The Referenda

Okay, if every local district is in the same bind, and taxpayers and schoolkids everywhere are being pitted against each other, then how do we get together and apply pressure on the state? I'm joined by two folks who've been organizing pressure campaigns and harnessing the kind of anger we're seeing in our community for a long time: the Wisconsin Public Education Network's Heather DuBois Bourenane and Jenni Hofschulte. Check out the network itself here. Here is the link to register for their 11/7 post-election debrief. And here is the link to register for their 12/14 Budget Action Planning event.

In this episode: What the referenda are asking for What the money will be used for What effects can we expect if they pass What are the plans if they fail? Why our community loses no matter which way the vote goes. And of course: What the state might do to help, and why it has to. LINKS: ADA standards (the law), since people keep asking. MDRoffers "Community Change and Projections Report." Wauwatosa teacher salaries info for 2017 and 2023 comes from here. Referenda statewide ask for $6b Wisconsin 23-25 education budget (general aids amount is at the bottom) WSD "potential reductions" list

UW-Madison's Chris Saldaña joins us to talk about Wisconsin's school finance regulations in comparison to other states' policies, and we think through some ideas we've considered before, around the way that local institutions--including citizen groups and taxpayer organizations--might hold states or local institutions accountable themselves. LINKS: Chris's recent article "examining the practices of K-12 early fiscal intervention during periods of economic crisis." Accountability 3.0: Beyond ESSA, which we both worked on. Taking Equal Opportunity Rhetoric Seriously report.

Kathleen Knight Abowitz joins us to talk about her recent research into school board members in her home state of Ohio, the squeezes that school leaders find themselves in between state pressures from above and constituent demands from below, and how easy it is to forfeit local trust and how hard it is to rebuild. LINKS: Kathleen's Publics for Public Schools (2014) Malin and Lubienski, "Information Pollution in an Age of Populist Politics" (2022) Jonathan Collins's website. Jonathan Collins's dissertation abstract (it's paywalled) Collins's article version of the same (also paywalled) Collins "The Politics of Re-Opening Schools"

In this episode: Bipartisan agreement(?!) between Tosa representatives on increasing special ed funding? Facilities referenda, 20-year bonds, and time-indexed community-building How did our $4m budget mistake happen, and what does it mean? Are upgrades to ADA standards "needs" or "wants"? LINKS: WSD School Board budget presentation (10/9) WSD 2022-2023 budget summary

In this episode: I correct myself to say MUHS does indeed enroll student with disabilities I go through the district's published plans to save $14m annually in case we vote down the operating referendum I acknowledge and go through the facts that (a) total state aid to WSD has indeed kept up with inflation and (b) spending on administration rose by 50% over the past five years. And I talk about the extent of my own interests in the result of the referendum votes. LINKS! Send me your questions! WSD admin's "long-range budget planning" doc (June '24) WSD admin's "potential reductions list" (updated 9/27/24) DPI staffing reports (all of our district's salaries). DPI comparative revenue per member (excel file) DPI comparative cost per member (excel file) District docs showing 50% rise in admin costs No Country for Old Men "just how dangerous is he?" clip.

In this episode: Can we fix our budget issue by cutting administrators rather than teachers? Why are teachers suddenly having their raises wiped out by new healthcare contributions? How do we cut our expenses without affecting our teachers? Can we boost revenue by robbing casinos instead? LINKS: Wisconsin Policy Forum report on teacher pay (Nov, 2023). WPF report on Wisconsin teacher attrition (Aug, 2023). "Compensation Practices of School Districts [incl. Tosa] When Collective Bargaining Disappears" (Jun, 2018). LFB memo on revenue limits and inflation (Jan, 2023) DPI Workforce Analysis Report (Apr, 2024) NCES annual inflation-adjusted salary stats (through 2022) Emergency license use in WI (Mar, 2023) Barbara Biasi, "The Labor Market for Teachers Under Different Pay Schemes" (NBER, 2019) Tosa expenditures (2008-2023) DPI "Multiyear Comparative Costs Detail Accounts Data File"

In this episode: The correct tax impact of our two referenda Does Open Enrollment "solve MKE's problems?" School Choice and (State-)Constitutional Promises Resident Enrollment Projections and National Population Decline Show notes! Comprehensive revenue (select district from dropdown) (Also, if we WERE interested in a low-cost, politically-inexpensive ways to do OE, check out McFarland's figures in rows 94 and 99 -- the power of virtual charters.) T2075 Resource Book (see chapter 2) MKE-area school quality/demographic map (for all schools that report to DPI) MDR demographic change report

