Madison School District Administration's Proposed 2008-2009 Budget Published

The observation of school district budgeting is fascinating. Numbers are big (9 or more digits) and the politics significant. Many factors affect such expenditures including local property taxes, state and federal redistributed tax dollars, enrollment, grants, referendums, new programs, politics and periodically local priorities. The Madison School District Administration released it's proposed 2008-2009 $367,806,712 budget Friday, April 4, 2008 (Allocations were sent to the schools on March 5, 2008 prior to the budget's public release Friday).

There will be a number of versions between this proposal and a final budget later this year (MMSD 2008-2009 Budget timeline).

I've summarized budget and enrollment information from 1995 through 2008-2009 below:

While enrollment has been flat, the student composition has significantly changed over the past decade. The District's documents discuss a projected 0.75% increase in spending from 2007-2008 to the 2008-2009 budget. However, the 07-08 numbers reference $17.7M for the new far west side elementary school, an amount not included in the most recent 2007-2008 Citizen's Budget.

Year	Enrollment	Budget
2008	24,268	$367,806,712
2007	24,525	339,685,844
2006	24,490	333,101,865.71
2005	24,675	321,465,688
2004	24,859	308,652,271
2003	24,966	305,246,142
2002	24,893	290,179,417
2001	24,901	280,840,524
2000	24,758	280,138,796
1999	24,921	255,711,561
1998	25,132	245,131,022	1997	24,970	234,235,586
1996	24,872	227,299,173
1995	24,710	217,110,831

Related links:

• Ruth Robarts: Look before you leap, a good rule for public budget making?
• Peter Gascoyne: A 5 year approach to the Madison School District's budget challenges, or what is the best quality of education that can be purchased for our district for $280 million a year?
• Many, many budget posts can be found here.
• Deficit Spending: Declining Madison School District Equity Fund Balance.
• K-12 Tax & Spending Climate
• Paul Soglin on the MMSD's special education spending.

Madison School District 4/4/2008 08/09 proposed budget documents:

• Executive Summary [pdf]
• Financial Summaries [1.13MB pdf]
• Department & Division Reports [7.18MB pdf]

Finally, Susan Troller's April 5, article on the 2008-2009 budget included information on a potential November, 2008 operating referendum:

The referendum, which would ask taxpayers to override state-imposed revenue caps so services and programs would not have to be cut from the Madison Metropolitan School District, could take place as early as November, School Board President Arlene Silveira said Friday afternoon following a press briefing on the district's 2008-09 budget.

"The discussion between the Board of Education and the new superintendent about whether to go to referendum will surely be one of the first things on our agenda in July," Silveira said.

While the forecast for the district's budget in 2009-2010 looks gloomy, the news on the 2008-2009 budget is far more upbeat, thanks to a one-time $5.7 million windfall from the city.

This is an interesting dilemma for the Board and new Superintendent. On the one hand, the timing may be favorable given Dan Nerad's honeymoon period and a presidential vote generates far higher turnout than spring elections. The potential date presents an interesting contrast to just a few years ago, when the MMSD preferred to call (expensive) special elections, thinking that low turnout would benefit a yes vote. The most recent referendum, held on November 7, 2006 was a "high turnout" event - and the referendum passed handily.

Alternatively, there are no shortage of issues that will be on voter's minds in November: Wisconsin (and Madison's) per student spending ranks above much of the nation, yet our per capita income lags the national average and any number of local issues such as the scheme to replace middle and high school report cards and unresolved curriculum controversies in reading (more, including this) and math, one size fits all high school curriculum, high school "redesign" among many other topics.

Perhaps the new Superintendent might use his honeymoon capital for something more than the "same service" or cost to continue approach we've seen over the past decade.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at April 7, 2008 1:33 AM
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