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By Keegan Kyle and Brandon Raygo Voters all across the communities and neighborhoods in the Madison Metropolitan School District widely supported the district’s two referendums this month that will raise property taxes for decades. (more) But in the affluent village of Maple Bluff, on the eastern shore of Lake Mendota, voters expressed more aversion to hiking taxes […]
Abbey Machtig: Student/adult ratio for the school construction projects included in the referendum: Orchard Ridge 3.92 Toki Middle School: 4.84 Gompers Elementary: 4.56 Black Hawk Middle: 4.24 Anana Elementary: 4.5 Crestwood elementary: 4.78 Sherman Middle: 4.0 Shabazz City High: 4.0 Cherokee Middle: 4.96 Sennett Middle: 4.64 Notes and links on the Fall 2024 referendum, here. […]
Dave Cieslewicz: And, of course, all of the underlying reasons to send the school board a message about their priorities and their performance are still very much there. This is a district with some of the lowest test scores and some of the highest absenteeism rates in the state, a district where the racial achievement […]
Judith Davidoff & Liam Beran: Soglin opened the news conference at the Park Hotel noting that the room contained an array of “unconnected” folks who are “connected by their concern for the city.” Audience members included former Alds. Nino Amato, Dave Ahrens and Dorothy Borchardt; Lisa Veldran, who led the city council office for 30 […]
Dave Zweifel: I remember writing a column a couple of years after the pool opened chiding a group of Madison alders who, during budget deliberations, were upset that the pool’s admission charges didn’t cover 100% of its annual costs. My column declared that a city that had just been given a first-class swimming pool for […]
Abbey Machtig: Past spending decisions combined with current revenue estimates leave the district with an estimated $40 million shortfall, Assistant Superintendent of Financial Services Bob Soldner told the Wisconsin State Journal. District could renovate, build new schools The district appears to be leaning toward building several new schools with potential referendum dollars rather than renovating […]
Karen Pilarski: Declining enrollment is nothing new to many school districts, including the School District of Waukesha. Due to this, the district is considering what the future will look like and making decisions accordingly. During the Finance and Facilities meeting on Monday, Superintendent Jim Sebert made a presentation called “Optimizing Our Future.” Sebert said due […]
Lucas Robinson: At last Monday’s School Board meeting, Madison Teachers Inc. President Michael Jones called the referendums a “bait and switch.” “I should have known better than to trust a district that spent the equivalent of multiple educators’ annual salary on school logos and rebranding that no one asked for,” Jones told the board, referring […]
Lucas Robinson: “This is a major screwup, one that is both politically damaging and legally troubling for Madison’s City Clerk’s Office,” Amato said in an email, noting that the office already is embroiled in investigations and a lawsuit over uncounted ballots in the 2024 election. “It raises even more red flags about growing incompetence and mismanagement,” […]
Abbey Machtig Gothard’s starting salary is $299,000, according to his contract with the district. He also gets at least a 2% pay increase each year of the contract, along with $25,000 each year in retirement contributions to a 403(b) account. As superintendent, Gothard will lead the district through the design and construction of 10 new school buildings […]
Quinton Klabon Wisconsin predicts -69,053 fewer grade-school-age children (5 to 14) from 2020 to 2030, -9.4%. They predict -106,513 fewer from 2020 to 2050, -14.5%. The first 2 images are population loss by count. The second 2 are population loss by percentage. —— more. Madison’s 2024 tax & $pending increase referendum choose life
Via my open records request: Debt schedule Standard & Poors Debt Rating September, 2024 “ai” summary: Madison Metropolitan School District – S&P Rating Summary (September 2024) Current Ratings SP-1+ rating on $50M Tax Revenue Anticipation Notes (due Sept 2025) AA+ rating on existing General Obligation debt Outlook: Stable Financial Strengths Stable operating performance with conservative […]
Kayla Huynh: “What sets me apart is being able to analyze data and derive meaningful conclusions from it. That is what I do day in and day out in my profession,” Wagner said. “We need a better framework for reviewing policy and programming so that we can be confident that the things we will need […]
Dave Cieslewicz To quote a Wisconsin State Journal story on test scores that were released yesterday: “The four specific categories used to calculate the district’s overall achievement score all declined in comparison with last year’s school report card. Graduate rates fell slightly, while chronic absenteeism, or the percentage of students that miss at least 10% of school, […]
Stephen L. Miller In the final month of the 2024 election, the national media existed in another solar system from the country for whom is tasked at reporting accurate, unbiased and truthful information. The final month started with Jeffrey Goldberg and the Atlantic attempting to regurgitate their anonymously sourced “suckers and losers” hit against Trump from 2020. […]
PDF summary No copying!! Much more on Madison’s K-12 budget, here.
