Column: Missing context in the voucher tax debate
By State Senator Patrick Testin
If only he had taken his own advice.
That state representative claimed your property taxes are skyrocketing primarily because state funding is being diverted to students who attend private schools.
Whether intentional or not, the author left out a lot of vital information that would have poked gaping holes in his own narrative.
Through Wisconsin’s school funding formula, each school district receives a certain amount of state aid that is, in part, based on the number of students enrolled at their schools. The remaining portion is covered by federal dollars and local property taxes.
When a student leaves a school and attends a different institution, the original school district will lose its state aid for that specific pupil. This is because that school is no longer obligated to incur the expenses of educating that student.
However, the school district of residence for pupils participating in the school choice program is still able to count those students for revenue limit purposes or receive a nonrecurring revenue limit adjustment.
It is also important to point out that it costs taxpayers less money to educate a private school student than a public school student. Plus, only low-income families can qualify for the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program. All other students must pay for their own tuition.
So, to say that school districts must implement local property tax hikes to make up for the loss of students to private schools is a classic case of deception.
One of the biggest culprits of increased property taxes is an issue that is plaguing all of Wisconsin: declining enrollment. Due to falling birth rates and other factors, schools are seeing fewer students enter their classrooms. Yet, in many instances, school boards continue to increase spending or keep their expenditures relatively flat.
Another component that is affecting local property taxes is the $14 million operational referendum that was approved by Stevens Point voters in 2024. This added taxpayer expense comes at a time when enrollment in the Stevens Point Area School District has dropped by nearly 300 students since 2019.
During that same time period, the amount of revenue provided to the district by the state went up by nearly $17 million – an increase of almost 27 percent. The state covered 55 percent of the district’s budget for this school year – up two percent from 2019.
The Legislature also included more than $500 million in the 2025-27 state budget for special education reimbursements. Those dollars are very important to school districts because they allow them to free up more money in their general funds.
The aforementioned state representative, of course, voted against that proposal. But he has voiced his support for Gov. Tony Evers’ line-item veto in the 2023-25 state budget that authorizes school districts to raise property taxes for the next 400 years – a point he conveniently forgot to mention in his column.
There are always two sides to every story. Now you have the other one.
Patrick Testin represents Wisconsin’s 24th Senate District