New School Funding Bill Would Help Students and Reduce Property Taxes
Democrats in the state Assembly have a new proposal to allocate about half of the state’s $2.5 billion surplus to address shortfalls in K-12 public education funding. If passed, the bill will remove some of the urgency for local school district operating referendums and stave off the resulting local property tax increases.
The bill, Assembly Bill 1176, includes a $445 million increase in general school aid for the 2026-27 school year on the heels of a state budget that had no general school aid increase this school year or next. The new proposal would also reimburse public schools’ special education costs at 60 percent this year and next year, and guarantee that funding level. The most recent state budget’s increase in the special education reimbursement was even lower than the modest increase lawmakers promised because the funding was based on estimates and not guaranteed.
On Spring Election Day April 7, 60 school districts have an operating referendum on the ballot, continuing a trend in which more than half the state’s school districts have gone to referendum in just the last decade to pay for basic costs.
“If the state is funding schools responsibly and keeping its promises, lower property taxes are one result,” WEAC President Peggy Wirtz-Olsen said. “More importantly, the state’s school districts will be better able to fund the schools our students deserve and our communities depend on for the future.”