Corrinne Hess Voters in 137 school districts were asked to approve increased funding for schools. A preliminary analysis by the Wisconsin Policy Forum found 107 referendum questions passed, while 30 failed. Ari Brown, a researcher with the Policy Forum, said the outcome is better than expected, but shows that overtime school district have gotten better […]
Kayla Huynh: “We are spending more revenue than we have to spend,” Superintendent Joe Gothard said. “We have a lot of work to do. Regardless of the outcome next Tuesday, we have to have some strategic direction moving forward.” “We need to be sustainable. There’s no doubt about this,” he added. “It’s frustrating to have […]
Abbey Machtig: “We are spending more revenue than we have to spend, therefore we are going to be spending one-time (reserve) funds …” Gothard said Monday. “We have a lot of work to do. Regardless of the outcome next Tuesday, we have to have some strategic direction.” Notes and links on the Fall $600,000,000+ 2024 referendum, […]
Kayla Huynh: Nearly 95,000 people in Dane County received Social Security payments in 2022. In January this year, the estimated average monthly Social Security check was about $1,900. The annual property tax bill on the average Madison home costs over $7,000 for city- and school-related taxes, according to city and school district estimates. In a few years, depending […]
Dave Cieslewicz: This morning it’s grades. They’re getting rid of them. No more letters, only “advanced,” “proficient,” “developing,” and “emerging.” Only four categories — apparently no one will fail. Actually, this is nothing new. MMSD has had this system for elementary and middle schoolers for a while and it was being “piloted” (read: phased in) at East […]
Notes and links on the Foundation for Madison Public Schools. Madison’s well funded k-12 system and city government are seeking substantial 607M+ tax and spending increases via referendum this fall. Madison taxpayers of long supported far above average K – 12 spending. The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, […]
Kayla Huynh Less is clear with the district’s plans for the $100 million referendum, which would fund day-to-day operating costs, such as salaries and programs. Approving this referendum alone would hike property taxes on the average home by over $300 in the first year, the district estimates. By 2028, the operations referendum would permanently raise the […]
WILL: A calculator with current and future property taxes – notwithstanding other, ongoing assessment and mill rate increases. Much more on Madison’s well funded K-12 $607,000,000 Fall 2024 tax & $pending increase referendums, here. More. A summary.
