>> The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original
production. >> No new deals yet for
education funding or property tax relief out of
the Capitol. As lawmakers turn into candidates and
campaigns turn their attention to the 2026
elections. I'm Frederica Freyberg
tonight on "Here& Now", a superintendent tells us why
districts of all sizes are urging property tax relief.
The candidates for governor weigh in on state prisons.
Charles Franklin shares the latest Marquette Law School
poll and a new focus looking at why Wisconsin is
falling behind in math. It's "Here& Now" for
February 27th. >> Funding for Here and Now
is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and
Friends of PBS Wisconsin. >> As the legislature and
governor remain without a deal on using the state
budget surplus for property tax relief, five school
districts, teacher unions, parents and students filed
a lawsuit this week against the legislature for failing
to adequately fund public schools in Wisconsin, as
required by the state constitution. The sweeping
lawsuit states it's not a new issue, but has gotten
much worse over the last 25 years. The complaint says
state aid to public school districts this year is $2
billion less than the inflation adjusted number
from 2009. You don't have to explain that to our next
guest. He's the superintendent of Sauk
Prairie schools, which is among districts not part of
that lawsuit that have been beseeching lawmakers and
the governor to both further fund schools and
provide property tax relief. Superintendent Jeff Wright
joins us now. And thanks very much for being here.
>> Thank you. Glad to be here.
>> So how disappointed were you and other
superintendents when the Assembly adjourned without
hatching this plan? >> Well, we were really
disappointed and in part because they adjourned the
session and the second or third week of February, and
we talked about that with some of our students, that
that would be similar to us ending the school year
after homecoming, that there's so much of this
year left that the legislature and the
together to solve these long standing problems, not
only using the state surplus that exists now to
solve property tax relief and school district finance
in the short term, but also sitting, sitting down and
doing the serious work of trying to address long term
concerns about the state's school finance formula.
>> So so you described the lawsuit as addressing those
long term issues with the school financing system,
and that you're what you're calling for is immediate
action to use the state surplus to both help
property taxpayers and schools. Describe what the
urgency is. >> Well, the urgency is in
part, the fact that we have this unique moment where
the state has more has more money in revenue than it
anticipated. And so there is a surplus that we could
be using to not only address property tax relief,
but also some of these school funding issues. Six
districts in Sauk County recently put out a letter
to the governor and the legislature asking for this
action. We're a really unique mix of of school
districts. We're in Wisconsin's most purple
county. And I think what we're saying is that if we
as school districts that are as politically diverse
as those in Sauk County, can get together and ask
for some urgency on this issue, that hopefully the
legislature will also take this up in a special
session and act right away. >> As to the issue of why
we're putting all the pressure on property
taxpayers at the same time that we're collecting more
money. Why do you think that is?
>> Well, school finance is something that we could
spend hours talking about with your viewers. It's
incredibly complicated, but every time that the state
raises the revenue limit, what student what what
schools can spend per student, that money has to
come from somewhere. And often it's come from the
state budget. But recently, the legislature has decided,
yes, school districts can spend a little bit more,
but that $325 has to fully be funded by local property
taxpayers. And so that's why we're asking with some
urgency, that before we go into another budget year,
instead of passing on that responsibility for funding
this to local property taxpayers that are already
stretched incredibly far, use some of the state's
surplus to not only address school funding, but also
give that property tax relief.
