EDITORIAL: Vote for good schools

The Northern Ozaukee School District referendum should be one of the easiest “yes” votes among the 60 Wisconsin school districts holding operational referendums Tuesday.

Unlike most of those referendums, NOSD’s does not ask district voters to approve a tax increase.

The referendum asks for voter approval to exceed the state revenue limit, but without raising taxes.

A “yes” vote will enable the district to devote annual tax revenue that in recent years had been used for debt prepayment to paying school operating costs instead.

Those are not trivial costs. They go to the core of the district’s educational programs, including class sizes, staffing, student support services, technology and course offerings, as well as extracurricular and athletic offerings.

Still, it’s looking as though the “yes” vote that should be easy could be difficult. It faces vocal opposition.

Besides the expected disgruntlement over the sizable portion of local property taxes needed to support Northern Ozaukee schools, some critics have seized on the School Board’s past decision to prepay debt as an example of wasteful spending that should not be rewarded with permission to exceed the revenue limit.

That is a misperception. Prepaying a portion of the district’s capital debt was a fiscally smart move that will save $2.5 million in interest over the life of the loan. It’s an effective means many school districts employ to manage debt that is permitted by state law without voter approval.

It’s the changing of how revenue is used that requires referendum approval.

At heart, the referendum is more about giving NOSD the resources it needs to maintain the quality of its education than meeting an esoteric state requirement.

That quality is at risk without an increase in operational revenue. The district has had to get by for years on inadequate state aid distributed under a formula that favors wealthy districts with high enrollments and treats small rural districts like NOSD as country cousins that should make do with less.

Many of the nearly 300 Wisconsin school districts that are funding schools with revenue authorized by operational referendums are similar in size and demographic to NOSD.

Voters should not be distracted by baseless claims that seeking to exceed the revenue limit is a sign of irresponsible spending by the School Board and school administrators. This referendum is about the good schools of NOSD. They need the support that will come from revised spending priorities.

Saying “yes” to that should be easy, especially when it can be said without raising taxes.