Liam Beran: As part of her answer, Pellebon said that “‘affordable housing’ is not affordable.” The audience of around 40 people erupted into applause. The reaction at the Sept. 19 forum reflects just how expensive and inaccessible housing has become in Dane County, Wisconsin’s second-largest county. The county’s severe housing shortage has forced action from a state flagship university […]
I noticed these signs placed on the Wisconsin State Capitol grounds Saturday, 28 September 2024 and wondered who was behind their printing and placement (along with whether such partisan activity can be placed on taxpayer funded facilities)? One week later, two employees of the Foundation for Madison Public Schools (8 total employees according to them) […]
Corrinne Hess: But over three decades, the number of district buildings decreased by only 3.9 percent, despite a 29.1 percent drop over that period in MPS’ full-time enrollment, the policy forum found. “The overall trend suggests that the current number of publicly supported school buildings in the city may not be sustainable over the next […]
Abbey Machtig: Of those 13 successful referendums, Madison residents still are paying for five of them. If voters approve two proposals from the district in November that together total $607 million, that number would jump to seven. Voters already have authorized the district to increase its spending limit by $72 millionthrough recurring, operating referendums approved during […]
David Blaska: ——- Much more on Paul Vallas. The taxpayer funded Madison School Board aborted the proposed Madison Preparatory Academy IB charter school in 2011… Madison’s well funded k-12 system and city government are seeking substantial 607M+ tax and spending increases via referendum this fall. Madison taxpayers of long supported far above average K – 12 spending. The data clearly indicate […]
Dave Cieslewicz The district used temporary COVID relief funds to pay for 110 permanent positions that they knew they couldn’t afford once the federal money went away. Now, they’re asking voters to pick up the tab. And if they don’t, will they cut the positions? No, they’ll pay for them out of reserves (see above). […]
Abbey Machtig: More referendum money would pay for an estimated $15 million increase in health care costs, and for new teaching and mental health staff. An additional pay increase for district employees also is tied to the operating referendum. The district and Madison Teachers Inc. already agreed to a 2.06% wage increase, in addition to […]
Dave Cieslewicz: This week there’s more. It turns out that the district is running a $3 million deficit in its food service program, which is double the $1.5 million gap it had last year. And the district’s response? They’ve got a plan to get back to even — by 2033. Really? This is an organization that plans […]
Abbey Machtig: After months of negotiations, the Madison School District has tentatively agreed to a 2.06% pay increase for teachers and staff, with an additional 2.06% tacked on if a $100 million operating referendum passes in November. The initial increase would be more than the wage freeze originally proposed by district officials in March, but it’s only […]
David Blaska: Blaska’s Bottom Line: Dave C. says voting NO is actually the progressive thing to do! Now if we could just find someone more electable than Blaska to run for school board next Spring. Close some Madison schools, and a no on the November Referendums
Wisconsin Policy Forum Gross property tax levies approved in 2023 by local taxing jurisdictions in Wisconsin increased by 4.6% statewide, which exceeded inflation and was the largest increase since 2007. —- Madison offers voters a $607,000,000 tax & spending increase on the November ballot… Close some Madison schools, and a no on the November Referendums […]
Miguel Cardona: This vision matters because students enrolled in well-funded public schools get a better shot at quality instruction and additional support—including tutoring and after-school programming. They get better access to nutrition assistance, mental health services, and learning environments that embrace who they are. It is this vision, when fully realized, that will allow every […]
David Blaska summary: Madison’s well funded k-12 system and city government are seeking substantial 607M+ tax and spending increases via referendum this fall.
By Allison Garfield The mayor said the referendum is “the only budgetary path in 2025 that protects our values as a community, while we work to address the chronic underfunding of local governments at the state level.” “I’m glad the council agreed that putting that issue to the voters is the right thing to do,” […]
Abbey Machtig: The district administered a survey and held a series of input meetings earlier this year, which indicated mixed opinions from the public on referendums for this fall. That was before the School Board voted to place the questions on the ballot, and before the district shared the exact dollar amounts of the proposals and the […]
Sara R. Shaw, Robert Rauh, Jeff Schmidt, Jason Stein and Rob Henken: We can show that by looking at the overall operating funds available to the district from local, state, and federal sources. Using a metric developed for the Forum’s School DataTool, we found that MPS had operating spending in the 2022 school year of […]
Abbey Machtig: The two referendums total $607 million, making them the second-largest request of voters by a school district in state history. It comes in behind Racine’s $1 billion school referendum, which passed in 2020 by only five votes Lucas Robinson and Gayle Worland “Residents in Madison are likely looking at a higher cost of living across […]
Abbey Machtig: The estimated tax impact for residents is as follows: Operational referendum: 2024-25 — $316.72 increase; 2025-26 — $315.49 increase; 2026-27 — $209.1 increase; 2027-28 — $208.28 increase; total: $1,049.58 increase in property tax bill over the next four years. Facilities referendum: 2025-26 — $327.47 increase; 2026-27 — $328.83 increase; 2027-28 — $326.20 increase; […]
Allison Garfield: The 2024 operating budget — which mostly goes toward staff salaries and benefits — totaled $405.4 million. Adding on to that seems like reckless spending to Randy Bruegman, a former fire chief in California who moved to Madison in 2018. The city’s focus “should be on identifying areas where cuts can be made,” […]
WTMJ: @WTMJSteve was joined by @SenStroebel and @JacobJCurtis and they discussed the response. Listen to the full Political Power Hour: wtmj.com/political-powe… —- More.
