Educators may be feeling a bit uneasy, given the budget and other factors. Here's a look at what could be weighing on their minds

A bit queasy, maybe worse than that. That seems like a good phrase to describe the likely feeling of public school leaders across Wisconsin with the state budget set for the next two years — or the next 402 years, as the case may be.

The public school sector did OK in the budget, but not great. On the other hand, the challenges, pressures and tensions that schools will be dealing with in the coming several years will be great.

Money will still be one of the issues, of course. But there’s so much else to deal with that goes beyond the dollars, and it all is likely to come in a climate in which the public as a whole is less happy with public schools than at some times in the past.

This 402-year thing for school funding only added to the sense that the school scene in Wisconsin is not nailed down. Gov. Tony Evers' creative use of a partial veto doesn’t secure school funding until the year 2425. There are hypothetically 200 state budgets to come before that point. Don’t bet on $325 a year increases in the basic per-student financial formula even two years from now.

(By the way, how long is 402 years? Take a look backward: In 1621, the Pilgrims were just settling in at Plymouth Rock, and Wisconsin was home to Native Americans but no Europeans. The school revenue cap wasn’t invented until 372 years later.)

Meantime, back in today’s reality, let’s itemize reasons for that queasy feeling:

The public isn't that happy with schools

Since 2013, the Marquette Law School Poll has been asking what voters in Wisconsin consider more important: reducing property taxes or increasing public school spending. When this was asked in 2013, the total was 49% for property tax cuts and 46% for school spending.

In the 17 times that question was asked between 2015 and 2022, school spending got more support than property tax cuts. The peak, in August 2018, was 61% for schools, 32% for property tax reduction. The margin has narrowed slowly since then. In poll results from this June, property tax reduction led for the first time since 2013, by 50% to 47%.

You can speculate on what the underlying factors are, but I suggest that one of them is less-positive feelings overall about the schools. (I must disclose that I assist with work on the Marquette polls, but I have no role in tallying the results.)

People seem less satisfied overall with their local schools

Another long-term question in the Marquette poll has been how satisfied people are with the schools in their community. Consistently since 2012, about two-thirds of those polled are satisfied or very satisfied. But in the last several years, the percent who are ”very satisfied” has gone down about 10 percentage points (to 13% in the new poll) and the percent who are satisfied has gone up about 10 points (to 53% now).

Private schools and charter schools are gaining support

Among the most notable results in the new state budget are large increases in per-student payments for charter school students and students who attend private schools using vouchers. High school students on vouchers will bring their schools more than $3,000 more in the coming school year than in the year that just ended. Makes the $325 increases for public schools seem unimpressive.

In the new Marquette poll, support among voters statewide for vouchers was fairly strong, with 54% favoring offering all students the possibility of using vouchers to attend private school and 44% opposing that. On the other hand, when people were asked to make a choice whether more state money should be directed toward public schools or toward voucher programs, 71% picked public schools and 28% picked vouchers.

A small increase in state support of special education in public schools

The percentage of special ed costs that the state will cover will increase from about 30% to about 33%. From the schools’ standpoint, that’s good, but a lot less than public school advocates were aiming for.

Changes in reading instruction

It is likely that Evers will sign a reading reform bill that emerged from the Legislature with some degree of bipartisan support and an OK from the state Department of Public Instruction. There is $50 million in the new budget to support changing statewide to teaching reading through phonics-strong “science of reading” curriculums, including in nonpublic schools. But this will be a big and demanding undertaking at the school level. Improved reading results are of great importance. But this will also bring many schools added stress.

Students’ well-being

Many kids in all circumstances continue to have high levels of problems with mental health, anxiety and socialization and behavior skills. There is more money in the new state budget for helping kids, but the total weight of this on school staffs will remain great.

The whole financial picture

The increases in per-student funding averaging $325 per student in the coming year and another $325 in the following year are the biggest increases in state-imposed revenue caps in more than a decade. But they come after a string of years of small or no increases, and they come amid pressures from inflation and other rising costs. The revenue cap plays out in different ways in different places, but if you know of a school district that is rolling in dough, let me know because I don’t.

... and everything else

Many school communities and districts were already pretty roiled places. Gender and race issues, dissatisfaction with student achievement, lingering antagonism over pandemic policies, these and more are making many school board meetings tense and unhappy gatherings. And that has to affect the mood of people working in schools, from superintendents to substitute teachers.

Schools will open in six to nine weeks. There will be teachers in the classrooms, days will go reasonably well, most kids will make progress, things will seem positive a lot of the time. You can count on these things. But the underlying issues will also all be having effects, enough to give a lot of educators that churning feeling in their stomachs.

Alan J. Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School. Reach him at alan.borsuk@marquette.edu.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Underlying issues are enough to give educators uneasy feelings