Don't listen to the noise; focus on needs of our public schools
Advocate for the rights and needs for all students in Wisconsin. Your communities, corporations, small businesses, and schools will thank you.
By Amy Nasr
Don’t let bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports talk focusing on only four percent of the student population distract you from what’s really at stake: public school funding for all of our students.
As the Trump Administration cannibalizes its own Education Department and eliminates all DEI programming, some community members are raising a ruckus about transgender kids in locker rooms, bathrooms, and girls sports. Yet a 2021 Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Study surveyed 92,316 high schoolers across the state, and in that survey, only four percent of students self-identified as transgender.
They want people to talk about this and focus on it because it distracts all of us from the biggest and most dangerous threat to public schools: alarming public funding deficits. The fact remains that the US Department of Education supports public schools in many different ways: meals for hungry kids; special education services for kids with disabilities; learning supports for students experiencing poverty; mental health supports; career and technical education; science, math and technology education; and more. The department has also supported smaller class sizes and professional learning for educators.
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) recently published a series of interactive tools for school districts and supporters to determine what potential federal funding is at stake for each of the 421 school districts in Wisconsin.
Fox Cities Advocates for Public Education recently revealed that this would amount to $45 million in funding for the 12 districts they support in advocacy. In Appleton alone $15 million is on the line, adding to an announced deficit that already stands at $11 million. And with state funding not adequately tied to inflation for the last 16 years, states and public schools rely on these federal funds just to try to stay above water.
Additionally there are even further cuts via Medicaid. Those cuts aren’t shown in these interactive tools so it’s actually worse than it looks. DPI has another resource page for how Medicaid funding works. Medicaid assists public schools via School-Based Services (SBS) with special education funding and supports individual students outside of school and at home. DPI reports that 950 million federal SBS dollars have gone to public schools since 2000.
Of course, Medicaid services don’t just help students but the general population as well. The Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities reports that federal Medicaid funding pays for 60 percent of the Medicaid costs in Wisconsin, while the state pays for 40 percent.
Unsurprisingly, citizens at legislative town halls and at local legislator offices around the state are sounding the alarm about loss of funding for the neediest people.
So don’t be distracted by noise. Focus on advocating for the rights and needs for all students in Wisconsin. Your communities, corporations, small businesses, and schools will thank you. Delivering successful and impactful students depends on strong-supported curriculum and programming, and 85 percent of our Wisconsin kids attend public schools.
