increases are still on the table for the budget that the legislature will write.

Jessie Rodriguez:
I think the desire is to do more but it’s going to be a lot — a lot of discussions to see what that number is going to be.

Steven Potter:
While the state does currently have about a $4 billion budget surplus, Rodriguez isn’t in favor of using that money to fund special education increases, because it’s not a long-term solution.

Jessie Rodriguez:
We just have that one time surplus. There is an expectation in that if we’re going to put more funding into special education, that we need to continue to provide that funding moving forward.

Steven Potter:
Parents like Shawano and Custer, however, have grown tired of their children’s education needs not being met. They say it’s past time to increase and properly fund special education.

Melissa Custer:
There’s just not enough to go around right now.

Tiffany Schanno:
I don’t believe that it’s fair that these barriers that don’t need to be there keep people from accessing their right to an education, and that affects their entire life.

Steven Potter:
Reporting from Grafton, I’m Steven Potter for “Here & Now.”