The funds our public schools use to operate come from a variety of sources, but for the sake of this conversation I'll focus on property taxes and state equalization aid. 

During 1993-94, the state legislature implemented a revenue limit that put a cap on the amount of revenue a school district could collect through local property taxes and state aid, on a per pupil basis (remember this part); an effort to control the rapid increase in property taxes at the time. 

How much we pay in property taxes is the revenue limit, less any state equalization aid (funds provided by the state). Each school district has a different revenue limit. The starting point for each district was what they were collecting at the time. So districts are locked into relative spending levels from 30 years ago.  That's great if your district was spending more, but in districts with lower historical spending levels (like Wauwatosa at the time) it hasn't fared well. The only way to spend more than the revenue limit is to pass a referendum.

The Wisconsin legislature initially increased the revenue limit to adjust with inflation until the recession in 2009-10 when it was removed and never put back in. In 2011 it decreased by $554 per pupil. On March 11, 2011, Scott Walker also signed Act 10 into law, severely restricting the collective bargaining rights of public employees, including teachers. 

In 2024, Governor Evers used his line item veto power to provide a $325 per pupil increase to the revenue limit starting in the 2025-27 budget and continuing for longer than any of us will be here to see come to an end. But that just means districts can collect more. It doesn't guarantee the state of Wisconsin will provide more. And the state legislature didn't. There are no increases in general aid for the 2025-27 budget. What does that mean? School districts can take the extra $325 per pupil from your property taxes, without referendum. 

Poverty is rising in Wisconsin.  During the 2000-2001 school year roughly 25.5% of Wisconsin students qualified for free or reduced meals. During the 2022-23 school year, that number was 40.5%. (source) It's risen in Wauwatosa too, and currently hovers around 25%. That's 1 out of every 4 students in our schools. There is some funding, called Title 1, from the federal level, but the state of Wisconsin has no additional funding model to help with the additional needs of economically disadvantaged students.

Open Enrollment

Each year, public school districts must decide how many open enrollment seats they will open. Whether we want to admit it or not, this program is an arm of school choice. It is not a diversity or race based program. In fact, some would argue it discriminates against students with disabilities. While districts can open seats to non-resident students with disabilities, they rarely do. The seats open to students with disabilities are a separate list too. We can decide to open 100 seats to open enrollment, for example, while also stating we will take zero students who have disabilities. 

Districts who lose students to another district have to pay that district. It would make sense, then, that if Wauwatosa accepted more open enrollment students, we could keep our classrooms and buildings full, and continue to operate as usual. But families who willingly drive their children to a different district aren't doing so for no reason. It's likely because the district they were in wasn't meeting their needs, and those needs come at a cost. 

Once a student is accepted as a student through open enrollment, they are our student. Typically the only reasons to end a students enrollment is if they are habitually truant or expelled. But if the students needs end up costing more than what the district collects from their home district, the receiving district makes up the difference. For the 2025-26 school year, the amount districts receive for an open enrollment student was increased to approximately $10,102 per student. While that helps, it's still less than the $11,380 we collect for a resident student, and not a guarantee it will be enough to cover the actual cost of educating that student.

Additionally, when a student who is accepted through open enrollment is identified as needing special education services, Wauwatosa Schools will typically offer a 504 plan instead of IEP services to allow them to stay in our district. Without specially designed instruction -- the core of an IEP -- many students will continue to struggle. This does a disservice to our students and our district.