(The Center Square) – A bill that would require Wisconsin school districts to confirm they have filed their required financial paperwork to the state before going to referendum was the subject of a public hearing in the Assembly Committee on Education on Thursday.
The bill was aimed at districts such as Milwaukee that fail to fulfill their financial reporting obligations and then ask district residents for more funds through a referendum, according to sponsor Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, who referred to Assembly Bill 457 as “my MPS bill.”
Milwaukee passed a $252 million referendum in April 2024 and it was later revealed that Milwaukee Public Schools had not filed the paperwork with the Department of Public Instruction. The district missed the deadlines by eight months and had $42 million withheld.
“I don’t think that asking districts to comply to basic requirements already required of them is any kind of punishment,” Nedweski said.
Discussion of the topic got heated as it diverted to discussion of the state’s funding formula and Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, referred to the state “underfunding” schools and forcing them to referendum.
The state saw more than half of the 241 referendums across the state in the past year succeed.
Nedweski cited a Legislative Fiscal Report showing that, due to how the state funding formula works, the passing of the $252 million Milwaukee referendum cost Madison, Waukesha and Racine $2 million a year in state funding while Appleton and West Bend would lose more than $1 million each year.
Nedweski said that she believes, if the public knew at the time that Milwaukee Public Schools had not fulfilled its financial reporting obligations before the referendum, it would not have passed and the other districts would have had more funding.
She added “trust is important” and the lack of transparency led to “consequences well beyond Milwaukee.”
