You're listening to Perspective on WFHR 1320 a.m.
97 5 fm.
I'm Melissa K bringing you news in our community during this interview I've kept Superintendent Ron Rasmussen on Friday April 24th for an extended interview I appreciate you joining me again Ron to bring the community an insight into some of the issues that or things that affect our tax dollars.
Thanks Melissa.
I appreciate the opportunity
So what I'd like to dive in with you on Ron is the school voucher system because it's getting more and more attention as Tax dollars are being allocated toward private schools and Our constituents are concerned about where their tax dollars are going so guess give us a brief overview of how that works for WRPS
Give you a little background a little bit on the Wisconsin choice program, and I'm by far not an expert in the history of it, but
choice or the school of school voucher program is what more people call it originated Milwaukee in the 1990s to provide students an opportunity a choice obviously
hence the name, to attend private schools within the Milwaukee area.
That program was later expanded into further parts of Southeast Wisconsin, I believe in the Kenosha and Racine, and then later expanded to the Wisconsin choice program, parental choice program across the state.
Really where WRPS becomes involved in the choice program is students within our physical boundaries of our school district can
enroll themselves in a school that participates in the Wisconsin parental choice program and there's a variety of school schools and Procule school districts that participate within that program.
How it impacts us with WRPS this past fall, which is the most recent data I have for our school district, we had 393 students that live within the physical boundaries of our district that attend schools that participate as part of the choice program.
We have excellent partners in our community.
The two, when you think of our Wisconsin Rapids community is the assumption, Catholic school system, as well as Emmanuel Lutheran, do both participate in the choice program.
Both excellent partners with us, we meet frequently, we share kids, we share some resources, all of that back and forth.
And we also know that many of the students that are at Emmanuel will attend Lincoln.
after they're done with their education at Emmanuel underneath principal bets.
So that's really our involvement with it as we have 393 students.
The impact upon our community tax dollar wise is currently how the state funds the choice program is it is entirely taxed on the property tax payers.
So we basically have to get a state aid deduction.
So the state can send money to the choice schools that participate within a program where our students attend, which impacts our tax level because we allow them to make up that tax difference with that state aid reduction.
So this last year, that was approximately four point, just under $4.7 million.
That was on the property taxes in the most recent tax statements that people received in December.
our district this last year taxed approximately $25.7 million to fund our operations or about 25% of our operations.
So about 18 cents for every dollar that a taxpayer within our district paid on their property taxes.
Never came to WRPS per se, but that was to fund the 393 students that is participating in the choice program.
Okay.
And once those tax dollars are taken out of
WRPS's umbrella
budget.
Do they come back?
So really the state says...
you're able to tax that $4.7 million.
I'll just say it's approximate.
That's what our number is.
It was 4.6 something last year.
So they take it as a state aid deduction that we don't get that state aid that we're supposed to get.
And so the state says, we're not giving you that aid, but you can tax that difference.
So that's what every district that participates or has students that attend choice.
So in effect, you're just basically taking those tax dollars and sending it to the state to pay the choice program.
In our district that has grown, it's more than doubled in the last six years, and I think 2020-21, it was just about $2.2 million.
And that, as I said, grown to just under $4.7 million.
In our district, we're a low revenue district, which means we're set by revenue limits that the state places upon us.
So this last year, this current school year, I should say, is that we spend $11,650 per pupil.
that does not include federal aid, any additional grants that we receive, et cetera.
And that's low for the average across the state, which is over 14,000.
Correct.
And that's why you have districts such as ours pursuing referendums because that number was locked in when the state transferred to the current funding formula.
Some districts in the states were spending more per student and others were spending less.
And once that was locked in,
districts, you could say you could spend 2% more this year.
You could spend 3% more.
Well, 3% of 15,000 is more than 3% of 10,000.
So districts that were really fiscally responsible, which WRPS was, really got hurt when they went to that fixed funding formula.
So currently we're at $11,650 expanded from that due to the support of our taxpayers into our school operations now.
And if your student attends a choice school in grades K through 8, that transferred money is, I believe, $10,800, so slightly less than a public school student in grades K-8.
But in high school, it's over $13,000.
So there's a little balancing there.
So the choice student receives greater.
dollar figure than a high school student that currently attends Lincoln.
So there's some of those areas that are built into state law and there's revenue adjustments that occur yearly in that choice figure that's set by law.
I'm not an expert in that area of that part of the law, but those continue to grow as well.
It's an issue at the state level that
There's a variety of proposals that are out there within the legislature, not only with the school funding formula, but also with the Wisconsin parental choice program of what will occur in the future.
It's hard.
I think we're a divided state politically.
I don't think we're going to get a lot of resolution right now because of that.
And we'll see as legislators hopefully can collaborate to look at school funding overall within the state and in the impact of that.
Well, and to my understanding, there's an enrollment limit right now.