>> How does this situation kind of pit property
taxpayers against schools? >> Well, there's a direct
connection between the state not funding schools
the way it used to, and an increased reliance on
property taxpayers to pay that bill. This year's high
school seniors, the year they were born was the last
time that the revenue limit was tied to inflation. And
so under the Tommy Thompson administration, under the
Jim Doyle administration, the revenue limits for
school districts were tied to inflation. But when this
class of seniors was born 17 years ago, the revenue
limit and inflation was detached. And so every year
of their life, the amount that a school could spend
educating a child has fallen further and further
behind inflation, to the point where now it's over
$3,500. That gap between what would have been spent
in real dollars when those children were born, and
what a school district gets to spend now as their
seniors. >> If hundreds of districts
under this scenario are forced to go to referendum
to get the money, they need to operate and stay afloat,
what's the tipping point for voters? I mean, when do
they just say no? >> Well, we're certainly
seeing that for many communities. We've already
reached that point that as the state has chosen not to
allow revenue limits to go up and school districts
have turned to local property taxpayers for
referendums to operate schools, there are many
districts that have gone year after year to
referendum, hoping that they could get one passed
and have not been able to do so. And some of the
districts in the state have turned to their taxpayers
and said, if we don't pass this, we're going to have
to consider dissolving the district and sending our
students to other communities for schools or
be absorbed by another district. I think that that
tipping point for a lot of communities is that we know
that schools are often the lifeblood of a small
community, and that if we let the school fail, if we
let the school close, there's very little that's
going to be attracting new families to our community
in the future. But for many communities, they're
already at that tipping point, which is why this
lawsuit has been filed and why other districts are
signing on to the letters like ours, asking the
legislature to act immediately.
>> What about the argument from some Republicans that
what's needed is reform, not guaranteed funding to
prop up a broken system, especially in light of kind
of falling test scores? >> Well, I hope that we can
we can talk about schools and not just talk about
money, that it it's an honor to do this work and
to be a trusted partner with a parent in watching
their child grow and learn. And if a school can't show
their show the community how their school, how their
students are growing, that's on us. We need to
make sure that we're doing that. We also need to be
incredibly transparent with how we're spending taxpayer
dollars. Share the audits with our community. Share
the budgets. Because there's a lot of trust, not
only in the relationship that we get to have
watching a student grow and learn, but also the trust
that a community has to place in us as school
leaders and how we're spending the taxpayer
dollars to educate Wisconsin's children.
>> We leave it there. Superintendent Jeff Wright,
thanks very much. >> Thank you.
>> Governor Tony Evers $500 million plan to revamp the
state prison system is underway, but only in the
most modest fashion. Earlier this year, a
bipartisan group at the State Building Commission
released $15 million to start the years long
process to eventually close down green Bay Correctional.
Tonight, as we continue our look at some of the biggest
issues in the race for governor "Here& Now",
senior political reporter Zac Schultz asks the
leading candidates for governor if they would
carry through Governor Evers corrections overhaul.
>> Green Bay Correctional and Waupan Correctional are
two of the oldest prisons in the country still
holding inmates, and studies have shown time and
again the buildings are not safe for staff or prisoners.
But building new prisons is expensive, and closing down
prisons is not politically expedient. When every
election cycle can quickly shift focus to law and
order. So we asked nine of the leading candidates if
they would continue. Governor Evers plans to
reform Wisconsin's prison system.
>> I watched that plan be developed. I have great,
great respect for the team at the Department of
Corrections who has put that plan together, along
with Governor Evers administration, and we need
to get moving on that. You know, it might not be
perfect, but nothing ever is when it comes to
corrections. It's a very difficult situation. And
but we need to make improvements on that. We
need to modernize that system. It is costing us
more now to keep the old system in place than it
would be to build a new system and get that rolling.
>> Yeah. So with green Bay, I know that there are a
number of safety concerns. Structural concerns, of
course. I mean, we can't have people or even whether
you're a person who's housed at that facility or
a person who's working at that facility, we can't
people have people in substandard conditions. So
the overhaul of smaller facilities, more regional
facilities, I think that might get us to a place
where we can more effectively rehabilitate
people. And that has to be our baseline as well,
ensuring that rehabilitation actually
happens. >> I think it's important
to look at reducing our prison population, while
also ensuring that those who are at the Department
of Corrections have opportunities to be able to
transition and be safe in their work environments.
And so I will certainly look at some of the plans
that the governor has now. But overall, it's important
that we look at transition programs and ways that we
can keep those who are incarcerated and those who
are working in our prisons safe.
>> Absolutely. We have to absolutely have to make
sure that we are doing what's best for people
within our prison system and corrections system, and
it needs an overhaul. >> And I think we need to
continually try to to create that balance where
where there is need for secure detention and where
there is need for employees of the corrections system
to have the right tools at their disposal. We need to
create those, because we have these 150 year old
prisons and things that we need to do to make
investments on. But at the same time, I think we also
need and I think the governor has done this too.
