"Here& Now".

>> A closer look now at turning to voters to boost funding for public K-12 schools.

On April 1st, voters in 89 districts across the state will see school spending referendums on the ballot.

In Racine, the city's public schools face one of those pivotal votes Tuesday, as the debate over school choice and funding methods intensifies.

Here and now, reporter Aditi Debnath has more.

>> Home to the state's fifth largest public school district, Racine finds itself at the center of Wisconsin's ongoing education funding debate.

On April 1st, voters will decide on a crucial $190 million referendum that could determine the future of Racine Unified School District.

>> Well, right now, what we're asking from our community is to allow us to hold the budget we have right now.

>> Soren Gajewski is the superintendent of Racine Unified.

>> So the budget that I have this year, the staffing that I have this year, the programs that we have right now, we want to be able to maintain that.

>> That budget, staffing and programing is all at risk if taxpayers vote no.

>> It's kind of scary to think about what it might be, you know, is it going to be school nurses?

Is it going to be social workers, counselors?

>> Ryan Knudsen is an eighth grade teacher and parent at Racine Unified.

He says he's voting yes on April 1st.

>> I think anybody would agree.

We want local workers.

We want a good local economy.

And I think it starts with the public school system.

road from that K-8 public school is a private school called Saint Catherine's.

about remember why your mom and dad want you to come to the school and remember why it's special.

36 schools in the Racine Parental Choice Program, which allows parents to use taxpayer dollars as vouchers for private school education.

>> Well, it's a wonderful opportunity for parents now across the state to have a choice in where they would like to send their child to school.

>> Brenda White was the former president of Siena Catholic Schools.

The system of seven private schools in Racine that includes Saint Catherine's.

Currently, she serves on the board of School Choice Wisconsin.

>> Very key to why parents choose a private school is because we can determine what that curriculum instruction is going to look like.

>> So under the.

>> Educational freedom is a main argument from supporters of school choice.

But the program is a point of contention between supporters like white and critics concerned about its impact on public school funding.

>> People choosing to have different types of education is a part of being in a free country, but we have tax dollars that are public, is assuming is going to their public schools and being represented by the school board and in the voucher situation, that is not happenin.

>> Gajewski refers to the way voucher schools are funded from the state's Total education coffers.

For example, this year the state's general aid to Racine Unified Public Schools is more than $180 million.

The estimated cost of the Racine Parental Choice program is more than 44 million.

That leaves property taxpayers to backfill the funding siphoned to private schools through district referenda.

>> I think it's important to point out that decoupling and the way the state funding is works now is a separate issue from the referenda.

>> White says the solution is to separate public and voucher school funding in the state budget, referred to as decoupling public schools would be funded with property tax dollars and voucher schools with general purpose tax revenue.

White claims this would protect public schools from losing funding to private schools.

>> It's a win win to both the district who would increase their state Aids, and it would be a win for property taxpayers who would have that burden lessened.

>> The state Senate failed to pass the bill.

That would have decoupled Racine schools last year before it even made it to the floor.

Critics like Knudson have concerns over further protecting choice programs in state law.

>> I think that program is it's very damaging to public schools when we when we could be allocating resources to public of the community.

>> The debate in Racine reflects a broader statewide and national conversation about the role of public versus private education.

But regardless of what conversations are happening in Madison, Superintendent Gajewski faces a looming $24 million budget deficit next week.

If his referendum fails.

>> This year, once again, referendum are showing up on the ballot across the state, including our neighbors to the South, that had a referendum a few weeks back in February that did not pass.

>> Kenosha schools, their neighbors to the south, failed to pass a $115 million ballot referendum.

>> 80% of our budget is staff, and that's typically where the cuts and reductions are going to be.

Unified School District, the only Wisconsin school to fail its referendum in the February election.

This came months after Wisconsin schools like Kenosha ran out of the federal Esser dollars meant to help schools with setbacks coming out of the Covid 19 pandemic.

Weiss now faces a $19 million deficit.

>> The Esser funding, the way that was set up, it was primed to have school districts have to go to referendum in order to continue to operate.

>> Wisconsin received $1.5 billion in Esser funding in 2021.

At the time, the Republican controlled legislature gave $0 increases in per pupil state aid to schools, counting federal dollars as state funding.

In the current budget, per pupil revenue did increase by $325, but the Esser money ran out this past September, leaving the already stretched thin public schools to cut costs.

>> The biggest cut was in staff about $10 in staff last year.

>> We reduced the number of buildings that we had in the schools that we operated in by seven, and that saved us about 9 or $10 million.

>> As April 1st approaches, the eyes of educators and policymakers across Wisconsin will be on Racine.

>> This funding gap is not a Racine Unified situation.

It is a state of Wisconsin situation.

So it is there.

It will be there next year and the year after and the year after.

It has to be resolved.

resolved.