Elections matter.

Reflecting on the importance of voting Yes on the Nov 5th MMSD referendums, & how Wisconsin got into the habit of under funding schools

Good morning bread friends.

I hope you’re having a great week. For those of you who’ve gotten bread recently, I can’t thank you enough for the encouraging feedback. It is thrilling to be able to make bread baking a weekly* occurrence again. 

Sadly, baking bread is not my full-time job. And occasionally life obligations outside of the bakery make it impossible for me to spend a Friday mixing dough and a Saturday morning baking bread. This is one of those weeks.

So while I’m not taking orders for bread this morning… I wonder if I can bend your ear for a few more minutes to reflect on why Bread & Justice is raising money for our schools at the same time that our schools are asking the entire city to vote for a ballot referendum for more money this November. 

Historically Wisconsin’s commitment to investing in our schools was strong. This commitment fundamentally changed in 2009.

Amid the 2009 recession, the federal government passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to invest billions into local schools. Wisconsin made heavy use of these federal ARRA funds for K-12 school aid. However, the state legislature also used that opportunity to discontinue Wisconsin’s practice of increasing annual per-student funding with inflation.  This meant that when the ARRA funding ran out, it would force huge reductions in state aid to local schools. This was the last year of Jim Doyle’s administration as governor. The next year Scott Walker was elected and passed Act 10. Act 10 is remembered as an attack on union laborers (and thereby the middle class), but it also had the effect of significant reductions to state aid for Wisconsin’s k12 schools.

The huge reduction in spending happened after Act 10, and we’ve never since caught up to previous levels.

Simultaneous with the state reducing its commitment to investing in our schools, the state legislature was also imposing reduced revenue limits on school districts. To be extra clear about what that means… during the same era when Republican elected officials in Wisconsin were loudly glorifying the ideal of giving back “local control”, they were in truth passing state-imposed fiscal controls on local units of government.

Not keeping school funding on pace with inflation, and also reducing local school boards’ autonomy to increase their own spending is why so many communities all across the state have been turning to referendums as the only means of plugging the hole that the state has been putting in Wisconsin’s local k-12 school budgets. See graph:

And before I mention what can we do about it here in Madison… I want to take a quick step back and remind you that this isn’t just a Madison Schools problem. And it isn’t just a city schools problem. And it certainly isn’t a problem exclusively impacting liberal leaning communities.

This PBS article does a nice job articulating the history of the problem of underfunded schools in Wisconsin. PBS gives plenty of examples from across the state, including lifting up the voice of Republican State Representative Scott Johnson who describes how inadequate the current system is at funding our schools.

With a record number of referendums on the ballot each year to try to fund schools, it is not surprising that not all of them pass.

Allow me to share with you this heart breaking article where the superintendent of Burlington schools mourns the cuts to the district that are imminent after their referendum this year was voted down by her community. In it, she describes WI’s state funding formula as broken. 

This is a legitimately sad predicament that we find ourselves in as Wisconsinites.

Now, are you wondering how does this all translate to Madison’s public schools?

To put a fine point on it - if the state had kept up with inflation, we would have had $82 million more available during the 2022-23 school year alone. Over the entire 14-year time horizon the cumulative loss for Madison’s schools is over $657 million.

This is why MMSD is going to referendum again this fall.

The school district has produced a ton of resources articulating what passing these referendums will mean for our community. It is a huge decision for voters, and I'd submit that it is worth taking a few minutes of your time to research and understand.

If you’re in Madison, I encourage you to take a look at the school district website listing all the things that the referendum will allow our community to invest in, as well as a handy calculator to anticipate how passing it will impact your taxes. Or you can start by watching these cute videos about the referendums. 🤗

🗳️ I'll be voting yes on both referendums on November 5th. I hope you’ll join me in voting yes (and encouraging your neighbors to vote yes). For me personally, there are a ton of reasons why I’m interested in voting for these investments into our community… but a few of my reasons are:

• To support our school district’s continued expansion for full day 4k, which we know has foundational impact on student’s learning and is a vital resource for working families.  

• Because the state’s funding formula disproportionately disadvantages special education students and their families by reimbursing our school district for investing in their learning needs significantly less than that of students who don’t require special education resources. 

• Because my kids are going to go to Cherokee Heights Middle School. An over 60 year old building, with obsolete heating, cooling, and plumbing. This referendum proposes to rebuild five middle schools, including Cherokee Heights in order to offer modern learning environments, which I believe every kid deserves. 

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In the meantime, there will always be ways for us to proactively love and serve our neighbors who might need a little extra support. With your help, I’m looking forward to directly supporting students in our community who are struggling with homelessness with a donation at the end of this month. I expect to be back to making more bread for you all next week, and we’ll keep donating our September profits to MMSD’s Transition Education Program (TEP) Fund.

Thanks for all of your thoughtful care and concern for our community.

Cheers!

Mo Cheeks
community baker