More Voters Seeing School Referendums on the Ballot

Thursday, January 25th, 2024 -- 10:00 AM

(Danielle DuClos, Green Bay Press-Gazette) Wisconsin voters' ballots will be crowded in 2024.

According to Danielle DuClos with the Green Bay Press-Gazette, in addition to the presidential election and local races, voters can also expect to see school district referendums in both the spring and fall.

It’s estimated that a quarter of school districts in the state will put a referendum on the ballot in 2024, according to Julie Underwood, a dean emerita with the University of Wisconsin-Madison who focuses on education policy.

More than 50 school districts have already said they’re putting at least one referendum on the ballot in 2024, and many others are considering it. Milwaukee Public Schools is seeking $252 million in additional operating revenue and the Mukwonago Area School District, southwest of Milwaukee, is asking voters for $102 million to build a new middle school.

If it seems like local school districts are asking voters for additional funding more often, it’s because, in general, they are. School referendums have been on the rise in Wisconsin since 2016, according to Sara Shaw, a senior researcher with the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum.

Since 2016, there have been an average of 111 referendums on the ballot each year, up from an annual average of 92 between 2008 and 2015, Shaw said. There is no one specific reason, Shaw said, rather compounding pressures over time: declining enrollment, aging buildings, inflation and state revenue limits that haven’t kept pace with rising costs for over a decade.

The revenue limits are a big sticking point. There are two types of school funding referendums: operational and capital. Operational referendums allow school districts to increase their tax levy to get additional operating dollars.

In Wisconsin, there are limits on how much revenue a school district can generate, aptly called a revenue limit. But these revenue limits have not kept pace with inflation since 2009.

The only way to exceed this limit is through a taxpayer-approved operational referendum. Rising costs and funding that doesn’t keep pace leaves districts with few options. They can cut costs, secure additional funding or do a combination of the two.

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