We need to look at the alternatives to
incarceration. We need to work with our partners at
the local level to ensure that there is a pathway
that doesn't just ensure that what we have is the
last resort, which is where we're putting people in
prison and locking them up. >> We have to reform the
Department of Corrections. Governor Evers, when he ran
against Governor Walker, he said, I am going to take
care of that, including Lincoln Hills, and he has
not followed through on it. And when you look at the
debacle over in Waupan with, I think there's been a
couple deaths over there, I mean, that's unacceptable.
We need reform in the Department of Corrections,
and I will I don't know that I'll go in the same
direction as Governor Evers, but clearly we have to
reform our correctional system.
revisit how we do corrections here in the
state of Wisconsin. When I served in the state
legislature years ago, you know, Grover Norquist came
to Wisconsin to talk about how we needed to do
criminal justice reform. And there's not many times
where I can say I agree with Grover Norquist. And
so we should be looking at how do we make sure that
those, those, those, those less violent offenders
aren't just spending as much time in our care,
which costs us a lot more money to have them in
prison? rightsize the corrections
system, and we have to get serious about safety in
this state. We have pursued policies that are not only
not evidence based, but that really undermine
public safety. It is how we incarcerate people. It is
how long, and it is the lack of services and
training to help people succeed when they actually
reenter society. We spend an ocean of money on this,
and we are not getting the safety return that we
deserve. >> Reporting from Madison.
I'm Zach Schultz for "Here& Now".
>> Notwithstanding our efforts to bring you the
positions of the candidates for state, Supreme Court
and governor in our weekly reporting on issues in the
races, a new Marquette Law School poll this week shows
two thirds of voters are undecided between judges
Chris Taylor and Maria Lazar in the April 7th
election for Supreme Court. Likewise, in the large
field of Democratic candidates in the lone
Republican in the race for governor, which will be
narrowed in an August primary, the poll shows no
runaway leader, with most candidates not well known
by voters. Poll director Charles Franklin joins us
now. And thanks for being here.
>> So what does it say about voter engagement,
when roughly 66% of your respondents don't know
enough about the two Supreme Court candidates
less than two months away? >> Yeah, I think it's first
of all, it is unusually low engagement this year. It's
not nearly as high as it was a year ago or in the
gubernatorial races as it was in, say, 2018 or 2022.
So we do seem a little less engaged right now. Some of
that is that the advertising has not really
kicked in in the Supreme Court race compared to
where it was a year ago. This time, only 6% said
they'd heard or read a lot about the Supreme Court
race a year ago. That was 39% at this same time in
February. So I think those things will pick up. But
we're getting started a bit slower than we did a year
ago. >> I'll say in the
governor's race, most of the eight major candidates
between 52 and 82% who took your poll have not heard
enough about them. Of course, former Lieutenant
Governor Mandela Barnes is a little better known. But
should anyone take stock in this kind of poll number at
this point. >> I think the stock you
take is the disengagement that all of these
candidates have work to do, introducing themselves to
voters. Mandela Barnes is the best known by a good
bit, followed by Tom Tiffany, followed by Sarah
Rodriguez on the Democratic side. But all of them have
the chance to introduce themselves to voters over
the next however many eight months it is seven months
till the primary, but that will take time. And often
we see that in primaries people don't really tune in
until June. >> On the issues which you
also pulled on. Data centers, as we all know,
are a hot topic right now. You looked at how people
viewed the cost benefit analysis of them. Your
results show respondents from all parties think the
costs outweigh the benefits, but who wins the day here?
Public opinion or moneyed interests?