In this episode: The recent "merger" revelation and what it means The history of school district boundaries and the things they separate How and why Open Enrollment and Chapter 220 were created What we have gained from OE over the years and what we hope to gain by drawing it down Show notes: WSD merger stuff Special school board meeting to release legal opinion WISN-12 coverage and interviews The legal opinion itself Tosa 2075 Task Force materials Resource booklet Open Enrollment Data Review slide deck Policies brief Task Force final report State legislative and DPI resources LFB explanation of Open Enrollment history and processes DPI enrollment, demographic, and discipline datasets Histories of general school choice dynamics in MKE/WI come from here: John Witte, The Market Approach to Education: An Analysis of America's First Voucher Program (Princeton UP, 2001). Robert Asen, Democracy, Deliberation, and Education (Penn State UP, 2015) Noliwe Rooks, Cutting School: The Segrenomics of American Education (The New Press, 2020). Jack Dougherty, More Than One Struggle: The Evolution of Black Education Reform in Milwaukee (U of North Carolina Press, 2004). General history of spatial, educational, and economic segregation in the urban north Shep Melnick, The Crucible of Desegregation: The Uncertain Search for Educational Equality (U of Chicago Press, 2023) Ansley Erickson, Making the Unequal Metropolis: School Desegregation and Its Limits (U of Chicago Press, 2017). Carla Shedd, Unequal City: Race, Schools, and the Perception of Injustice (Russell Sage Foundation, 2015) Savannah Shange, Progressive Dystopia: Abolition, Antiblackness, and Schooling in San Francisco (Duke University Press, 2020). Mike Amezcua, Making Mexican Chicago: From Postwar Settlement to the Age of Gentrification (U of Chicago Press, 2023). Jonathan Rosa, Looking Like a Language, Sounding Like a Race: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and the Learning of Latinidad (Oxford University Press, 2019) Andrew Kahrl, The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America (U of Chicago Press, 2024) Kevin Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism (Princeton University Press, 2005). Erica Frankenberg and Gary Orfield, eds, The Resegregation of Suburban Schools (Harvard Education Press, 2012). Elizabeth Hinton, From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime (Harvard University Press, 2016). Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership (U of North Carolina Press, 2019). Elizabeth Popp Berman, Thinking Like an Economist: How Efficiency Replaced Equality in US Public Policy (Princeton University Press, 2022). Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America (Liveright Publishing, 2017). Matt Kelly, Dividing the Public (Cornell University Press, 2024). Jerald Podair, The Strike That Changed New York: Blacks, Whites, and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville Crisis (Yale UP, 2002)

In this episode: WSD's long-range facilities plan How and why junior highs emerged How and why middle schools replaced them What happened when K-8 models became popular Will 6th graders do okay in elementary schools? What does the research say about 7-12 models? Contact me with questions! References/Bibliography (or: my browser tabs for the last two weeks)

In this episode: Important background for interpreting educational research How we deal with value pluralism and fundamental uncertainty How educational research responds to and provokes anxiety and moralizing How we can avoid enmity and grift as we argue about research Contact me!

In which an expert on the history of education finance talks about the evolution of school funding, the different options that we've seen over time, and the various advantages and drawbacks of each. LINKS: Matt's book, Dividing the Public Boston Globe piece on conservative school boards in WI Arrowhead Union HS District's testimony to legislature. On how districts' receiving Covid funding is like "winning the lottery."

In this episode: More details on revenue limits and state aid Explaining Tosa's increase in state aid next year Statewide impacts from Milwaukee's referendum Special education funding and revenue limits LINKS contact me! Wisconsin Uniform Financial Accounting Requirements legislative fiscal bureau brief on revenue limits 2023-2024 July 1st estimate 2024-2025 July 1st estimate legislative fiscal bureau's memo on MKE's referendum legislative fiscal bureau's brief on state aid

In which we talk about the specifics of the referendum questions we'll see on our ballots in November and the district's plans relating to the proposed funding. With additional complaints about state-level policy that pits housing affordability against school funding and some wonkery about the difference between recurring and non-recurring referenda. *Ugh, I called Fund 46 "Fund 64" at one point. That's an error. References: The referendum questions and tax calculator. The district's long-range facilities plan. Wisconsin districts that have created a Fund 46 The administration's 48.4m operating budget plan.

In November 2024, voters in our leafy suburb of Milwaukee will join the majority of Wisconsin school districts in having to approve a sizable local tax levy or else suffer draconian cuts to its public schools.This series looks at how we got here and what we can do about it, beginning with voting on the referendum. Hosted by: Derek Gottlieb (derekgottliebphd.com)

In which we cover the fundamentals of the Wauwatosa School District budget situation, of school finance in Wisconsin as a whole, of property tax and referendum mechanisms, and of revenue-limit legislation. LINKS to cited sources: General WI Educational Funding State Aid to WI School Districts (source: Legislature pub) Referenda-use in Wisconsin (Forward Analytics) Revenue Limits -> Student Outcomes (Rothstein report) Referendum Impacts on Educational Outcomes (Am. Econ. Journal) DPI's revenue-limit calculator (DPI) Local District Descriptive Stats (from NCES for 22-23) Wauwatosa Beloit Campbellspot Lomira Kewaskum Tosa 2075 Task Force information June 3rd presentation/discussion with the Board (video) ⁠Final Report⁠