"Here& Now". >> A closer look now at turning
to voters to boost funding for public K-12 schools. On April
1st, voters in 89 districts across the state will see school
spending referendums on the ballot. In Racine, the city's
public schools face one of those pivotal votes Tuesday, as the
debate over school choice and funding methods intensifies.
Here and now, reporter Aditi Debnath has more.
>> Home to the state's fifth largest public school district,
Racine finds itself at the center of Wisconsin's ongoing
education funding debate. On April 1st, voters will decide on
a crucial $190 million referendum that could determine
the future of Racine Unified School District.
>> Well, right now, what we're asking from our community is to
allow us to hold the budget we have right now.
>> Soren Gajewski is the superintendent of Racine
Unified. >> So the budget that I have
this year, the staffing that I have this year, the programs
that we have right now, we want to be able to maintain that.
>> That budget, staffing and programing is all at risk if
taxpayers vote no. >> It's kind of scary to think
about what it might be, you know, is it going to be school
nurses? Is it going to be social workers, counselors?
>> Ryan Knudsen is an eighth grade teacher and parent at
Racine Unified. He says he's voting yes on April 1st.
>> I think anybody would agree. We want local workers. We want a
good local economy. And I think it starts with the public school
system. road from that K-8 public school
is a private school called Saint Catherine's.
about remember why your mom and dad want you to come to the
school and remember why it's special.
36 schools in the Racine Parental Choice Program, which
allows parents to use taxpayer dollars as vouchers for private
school education. >> Well, it's a wonderful
opportunity for parents now across the state to have a
choice in where they would like to send their child to school.
>> Brenda White was the former president of Siena Catholic
Schools. The system of seven private schools in Racine that
includes Saint Catherine's. Currently, she serves on the
board of School Choice Wisconsin.
>> Very key to why parents choose a private school is
because we can determine what that curriculum instruction is
going to look like. >> So under the.
>> Educational freedom is a main argument from supporters of
school choice. But the program is a point of contention between
supporters like white and critics concerned about its
impact on public school funding. >> People choosing to have
different types of education is a part of being in a free
country, but we have tax dollars that are public, is assuming is
going to their public schools and being represented by the
school board and in the voucher situation, that is not happenin.
>> Gajewski refers to the way voucher schools are funded from
the state's Total education coffers. For example, this year
the state's general aid to Racine Unified Public Schools is
more than $180 million. The estimated cost of the Racine
Parental Choice program is more than 44 million. That leaves
property taxpayers to backfill the funding siphoned to private
schools through district referenda.
>> I think it's important to point out that decoupling and
the way the state funding is works now is a separate issue
from the referenda. >> White says the solution is to
separate public and voucher school funding in the state
budget, referred to as decoupling public schools would
be funded with property tax dollars and voucher schools with
general purpose tax revenue. White claims this would protect
public schools from losing funding to private schools.
>> It's a win win to both the district who would increase
their state Aids, and it would be a win for property taxpayers
who would have that burden lessened.
>> The state Senate failed to pass the bill. That would have
decoupled Racine schools last year before it even made it to
the floor. Critics like Knudson have concerns over further
protecting choice programs in state law.
>> I think that program is it's very damaging to public schools
when we when we could be allocating resources to public
of the community. >> The debate in Racine reflects
a broader statewide and national conversation about the role of
public versus private education. But regardless of what
conversations are happening in Madison, Superintendent Gajewski
faces a looming $24 million budget deficit next week. If his
referendum fails. >> This year, once again,
referendum are showing up on the ballot across the state,
including our neighbors to the South, that had a referendum a
few weeks back in February that did not pass.
>> Kenosha schools, their neighbors to the south, failed
to pass a $115 million ballot referendum.
>> 80% of our budget is staff, and that's typically where the
cuts and reductions are going to be.
Unified School District, the only Wisconsin school to fail
its referendum in the February election. This came months after
Wisconsin schools like Kenosha ran out of the federal Esser
dollars meant to help schools with setbacks coming out of the
Covid 19 pandemic. Weiss now faces a $19 million deficit.
>> The Esser funding, the way that was set up, it was primed
to have school districts have to go to referendum in order to
continue to operate. >> Wisconsin received $1.5
billion in Esser funding in 2021. At the time, the
Republican controlled legislature gave $0 increases in
per pupil state aid to schools, counting federal dollars as
state funding. In the current budget, per pupil revenue did
increase by $325, but the Esser money ran out this past
September, leaving the already stretched thin public schools to
cut costs. >> The biggest cut was in staff
about $10 in staff last year. >> We reduced the number of
buildings that we had in the schools that we operated in by
seven, and that saved us about 9 or $10 million.
>> As April 1st approaches, the eyes of educators and
policymakers across Wisconsin will be on Racine.
>> This funding gap is not a Racine Unified situation. It is
a state of Wisconsin situation. So it is there. It will be there
next year and the year after and the year after. It has to be
resolved. resolved.