Years ago, a former Madison Superintendent lamented the lack of business community substantive engagement in our well funded k-12 system. Has anything changed? 2024 brings another year of uncontested Madison School board elections. Madison has another new Superintendent – Joe Gothard– due to start soon. Meanwhile: A scorecard. More on Madison’s well funded K-12 system. Accountability? […]
Abbey Machtig and Dean Mosiman: the district had to pull $28 million from its general education fund to cover the extra expenses. The city, which has a growing population and a $405.4 million general fund operating budget for 2024, and the school district, which has a $591 million budget for the 2023-24 school year, both […]
Abbey Machtig: The Madison School District is in the middle of two referendums approved by voters in 2020. The $317 million capital referendum has gone toward building a new elementary school and funding significant high-school renovations. The smaller operating referendum gave the district an additional $33 million to work with over four years. Despite this […]
Scott Girard In total, the 2023-24 preliminary budget spends $581 million. The board will vote on a final budget in October after enrollment is finalized. The budget includes a deficit of $15 million for this year, but $11.5 million in ongoing costs are covered by one-time federal COVID-19 relief money that won’t be available next fall […]
Olivia Herken: Memorial’s new music wing is among several projects made possible in November 2020, when voters in the Madison School District approved a $317 million capital referendum to build a new elementary school and fund significant high-school renovations. Construction started around the district in 2022, and now all those plans are yielding real, tangible changes. All […]
Administration PDF: Proposed Question 1: Shall the Madison Metropolitan School District, Dane County, Wisconsin be authorized to exceed the revenue limit specified in Section 121.91, Wisconsin Statutes, by $6,000,000 for 2020-2021 school year; by an additional $8,000,000 (for a total $14,000,000) for 2021-2022 school year; by an additional $9,000,000 (for a total of $23,000,000) for […]
Scott Gerard: Between now and the 2024-25 school year, the district will lose another 1,347 students, according to district projections. Since the 2011-12 school year when MMSD added 4-year-old kindergarten, the district has always had at least 26,000 students. Projections show it will drop below that in 2024-25 for the first time since. Projections from Vandewalle […]
Tim Daly —— Meanwhile Madison is adding bricks and mortar (and raising property taxes) amidst declining enrollment..
Wisconsin public policy, forum: The rise in gross levies this year is driven primarily by increases to K-12 property taxes — the largest local property tax most residents will pay. The $325 increase to per pupil revenue limits in the current state budget is one factor, but so was the willingness of many referendum voters […]
Kaylah Huynh: State Superintendent Jill Underly wants to put the responsibility of funding schools back on the state, she recently told the Cap Times in an interview. Underly, who leads the state Department of Public Instruction, is proposing over $4 billion in spending toward schools for the 2025-2027 state budget. The plans would reimburse 90% […]
Sami West As Seattle Public Schools faces continued public backlash over proposed school closures, a group of parents is attempting to recall board President Liza Rankin. In court documents filed with King County, the group argues Rankin adopted a “rushed and improper” school closure process and repeatedly failed to “provide transparency and community engagement on […]
Kyle Koenen: Jill Underly’s proposed DPI budget would eat up 65% of the state’s budget surplus, all while allowing property taxes to continue to go up. We fund students at approximately $20k per student on average. When is it enough? Abbey Machtig: State Superintendent Jill Underly is proposing more than $4 billion in new spending […]
David Blaska Summary: For the fourth straight year I voted NO on the Dane County Budget. For 2025 the county budget: Raises county property taxes by over $2.7 million. While this might not seem like a lot compared to a nearly billion-dollar total budget, it continues moving Dane County’s tax burden in the wrong direction. We already pay more property […]
Anjney Midha: One the saddest realizations for me when we were scaling the @midjourney server at @discord in ‘22 was seeing millions of US gen z kids struggle to prompt They literally don’t have the words. Broken english. Pidgin lingo. Translating thought to language is insanely hard for them Notes and links on the Fall $600,000,000+ […]