>> Well, moneyed interests are certainly important,
and the development of these centers is an
economic priority for a whole industry. But the
public has not been convinced. I think the
proponents of data centers have failed to convince the
public that those benefits are real. People recognize
that technical jobs and tax revenue for communities are
important benefits, but they look at water usage as
a big concern cost. They also are concerned about
electricity. Maybe surprisingly, the second
biggest cost people point to is developing AI and
saying we shouldn't develop artificial intelligence. So
there's a real need to communicate with voters
about what those benefits are or the the critics end
up with the upper hand on this. And we've seen a big
movement away from data centers since October. When
we first asked. >> On immigration, the way
its enforcement has rolled out is not favored, with
44%, just 44% approving and 5,456% disapproving, do you
think? But for the Minneapolis surge and the
shooting deaths by the Border Patrol of two people,
these numbers would look different.
>> I think that the events that have been going on in
Minneapolis have certainly tilted independents away
from the way they view ICE Republican approval of ICE
is still quite high in the 7070 plus percent range,
80% actually on ICE. But Democrats are deeply
negative. More importantly is independents. Now three
quarters are negative about ICE.
>> Then there's the issue everyone is talking about.
That is property taxes versus school funding. Your
poll results show 60% of registered voters prefer
reducing property tax, while 40% would rather
spend more on public schools. Now, you have been
pulling on this for for years. Is this newly
resonant? >> Now it.
>> Is, but it's been building for a long time.
We've seen this trend move. We've done, I think it's 26
polls on this since 2012. This is the biggest ever
that say property taxes are more important. 60 to 40.
We saw a big majority saying schools were more
important in 2015 to 2019, but those trends have moved
in opposite directions. Property taxes are really
ascendant right now. >> Interesting. Charles
Franklin, thank you so much. >> Thank you.
>> Along with the number of education bills that
stalled in the legislature, one authored by State
Representative Karen Hurd, would have provided year
round testing and tutoring for students falling behind
in math despite not gaining enough support this past
legislative session. The push will continue to help
K through eighth grade students in Wisconsin
struggling with math tonight. Here and now,
reporter Murv Seymour takes us to the classroom and the
big screen to learn more about statewide struggles
and success with math. >> This evening, we're
going to do the film screening of Count It Out.
>> Tonight is movie night at the Urban League of
Madison's Black Business Hub.
>> We brought this film to Madison, to the community
so that we can be a contributor with changing
the dialog. >> It's a packed house for
the first ever public showing in Wisconsin of
Counted Out, a documentary about the importance of
math. >> Because math is all
around us, it is something that maybe many of us might
have had a negative experience with when we
were in school, but we want to change that narrative.
>> The film features two University of
professors. Erika Bullock is one of them.
>> I love teaching math, for sure.
>> By her estimate, this is about her 15th time
participating in a counted out screening.
>> When people are thinking about screening it, they
think about, okay, this is going to help parents to
understand how they can mathematics. It's really
difficult to convince people that there's value
in math, even though we use it all the time.
>> Math is everywhere. >> Understanding math is
foundational, just under, you know, being able to
function in the world. >> Based on the numbers.
Educators everywhere agree Wisconsin students need to
do better in math. According to Wisconsin's
forward exam, the test used to assess how well students
are doing in the classroom, just over half in grades
three through eight are proficient in math. In
Milwaukee schools, the number is just over 20%.
>> I would say this question of math and
numeracy is every bit as important as a conversation
we've had around literacy. >> Welcome to the Milwaukee
offices of City Forward Collective, a nonprofit
team of educators and advocates led by Colleston
Morgan. understand and analyze so
many different aspects of our world.
>> Collectively, their mission is to eliminate
educational inequity while providing students access
to quality schools. City Ford also tracks state and
national test scores of students at public and
private schools statewide. A father of two, Colleston
Morgan tells me he tracks his own kids in their
journeys with math. >> My fourth grader
probably just got through her times table. She's
working on advanced multiplication division. My
sixth grader is doing her math skills as well, right?
What keeps me up at night is thinking about the tens
of thousands of students across our state who maybe
aren't getting that same level of instruction, who
maybe aren't getting that same level of attention. At
home. We get to the point where we don't even think
about the ways in which we're adding and
subtracting, multiply and divide.
>> And we say, okay, it's three hours away. If I go
about 60, I'll get there. Those kinds of calculations,
we don't see those as mathematical, really
calculating a discount in a store or, you know, kind of
visually eyeing something to see. Okay, does this
look about the same size. >> In politics?
