Report analyzes separating Wisconsin school choice funding

(The Center Square) – Separating the funding for Wisconsin’s school choice program from the state’s public school funding formula would have saved local property taxpayers $337 million this year but that expense would have been shifted to $343 million in additional state funding, according to a new report from Forward Analytics.

The report called the process decoupling and said it would lead to lower property taxes in 407 of 421 districts while increasing the amount needed for state funding. That state funding would need to come from higher state taxes from something such as income or sales tax or cuts to other state programs.

Forward Analytics is a division of the Wisconsin Counties Association. Wisconsin counties are generally funded through property taxes and state aid. In 2020, Wisconsin counties received 39% of their funding through property taxes and 27% from state aid.

The Forward Analytics report said that the state funding needs will likely increase in coming years.

“During the first two years, there would likely be some volatility in school property taxes, with relatively large declines in the first year followed by increases in the second,” Forward Analytics Director Dale Knapp said in a statement. “For nearly all districts, though, these second-year increases would still keep school property taxes below current levels.”

The report argues that the current system makes an already complex funding formula even more difficult to understand.

“The current funding system adds another layer of complexity, which, among other things, ‘hides’ the impacts,” the report states. “The bottom line is that the current system replaces the aid deduction for the cost of these programs with property taxes. It also changes the distribution of state equalization aid resulting in ‘hidden’ property tax shifts for districts with no students in these programs.”