Republican's School Funding Increase has Little Impact on Clark County Schools
Friday, October 27th, 2017 -- 11:40 AM
-Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Republican controlled state legislator our touting an increase in school funding in the recently approved state budget.However, our local, rural Clark County districts will see very little benefit from that money. According to the Journal Sentinel, the 2017-19 budget includes $636 million increase in K-12 spending. But, critics worry the budget hurts historically low-spending districts. They also fear the spending package will hurt property-poor school districts because it favors distributing money on a per-student basis rather than considering a district’s ability to raise property taxes to cover costs. And they say it doesn’t do much to quell the explosion of referenda in recent years, in which school districts ask voters to lift state-mandated spending limits to avoid drastic cuts.
John Gaier, District Administrator of the Neillsville School District, stated that almost a million dollars of the K-12 budget goes directly to taxpayers as a levy credit. This credit goes to the people owning the most expensive properties, and goes to a number of people that own properties in Wisconsin, but do not actually live in the state. $270,000 of K-12 funding is going to private and for-profit schools and a large portion of K-12 funding goes to general aid. General aid is sent to districts to offset property taxes. It does not give districts more money to spend.
The one item in the budget that would have actually helped with equitable funding for school would have allowed low-spending districts to increase the cap on the amount they can spend from a combination of local property taxes and state aid per student from $9,100 to $9,300 this year and $9,400 next year. But Governor Walker vetoed the provision, saying it would allow districts to levy more in property taxes without vote input.
Even with the “increase” in school funding, a portion of Clark County’s school district will see a decrease in state aid, according to the Department of Public Instruction. The districts include Abbotsford with a decrease of $69,502, Granton with a decrease of $2,319, Neillsville with a decrease of $243,219 and Owen-Withee with a decrease of $131,903. Legislators have stated that schools should operate more like a business, but there aren’t many businesses being asked to maintain their level of service with a decrease of anywhere from $2,000 to $243,000.
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