A Perspectives Column by George Mitchell
I’ve said it here before. Half-truths are the worst kind of lie.
Merriam-Webster and Oxford explain: they “convey only part of the truth, especially when used deliberately in order to deceive someone.”
Spreading half-truths about Wisconsin’s school choice programs is in the DNA of the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). Historically, misleading press releases are DPI’s mode of operation. The agency spins a glint of factual information in order to deceive the public about the cost of choice programs and academic results.
In mid-November DPI upped the ante. An agency that routinely claims it lacks adequate funds for general operations launched an interactive map that will deliberately deceive residents of school districts with children in state choice programs. It claims to show “the portion of [a] district’s revenue limit (which comprises taxes and general state aid) that does not stay within the district for school operations but instead goes directly to private schools participating in a Private School Choice Program.”
Consider the Mt. Horeb Area School District. The interactive map includes a table with the heading “Portion of Revenue Limit Allocated” to school choice students. It creates the impression Mt. Horeb lost $646,177 in revenue limit spending authority due to choice.
This is untrue, not only for Mt. Horeb, but also for districts throughout the state with students in choice programs. DPI deceives the public into believing a total of $311 million in revenue limit authority was lost due to school choice.
Information from none other than the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau refutes the claim. An LFB analysis early this year confirmed that general school aid is reduced to districts with choice students but that a district’s revenue limit is adjusted to offset the reduction. LFB says, emphasis added: “To make up for the aid reduction, school districts receive a revenue limit adjustment for each pupil in the current year equal to the aid reduction.“
So, neither Mt. Horeb nor other districts actually lost revenue limit authority due to school choice.
School choice advocates in the Legislature have proposed legislation to “decouple” choice funding from the general aid reduction in current law. Every Democrat in the State Assembly voted no on this measure in the 2023 session.
I believe opponents want to maintain the ability to deceive the public into believing public schools lose revenue limit authority thanks to school choice. They want property taxes to be higher to fuel half-truth media headlines.
George Mitchell is a longtime supporter of school choice programs.
