Both the Associated Press (AP) and the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) today highlight the relationship between reductions in school aids across the state and the way school choice and charter programs are funded.  The AP story notes “$110 million [was] taken from public schools to pay for an expansion of voucher and charter schools in Milwaukee and Racine.”  Unfortunately the story fails to mention that the statewide aid reductions to pay for the charter program and the aid reductions in Milwaukee and Racine to pay for choice do not translate into less funding for school districts.

Why?  Neither the charter nor choice aid reductions impact revenue limits.  Districts can and do make up for the reduction with property taxes.   In English, this means the Milwaukee Public Schools, Racine Unified, and the majority of school districts in the state that set their education levy at the highest permitted amount do not lose actual dollars because of these programs, they simply receive them from a different source.

If property taxpayers are upset about supporting successful reforms that cost less per-pupil than traditional public schools, so be it.  But folks in Milwaukee, Racine, and the vast majority of Wisconsin school districts need not worry about choice and charter reforms taking money out of public school classrooms, because they are not.