Strategizing winning campaigns and mapping
voting districts involves math.
>> This is a battleground state. I need to invest my
resources because there is something here that the
data has shown that says this is a possibility for
me. We're using algorithms in order to determine if
somebody will recommit a crime and return back to
prison. And maybe for every disciplinary infraction,
I'm going to subtract ten points.
>> Math is at the center of managing Covid and other
diseases. >> You have one person who
is infected, and then that person sits in a room with
30 people and now 30 people are infected.
>> Walk sign is on to cross park.
>> Even something as mundane as crossing a busy
street involves mathematics. >> I'm thinking about.
>> You got 30 seconds to get across the street.
>> So I'm looking at the distance.
before the light turns red? >> Do I need to run? Do I
need to walk fast. >> On the street? You're
driving 35 miles an hour. >> Suitcase in my hand. Can
I make it? >> These foundational
the basis for your ability to access and enter. And if
anything, they'll only become more important.
>> People need to hear that there are places in
education that are working. >> The Notre Dame Academy
on Milwaukee's south side is one of those places.
>> There's a special math culture here, and it's
evident in the numbers. >> That's the school's
president, Patrick Landry, speaking about the culture
of learning at Notre Dame. >> Math is cool here. Math
is fun. When you ask the kids their favorite
subjects, I'd say 70% of them are saying math.
>> You each have a problem. It's up front here.
>> Welcome to Mrs. Frome's eighth grade all boys
algebra class. >> To make sure that
whatever you input for X, whatever the outcome is for
Y, then okay. >> Where the proof is all
in the numbers, student Jonathan Todd will tell you,
in this classroom, the passion for math adds up to
positive perfection. >> The teachers here are
just amazing. I think that like the best teachers in
the world. >> Sixth through eighth
grade boys at Notre Dame scored a perfect 100% in
math on the state's Ford exam. It's girls, 70%
students at other Milwaukee schools in the same grades
scoring at 20%. >> So is your X and Y is
going to be the same as Jonathan's. Yes or no?
>> Jonathan wants to be a math teacher some day.
>> The reason why people struggle with math is
because you haven't learned it yet.
>> He believes the derivative of school
Dame is a combination of strict teaching discipline,
students supporting each support. And it's okay to
make mistakes. He and his classmates say. They learn
from them. >> There's a coefficient in
front of the variable y. >> Outside the classroom,
Jonathan says. He uses math all the time, even when he
plays basketball. >> If I'm like the three
point line and my brain is like, how much force I need
to put in the ball, how what angle I need to go
upwards like this into the net.
come up and give me an example.
>> After more than 30 years in the classroom, Angie
says teaching how students learn has changed a lot
today. It involves more problem solving, more
critical thinking. >> Maybe you and I were
kids where we just like, okay, what is two times
five is ten? What is it was it's more more than
computation. It's more conceptual. You know, you
have to really think about and use it for everyday
situation, everyday life. >> I have numbers in front
of me all day financial data, fundraising trends,
enrollment and demographic data test scores.
>> You each have a problem. It's up front here.
>> At Notre Dame School of Milwaukee, the formula for
than their peers at other schools involves a simple
equation centered around the basics.
>> Fluency and subtraction, addition and multiplication,
and percents, decimals and fractions. And if students
don't have those in second, third, fourth grade, it
makes any type of more complicated or more
advanced math. In middle school or high school
really hard. >> We've got to make sure
that teachers are getting the right training. We've
got to make sure that students are showing up.
>> I think it's a partnership between the
home and school. >> As long as it looks nice
and neat and organized. >> In your notebook.
>> Capiche? Prasch. All right.
as you can see in some of our data, I think really
remarkable things can happen.
>> Reporting from Milwaukee I'm Murv Seymour for here.
>> Now for more on this and other issues facing
Wisconsin, visit our website at PBS Wisconsin
and then click on the news tab. That's our program for
tonight I'm Frederica Freyberg.
[MUSIC] >> Funding for "Here& Now"
is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and
Friends of PBS Wisconsin.