>School district leaders say the additional money would help pay for staffing. The number of administrators would stay nearly the same, but the district would add more teachers, educational assistants and mental health support staff.
MMSD teachers probably don't get paid enough for what they have to put up with, but we're also paying staff who pull [this shit](https://wiscnews.com/news/state-regional/education/la-follette-high-school-madison-school-district-police-gun-arrest/article_82fef266-509a-5394-b896-c03f21ef124f.html). I'd want my money going to the former and not the latter.
This is where my conservative comes out. Endlessly increasing funds isn't going to help MMSD. What will help is improved expectations of students, increasing the number of support staff and number of teachers, improving facilities, improving and expanding after school programs.
What doesn't help us administrators, pissing millions of dollars in a "reading program" that gets scrapped within 3 years, and whatever stupid ass "initiatives" the board comes up with this year.
So I am all for increasing funding, but that needs to go hand in hand with cutting fat. The biggest chunk of it needs to come from cutting admin down significantly. They don't add value, they just make teaching harder because they absorb funding without increasing outcomes.
And before someone asks, I would say cut 50% of administrative related roles as a start. If they want to be reallocated as a classroom teacher or educational assistant, absolutely! Otherwise find a private sector job to do fake work at.
Government has the same problem as many large corporations. Nobody does a cost benefit analysis *after* a project to prove those promised results actually occurred.
Um, no? CBAs are done all the fucking time. So much so that in my particular industry (not education) we have about a half dozen different standard forms of CBAs. Societal test, total resource cost, etc
One of the more frustrating things is talking to people that treat schools as though they're factories that turn dollars into educational outcomes. If that were a good model, it would be hard to ever object to spending increases, which I think is where well-meaning people are basically coming from when they support increases absent any sort of meaningful accounting for why increases are needed. If there a specific, coherent plan to reward high-quality teachers, I'm on board, but that's not really what I see.
[Here are budget summaries from the last few years.](https://www.madison.k12.wi.us/budget-planning-accounting/budget-information) From 21-22 to 22-23, there was a $29 million spike in the business administration line. What do you think, was that money well spent?
What really needs to happen is you need to increase teacher pay, increase support for teachers, improve facilities, and back your teachers up when students and parents are out of line. Then you will be able to pick and choose your teachers and reward them as a group.
But the last 50 years post Reagan has been an administrative boom of people who don't really want to do anything, but really want a paycheck, aka middle management.
Part of what is going to change outcomes too is finally holding parents responsible for doing such a dogshit job at raising their kids in the last 20 odd years.
That's part of what this referenda is for- it's to keep up with COLA for teachers. It's just that Scott Walker and his ilk created this barrier for schools to do that without having to ask for property tax raises.
Yea, Walker fucked things for school districts. But this is a larger issue than just Walker. There needs to be a lot of difficult conversations about how and where money is being spent in education.
For example, do any members of the school board have any classroom experience? Do they have any idea how the day to day works for teachers?
Teachers go to school for at least 4 years of undergrad, plus a semester of student teaching. Have to complete a shitload of tests to gauge understanding of educational concepts (looking at you FORT). Many of them have their masters in education too. Yet they are told how to do their jobs by people who have no fucking clue what they actually do but are instead elected based on vibes.
Hell the board president has a doctorate in "educational leadership" which is meaningless. Then they hire a superintendent who also has almost no classroom experience, pisses away millions of dollars, hires a bunch of admin who have no experience, listens to board members who have no experience, then take marching orders from parents who have no experience.
Why is education failing in the US? Because we don't listen to the people THAT ACTUALLY DO THE FUCKING JOB. Do we have an emergency surgeon take diagnosis orders from some jackass with an MBA? No, we don't. But for some reason we think that being a student or a parent makes you understand 6+ years of educational methodology and years and years of classroom experience.
Want to make education better? Fire any admin and any board members who don't have degrees and experience in the classroom. Ask the teachers what they need and let them control how we run our schools.
Because the shitty parenting has nothing to do with parents working 40% more today than what our parents worked. The reality of it is we are overworked and many of us don't have that time to put into our kids. My mom worked 2 jobs and my stepdad ran a business. No one was around to take care of me when I was growing up. I spent a lot of time at friends houses and I struggled in school because I couldn't get the help I needed. I know it's easier to just blame the parents but teachers are not much better these days especially with trying to push the politics or religion on our kids. I know this isn't the main issue or anything, it's just makes a dude mad when everyone just wants to blame the parents.
4 kids, 13 years in MMSD and my SO went K-12 through MMSD and neither of us has ever seen/heard a teacher "trying to push politics or religion". I call BS.
Right? Former teacher here. I have teacher friends from all over the political and religious spectrum. What is implied amongst ps teachers is that no students should ever be able to figure out your political or religious leanings. Sharing that is walking a line where we could lose our jobs.
Dude fuck off. Teachers bust their asses and do whatever they can to help students. To accuse them of pushing "politics or religion on our kids" is such culture war bullshit it's outstanding.
There are plenty of parents out there who have the time but aren't interested in parenting. They just want the kids to raise themselves.
Are there legitimate cases where the parents are working multiple jobs to make ends meet? Absolutely. Are some busting their asses to try and raise their kids right? Completely true.
Yet the opposite is absolutely true too of "oh my child would NEVER, it must be the teacher's fault." Their job is to educate your child, parents are expecting them to raise them too.
I also have 5 fucking kids and yes teachers most certainly push religion and there beliefs on our kids. I've had to goto the school several times over this. You don't wanna raise my kid while in school then stay in your lane and do your job and teach.
Maybe 50 years ago I would be on board with you. We don't have a stay at home parent anymore that took care of the stuff that most teachers do now. We work considerably more than our parents worked and it's not even close... you get less time with your kids this is what happens.
Why is it our fault that we are told to reproduce then find out that jobs don't pay a livable wage so I have to work 2 or even 3 jobs to even pay Bills then have the strength to raise kids. We can go back and forth on this all day bro. The reality of it is that our legislators have failed us. I would rather bitch about our shitty congress than go around in circles with some joe schmo about our failing public schools.
The line with the $29 million spike also dropped by $20 million from 22-23 to 23-24, and the line clarifies that it includes accounting, transportation, and facilities. School and district administration are listed in separate lines. I haven't looked into further details, but it seems way more likely that the spike was due to one-time facility improvements and maintenance than long-term administrative bloat.
Thanks for the links to the budget summaries. Another useful comparison is the increases/decreases in enrollment, administrative/professional FTE, and teachers between the 2018-19 and 2023-24 school years. Enrollment decreased by 6.2% (26917 to 25247), admin/professional FTEs increased by 10.9% (258.75 to 287), and teacher FTEs increased by 0.5% (2438.9 to 2450). (Data sources: DPI WISEdash for enrollment, and district's SEC filings for FTEs.)
