If you thought that the current state of school funding was working for Wisconsin districts, the plethora of referenda on the ballot around the state this week might suggest that belief warrants reconsideration.

According to the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, of 67 school referendums up for a vote on Tuesday, 25 find districts asking taxpayers to approve exceeding state-imposed revenue limits. Fourteen seek the right to temporarily exceed those limits (non-recurring) and another 11 hope voters agree to exceed them permanently (recurring).

According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, there are 424 public school districts in the state.

"Revenue limits were first imposed on schools in the 1993-94 school year," notes a post on the WASB blog. "For most of the period these limits have been in place, lawmakers have authorized an annual per pupil adjustment aligned to inflation (i.e., to increases in the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI)). The 2016-17 school year, however, marks the second straight year in which no per pupil adjustment in revenue limits is provided.

"With revenue limits essentially frozen, districts wishing to hang on to their best teachers and administrators are starting to look to operating referendums as a way to generate additional revenue to fund their pay plans, whether those plans are performance-based or simply seek to maintain competitive employee compensation in the face of competition from other districts.

"In the Oregon School District, the school board is seeking approval of a recurring referendum to exceed revenue limit in order to provide a permanent $1.5 million increase for employee compensation. Similarly, the Eau Claire School Board is seeking approval of a recurring referendum to provide funding for staff compensation and class size reduction, as well as for other items such as technology, building maintenance, safety and security improvements, and debt service for capital improvement projects."

According to a post by the Wheeler Report, which also lists details of all the referenda, the 42 bond questions total $1.14 billion, the 11 recurring revenue cap lifts total $40.3 million and the referenda seeking to exceed the cap permanently total $158 million.

In the bond-related referendums, WASB says the largest include:

"Two questions that total $159 million for the Chippewa Falls School District in northwest Wisconsin for the replacement of an elementary school, an $89.5 million facilities referendum for the construction of two elementary schools in the Sun Prairie School District just northeast of Madison, and an $87 million ask to build a high school and swimming pool in the Milton School District in Rock County, and an $84 million request in Germantown to fund district-wide building improvements, including a field house, a performing art center, and a swimming pool."

Locally, Franklin is seeking $43.3 million for a new middle school, and Oconomowoc Area is seeking just shy of $55 million for comprehensive building improvements, including a new elementary school as well as additions, renovations and improvements at other buildings.

There are no MPS-related questions on the ballot.

For a little perspective, WASB notes that, "already this year, voters have approved 37 of 46 (80%) of the operating referendum questions put before them in districts across the state. This includes 27 of 33 non-recurring questions (82%) and 10 of 13 recurring questions (77%). If voters in just 12 districts approve their ballot questions, it will set a new record for the number of districts passing referendums to exceed the revenue limits in one year. The current record (47 districts) was set in 2014."