Educational Freedom | Rock County School Districts’ Concerning Trends, Yet the Desire for More Funding
WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
Education freedom is a concept that refers to the ability of parents to select the best educational opportunity for their children. It recognizes that all children are unique, full of potential, and deserving of a high-quality education that meets their individual needs. For someone to be truly free, they must receive a high-quality education that allows them to maximize their full potential in life.
Recently RCF announced the top-performing public school districts and schools in Rock County. We recognize the teachers and students for their commitment to excellence, and to education freedom!
WHERE DOES THIS DATA COME FROM?
The WI Department of Public Instruction (DPI) annually releases their reports on all public school districts across WI. The most recent data is from the 2022 – 2023 school year. The data used to create this document was provided by DPI, and can be found here.
WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT?
There are a multitude of reasons for these concerning results and this document is not intended to place blame on the teachers or students. The way the system is intended to work is you must elect people to the Board of Education who will address these issues, and in turn, they hire an administrator who is committed to delivering educational excellence. Therefore, research your Board of Education candidates in each Spring election, support their campaigns and give them your vote. That is, YOU also share responsibility for education freedom in Rock County!
Also, use this information to have a conversation with your local elected Board of Education member in your school district.
- On average, Rock County schools rank equal to the 257th ranked school district in WI, this is down 16 positions from the prior year.
- On average, Rock County students underperform the state average in English Language Arts and Math proficiencies, by 7% and 20% respectively.
○ Rock County has also lost ground vs State averages last year.
○ Nearly every school district ELA and Math scores were down year-over-year - The two largest school districts in Rock County, Beloit and Janesville school districts, are the lowest ranked in the county, and both “Meet Few Expections”
○ Beloit is currently ranked 420th out of 421 school districts in WI
○ Janesville ranks 399th out of 421 school districts in WI
How does your school district compare? See data
SPENDING ON STUDENTS IN ROCK COUNTY
A common stated concern is we are not spending enough to adequately teach the children. Additionally, four school districts have approved additional spending referendums on the Spring ballot – Beloit ($9M every year through the 2026-2027 school year for operational expenses), Edgerton ($3.5M for operational costs), Evansville ($22.3M over the next five years for operational expenses), Parkview ($2.3M operational referendum). Both Beloit and Parkview had spending referendums in 2023 which failed.
Perhaps all four school spending referendums failed in 2023 was because of one or more of the following reasons:
- The lack of academic achievement results with the funding already provided to the school districts. (See data)
- School enrollment numbers are on the decline across the state, and in Rock County. See the Rock County School District research released last March from the RCF Watchdog team.
○ According to DPI scorecard reporting, Rock County student enrollment is down 253 students, or-7.4% over the past 5 years. - Schools became comfortable with the ESSER (COVID) funding and are having difficulty right-sizing to post-COVID budgets. View the Rock County School District research from last March for more details.
- Reports indicate there is not a direct relationship between per student funding, and academic achievement.○ ○ Case in point: The highest spend per student in Rock County was in the Beloit School District ($17,852), yet the district is the lowest-rated school district in Rock County and next to last in WI (420 of 421 districts)
- People in today’s inflated economy are already paying for more than their fair share, particularly given property taxes in Rock County are higher than 95% of all US Counties (3143 counties), based upon percentage of income.
- People are not sure they are “getting their money’s worth.”
How does your school district’s spending per student compare? See data
Do Our Children Have Educational Freedom?