JD Busch: According to Chicago Contrarian, a property currently paying $25,000 in annual property tax (common for properties worth $750K-$1.25MM) will fork over an additional $4,685 annually based on the proposed 18.75% tax hike. And while the real estate market hasn’t yet processed this latest curveball (it’ll take a few months for closed transactions to reveal […]
Corinne Hess: “The Governor and DPI will very likely show that the Governor validly partially vetoed Act 100 and that DPI is entitled to the $50 million in disputed literacy funding,” Kaul wrote to the Supreme Court. “Both issues are destined for this Court, and leaving them to the ordinary appellate process would significantly harm […]
Jonathan Chait: Notes and links on the Fall $600,000,000+ 2024 referendum, here. Madison taxpayers have long supported far above average K – 12 spending. The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic” My Question to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Teacher Mulligans and our Disastrous […]
AJ Manaseer: Notes and links on the Fall $600,000,000+ 2024 referendum, here. Madison taxpayers have long supported far above average K – 12 spending. The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic” My Question to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Teacher Mulligans and our Disastrous […]
Wall Street Silver Final numbers for fiscal year 2024 Total US govt revenue = $4.918 trillionInterest on natl debt = $1.133 trillion23% of all govt revenue went to interest on the debt. 2025 fiscal year started Oct 1st, we are on pace for 30% of all govt revenue going to interest payments. America: Half a […]
Deanna Pan and Emma Platoff On one side are Congressional Democrats, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is up for reelection this November and supports Question 2, the teachers union-backed measure to repeal the state mandate requiring students to pass their 10th grade MCAS exams. Democratic Governor Maura Healey sits squarely in opposition — along with Lieutenant Governor […]
Dave Cieslewicz And the racial achievement gap in Madison was far worse than the rest of the state. Statewide the gaps were 43% for English and 50% for math. About 60% of white students were proficient in English compared to 17% of Black students. About 64% of white students were proficient or better in math […]
Matthew Wielicki: The first step in fixing our public schools… is getting rid of the administrative class. “so the point is it was an existence proof, that there’s this entire universe of alternative cost structures that is out there” Madison’s well funded k-12 system and city government are seeking substantial 607M+ tax and spending increases […]
Nadia Scharf: The Unified School District of De Pere is under investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction after board member Melissa Niffenegger accused the district’s reading curriculum and its director of curriculum and instruction, Kathy Van Pay, of violating Wisconsin law. “That is retaliation. You are retaliating against the board for disagreeing with […]
David Blaska: The canary in the coal mine has already died when a city’s schools are in decay. So we must double down on school choice, aided by vouchers that allow the state’s school district contribution to follow the student to the school of his/her family’s choice. Madison’s well funded k-12 system and city government […]
Jessika Harkay: When 19-year-old Aleysha Ortiz told Hartford City Council members in May that the public school system stole her education, she had to memorize her speech. Ortiz, who was a senior at Hartford Public High School at the time, wrote the speech using the talk-to-text function on her phone. She listened to it repeatedly […]
Dave Cieslewicz: And, again, on that score school districts like Madison, which obsess over race, have made zero progress in closing the racial achievement gap. Why do liberals cling so tightly to a system that delivers no results? A color blind society was once, not so long ago, the liberal position on the matter. But […]
Will Flanders & Shannon Whitworth: In a recent op-ed published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona articulated a series of criticisms about school choice in Wisconsin, opting instead to defend a failed status quo of one-size-fits-all education. His arguments lean heavily on national talking points commonly used by opponents of school […]
🚨 The best 2 minute summary by a politician I’ve ever heard on how to fix inflation. ‼️pic.twitter.com/NIQ57cCFQV — The ₿itcoin Therapist (@TheBTCTherapist) August 31, 2024 Notes and links on the well funded Madison School District’s $607,000,000 November tax & $pending increase referendum along with the City of Madison’s vote on the same.