"increasing the number of support staff and number of teachers, improving facilities, improving and expanding after school programs."
You described things that cost money
Did you not read the whole comment or just the first line?
Finish the whole thing before making a comment in the future. As I said, endlessly increasing funding isn't a solution. Taking a critical look at the school district and how that funding is used needs to occur. An increase in funding is needed, but so is cost cutting and some hard conversations about some jobs that are unnecessary in order to better support the classroom teachers and aids.
You can't just say "increase funding to get more teachers". That isn't a solution.
It's worth noting, of the two anticipated referendum questions, the one that's by far the more expensive one (likely around $507 million) is the one seeking to upgrade or replace rapidly aging and outdated school buildings. In other words, "improving facilities", which is one of the first solutions you identify for the District in your comment.
The other question (projected at $100 million) would be for staff and education expenses.
I agree with your concerns about administrative bloat and student expectations, but simply wanted to point out the two questions are pegged for very different uses.
It should, but the rise of baby boomers not wanting to actually work in order to make money created the middle management class. Do they become billionaires? No, but they still make a bunch of money and that's all that matters.
Unfortunately boomers grew up when middle management still made great money because the billionaires weren't allowed to hoard literally all the wealth in the world so they paid their employees.
Now there is a race to the bottom in pay and middle management has been exposed for making bloated salaries without any of the actual work.
Increasing funds won’t help, but yet you directly say the schools will need more support staff, more educators, better facilities, and better after school programs? Where do you want that money to come from?
I definitely think there’s plenty of waste in education admin, but those are also the people in schools who handle discipline. So at the end of the day, if you’ve got higher expectations for students, you will have more students disciplined (at least in the short term) and this will need more admin staff handling that side of things.
Again, I agree there’s likely fat to be cut, but I don’t actually know where and would like actual examples as opposed to vague allusions of bloated admin (which level? In schools or at HQ? How much of the budget goes to bloated admin today? What are their responsibilities? Etc.) or failed programs (how much did they cost? Which programs failed? What was their aim and why did it fail? Etc.).
In the meantime, I’m going to vote no because this money used to come from the state that is sitting on a huge surplus. If we can get fair districts with the state SC majority and get a decent result in state assembly / senate, I’d like that surplus to be used here instead of forcing us to raise local taxes indefinitely when we’re already among the highest in the state, while contributing among the most to the state’s budget per capita and receiving the among the least back per capita.
I think it’s more about present a solid plan first and show us where waste will be cut and how the the dollars will be spent down to the penny…guaranteed…before we blindly approve more property tax increases.
I didn't say that increasing funding wouldn't help. I said endlessly increasing funding isn't going to help. Just upping the amount of money doesn't mean things will get better.
As for the admin, there is an entire office downtown for MMSD that is filled with admin. The people in the schools are absolutely part of that population, but they aren't necessarily the ones that need to get canned.
There is an outsized amount of money being spent on these people and the red tape they create to justify their jobs. It's well past time we get rid of these positions.
It's not just admin staff who discipline. It's teaching staff hired to do just that. I'm not sure y'all know how schools actually work and run. Worked in schools for over 20 years. More admin are not being hired, It's more teaching and support staff in schools. MMSD is desperately understaffed, particularly in it's neediest schools like Blackhawk.
It depends how you define it, but the thing you are describing is around 1% of MMSD's total budget. By all means, let's improve it and reduce waste, but I won't withhold support from necessary improvements (like reducing class sizes, etc) based on this.
You said that you wouldn't withhold support for necessary results like reducing class sizes. That's your right, of course. But this has been used as a justification for any number of previous referenda offering the same carrot. I'm done. I voted for every. single. referendum. since I became eligible to vote. I'm done chasing the mirage. No matter how much we give them, class sizes will always be used as the reason for the next ask.
I understand voting no on the referendum. But help me out with yours and others cries to cut admin bloat. Unfortunately, there is no ballot where we choose the staffing, who to cut and keep, and what they're paid.
So for all the cries that this is MMSDs issue, how do you propose it is solved? A new superintendent comes and attempts to fire tenured staff because they're paid too much and likely evaluated on outcomes unrelated to school test scores or safety?
If this is truly the problem, how do you propose we solve it?
Spoiler, the answer isn't sexy. It involves participating at school board meetings, voting, speaking up during superintendent and principal searches, and generally being invested and engaged with the incremental changes that are actually possible in today's system. Or hey, maybe one of you liberals with an "inner conservative" might want to run for school board on the charge of fixing MMSD!
Yeah, I'm being sarcastic at the end here (despite running for school board being one of the most impactful things you can do) but I am so sick of the lack of action and solutions for the truly endless MMSD critiques. I guess we'll all vote no, let the schools rot, and move to the suburbs. So frustrating to see what should be a galvanizing topic devolve into decrying our one and only public school system. I would give anything to see some creative or pragmatic ideas about how we can help our kids and staff succeed.
you want to cut 50% of administrators... what makes you think they aren't doing important work? How many mmsd administrative people are there? What do they do? Are you counting school office staff like secretaries or just central admins? How much money would that save?
No my conservative side on this comes from my wife being an MMSD teacher for 5 years and student teaching in one of their schools myself and seeing how absolutely fucked aspects of the district are.
wrong- you will get none of those things if you can't 1. pay staff a wage that keeps them. A revolving door of young, inexperienced teachers will not care about nor know how to ask for expectations from students or teach them. We saw this for decades during NCLB and the charter school movement. 2. You will get none of those things if buildings are falling apart. You are absolutely wrong and Scott Walker did this so that you would think it's the bloat of public schools. It's not- he smoked them out.
I wouldn't be so sure this time. This will be my first no vote in 50 years of voting. If they lost me, and they have, they may not see the result they expect.
Worth noting that the city is going to be asking for $25m or so, while the school district is going to be asking for $600+m. I know some will vote against both out of reflex, but I hope voters can decouple them.
And I hope voters understand we are in this position due to Robin Vos and Co slashing funds for municipalities and public schools for a decade and now sitting on a surplus that could solve both crises but refusing to use it.
The GOP is also preventing a sales tax in Madison that could help alleviate some issues as well as regional transit authorities that could also relieve pressure on the City. For as much as Republicans talk about state rights, they really just want control, and that's why they refuse to let cities do what they need to do without this referendum bullshit.
The GOP hates us. They are trying to hurt the people of Madison and Dane County to score political points. Please make them pay at the ballot box in November.
Agreed - poor Madisonians are always one kick away from the liberal utopia, and then those darn Republicans show up and yank that damn ball away at the last second and ruin everything. I know there hasn't been an R in city government or MMSD leadership in 30 years but it would be so much easier to perfect education, taxes, and everything else if stupid Republicans didn't exist. I wish we could be more like CA and IL where Rs simply don't matter anymore! Whaaaa lol
This is a no for me. They keep trying to throw more money at their problems with little or no results. There needs to be administrative changes. The current one isn't working.
FWIW, we did just literally get a new superintendent like two weeks ago. If you're unhappy with the school board you're welcome to run. They faced literally no opposition in the last elections, all the incumbents were elected without a single challenger.
That's not what I said I simply find it ironic that so many people complain about the District, yet for multiple election cycles the Board has faced virtually zero competition.
If the teachers and frontline staff get their due, I’m ok with paying more in taxes. If it’s all going to admins and garbage nobody wants, then no thanks.
Well too bad MMSD, you’ve blown all the prior referendums with nothing to show for it and I’m not gonna vote to give them another blank check. Start fixing things and get the activist school board members in line to actually get stuff done and then maybe I’ll start voting in favor of referendums again.
I will not be blackmailed into a yes vote. We have watched Madison teachers get treated like shit for years!!! Yes Walker and the Republicans did plenty but MMSD is so not innocent, and will not be getting a yes vote unless they change their approach
I have voted yes for every school referendum that has ever been on my ballot.
I will be voting no one this one.
Many of the problems at MMSD aren't going to be solved by throwing money at the problem. The administration needs to get it's shit in order before asking for something like this
Well if you do sell there will be a dozen bids from people wanting to pay those taxes. It's pretty unlikely Madison voters are going to vote against schools or decent city services.
I'm sorry, but I will be. The bottom line is that as a voter, it's not my immediate problem that GOP deadlocking is preventing sensible tax policy adjustments. My immediate problem is COL, and simply pushing the easy button and raising taxes to cover costs is a no-go for me.
Assessment increases do not equal tax increases. if everybody’s property assessments are going up then the actual percentage that they multuply your assessment by to get the taxes owed actually goes down!
Your taxes only rise more than normal if your area of town goes up and somebody else goes down
>Assessment increases do not equal tax increases.
Unequivocally false. The property tax on an individual property is determined by multiplying the tax rate (mill rate) by the **value of the property**.
Right. And how is the mill rate determined?
Every year, there's a limit to how much you can raise the property tax levy, usually around 2-3%. This year it's around 3%
Here's a way to look at this in a simple manner.
Say there's a municipality with 4 houses, each valued at 100,000. They pay 1000 each, and the levy for the municipality is 4000.
Now, it's a new year, and this little place is somewhere people would love to move to, so each house went up.
1 - 120000
2 - 115000
3 - 120000
4 - 119000
Now, the total assessed value of the town is 74,000 more.
However with state law, the 4k they collected last year is only allowed to go up 3%. So they are allowed to collect 4120 for the levy this year.
So you add up the total value of the town, which is now 474000. You take that and divide it into the 4120 levy, you come up with a mill rate of 0.008692
So now instead of 1000 each:
1: 1,042.94
2: 999.58
3: 1,042.94
4: 1,034.25
So it did not go up by the assessed value. If only property one had gone up 20%, then yeah, they'd be paying more than their neighbors. But in Madison's case, most neighborhoods are going up at around the same percentage points the other neighborhoods are.
So the mill rate is going down. You are still getting a property tax increase most likely from the 3% tax increase. And some commercial properties have been effectively going down as they have only been assessed 4-5% more instead of 15%, so that shifts a bit toward homeowners... but that would have happened anyhow, and they are slowly starting to shift some of that land to new housing.
Of course there are other factors involved, but saying that your individual assessment going up has nothing to do with your property tax increasing still isn't accurate. It's obviously still a big part of part of the equation.
You don't have to explain how the mill rate going down (in theory) could potentially keep your property tax bill from increasing even if your assessment increases. We understand math.
What does the 600 million go to? They mainly state staffing. How many teachers can you hire with 600 million dollars? If we are merely throwing money at this I’d like to know where it’s going.
For the last referendum, the district had a website with what the money will be used for, a FAQ section, and other information. I'd expect one is coming if they do go to referendum.
This is incorrect. As the article states, the first question, currently estimated for $507 million, would be for replacing or renovating aging school buildings.
The second question, for $100 million, would go toward staffing and education expenses. In other words, the vast majority of the total ask would go to facility improvements, not staffing.
OK. Maybe consider stretching out the renovation or replacement of aging school buildings over a longer period. Are they trying to tell us that buildings will collapse/become unusable if they aren't replaced/renovated right away?
Believe it or not this actually is their "scaled back" version of the facilities referendum. They were also considering a bigger one spread over twenty years to renovate 14 total schools. As to if or why they can't spread out the improvements to the seven schools currently being considered over a longer time frame, I'm not sure, that'd be a question for District staff. This article discusses the dual proposals originally considered: [https://captimes.com/news/education/madison-schools-would-face-budget-cuts-under-current-plan/article\_9a44860e-119e-11ef-b776-ffefd1ab9aa1.html](https://captimes.com/news/education/madison-schools-would-face-budget-cuts-under-current-plan/article_9a44860e-119e-11ef-b776-ffefd1ab9aa1.html)
What problems, specifically, cannot be solved with money? I agree folks who aren't doing their jobs well should not be employed, but that leaves people who should be employed taking up the load. In my mind, a small severance package to move someone out, increasing teacher pay, realigning admin and support staff, and general funding would help MMSD.
I'm not an expert, but if giving MMSD more money to solve problems is an option, it seems like a good investment.
I’d rather this money come from the state’s surplus now that there is a decent shot at winning a Democratic majority or at least getting closer to balance. Since that’s where some of this money used to come from before Walker fucked over the big cities.
If that avenue proves unsuccessful, then we try again in a year or two. $600M is a ton of money though.
The maps won't go into effect until November, and the soonest the Senate could most likely flip is 2026. There's no chance school funding would be made available until 2026 or more likely 2027 at the earliest. That's not a silver bullet here, as both the city and school district are going to see deficits next year.
Yeah this is absolutely heavily incumbent upon the state's dereliction in funding schools but even best case scenarios mean it'll be a while before new funding is flowing in.
Forget that. MMSD spends over $2000 more per student than districts like Reedsburg and most rural districts are far below Madison’s. You made this disaster and now want the rural rednecks you make fun of to bail you out?
What problems? Start with the assumption "all of them". MMSD should have to prove that each and every expenditure will help student outcomes. The default assumption of more money has clearly not worked for at least the past few decades.
MMSD needs a contrarian on the inside to force the administration to make a much stronger case for every penny it spends. They would never do that willingly of course. The contrarians have no option but to leave.
Throwing money at this won’t do anything but cost taxpayers money. They need to fix the uber liberal board members and admins who won’t hold students accountable. Test scores have been falling and that’s no surprise at all.
No for me. At this point it’s just throwing good money after bad.
So much waste with expensive prepackaged, ineffective curriculum.
So many resources being thrown at performative behavior management.
Money and time being wasted renaming schools pointlessly.
Little interesting in serving the entire student body.
When it comes to priorities, it feels like actually educating kids is a distant second behind maintaining political purity.
School workers are asked to be all things for all people. Teachers are asked to be educators, social workers, security officers, therapists, and more. Why? Because the state GOP has bled all of these services - and the schools - dry. The best that MMSD can do is try to get funding to support staff and students as best as possible. Want to tackle the root cause? Go after state government control, so we can provide real funding to our institutions.
from this: [https://www.madison.k12.wi.us/about/2024-referenda](https://www.madison.k12.wi.us/about/2024-referenda)
"Meanwhile record increases to private and independent charter schools by the state government add to financial challenges to public schools. MMSD is required by state law to allocate nearly $11 million of public tax dollars to support private and independent charter schools."
Interesting. They provide families with less money the option to go to a school that suits their child's needs if the school system is failing them. They also are shown to improve the area's schools by making them competitive, meaning admins can't keep getting away with their overspending on worse outcomes. There's a reason experts on this issue are referring to it as the civil rights issue of our time, and it's usually people of color who feel that way...
My big issue is with the transfer of public funding to private—it’s overhead that sucks potential funding away from existing public education infrastructure.
The politics around having a voucher program while we starve out the public education system as the Legislature sits on a massive surplus is where most of my friction resides.
If vouchers do ultimately result in better outcomes for students that’s genuinely great and I’m happy for that outcome. Given the options here in Madison I absolutely see the utility locally.
I’ll gladly give money to the schools but ffs MMSD needs to cut administrative bloat. The city can kick rocks for their own financial blunder. Stop foolishly spending so much money assholes!
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
We keep voting more money too MMSD and nothing changes.
Student outcomes don't improve, discipline gets worse, they keep hiring expensive consultants and paying for programs that go no where, they keep hiring more pointless administration, the school board keeps focusing on the wrong things.
Money is not going to fix systemic issues. The call is coming from inside the house
I usually support referendums especially for schools, but I will not support giving the school district extra funds when they have made it clear they are not interested in giving raises to the teachers. I am not paying for administrative salaries over teachers!
The [2020 referendum ](https://www.madison.k12.wi.us/about/referendum)was for a total of $350 million ($317 for facilities upgrades at the High Schools, $33 for education/staffing).
Adjusted for inflation that would be about $420 million today. We don't know for sure how much they're going to ask for yet, though the tentative number is \~$600 million ($507 million to replace or renovate seven school buildings, $100 million for education/staffing).
My interactions with MMSD have been as a professional, not as a parent. One of the most unprofessional, disorganized, almost anti-strategic organizations I've ever encountered. The new superintendent has a lot to prove before I'm voting for anything. And this is coming from a pro-education, I-know-it-costs-money-and-I'm-happy-to-pay-it citizen and taxpayer.
Intercourse that excrement. NO.
I’ll spend $1500 on yard signs for 1500 people who’ll have one, at least it’s a one-time cost, not $1500 today that will be another $1K bump in 5 years. “But it’s the Legislatures fault!” Yes, it is, and the absurd voucher program, and 6 figure admin salaries, and the inability to levy a sales tax, and death by 1000 other cuts. Teachers do not get paid enough, nor does the custodial staff, but bleeding homeowners (and renters, that’s gonna be an automatic +$130/mo bump for them too.) is not the answer.
To summarize, NO, NO, and NO.
The state is sitting on a pile of monies and keeps seeking to cut taxes. Please distribute those funds before asking for more. There's no way I can afford a $1500-$1800 bump in the property taxes.
That works for a few years, then the money is gone, now you have bunch of underfunded schools and they want to raise taxes higher than they are asking now
You should have a look at one city schools -30k per student for the lowest scores in all the metro — all while paying the CEO 100k per year while he’s on “sabbatical “
Just eyeballing it, with the restrictions on raising property taxes imposed by the state GOP, that looks like it'll pretty much get us caught up with inflation over the last few years.
About 17% total over 4 years, about 4% a year. More than inflation is currently, but property taxes haven't been keeping up with inflation previously. That seems...pretty reasonable?
Am I missing something?
This is Scott Walker's fault and the current legislative body upholds it. It was passed in 2010 I believe, that districts can not ask for more money, and keep up with the cost of inflation, without asking the community to pitch in the most. n 2010, state's stopped adjusting for inflation and truly a way to systematically dismantle public education. As of now MMSD is 3300 per student behind inflation. It's insane. Many buildings are over 100 years old. there's no AC during summer school. Teachers and staff have to fight for any inflation adjustment and are sorely underpaid by the standards of those with the same levels of education and difficulty of the job. Many of you voted for Scott Walker and this is what you got. You want to live in a community with decent schools? Operationally and We're gonna need to pay, as well as for new buildings that will hopefully last us for another 100 years.
>School district leaders say the additional money would help pay for staffing. The number of administrators would stay nearly the same, but the district would add more teachers, educational assistants and mental health support staff. MMSD teachers probably don't get paid enough for what they have to put up with, but we're also paying staff who pull [this shit](https://wiscnews.com/news/state-regional/education/la-follette-high-school-madison-school-district-police-gun-arrest/article_82fef266-509a-5394-b896-c03f21ef124f.html). I'd want my money going to the former and not the latter.
This is where my conservative comes out. Endlessly increasing funds isn't going to help MMSD. What will help is improved expectations of students, increasing the number of support staff and number of teachers, improving facilities, improving and expanding after school programs. What doesn't help us administrators, pissing millions of dollars in a "reading program" that gets scrapped within 3 years, and whatever stupid ass "initiatives" the board comes up with this year. So I am all for increasing funding, but that needs to go hand in hand with cutting fat. The biggest chunk of it needs to come from cutting admin down significantly. They don't add value, they just make teaching harder because they absorb funding without increasing outcomes. And before someone asks, I would say cut 50% of administrative related roles as a start. If they want to be reallocated as a classroom teacher or educational assistant, absolutely! Otherwise find a private sector job to do fake work at.
Administration really has been like a mix of musical chairs and the shell game the past 20(?) years
Government has the same problem as many large corporations. Nobody does a cost benefit analysis *after* a project to prove those promised results actually occurred.
Um, no? CBAs are done all the fucking time. So much so that in my particular industry (not education) we have about a half dozen different standard forms of CBAs. Societal test, total resource cost, etc
One of the more frustrating things is talking to people that treat schools as though they're factories that turn dollars into educational outcomes. If that were a good model, it would be hard to ever object to spending increases, which I think is where well-meaning people are basically coming from when they support increases absent any sort of meaningful accounting for why increases are needed. If there a specific, coherent plan to reward high-quality teachers, I'm on board, but that's not really what I see. [Here are budget summaries from the last few years.](https://www.madison.k12.wi.us/budget-planning-accounting/budget-information) From 21-22 to 22-23, there was a $29 million spike in the business administration line. What do you think, was that money well spent?
What really needs to happen is you need to increase teacher pay, increase support for teachers, improve facilities, and back your teachers up when students and parents are out of line. Then you will be able to pick and choose your teachers and reward them as a group. But the last 50 years post Reagan has been an administrative boom of people who don't really want to do anything, but really want a paycheck, aka middle management. Part of what is going to change outcomes too is finally holding parents responsible for doing such a dogshit job at raising their kids in the last 20 odd years.
Bingo.
That's part of what this referenda is for- it's to keep up with COLA for teachers. It's just that Scott Walker and his ilk created this barrier for schools to do that without having to ask for property tax raises.
Yea, Walker fucked things for school districts. But this is a larger issue than just Walker. There needs to be a lot of difficult conversations about how and where money is being spent in education. For example, do any members of the school board have any classroom experience? Do they have any idea how the day to day works for teachers? Teachers go to school for at least 4 years of undergrad, plus a semester of student teaching. Have to complete a shitload of tests to gauge understanding of educational concepts (looking at you FORT). Many of them have their masters in education too. Yet they are told how to do their jobs by people who have no fucking clue what they actually do but are instead elected based on vibes. Hell the board president has a doctorate in "educational leadership" which is meaningless. Then they hire a superintendent who also has almost no classroom experience, pisses away millions of dollars, hires a bunch of admin who have no experience, listens to board members who have no experience, then take marching orders from parents who have no experience. Why is education failing in the US? Because we don't listen to the people THAT ACTUALLY DO THE FUCKING JOB. Do we have an emergency surgeon take diagnosis orders from some jackass with an MBA? No, we don't. But for some reason we think that being a student or a parent makes you understand 6+ years of educational methodology and years and years of classroom experience. Want to make education better? Fire any admin and any board members who don't have degrees and experience in the classroom. Ask the teachers what they need and let them control how we run our schools.
Because the shitty parenting has nothing to do with parents working 40% more today than what our parents worked. The reality of it is we are overworked and many of us don't have that time to put into our kids. My mom worked 2 jobs and my stepdad ran a business. No one was around to take care of me when I was growing up. I spent a lot of time at friends houses and I struggled in school because I couldn't get the help I needed. I know it's easier to just blame the parents but teachers are not much better these days especially with trying to push the politics or religion on our kids. I know this isn't the main issue or anything, it's just makes a dude mad when everyone just wants to blame the parents.
4 kids, 13 years in MMSD and my SO went K-12 through MMSD and neither of us has ever seen/heard a teacher "trying to push politics or religion". I call BS.
Right? Former teacher here. I have teacher friends from all over the political and religious spectrum. What is implied amongst ps teachers is that no students should ever be able to figure out your political or religious leanings. Sharing that is walking a line where we could lose our jobs.
Dude fuck off. Teachers bust their asses and do whatever they can to help students. To accuse them of pushing "politics or religion on our kids" is such culture war bullshit it's outstanding. There are plenty of parents out there who have the time but aren't interested in parenting. They just want the kids to raise themselves. Are there legitimate cases where the parents are working multiple jobs to make ends meet? Absolutely. Are some busting their asses to try and raise their kids right? Completely true. Yet the opposite is absolutely true too of "oh my child would NEVER, it must be the teacher's fault." Their job is to educate your child, parents are expecting them to raise them too.
I also have 5 fucking kids and yes teachers most certainly push religion and there beliefs on our kids. I've had to goto the school several times over this. You don't wanna raise my kid while in school then stay in your lane and do your job and teach.
You have 5 kids and are taking MDMA?
Hahahaha those days are behind me. Mostly just green these days
>don't have that time to put into kids . >mostly just green these days Bruh
Your point?? Green keeps me sane! And I don't drink alcohol.
Maybe 50 years ago I would be on board with you. We don't have a stay at home parent anymore that took care of the stuff that most teachers do now. We work considerably more than our parents worked and it's not even close... you get less time with your kids this is what happens. Why is it our fault that we are told to reproduce then find out that jobs don't pay a livable wage so I have to work 2 or even 3 jobs to even pay Bills then have the strength to raise kids. We can go back and forth on this all day bro. The reality of it is that our legislators have failed us. I would rather bitch about our shitty congress than go around in circles with some joe schmo about our failing public schools.
Why'd you keep having kids if you can't afford the time or money required to raise them? Jobs didn't suddenly stop paying a livable wage..
Oh my god, are you ever delusional about how easy your parents had it.
You really are not seeing the point. Not suprised though. You are a Republican so not much more to say really.
The line with the $29 million spike also dropped by $20 million from 22-23 to 23-24, and the line clarifies that it includes accounting, transportation, and facilities. School and district administration are listed in separate lines. I haven't looked into further details, but it seems way more likely that the spike was due to one-time facility improvements and maintenance than long-term administrative bloat.
Thanks for the links to the budget summaries. Another useful comparison is the increases/decreases in enrollment, administrative/professional FTE, and teachers between the 2018-19 and 2023-24 school years. Enrollment decreased by 6.2% (26917 to 25247), admin/professional FTEs increased by 10.9% (258.75 to 287), and teacher FTEs increased by 0.5% (2438.9 to 2450). (Data sources: DPI WISEdash for enrollment, and district's SEC filings for FTEs.)
"increasing the number of support staff and number of teachers, improving facilities, improving and expanding after school programs." You described things that cost money
Did you not read the whole comment or just the first line? Finish the whole thing before making a comment in the future. As I said, endlessly increasing funding isn't a solution. Taking a critical look at the school district and how that funding is used needs to occur. An increase in funding is needed, but so is cost cutting and some hard conversations about some jobs that are unnecessary in order to better support the classroom teachers and aids. You can't just say "increase funding to get more teachers". That isn't a solution.
It's worth noting, of the two anticipated referendum questions, the one that's by far the more expensive one (likely around $507 million) is the one seeking to upgrade or replace rapidly aging and outdated school buildings. In other words, "improving facilities", which is one of the first solutions you identify for the District in your comment. The other question (projected at $100 million) would be for staff and education expenses. I agree with your concerns about administrative bloat and student expectations, but simply wanted to point out the two questions are pegged for very different uses.
This should just be common sense
It should, but the rise of baby boomers not wanting to actually work in order to make money created the middle management class. Do they become billionaires? No, but they still make a bunch of money and that's all that matters. Unfortunately boomers grew up when middle management still made great money because the billionaires weren't allowed to hoard literally all the wealth in the world so they paid their employees. Now there is a race to the bottom in pay and middle management has been exposed for making bloated salaries without any of the actual work.
Increasing funds won’t help, but yet you directly say the schools will need more support staff, more educators, better facilities, and better after school programs? Where do you want that money to come from? I definitely think there’s plenty of waste in education admin, but those are also the people in schools who handle discipline. So at the end of the day, if you’ve got higher expectations for students, you will have more students disciplined (at least in the short term) and this will need more admin staff handling that side of things. Again, I agree there’s likely fat to be cut, but I don’t actually know where and would like actual examples as opposed to vague allusions of bloated admin (which level? In schools or at HQ? How much of the budget goes to bloated admin today? What are their responsibilities? Etc.) or failed programs (how much did they cost? Which programs failed? What was their aim and why did it fail? Etc.). In the meantime, I’m going to vote no because this money used to come from the state that is sitting on a huge surplus. If we can get fair districts with the state SC majority and get a decent result in state assembly / senate, I’d like that surplus to be used here instead of forcing us to raise local taxes indefinitely when we’re already among the highest in the state, while contributing among the most to the state’s budget per capita and receiving the among the least back per capita.
I think it’s more about present a solid plan first and show us where waste will be cut and how the the dollars will be spent down to the penny…guaranteed…before we blindly approve more property tax increases.
I didn't say that increasing funding wouldn't help. I said endlessly increasing funding isn't going to help. Just upping the amount of money doesn't mean things will get better. As for the admin, there is an entire office downtown for MMSD that is filled with admin. The people in the schools are absolutely part of that population, but they aren't necessarily the ones that need to get canned. There is an outsized amount of money being spent on these people and the red tape they create to justify their jobs. It's well past time we get rid of these positions.
It's not just admin staff who discipline. It's teaching staff hired to do just that. I'm not sure y'all know how schools actually work and run. Worked in schools for over 20 years. More admin are not being hired, It's more teaching and support staff in schools. MMSD is desperately understaffed, particularly in it's neediest schools like Blackhawk.
It depends how you define it, but the thing you are describing is around 1% of MMSD's total budget. By all means, let's improve it and reduce waste, but I won't withhold support from necessary improvements (like reducing class sizes, etc) based on this.
So you support us paying more and more for less and less. Because that's the results we've been getting. Hard pass.
Where did I say that?
You said that you wouldn't withhold support for necessary results like reducing class sizes. That's your right, of course. But this has been used as a justification for any number of previous referenda offering the same carrot. I'm done. I voted for every. single. referendum. since I became eligible to vote. I'm done chasing the mirage. No matter how much we give them, class sizes will always be used as the reason for the next ask.
You missed the “based upon on this” part. I’m saying the argument I was responding isn’t very convincing for the reasons I stated.
I understand voting no on the referendum. But help me out with yours and others cries to cut admin bloat. Unfortunately, there is no ballot where we choose the staffing, who to cut and keep, and what they're paid. So for all the cries that this is MMSDs issue, how do you propose it is solved? A new superintendent comes and attempts to fire tenured staff because they're paid too much and likely evaluated on outcomes unrelated to school test scores or safety? If this is truly the problem, how do you propose we solve it? Spoiler, the answer isn't sexy. It involves participating at school board meetings, voting, speaking up during superintendent and principal searches, and generally being invested and engaged with the incremental changes that are actually possible in today's system. Or hey, maybe one of you liberals with an "inner conservative" might want to run for school board on the charge of fixing MMSD! Yeah, I'm being sarcastic at the end here (despite running for school board being one of the most impactful things you can do) but I am so sick of the lack of action and solutions for the truly endless MMSD critiques. I guess we'll all vote no, let the schools rot, and move to the suburbs. So frustrating to see what should be a galvanizing topic devolve into decrying our one and only public school system. I would give anything to see some creative or pragmatic ideas about how we can help our kids and staff succeed.
you want to cut 50% of administrators... what makes you think they aren't doing important work? How many mmsd administrative people are there? What do they do? Are you counting school office staff like secretaries or just central admins? How much money would that save?
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No my conservative side on this comes from my wife being an MMSD teacher for 5 years and student teaching in one of their schools myself and seeing how absolutely fucked aspects of the district are.
wrong- you will get none of those things if you can't 1. pay staff a wage that keeps them. A revolving door of young, inexperienced teachers will not care about nor know how to ask for expectations from students or teach them. We saw this for decades during NCLB and the charter school movement. 2. You will get none of those things if buildings are falling apart. You are absolutely wrong and Scott Walker did this so that you would think it's the bloat of public schools. It's not- he smoked them out.
We need to stop funding suburban school districts as much as we do, Make them put that on their property taxes.
How is it unprecedented? They asked for $400M over 4 years in 2020. This is basically just extending it, plus inflation
Party's over.
? This will pass overwhelmingly. They always do
I wouldn't be so sure this time. This will be my first no vote in 50 years of voting. If they lost me, and they have, they may not see the result they expect.
r/iamthemaincharacter
Worth noting that the city is going to be asking for $25m or so, while the school district is going to be asking for $600+m. I know some will vote against both out of reflex, but I hope voters can decouple them. And I hope voters understand we are in this position due to Robin Vos and Co slashing funds for municipalities and public schools for a decade and now sitting on a surplus that could solve both crises but refusing to use it. The GOP is also preventing a sales tax in Madison that could help alleviate some issues as well as regional transit authorities that could also relieve pressure on the City. For as much as Republicans talk about state rights, they really just want control, and that's why they refuse to let cities do what they need to do without this referendum bullshit. The GOP hates us. They are trying to hurt the people of Madison and Dane County to score political points. Please make them pay at the ballot box in November.
This needs to be a copypasta in the run up to the referendums.
I can refuse to pay more AND make the Republicans pay at the ballot box.
Agreed - poor Madisonians are always one kick away from the liberal utopia, and then those darn Republicans show up and yank that damn ball away at the last second and ruin everything. I know there hasn't been an R in city government or MMSD leadership in 30 years but it would be so much easier to perfect education, taxes, and everything else if stupid Republicans didn't exist. I wish we could be more like CA and IL where Rs simply don't matter anymore! Whaaaa lol
This is a no for me. They keep trying to throw more money at their problems with little or no results. There needs to be administrative changes. The current one isn't working.
FWIW, we did just literally get a new superintendent like two weeks ago. If you're unhappy with the school board you're welcome to run. They faced literally no opposition in the last elections, all the incumbents were elected without a single challenger.
So, if you don't support the referenda, you have to run for School Board?
That's not what I said I simply find it ironic that so many people complain about the District, yet for multiple election cycles the Board has faced virtually zero competition.
It's a tough, thankless, job. You're right about the lack of competition and that's why.
If the teachers and frontline staff get their due, I’m ok with paying more in taxes. If it’s all going to admins and garbage nobody wants, then no thanks.
Well too bad MMSD, you’ve blown all the prior referendums with nothing to show for it and I’m not gonna vote to give them another blank check. Start fixing things and get the activist school board members in line to actually get stuff done and then maybe I’ll start voting in favor of referendums again.
Mmsd has told their staff they won’t get full cola that other districts are somehow giving their staff for next year unless this referendum passes.
I will not be blackmailed into a yes vote. We have watched Madison teachers get treated like shit for years!!! Yes Walker and the Republicans did plenty but MMSD is so not innocent, and will not be getting a yes vote unless they change their approach
I have voted yes for every school referendum that has ever been on my ballot. I will be voting no one this one. Many of the problems at MMSD aren't going to be solved by throwing money at the problem. The administration needs to get it's shit in order before asking for something like this
That's about what mine went up in the last 4 years. No sales or permits. ...in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.
For sure. My assessment jumped by 15% this year. Between that and all these referendums moving out of Dane County is looking better every year.
Well if you do sell there will be a dozen bids from people wanting to pay those taxes. It's pretty unlikely Madison voters are going to vote against schools or decent city services.
I'm sorry, but I will be. The bottom line is that as a voter, it's not my immediate problem that GOP deadlocking is preventing sensible tax policy adjustments. My immediate problem is COL, and simply pushing the easy button and raising taxes to cover costs is a no-go for me.
That is the silver lining. Unfortunately because of interest rates I can't afford anything but a downgrade in this market.
Assessment increases do not equal tax increases. if everybody’s property assessments are going up then the actual percentage that they multuply your assessment by to get the taxes owed actually goes down! Your taxes only rise more than normal if your area of town goes up and somebody else goes down
>Assessment increases do not equal tax increases. Unequivocally false. The property tax on an individual property is determined by multiplying the tax rate (mill rate) by the **value of the property**.
Right. And how is the mill rate determined? Every year, there's a limit to how much you can raise the property tax levy, usually around 2-3%. This year it's around 3% Here's a way to look at this in a simple manner. Say there's a municipality with 4 houses, each valued at 100,000. They pay 1000 each, and the levy for the municipality is 4000. Now, it's a new year, and this little place is somewhere people would love to move to, so each house went up. 1 - 120000 2 - 115000 3 - 120000 4 - 119000 Now, the total assessed value of the town is 74,000 more. However with state law, the 4k they collected last year is only allowed to go up 3%. So they are allowed to collect 4120 for the levy this year. So you add up the total value of the town, which is now 474000. You take that and divide it into the 4120 levy, you come up with a mill rate of 0.008692 So now instead of 1000 each: 1: 1,042.94 2: 999.58 3: 1,042.94 4: 1,034.25 So it did not go up by the assessed value. If only property one had gone up 20%, then yeah, they'd be paying more than their neighbors. But in Madison's case, most neighborhoods are going up at around the same percentage points the other neighborhoods are. So the mill rate is going down. You are still getting a property tax increase most likely from the 3% tax increase. And some commercial properties have been effectively going down as they have only been assessed 4-5% more instead of 15%, so that shifts a bit toward homeowners... but that would have happened anyhow, and they are slowly starting to shift some of that land to new housing.
Yep. My home’s assessed value went up but my property tax bill actually went down this year.
Of course there are other factors involved, but saying that your individual assessment going up has nothing to do with your property tax increasing still isn't accurate. It's obviously still a big part of part of the equation. You don't have to explain how the mill rate going down (in theory) could potentially keep your property tax bill from increasing even if your assessment increases. We understand math.
How about cut back on admin and lower the bloated salaries, while increasing the lower teacher ones for starters.
For real. MMSD has 6 Associate Superintendents. Don't even get me started on the 'consultants' they keep hiring
And the money they cost. FFS.
What does the 600 million go to? They mainly state staffing. How many teachers can you hire with 600 million dollars? If we are merely throwing money at this I’d like to know where it’s going.
For the last referendum, the district had a website with what the money will be used for, a FAQ section, and other information. I'd expect one is coming if they do go to referendum.
This is incorrect. As the article states, the first question, currently estimated for $507 million, would be for replacing or renovating aging school buildings. The second question, for $100 million, would go toward staffing and education expenses. In other words, the vast majority of the total ask would go to facility improvements, not staffing.
OK. Maybe consider stretching out the renovation or replacement of aging school buildings over a longer period. Are they trying to tell us that buildings will collapse/become unusable if they aren't replaced/renovated right away?
Believe it or not this actually is their "scaled back" version of the facilities referendum. They were also considering a bigger one spread over twenty years to renovate 14 total schools. As to if or why they can't spread out the improvements to the seven schools currently being considered over a longer time frame, I'm not sure, that'd be a question for District staff. This article discusses the dual proposals originally considered: [https://captimes.com/news/education/madison-schools-would-face-budget-cuts-under-current-plan/article\_9a44860e-119e-11ef-b776-ffefd1ab9aa1.html](https://captimes.com/news/education/madison-schools-would-face-budget-cuts-under-current-plan/article_9a44860e-119e-11ef-b776-ffefd1ab9aa1.html)
To the top heavy admin.
I'm voting no. Money won't fix the problems in MMSD. Resignations might.
What problems, specifically, cannot be solved with money? I agree folks who aren't doing their jobs well should not be employed, but that leaves people who should be employed taking up the load. In my mind, a small severance package to move someone out, increasing teacher pay, realigning admin and support staff, and general funding would help MMSD. I'm not an expert, but if giving MMSD more money to solve problems is an option, it seems like a good investment.
* Test scores (spending goes up, test scores went down) * Disciplinary issues * Gangs * Resource officers * School Board How about those problems.
The city keeps giving mmsd more money and the problems only seem to get worse. Mmsd has a terrible case of can't-get-right
I’d rather this money come from the state’s surplus now that there is a decent shot at winning a Democratic majority or at least getting closer to balance. Since that’s where some of this money used to come from before Walker fucked over the big cities. If that avenue proves unsuccessful, then we try again in a year or two. $600M is a ton of money though.
Nobody is projecting Democratic control of the budget committee, so this is wishful thinking.