But starting in the 26, 27 school year, no student enrollment limit would apply to statewide voucher programs.
So that opens the door to basically unlimited expansion.
Yes, that is correct.
There is a limited expansion.
There are some districts in the state that have hit their limit Our district did not hit the limit even though we're
in the top 20 for sure, possibly in the top 10 for the students that attend through the voucher program.
As I said, we have 393 students that do and they attend nine different schools across the state of Wisconsin.
They're not only, as I said, our excellent partners with Assumption or Emanuel, but they're attending a variety of school districts across the state.
Because
there's a lot of virtual options.
A lot of
virtual options.
There are 97 students that attend out of those 393, the Milwaukee Academy.
of excellence.
So there's about depending if they're an elementary or high school student, I don't know the numbers
of where they
are anywhere probably about 1.1 to 1.3 million dollars that as I said that we tax our taxpayers here go towards that program that operates in Milwaukee.
So that is an area that when we have tax dollars here with the manual or assumption they're going to stay within our community.
Those dollars obviously do not stay within our community
and
so
That's one of the things is we're looking or legislators are looking at what that means in the future and As that as that cap comes off.
What will that mean for districts
as well?
As Costs continue to rise inflation everybody's pocketbook.
It's a little tighter.
We're all looking at try how to maximize resources and What that means across the school what's what that means across the state as we're operating
really two separate systems and how that impacts not only the state budget but also our budget locally.
We're going to pause right here for a moment to hear from our sponsors.
I'm Melissa K talking with Superintendent Ron Rasmussen.
We'll be right back and you're listening to Perspective on 13 20 a.m.
97 5 fm WFHR.
Welcome.
You're listening to Perspective on WFHR 1320 AM 975 FM WFHR.
I'm Melissa Kay bringing you news in our community.
I've been speaking with Superintendent Ron Rasmussen of the Public Wisconsin Rapids Public School District and I have another question for you Ron as an educator because you have a long history of working in the school district.
The researchers have recorded significant learning loss over the last decades among children who started in public school and then moved to private schools using vouchers.
What are your feelings on that?
I don't know this.
I'll be flat honest.
I don't know any of the research on that topic.
I know as a public school district, we're required to supply transportation for our...
partners.
So we supply busing transportation.
It's one of the reasons that we're looking at trying to consolidate our school calendars a little better.
So those tax dollars can be saved because assumption generally begins their school year earlier than us at WRPS.
And so WRPS does supply that busing for assumption students for that time because we're required to by state law.
We supply title one services speech and language services depending upon need to our parochial partners as well within our school district.
and those are good partnerships we meet throughout the year.
We generally be getting in the school year and we're meeting here in about two or three weeks to really discuss how the school year went.
We know we're stronger when our community is stronger and so that's important for us as well.
Academically, since COVID, we know that students, academics have declined and we're beginning to see a change in that currently.
We're with our current tests in the public schools.
I know at our high school students, we're seeing growth in those areas as well for our most recent state assessments that we're getting back that we're just taking in March.
So we're excited about seeing that growth occurring.
I think during COVID, we did our best under unfortunate circumstances that none of us knew how to navigate.
And we're just trying to figure out each day as we went through.
that's the the importance of us continuing to try to grow and to meet those student needs where they are.
And we're seeing it socially and emotionally when students are coming to us in kindergarten and 4k as I think I talked about earlier in the interview when we were here with me about the importance of playgrounds and all of that.
And just really our community partners and working with them and learning.
what it's like just to play in a playground and all those soft skills are important.
But I'm not as familiar as you said with the research on some of that.
I just know that we're all attempting to try to have students follow their dreams and passions and grow academically as much as we can.
Well, some proponents for the school voucher system argue that the competition improves public schools and parental choice is a fundamental right.
Do you think that that that fosters some competition for public schools to try to keep kids in the district?
Yeah, I think we're all trying to do what's best for kids every single day.
I come into my office, or when I was in the building, my office there, or when I was in a teacher in the classroom.
My classroom is, I want to provide the best opportunity for those kids in front of me every single day.
When I'm in our classrooms today, I want to provide the best opportunity for our kids.
I'd be lying if I didn't say when standardized test scores came out, or school report cards that I didn't look at, Steven's Point, or Marshfield, or Perlkill School Districts as well.
I think you always want to do your best, and you want your...
students to do their best.
It's one of the things that we're blessed though that our students are much more than a report card that the state gives us.
There's so much more that is part of a student experience that we all look back on when we go think back to high school we may think of our drama or the basketball team or the football team.
Or what I did an auto shop or that project I made in woods and those are things that are not tested on a school report card They're not tested, you know when you take that bubble sheet, which we many of us are familiar with
but yes now the
bubble sheets
or
now
the computer based assessments.
And so those are the things that we look at trying to provide opportunities for students.
