State Republicans Plan to Bring Back Proposal "Decoupling" Funding for Voucher Program and Public Schools

Friday, June 20th, 2025 -- 11:01 AM

(Corrinne Hess, Wisconsin Public Radio) Legislative Republicans plan to bring back a proposal that would pay for the state’s school voucher program separately from how it funds the public school system.

According to Corrinne Hess with Wisconsin Public Radio, under a “decoupling” bill, school vouchers would be funded from the state’s General Purpose Revenue rather than from the combination of state aid and local property taxes that fund them now.

Advocates say decoupling would give people property tax relief and potentially lead to increased state funding for public schools. But a report from the Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials released last month said the change could result in more vouchers and a surge in costs in the state budget.

“Decoupling proposals … would obscure the state and local fiscal impacts of the program and impede crucial public scrutiny of private voucher costs at the local level,” researcher Anne Chapman writes in the report.

The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates decoupling would save property taxpayers more than $342 million. General Purpose Revenue, or GPR, also comes from taxes, but it’s a wider pool that includes individual income taxes, sales and use taxes, and corporate income taxes.

A bill to decouple funding was first introduced in 2023. It passed 64-35 in the Assembly but failed in the Senate.  State Rep. Jessie Rodriguez, R-Oak Creek, told WPR a nearly identical bill is currently being crafted.

Rodriguez said decoupling won’t be a Hail Mary pass thrown in at the end of this year’s budget negotiations or used as a quid pro quo with the Department of Public Instruction.

“During the time leaders tried to negotiate with the governor on the budget over the last couple of weeks, this was brought up to him, and he wouldn’t give any commitments,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve decided at this point to just do a standalone bill and pass it out of the [Legislature] and send it over to him to hopefully get his support.”

Gov. Tony Evers’ office referred questions on decoupling to his previous responses. During a recent interview with WisconsinEye, Evers said he probably wouldn’t support it. “I’ll have to take a look at it,” Evers said.

“The implications of that are somewhat breathtaking. If there are different people in charge, the choice schools would suddenly get more money than the public schools, and that is unacceptable.”

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