Looking over their property tax bills, Outagamie County residents can clearly see where most of their money is going: a certain percentage for the county, another for the municipality, the school district and some for the local technical college.
But what isn’t clear is how much of that money is actually going to private schools.That amount is lumped in with the amount that's listed as going to whichever public school district the resident lives in.
Wisconsin Parental Choice Program — more commonly referred to as "vouchers" — allows students who live outside of Milwaukee and Racine and whose family falls under an income limit to apply for publicly funded vouchers to pay for them to attend private schools. The application requires students to show proof of residency, which is used to determine which taxpayers will be responsible for the cost of the vouchers, according to the state Department of Public Instruction.
Aside from the income requirement, there are certain age requirements for students, depending on when they apply for vouchers. This differs based on whether that student was already attending a private school or if they are looking to get a voucher to move from a public to private school.
For school district leaders in Outagamie County, the issue isn't with families choosing private schools. It's the lack of transparency that can visually inflate the amount of money it appears districts are getting from taxpayers.
“What we struggle with is that it’s hidden on the tax bill,” said Greg Hartjes, superintendent of the Appleton Area School District.
The district has no control over the amount that ultimately ends up with private schools, Hartjes said. That amount is determined by the state. But on a resident's tax bill, it looks like the money is going to the public schools.
For the 2022-23 school year, vouchers cost about $8,400 for each student enrolled full time in kindergarten through eighth grade and $9,045 for ninth through 12th grades, according to the DPI. Those amounts are determined by a formula laid out in state law.
For public districts, there isn't a set statewide per-pupil funding amount, according to DPI. It varies based on a district's revenue limit, which is the total money it is allowed each year through state aid and tax dollars, and average membership — a way of counting students that takes into account if a student is attending full-time or half-day, for example, instead of a straight enrollment count — over the past three years.
Data provided to The Post-Crescent by DPI show the Appleton Area, Kimberly Area and Kaukauna Area school districts received between $10,000 and $10,250 per student in property tax revenue and general state aid in the 2021-22 school year.
Taxpayers may never realize a portion of the money they pay the public district is being handed over to local private schools, Hartjes said, because it’s not spelled out on tax bills. Hartjes criticized this “lack of transparency.”
Kimberly Area School District Superintendent Bob Mayfield said families should be able to choose where they want to educate their children, so he isn't opposed to the voucher program.But since the amount of money Kimberly turns over for private school vouchers isn’t spelled out on tax bills, just as in Appleton and other districts across the state, Mayfield said it’s not honest to taxpayers.
“We’re in a high-transparent state, and this is one of the most nontransparent, opaque things that I’ve experienced in the public sector,” Mayfield said.
Nicholas Kelly, president of School Choice Wisconsin, a non-profit that advocates for parent choice in K-12 education, said his organization favors a different funding system.
"We don't think property taxpayers should foot the bill at all," he told The Post-Crescent in an email.
School Choice Wisconsin is advocating to fund vouchers with state dollars; more specifically, general-purpose revenue, which can come from income and sales taxes. Kelly said this could cut property taxes and provide "complete transparency."
"This is in contrast to the current system which fosters confusion and ambiguity about the cost of choice programs," he added.
Here’s a closer look at how much area taxpayers are spending on private school vouchers.
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Appleton Area School District
In total, taxpayers in AASD are spending $5.6 million to send almost 650 students to various private schools in the area this year, based on numbers Hartjes provided.
So, how much does that come to for an individual homeowner?
- This year’s tax rate for the district is $7.10 per $1,000 of equalized property value. Of that, 7.6% or 54 cents per $1,000 will go to private school vouchers.
- Someone who owns a $200,000 home, for example, will pay a total of $1,420 to the school district; however, $108 of that will be turned over to private schools in the form of vouchers.
As the AASD tax rate has decreased every year since 2015, the portion going to private schools has increased.
In 2015, the district’s tax rate was $9.60 per $1,000 of property with $9.51 going to the district and 9 cents going to private schools.
By 2018, the district’s tax rate was almost a dollar lower than it was in 2015 — $8.68 per $1,000 of property — but the portion for private schools had almost tripled to 23 cents.
Coming back to today, the tax rate is $2.50 lower than it was in 2015, while the portion going to private schools has increased sixfold.
Kimberly Area School District
The Kimberly School District’s tax rate has also decreased the last six years in a row, dropping the rate almost in half. It would be even lower, Mayfield said, if vouchers weren’t included in that number.
Normally, Mayfield doesn't field many questions from residents about vouchers, but after the district sent out a newsletter earlier this month with the cost of vouchers outlined on the front page, more people have been calling him.
Taxpayers in the Kimberly district will spend $800,000 for about 90 students to attend private schools on vouchers, according to information Mayfield shared with The Post-Crescent.
Here's how that breaks down for individual property owners.
- This year’s tax rate for the district is $5.56 per $1,000 of equalized property value. Of that, 5.4% or 30 cents per $1,000 will go to private school vouchers.
- Someone who owns a $200,000 home, for example, will pay a total of $1,112 to the school district; however, $60 of that will be turned over to private schools in the form of vouchers.
Kaukauna Area School District
Like the other districts, Kaukauna has seen the cost of vouchers grow exponentially in just a few years.
According to information shared during the district budget hearing in late October, the total cost of vouchers for the district in 2017-18 was just shy of $145,000. That year, the total tax rate was $9.20 per $1,000 of equalized property value with the voucher portion of that coming to 7 cents per $1,000.
- For 2022-23, the total cost of vouchers to taxpayers is over $1.6 million. The tax rate is $6.01 per $1,000 of property with 8.6% or 52 cents per $1,000 going to private school vouchers.
- Someone who owns a $200,000 home, for example, will pay a total of $1,202 to the school district; however, $104 of that will be turned over to private schools through vouchers.
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Who is using vouchers in the Fox Valley?
For many private schools in the Fox Valley, a sizeable portion of their student bodies are attending through the choice program.
Here's a look at how many students attend these Appleton area schools on vouchers and what percentage of the school's total enrollment they make up. This is based off DPI enrollment data from the third Friday count in September.
St. Francis Xavier Catholic School System
- 297 students
- 21.4% of enrollment
Fox Valley Lutheran High School
- 242 students
- 32.7% of enrollment
Holy Spirit Catholic School
- 66 students
- 28.7% of enrollment
Mount Olive Evangelical Lutheran School
- 81 students
- 26.4% of enrollment
Riverview Lutheran School
- 81 students
- 53.9% of enrollment
St. Edward School
- 10 students
- 20.4% of enrollment
St. Paul Lutheran School
- 55 students
- 36.4% of enrollment
Celebration Lutheran School
- 25 students
- 31.3% of enrollment
St. John Grade School
- 37 students
- 16.9% of enrollment
Saint Ignatius of Loyola Catholic School
- 105 students
- 40.9% of enrollment
Fox Valley Lutheran denied to comment for this story. Xavier Catholic School System didn't respond to request for comment.
Reach AnnMarie Hilton at ahilton@gannett.com or 920-370-8045. Follow her on Twitter at @hilton_annmarie.
