MILWAUKEE – For the second time in four years, voters in Milwaukee will be asked to decide the fate of a Milwaukee Public Schools referendum.
The question, as it will appear on Milwaukee residents’ ballots April 2nd, reads as follows:
Shall the Milwaukee Public Schools, Milwaukee and Washington Counties, Wisconsin be authorized to exceed the revenue limit specified in Section 121.91, Wisconsin Statutes, by $140 million for the 2024-2025 school year; by an additional $51 million for the 2025-2026 school year; by an additional $47 million for the 2026-2027 school year; and by an additional $14 million (for a total of $252 million) for the 2027-2028 school year and thereafter, for the recurring purposes of sustaining educational programming, including offering career and technical education programs, attracting and retaining certified educators, and further improving art, music, physical education and language programs?
Supporters of the proposal include groups like the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association, the Wisconsin Public Education Network, and VIA (formerly the Layton Boulevard West Neighbors organization), as well as Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. The pro-referendum side argues it’s necessary in order to maintain existing services within the district that have been added since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We want to maintain services that we have started since 2020 from the first referendum. We were able to add art, music, physical education, library media specialists, smaller class sizes, counselors,” MPS Superintendent Dr. Keith Posley told Wisconsin’s Afternoon News on March 14th. Posley also warned that should the referendum fail, schools may have to cut 13% across the board while administrative office positions would be cut by 26%.
Opponents include the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and the group Milwaukeeans for Affordable Housing, an opposition group spearheaded by Milwaukee attorney Dan Adams. They say the district has not provided enough information on what the 252 million dollars will be spent on, and that the referendum will put an unnecessary burden on both homeowners and renters, who some have said could see increased rents as property owners look to pass off the increase in property taxes to their tenants.
“The business community is simply asking: ‘If we’re going to invest over a quarter of a billion dollars, what’s the plan?’,” said MMAC President Dale Kooyenga. “And there is no plan. You’re looking at a significant increase in the cost of living in the City of Milwaukee. For affordable housing, for attracting and retaining businesses, MMAC has come out against the MPS referendum.”
“I think we haven’t had the level of conversation in the community on this as it requires,” adds Greater Milwaukee Committee President Joel Brennan on Wisconsin’s Midday News March 27th. “After some consideration by our membership and by our board of directors and hearing what the community conversation has been around this, the GMC came out with a statement saying ‘We couldn’t support this one.’ “
One thing both sides seem to agree upon: whatever the result of the referendum, policies for funding schools need a review at both the local and state level. “You just think about that we have not kept up with the rate of inflation since 2009, and then there was a couple of years where there was a freeze on funding,” said Posley. The Wisconsin Policy Forum reports that the inflation-adjusted revenue limit per student for MPS in 2024 is 13,366 dollars, closely on par with the 13,319 dollars per student the district spent in 2004.
Brennan also noted: “It’s not going to be one thing that solves the challenges in the school district. It’s going to be a litany of things. Whether it’s right-sizing some of the district, or finding other ways to be creative with resources. It could well mean going back to the state legislature.”
The district has said that the tax levy in 2025 would mean a 432 dollar increase in property taxes for the owner of a 200,000 dollar property. MPS has said the amount shouldered by taxpayers is expected to decrease as declining enrollment in district schools is likely to continue.
Programming note: WTMJ is providing complete Decision Wisconsin coverage Tuesday, April 2nd exclusively on WTMJ.com and on all WTMJ social media platforms
PREVIOUS 2024 MPS REFERENDUM COVERAGE:
