Scott Williams, swilliams@wolfrivermedia.com
Public school systems in the Shawano area are feeling pinched by a loss of state aid attributed to students choosing private schools at taxpayer expense under the state’s expanded voucher program.
School districts in Shawano, Clintonville, Pulaski and Wittenberg-Birnamwood are losing nearly $300,000 combined in state aid because of students taking advantage of private school vouchers.
To make up for the lost funding, school administrators are moving ahead with spending cuts or increased property taxes, as permitted under the voucher program.
“That’s going to impact all of us negatively,” said Wittenberg-Birnamwood School Superintendent Garrett Rogowski.
The private school voucher fallout comes on the heels of new state aid projections, released last week, that had officials in Shawano and elsewhere celebrating expected increases in state assistance for public schools.
Under the first-ever expansion of a voucher program that has existed for years in the Milwaukee area, state school officials informed many districts that they were losing funding to support students who instead choose to attend parochial or other private schools at taxpayer expense.
Upon learning that Shawano schools were losing funding equal to about 25 students, the Shawano School Board on Monday boosted property tax collections for the current school year from less than $12.9 million to more than $13.1 million, as part of a $37 million annual budget.
Louise Fischer, the district’s business manager, said the lost state aid for voucher students erased savings that administrators had achieved elsewhere in the budget and had intended to pass along to taxpayers.
“We could’ve saved them a lot of money in taxes,” Fischer said. “And now it’s not going to happen.”
The state reported to Shawano school officials that the district was losing $180,350 because of voucher enrollments among local students, and that the district’s local property tax revenue limits were being raised by $238,364 under the voucher formula.
As a result, a property tax rate that would have been $10.17 per $1,000 of property value in the district’s new budget was raised to $10.31 for Shawano homeowners and businesses. That means the owner of a $100,000 property will pay taxes of $1,031, which is $14 more than what was planned before the voucher costs.
Critics of the state voucher program say it harms public school districts by redirecting needed resources to private schools. Supporters, however, say the program gives families more flexibility in selecting schools that meet their needs.
St. James Lutheran School of Shawano, which qualified as a voucher school, reported that of its 162 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, 27 qualified this year for state vouchers.
Principal Susan Longmire said all but two of those students were already enrolled at St. James, which led her to speculate that other Shawano public school students had transferred to voucher schools outside of the district. Either way, she said, the system is working effectively by allowing parents to apply their tax dollars to the school they want their children to attend.
“I have a hard time seeing how that’s wrong,” she said. “It’s a fair way of doing this for the parents who want to have a choice.”
Public school administrators in Shawano and elsewhere are pushing state education officials for a full accounting of student transfers to voucher schools, including student names and residences.
The Pulaski school district lost $48,829 in state aid for the voucher program, or the equivalent of about six students switching to private schools.
Pam Kercheval, the district’s business manager, said Pulaski would increase property tax collections by $61,688 as permitted by the state. Kercheval said the result, like Shawano, would be a lost opportunity to offer tax relief to local property owners.
The tax rate in Pulaski will increase about 4 cents extra because of the voucher program, which Kercheval said could go unnoticed by many taxpayers.
“If they knew about the 4 cents for private school vouchers, I think they would be upset,” she added.
Clintonville schools similarly are losing $43,284 in state aid, with the option of adding $56,950 to their property tax collections.
In the Wittenberg-Birnamwood school district, officials are considering spending cuts rather than tax increases to offset the loss of $22,934 to the voucher program. The state formula would allow Wittenberg-Birnamwood school officials to raise an extra $27,607 in property taxes.
Rogowski, however, said he would rather try to find spending cuts in the school district’s budget.
Officials might go through this exercise again next year, Rogowski noted, if the state’s voucher program expands again as expected. He said: “We’re going to have to brace ourselves for a greater impact.”