For everyone with complaints about property taxes within the Madison School District

The Madison School District has come up with an exercise in order to learn more about what the communities believes the priorities of the school district should be when it comes to spending. They have created a model $100 budget and folks are being asked to cut $3.85 from it. The $3.85 represents the $10 million the school district is anticipating it will have to cut in the next budget to comply with state revenue caps.

The Wisconsin State Journal put together two panels of five people and neither panel could agree upon $3.85 to cut. Panel one found a total of $1.90 in reductions and panel two agreed on $2.41 in cuts. You can find the story here.

This is an exercise that everyone who plans to vote in the upcoming school board election should go through as a means to figure out what questions to ask candidates before they choose two for election day. I hope before anyone issues vague complaints about rising property taxes with the upcoming school board election, they do this exercise and figure out where they would make cuts. It's tough. You can find the exercise here to do on your own or you can go to one of the many community meetings that are listed at that link to do the exercise with a group.

The Madison School District, like every other school district in Wisconsin, is being asked to do more with less every year. Add in population shifts, skyrocketing health care costs every year, a state funding formula that desperately needs adjustment, a well-educated population that demands education excellence for their children but is concerned with rising property taxes and you find yourself with a very hard task if you are a Madison School Board member.

Yet there are four brave souls running for the two seats on the Madison School Board that are up this spring. As a parent I intend to follow the races closely so you can be assured that there will be many posts here about that election down the road.