Ann Saphir and Howard Schneider: “In this environment, large-scale asset purchases by central banks in response to a large government spending increase have undesirable public finance implications,” they wrote. “These purchases, which provide temporary price support, destroy value for taxpayers but subsidize bondholders” and may also encourage governments to overestimate their true fiscal capacity, they wrote. ——- […]
Glenn Minnis Illinois now ranks as the least affordable state for housing in the Midwest, with 1 in 3 households paying more than 30% of their income for housing as property taxes continue to rise. —— Madison’s taxpayer funded k-12 system has a huge fall referendum on the November ballot….
Abbey Machtig: Rebecca Greco, a librarian who worked at the school when Terrell was hired, said she does not recall any engagement with staff prior to the hiring of Terrell as principal. Greco also served on the site-based leadership team but now works as a librarian in a different school district. She said the district […]
Paris Schutz The Chicago Teachers Union Foundation is seeking to significantly reduce the property tax bill for its West Loop headquarters, according to documents from the Cook County Assessor’s Office obtained by FOX 32 Chicago. The Assessor recently reappraised the value of the CTU’s building, estimating its fair market value at $19 million. However, the CTU is […]
The district is asking voters for the money as funding from federal pandemic aid and a 2020 referendum are set to expire. If voters also approve of the district’s other referendum on the November ballot — a $100 million request to help fund day-to-day expenses — district officials estimate the owner of an average-value home in Madison […]
Matt Egan: Nearly four in ten (39%) of US adults say they worry most or all of the time that their family’s income won’t be enough to meet expenses, according to a new CNN poll. That’s up from 28% who expressed those concerns in December 2021, and it’s similar to the numbers seen during the Great […]
Patrick Mcilheran: In Madison, where the possibility of school choice arrived 23 years after Milwaukee, there are six private schools in the choice program that Smith calls “vouchers,” and those six schools enrolled 655 choice students in the school year just ended. The Madison Metropolitan School District, in comparison, has about 25,000 students. Big ask Perhaps Madison […]
John Schlifske: The recent news that Milwaukee Public Schools failed to file a required financial report to the state Department of Public Instruction, that its past reports were missing data or inaccurate, and that it might have to payback millions in funds to the state is just another proof point underscoring the need for substantial governance reform. This lays open two […]
Dale Kooyenga: An unreported story is that the infamous MPS Referendum results in $48M in WI Taxpayer money being redirected from non-MPS districts to MPS. Here are some of the revenue reductions these districts will realize: Appleton$1.6M, Madison $2.3M, Racine $2M, @ElmbrookSchools $673k, Commentary. —— Much more on the “infamous 2024 Milwaukee K-12 tax & […]
By Alex Christian: Salaries for new roles are stagnating – and in some cases, falling. Some employers may be looking to cut costs, but the lack of wage growth may be a matter of post-pandemic correction. The mass US layoffs of the past few years are continuing. In 2024 alone, thousands of workers across many […]
Scott Girard But the board also took a big leap of faith, one that will likely require the help of the Madison community, once again, with another operating referendum in fall 2024. It could be the third straight presidential election in which the Madison Metropolitan School District asks voters for more spending authority above state […]
Scott Girard: Those totals don’t include the Madison Metropolitan School District or Milwaukee Public Schools, both of which passed operational referendums in 2020 that continue to allow them to surpass the revenue limit. Both districts are among those that are increasing their total tax levies and contributing to the statewide rise, WPF notes. “Property tax levies increased […]
Ryan Lanier: In one of the most stunning examples of relief fund abuse, the Whitewater, Wis., school board voted to allocate 80 percent of its $2 million Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) grant toward the construction of synthetic turf fields for football, baseball, and softball. When asked why the funds should be used for athletic fields […]