Jan. 24, 2026 7:15p
(WGTD)---The superintendents of the state’s five largest school districts, including Kenosha and Racine, have issued an open letter urging state legislators to strike a meaningful compromise on school funding issues.
The legislature is currently in session.
In the letter, the superintendents said the current budget—passed last year—was a "profound" disappointment in offering support to public schools, and led to an increase in property taxes. "The school funding proposal may be complex, but one truth is simple: When state support goes down or stagnates, property taxes go up," the letter reads. "This is not a school district spending problem, It is a legislative funding choice."
Gov. Evers has proposed a $1.3 billion infusion in additional revenue for the schools. "We have over $4 billion in excess money in our checking account and we believe $1.3 billion will help our schools be in a better place and also lower property taxes," Evers said Friday on Wisconsin Today.
Senate Majority Leader Mary Felzkowski—a Republican—isn’t ready to back the proposal. For one thing, she says the $4 billion is not a recurring surplus. "That's something that the governor doesn't like to talk about," she said in her own recent appearance on Wisconsin Today. The projected surplus in the current budget period is $1.4 billion, with most of that eaten up by the increasing cost of Medicaid, she explained.
Both Evers and Felzkowski said a compromise is always possible, but neither predicted one would happen.
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