GREEN BAY (WLUK) — Wisconsin school districts are bracing for less help from the state with funding special education.
In some districts, it means millions of dollars below what they were anticipating.
Already needing to close a $3 million funding gap this year, the Green Bay Area Public School District is anticipating it will now be down an additional $2 million.
“This was a surprise to us,” said Superintendent Vicki Bayer.
In the state budget passed this summer, the special education reimbursement rate was set at 42% for this school year and 45% next year. The Department of Public Instruction recently told districts it’s now expected to be about 35%.
Bayer says GBAPS projected the rate to be 39% in an attempt to budget conservatively.
“We’ve been making substantial cuts for at least the last three years,” said Bayer. “We’ve closed schools. We’ve cut FTE. We’ve cut at central office. We’ve cut supply budgets.”
Bayer says the district will now have to consider more hiring freezes, programming cuts and delays in textbook and technology purchases.
“We’ve done everything we can to not negatively impact our students and our staff, and we’re no longer at a point where we can do that,” said Bayer.
So how does this happen? During each two-year budget cycle, a certain amount of money is set aside to reimburse districts for special education costs based off prior years’ spending and inflation. Reimbursements are capped when total claims exceed that budgeted amount — which is what is happening now.
The state bases its pot of money on estimates from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, which makes its calculations with feedback from the Department of Public Instruction.
“I want to point out that private schools that are part of the school voucher program are getting a 90% reimbursement,” said State Rep. Lee Snodgrass, D-Appleton.
Snodgrass is joining her Democratic colleagues in pushing legislation that would guarantee the 42% and 45% special education reimbursement rates for public schools.
“People are not going to be happy when their property taxes are raised, when individual communities have to go to referendum to meet those needs that public schools have,” said Snodgrass.
FOX 11 reached out to six area Republican lawmakers to try to ask them about this legislation. Most didn’t get back to us and two told us they weren’t available.
Reimbursement rates last year were 30.6%.
“All we’re asking for is what they had said we would get,” said Bayer.
The lower reimbursement rates come as about three quarters of districts are already receiving less state aid this year compared to last. If the legislation is passed, the money could come from the budget surplus, which was $4.6 billion at the end of the last fiscal year.
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