>> Along with statewide ballot questions, voters in nearly 80 districts were asked whether to pass school funding referenda.

45 of them passed for more than $1.3 billion in new funding.

The state superintendent today released the Department of Public Instructions budget request, asking for $2.75 billion in new funding.

It's designed to provide predictable funding and end these operational referendums.

We turn to the Wisconsin Public Education Network and its executive director, Heather Dubois Bourenane.

And thanks very much for being here.

>> Thanks for having me.

>> So should this DPI budget be adopted?

How welcome would that be for schools always scrambling for new money?

>> I don't think our districts have seen a more welcome proposal in a very long time.

The budget that we just saw from hot off the presses from DPI this afternoon, looks like it's doing something that public school advocates and school and district leaders and educators have been asking them to do for decades, which is really take a deep look at some structural fixes to how we fund our public schools that will align the spending more with what students actually need and what districts are already required to spend and, and move away from this outdated model that's really based based on property values and has led to this endless cycle of needing to fund by referenda, which ultimately just has made our gaps wider and wider across the state.

>> Does this request anticipate a lot more state allocated funds to achieve its goals?

For example, these increases for special education, state reimbursements up to 60% in year two.

>> My understanding is that these are some structural tweaks that reallocate some of the dollars that currently look like they're going to school, but public schools, but actually don't fund them at all.

Things like the school levy, tax credit, and by moving some of these things to actual school aides, the DPI was able to make some really significant tweaks without increasing how much folks are going to have to spend locally in property taxes.

And so this is this is very critically important.

And I think the, the, what folks need to know is these aren't new costs.

Special education is already being paid for at the local level, as districts have to take money out of their their general funds to cover these unreimbursed costs.

And that's one of the significant reasons why we see so many referenda, because that gap is so wide.

That gap itself is almost $2 billion.

Every biennium.

So so this is really a huge and potentially transformative proposal.

And I think districts are going to welcome it with open arms, because it's exactly what they've been asking for.

It's worth noting, too, that it's it's not just what districts have been asking for.

It's what's been proposed.

It was it was among the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on school funding, which was a bipartisan group that studied these these challenges and put forward a proposal a few years back that haven't been implemented yet.

It's also included in the proposals of the No Time to Lose report from the National Conference of State Legislatures, which is now experiencing its 10th anniversary.

So ten years after they said there wasn't any time to lose.

We're finally seeing a proposal that makes a lot of sense for Wisconsin kids.

And I hope our lawmakers and our new newly electeds embrace it with open arms.

>> Why was this kind of change to the school funding formula?

Why has it taken so long?

>> That's a really good question, because as far as I can tell, it's not because there wasn't a plan.

It's not because we didn't know how to fix it.

It's not because we didn't know what was wrong.

It's because there wasn't any political will.

And for the last 18 years, our lawmakers have moved forward budgets that didn't even keep pace with inflation, for public schools for prior year spending.

And at this point, we're roughly $3,100 per pupil behind where we would be if we were still funding at 2009 levels.

And so that's a significant gap to be filled.

This budget, from what I've seen today, takes a huge step forward in starting to fill that gap and could put Wisconsin on a path towards adequately funding its public schools for the first time in decades.

>> Do you feel optimistic that the new legislature and governor will adopt these changes?

>> I do, I do.

I think what we saw in the stumping that folks were making as they led up to the election cycle is that folks on both sides of the aisle realize that Wisconsin taxpayers cannot be expected to bear these costs at the local level, and that decades of underfunding have meant, ultimately, that our kids are the ones who are paying the price.

They're paying the price by not having equal access to the same kind of resources across our districts.

And they're paying the price and their performance overall.

As districts struggle to meet basic needs.

And so this, this, this budget, I think, solves the the moral dilemma as well as the fiscal dilemma that we have.

But how is it how can we keep the constitutional promise we've made to our kids to provide an adequate public education?

We start by fixing the funding formula and aligning it with student needs.

>> All right.

We leave it there.

Heather Dubois Bourenane, thanks so much.

>> Thanks for having me.

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