Assembly advances school consolidation package

The state Assembly approved this week a package of bills aimed at incentivizing school district consolidation.

In deliberations, Republican supporters argued that the measures give districts new tools to address long-term enrollment declines, while Democratic lawmakers criticized the bills as a push to close public schools.

The package includes several bills creating financial incentives and state assistance for districts considering consolidation or whole-grade sharing. Whole grade-sharing occurs when two or more school districts agree to send specific grade levels to one another’s schools. 

Under one bill, districts may receive up to $25,000 to conduct consolidation feasibility studies or whole-grade-sharing studies. Another increases state consolidation aid, providing $1,500 per student in the first year following a consolidation, $650 per student in the second, and $150 per student in the three subsequent years.

Other bills would fund a statewide demographics analysis, offer grants for whole-grade-sharing agreements, and provide equalization aid to offset mill rate differences when districts merge.

Republicans say the measures are voluntary and are designed to help districts address shrinking enrollments and rising operational costs.

Rep. Shannon Zimmerman (R-River Falls) said Wisconsin’s public school landscape has already shifted dramatically, asserting that there are more than 60,000 fewer students statewide over the past decade.

“Wisconsin’s demographics are changing,” Zimmerman said. “Families are having fewer children, birth rates have fallen, and as a result, our statewide enrollment has dropped sharply. … Yet we’ve maintained nearly the same number of schools and buildings. This isn’t a failure; it’s simply a reality we must face head-on.”

Zimmerman said consolidation is not an abandonment of local communities.

“It means ensuring every student, no matter their zip code, has access to a full and competitive curriculum,” he said. “It means putting more dollars into classrooms instead of redundant administration and under-utilized buildings. And it means reducing, or even eliminating, the operating referendums that taxpayers are increasingly asked to shoulder.”

Rep. Amanda Nedweski (R-Pleasant Prairie) also backed the package, observing that nearly 70 percent of school districts have experienced enrollment decline over the last decade.

“As birth rates continue to fall, many districts have become increasingly reliant on operational referendums just to keep half-empty buildings open,” Nedweski said. “Wisconsin already has some of the highest property tax rates in the country — and that burden will only grow because of Governor Evers’ 400-year property tax increase. These bills give districts a different path forward by providing incentives for voluntary consolidation and removing the barriers that often prevent potential partnerships from taking shape.”

Nedweski said the issue of declining enrollment would not go away.

“There is no referendum, no funding increase, and no talking point that can reverse decades of falling birth rates,” she said. “Democrats want you to believe that spending more money to educate fewer kids in half-empty buildings will solve the problem.”

That’s not a strategy but denial, Nedweski said. 

“These bills offer long-term, sustainable alternatives to the endless cycle of referendums, increasing affordability for taxpayers and creating access to more learning opportunities for students,” she said.

The bills would allow districts to share staff, reduce duplicative services, increase teacher pay, and expand academic offerings such as AP courses, world languages, career and technical education, special education services, and other classroom resources, Nedweski said.

“Buildings don’t educate kids, teachers do,” she said. “When districts are able to collaborate, reduce overhead, and put more resources into our classrooms, everybody wins. These bills protect taxpayers, respect local control, and help provide districts with options to adapt to changing demographics so that students can continue to succeed.”

Democrats: GOP wants to board up windows

Democratic lawmakers denounced the legislation as an effort to force public school closures rather than adequately fund districts.

Rep. Christian Phelps (D–Eau Claire) said Republicans have already defunded public schools by thousands of dollars per student while siphoning hundreds of millions of dollars per year to private-school vouchers and pushing districts toward repeated property-tax referendums.

“Republicans have introduced their master plan to fix the problems facing our public schools, problems they’ve caused while controlling the legislature for 15 years,” Phelps said. “Their big idea is a state-funded ‘incentive’ to close public schools in rural Wisconsin and throughout the state. … We’ve endured nearly 20 years of systematically defunding public education, and now legislative Republicans think communities will accept a proposal to board up their windows and lock their doors.”

Wisconsin is not fooled, Phelps said.

“We’ve seen the hollowing out of our rural communities for decades,” he said. “We’ve felt the pinch of raised property taxes, the division of referendum votes, and even the pain of school closures.”

But, Phelps said, real solutions are not hypothetical.

“They are on the table,” he said. “Nonpartisan coalitions of parents, students, educators, district administrators, and funding experts have recommended simple steps our legislature could take to support rural communities and public schools. I stand firmly in favor of those recommendations: tying state funds to inflation, creating supports for students in poverty, fully funding special education, and more.”

Phelps said he would never stand by legislation focused on closing schools instead.

“Encouraging rural schools to close — rather than giving them the resources they’ve asked for — is undemocratic, irresponsible, and divisive,” he said. “I opposed these bills in the Education Committee, I opposed them on the Assembly floor today, and I will stand firm until the state reinvests in our public schools.”

State Representative Angelito Tenorio (D-West Allis) made similar arguments, asserting that Republicans have deprived school districts of adequate resources for years, only to try and shutter them now.

“For more than a decade, Republicans have systematically defunded our public schools,” Tenorio said. “They have forced districts into impossible choices like cutting staff, ending programs, and going to referendum to maintain basic services. Now, after years of deliberate neglect, Republicans are pushing to close and consolidate public schools. They want to accelerate the very crisis they helped create.”

Public schools are the backbone of communities, Tenorio said. 

“They are where kids learn, families gather, and local identity and pride is built,” he said. “When you close a school, you hollow out an entire community. This causes irreparable harm to our kids and our future.”

The harm caused by GOP lawmakers through their constant attacks on public schools and teachers is abundantly evident, Tenorio continued. 

“As a para-educator and substitute teacher, I’ve seen how much our schools are suffering,” he said. “I’ve worked alongside teachers who are doing everything they can with less. I’ve seen what students need: smaller class sizes, mental health support, updated materials, and stable staff.”

That does not happen when you defund public education and then tell districts their only option is to merge or shut down, Tenorio said.

“And yet, this is exactly what my colleagues across the aisle are doing,” he said. “Our teachers, kids, and communities deserve real support, not cheap Republican gimmicks. Don’t close our public schools. Fund them.”

With Assembly passage, the consolidation package now heads to the Senate for consideration. The Senate has not yet announced when it will take up the bills.

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.