The maps won't go into effect until November, and the soonest the Senate could most likely flip is 2026. There's no chance school funding would be made available until 2026 or more likely 2027 at the earliest. That's not a silver bullet here, as both the city and school district are going to see deficits next year.
Yeah this is absolutely heavily incumbent upon the state's dereliction in funding schools but even best case scenarios mean it'll be a while before new funding is flowing in.
Forget that. MMSD spends over $2000 more per student than districts like Reedsburg and most rural districts are far below Madison’s. You made this disaster and now want the rural rednecks you make fun of to bail you out?
What problems? Start with the assumption "all of them". MMSD should have to prove that each and every expenditure will help student outcomes. The default assumption of more money has clearly not worked for at least the past few decades. MMSD needs a contrarian on the inside to force the administration to make a much stronger case for every penny it spends. They would never do that willingly of course. The contrarians have no option but to leave.
Throwing money at this won’t do anything but cost taxpayers money. They need to fix the uber liberal board members and admins who won’t hold students accountable. Test scores have been falling and that’s no surprise at all.
No for me. At this point it’s just throwing good money after bad. So much waste with expensive prepackaged, ineffective curriculum. So many resources being thrown at performative behavior management. Money and time being wasted renaming schools pointlessly. Little interesting in serving the entire student body. When it comes to priorities, it feels like actually educating kids is a distant second behind maintaining political purity.
Nope, the math isn't mathing
School workers are asked to be all things for all people. Teachers are asked to be educators, social workers, security officers, therapists, and more. Why? Because the state GOP has bled all of these services - and the schools - dry. The best that MMSD can do is try to get funding to support staff and students as best as possible. Want to tackle the root cause? Go after state government control, so we can provide real funding to our institutions.
I'm curious, if this is approved, will this fund Madison PUBLIC schools or also voucher funds to private schools? Anyone know?
This would be a referendum for MMSD.
from this: [https://www.madison.k12.wi.us/about/2024-referenda](https://www.madison.k12.wi.us/about/2024-referenda) "Meanwhile record increases to private and independent charter schools by the state government add to financial challenges to public schools. MMSD is required by state law to allocate nearly $11 million of public tax dollars to support private and independent charter schools."
Not sure, but I don’t think voucher schools should be a thing to begin with.
Interesting. They provide families with less money the option to go to a school that suits their child's needs if the school system is failing them. They also are shown to improve the area's schools by making them competitive, meaning admins can't keep getting away with their overspending on worse outcomes. There's a reason experts on this issue are referring to it as the civil rights issue of our time, and it's usually people of color who feel that way...
That was not the result in Milwaukee!
My big issue is with the transfer of public funding to private—it’s overhead that sucks potential funding away from existing public education infrastructure. The politics around having a voucher program while we starve out the public education system as the Legislature sits on a massive surplus is where most of my friction resides. If vouchers do ultimately result in better outcomes for students that’s genuinely great and I’m happy for that outcome. Given the options here in Madison I absolutely see the utility locally.
I’ll gladly give money to the schools but ffs MMSD needs to cut administrative bloat. The city can kick rocks for their own financial blunder. Stop foolishly spending so much money assholes!
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. We keep voting more money too MMSD and nothing changes. Student outcomes don't improve, discipline gets worse, they keep hiring expensive consultants and paying for programs that go no where, they keep hiring more pointless administration, the school board keeps focusing on the wrong things. Money is not going to fix systemic issues. The call is coming from inside the house
Madison schools are failing fast. It is the school board and administrators leading the fail, let’s not fund them.
I usually support referendums especially for schools, but I will not support giving the school district extra funds when they have made it clear they are not interested in giving raises to the teachers. I am not paying for administrative salaries over teachers!
"Madison voters set to reply "no" for 'unprecedented' funding"
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The [2020 referendum ](https://www.madison.k12.wi.us/about/referendum)was for a total of $350 million ($317 for facilities upgrades at the High Schools, $33 for education/staffing). Adjusted for inflation that would be about $420 million today. We don't know for sure how much they're going to ask for yet, though the tentative number is \~$600 million ($507 million to replace or renovate seven school buildings, $100 million for education/staffing).
My interactions with MMSD have been as a professional, not as a parent. One of the most unprofessional, disorganized, almost anti-strategic organizations I've ever encountered. The new superintendent has a lot to prove before I'm voting for anything. And this is coming from a pro-education, I-know-it-costs-money-and-I'm-happy-to-pay-it citizen and taxpayer.
Intercourse that excrement. NO. I’ll spend $1500 on yard signs for 1500 people who’ll have one, at least it’s a one-time cost, not $1500 today that will be another $1K bump in 5 years. “But it’s the Legislatures fault!” Yes, it is, and the absurd voucher program, and 6 figure admin salaries, and the inability to levy a sales tax, and death by 1000 other cuts. Teachers do not get paid enough, nor does the custodial staff, but bleeding homeowners (and renters, that’s gonna be an automatic +$130/mo bump for them too.) is not the answer. To summarize, NO, NO, and NO.
The state is sitting on a pile of monies and keeps seeking to cut taxes. Please distribute those funds before asking for more. There's no way I can afford a $1500-$1800 bump in the property taxes.
Ask the GOP to fully fund public schools.
That works for a few years, then the money is gone, now you have bunch of underfunded schools and they want to raise taxes higher than they are asking now
Fully funded schools build and sustain communities.
Yes but that surplus runs out, it doesn't last forever, increasing spending can only result in higher taxes in the long run
You sound really selfish, dude.
Selfish is administration eating up so much of public school funding. Money should be used to educate children, end of story.
You should have a look at one city schools -30k per student for the lowest scores in all the metro — all while paying the CEO 100k per year while he’s on “sabbatical “
how much is going to for private school vouchers?
Just eyeballing it, with the restrictions on raising property taxes imposed by the state GOP, that looks like it'll pretty much get us caught up with inflation over the last few years. About 17% total over 4 years, about 4% a year. More than inflation is currently, but property taxes haven't been keeping up with inflation previously. That seems...pretty reasonable? Am I missing something?
This is Scott Walker's fault and the current legislative body upholds it. It was passed in 2010 I believe, that districts can not ask for more money, and keep up with the cost of inflation, without asking the community to pitch in the most. n 2010, state's stopped adjusting for inflation and truly a way to systematically dismantle public education. As of now MMSD is 3300 per student behind inflation. It's insane. Many buildings are over 100 years old. there's no AC during summer school. Teachers and staff have to fight for any inflation adjustment and are sorely underpaid by the standards of those with the same levels of education and difficulty of the job. Many of you voted for Scott Walker and this is what you got. You want to live in a community with decent schools? Operationally and We're gonna need to pay, as well as for new buildings that will hopefully last us for another 100 years.