March 2024
Surprise Grab Bags $5. That was a sign on a souvenir shop display in a north Wisconsin town we visited yearly when I was young. Someone else decided the price. Someone else decided what the result of opening the bag was. But the sheer belief that something good was inside was enough for that store to sell those bags for years. Kind of like Wisconsin’s education funding system. Public education is funded by you, not the state. The state has no money of its own and only generates money from your taxes. One could reasonably think that a state sanctioned, public education system would then be fully funded by taxes collected by the state. But that isn’t the case. Local districts shoulder anywhere from 25 to 40 percent of their operational costs. The state has pledged to provide 75 percent, but that rarely happens.
At some point in my youth, after opening several $5 grab bags, the result was less than exciting. In fact, sometimes I found that I could walk through the store and purchase the same items in the bag for less than five dollars. Are you getting what you’re investing in your ‘education grab bag’? The costs for educating a student have consistently risen, while proficiency rates have fallen.
What can a parent do? Not much. While there is the freedom to homeschool your children, the rigors and time necessary to do so to meet state requirements are foreboding at best, impossible at worst. You might wish to enroll your student outside the public school district, but unless you can access one of the limited vouchers available, you’ll be paying for your child to be in public school AND private school.
Education leaders decry vouchers, private school funding and other options that should be available to parents. They claim allowing parents to direct their tax dollars collected for education to go anywhere other than public schools will destroy education in Wisconsin. While the data is limited since Wisconsin has not attempted to let parents have the choice, there is evidence that some children excel outside our public school system.
The data is out there and it speaks for itself. Increased funding has not lead to an overall increase in key subject proficiencies for a decade. As several districts go to referendum to ask for more of your tax dollars this spring and fall, you have the right (arguably the responsibility) to ask how you can be assured those dollars will increase educational outcomes.
If you believe that families ought to have educational outcomes that can be scrutinized and approaches that can be changed if the outcome is not desirable, you need to ask school board member candidates for more than just the pre-determined response that a “rising tide lifts all boats.”
I quit buying the grab bags and there was not even an increase in the price. I just did enough research to know that what I was being sold was the idea that what was inside was worth the price. Even if it wasn’t.
Know your rights and exercise your freedom to find out if your district is worthy of the increase they seek. If not, put down the grab bag and search out your alternatives. It is your right.
