thing. >> All right. We leave it
there. Don Millis, thanks very much.
>> Thank you. Have a good weekend.
>> In other news, dozens of school districts around the
state asked voters for $1 billion in ballot
referendums in the latest spring election. Much of
that money was just to keep the schools open and
operating. But many of those referendums failed.
And that means some schools in rural Wisconsin will
permanently close. Here and now. Reporter Steven Potter
has this report on rural school closures.
>> Thousands of the state's public schools are closing
for summer break. But there are two schools set next to
farms in central Wisconsin. >> We had to make the
difficult decision to shut the doors of two of our
rural schools. >> That won't reopen next
fall or ever again. >> This is definitely the
worst day of my career as an educator, and I think
it's one of the darkest days in the history of
Portage. >> Josh Swain is the
district administrator for the Portage Community
School District. He says the decision to close two
elementary schools, one in Marquette County, the other
in Columbia County, couldn't be avoided.
>> Purely for budgetary reasons. And that is
something that's going on all over the state.
>> Swain says. They did try to keep Lewiston and
Endeavor elementary schools open as long as they could.
>> The issue is funding, right? We just don't have
the funding to be able to do that.
>> After a referendum asking voters for more
money failed this spring, the school district made
the difficult decision. Portage isn't alone. Last
year, school districts in several rural counties such
as Dunn, Vilas, Jefferson, Richland, Juneau and others
all closed at least one school the year before that.
Another handful of schools in other, lesser populated
counties also closed. And earlier this spring, the
Hustisford School Board in Dodge County voted to
completely dissolve the school district, which
means the elementary, middle and high schools
will all close this year. Education experts say that
the impact of school closures on small
communities is very painful. >> A rural school is the
heart and soul and the identity of a community.
>> Bradley Karl studies rural school systems for
the UW-Madison, Wisconsin, Center for Education
Research. He says that part of the reason that small
rural schools are so missed when they close is because
they do so much so well. >> Things like small class
sizes and strong relationships between
teachers and students, and strong relationships
between school districts and employers in the
community. >> Services beyond the
regular school day are important for working
parents. >> School districts also
provide after school care, before school care, and
summer programs, and that has an economic impact in
terms of allowing families to work.
>> Schools in rural areas can also be a social hub
for the community. >> Everyone goes to the
basketball games on Friday night or the football games
on Friday night, but it's so much more than that, too.
It's going to the theater productions and the
homecoming parades. >> School closures are not
unique to rural areas. Over the last 20 years, more
than 600 public schools across Wisconsin have
closed, but nearly 40% of them have been in small,
rural counties of less than 100,000 residents. In all,
that's around 250 rural schools that have closed.
Like in Portage. There's just not enough money to
keep the doors open. And that's usually because
there are fewer students enrolled.
>> Two thirds, maybe three quarters of the rural
districts in Wisconsin. As is the case around the
country, are facing declining enrollment. Given
the way we fund schools, declining enrollment means
declining revenue from the state.
>> Figures from the Wisconsin Department of
Public Instruction show that student enrollment in
public schools has declined roughly 7% over the last
two decades. Population experts agree that this is
a nationwide problem, largely due to shrinking
birthrates. >> Declining enrollment is
real, and it's a challenge. >> Jeff I.D. knows the
problems facing rural school districts better
than most. He's the executive director of the
Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance.
>> 70% of the schools in the state are rural, so we
have a lot of rural schools. Not the majority of the
students are within our rural areas, but that's a
large footprint in Wisconsin.
>> I.D. says rural schools are doing their best.
>> They are working their buns off. They're working
hard to do the best they can with the resources that
they have. >> He adds that what the
state provides in per student funding isn't 100%
of what a school needs to operate, so they pull in
money from local government and property taxes to make
up the difference. And over the years, more and more
small and rural communities are having to go to ballot
referendums to ask residents for more money to
keep their schools open. >> I do see school
referendums at this time as a continuing trend,
unfortunately. I'm hoping one day that it becomes an
anomaly and not a need. >> Another major factor is
the rising cost of everything from gas for
busses to heating and cooling costs, to building
and even playground maintenance, as well as
school supplies and the need for new technology.
It's simply becoming more and more expensive to
educate students. >> But I think everybody's
struggling with the funding formula that we currently
have. >> Swain and ID agree that
changes to the state's school funding formula are
needed, like a per student rate increase tied to
inflation. That was part of the school funding formula
more than a decade ago. But state lawmakers
discontinued the practice back during the Great
Recession. >> We need to make sure
we're doing the best we can to meet the rate of
inflation. We haven't done that for many years.
>> If inflationary increases had continued
from 2009 to the end of this biennium, we would not
have a gap of it's $3,573 per student that we would
have gotten in state aid or in that per pupil revenue.
>> But in order for there to be a change in the
school funding formula at the state level, state
lawmakers and the governor would need to agree on what
those changes would be. >> There's a lot of
challenges in a rural district. Also. There's a
lot of really great things about a smaller rural
school. >> In the state Assembly.
Democrat Karen DeSiato represents the area that
includes the Portage Community School District,
where those two schools are closing. She says schools
are a draw for residents. >> When a school falters,
especially in a very small rural community, it affects
everyone. If a school is not there in a smaller
community, it discourages people to live there.
>> DeSiato is open to changes in school funding.
>> Our budgets are based on our values. As
Wisconsinites. Our values are to support our kids in
public education and we are not doing that.
>> Across the political aisle. Republican State
Representative Lindy Brill from Sheboygan Falls says
state budgets need to be balanced.
education is a priority in our state, which I do
believe our future generations is a priority,
then we need to figure out where we're cutting
elsewhere. state school funding
formula. >> I do think we are well
overdue to look at it now. That doesn't mean a
complete overhaul, but I do think we need to figure out
if this is the best way to serve the state.
compromise, school boards and administrators will
continue to struggle and keep asking voters for more
money. day, we still need to
balance the budget. And we don't we don't have the
money to do it. >> And in many cases, it's
all but certain that rural communities will keep
closing schools. Reporting closing schools. Reporting