And one of those opportunities is coming up with it at Lincoln is the new Associate's Business Degree Partnership with Midstate that students before they graduate will have that opportunity to have that business degree for them.
And.
We're unique.
There's only two of us in the Mid-State region that will have that opportunity going forth currently.
And so when you talk competition, it's not only necessarily that you're looking at that, you're continuing to try to grow your opportunities so students want to be part of your district and
part of your
school.
And you try to explore those partnerships to provide those opportunities for students as much as we can.
And it sounds like the competition is more like, how best can we give opportunities to students?
Yeah, and that's exactly it.
So we
relatively recently at Lincoln have a new auto teacher and we're gonna be ASC certified within our auto shop here very in the near future so those students will be able to have those opportunities when they graduate from Lincoln to be ASC certified.
If you go on our social media relatively recently, you'll see a variety of students that are now C&C HAAS certified.
So that's, I think, the biggest change in education.
And if you want to say competition that has been borne by the voucher system is just maybe a greater focus on some of those other areas other than just your math score or your English score.
But what is the business community asking us?
for the students to have when they graduate.
Right.
What jobs do we need?
What
jobs do we need to fill?
And I think that's even changing more rapidly right now with the growth of AI.
You know, in the news last week, you know, Facebook laying off or middle laying off 8000 individuals and they're stating that's all going to AI.
So what does that mean for us and our economy to provide students the skills so they
don't graduate from us or don't graduate from a four-year institution and then try to move into those fields and those jobs are not existing anymore.
So with that growth of AI, it's expanding so quickly and education and our systems are not as adapting that quickly because you have your state requirements, you need
to do this
and you need to do this.
But what does that mean?
Well, how do we transfer those skills that we're currently having with our students and growing forth that they can have that transferability?
moving forward.
So
when we talk about competition, I don't necessarily say it's all because of the voucher program or the choice program.
I think it's really that competition sometimes within ourselves of trying to provide that best experience for our students.
And when we think of education, we all go back to school was like that when I was a kid.
And that's where I don't blame anyone.
I don't know other jobs that other people do as well.
So
I have a limited experience of knowing what those jobs are like.
And so we all revert back to what we know.
And so that growth or that change in mindset about how are we going to continue to educate students forth?
Yeah, there's a competition there because we want everyone to do their best in the future.
Well, and one of the things you mentioned, all of those other opportunities that you have at public school or specifically at Lincoln that would be a little harder to maybe have access to if you're attending a virtual school.
they don't necessarily have a shops class.
Yeah, those hands-on
experiences are so important.
So my son is in college for aviation.
Why?
Because there's an aviation class at Lincoln that piqued his interest.
And one of the things of being a larger comprehensive high school is there are just some of those more opportunities that students in a smaller environment don't have that opportunity.
They don't have that aviation course that will pique that interest.
And that's one of the things that I just
glow about all the time about Wisconsin Rapids Public Schools is just continuing to showcase those areas of interest be in auto or woods or aviation.
Or the partnership with Mid-State.
Partnerships with Mid-State or our local community.
We have 95 students approximately in work experience or youth apprenticeship opportunities.
So really within that local business community working with those businesses gaining that real life experience on the job.
And then going, all right, yeah, I really want to pursue this.
I'm going to go to mid-state for my two-year degree in whatever it may be.
With potentially already credits earned.
All credits earned, exactly.
And so those are the benefits.
As I said, last year in last year's graduating class, I know we had two students at Lincoln.
One graduated with 51 college credits and one with 47 at their institutions when they moved to higher ed this year.
So they're almost junior status coming in as...
as a freshman into those institutions.
And that's really somewhat due to the dedication of our faculty as well, because in order to have those credits, our faculty have had to go above and beyond and get their certifications from the Higher Education Commission.
And those are new opportunities, probably to be flat honest, in the last 10 years when I started teaching, what was it even thought of?
I said we're lucky with this new business partnership with Mid-State on the associate's degree.
Those students will have that degree by the time they graduate, and I'm also a member of the Mid-State Technical Board.
mid-state, we just signed an agreement with Yavapai College in Arizona.
Those students will be able to go one more year and they'll have their full bachelor's degree.
Wow.
So these students who graduate from Lincoln who participate in this program can be 19, 20 years old and they'll have their business degree.
And potentially less student
debt.
That's the kicker in all of this.
And as I said, we're kind of lucky within the support of our taxpayers within our community to provide those opportunities for students.
And hopefully, as he said,
that have less debt for families in the future.
Wonderful.
Well, I very much appreciate you taking the extra time to talk with me about this today, Ron.
All right.
I appreciate the opportunity.
Thank you.
I'm Melissa Kaye, speaking with Superintendent Ron Rasmussen of the Wisconsin Rapids Public School District.
And I want to thank you to listeners joining us for news in our community.
On perspective, 1320 AM, 97-5 FM, WFHR.
