Rural Matters

In rural Wisconsin, many of our schools are having a lot of financial difficulty. It is causing devisiveness among the school board and community members. Referendums are failing even though schools need maintenance repairs inclding furnace and heating repairs in addition to providing for programs, textbooks and having qualified staff. The teachers are targeted/singled out to take pay cuts though others in the community make salaries much more than that of a teacher; yet these are the very same members who call for a teacher to take a pay cut and blame the teachers for the financial dissaray the school district is in. The failing of referendums is being interpreted by school boards that the local community doesn't support the school district. However, there is a lack of adequate and accurate information being presented to the community thus, causing a lot of rumors regarding what the referendums would provide for in addition to the message the community has received that it appears the direction coming from the school board is consolidation. This has made community members confused on what is really happening. Some indicate they voted against the referendum because they thought the school board has already decided (informally) that they are going to consolidate, others think that if there isn't a school in this area-then, they wouldn't have to pay taxes, some want to send a message to legislators that there needs to be a fix at the state level, others do not understand the language the referendum is written on when they vote and with the lack of an organized parent/community group there has been a significant disconnect. Consolidation has not been effectively studied by an impartial, qualified committee and there is a lot of speculation regarding the impact of consolidation. Upon examining several sites about consolidation, it is apparent that two struggling school districts combining does not guarantee a larger school district that is free of the same problem and in fact, there is some documentation that taxpayers have found out that consolidation has in fact led to higher taxes as a new school has had to be built to accomodate the newly formed school district, there are unforeseen results that have occured that has increased the costs for the now combined school district. In our school district there are a lot of families who have said they will leave the consolidated school district to attend a different one due to the transporation and long bus ride issue. Given this information, it is difficult for any community member to know what to think or decide. This is very troubling as we are neglecting our social responsibility as Wisconsites to ensure our youth are highly educated and able to contribute to the future workforce. We are doing a disservice to our youth and our communities by not assuring high quality access to education in all school districts. We are doing a disservice to our local communities by not supporting small, rural school districts who are the main center for families, parents and grandparents for social gatherings as they support the local school district youth in band, athletics, choir, arts, theater, FFA, Forensics and other school activities. These activities contribute to the social network and health of communities. The consolidation of small rural school districts causes demise in more than the school district and the local youth...it may also cause the loss of the local community.