(The Center Square) – Wisconsin voters say that closing and consolidating schools is a better option than increasing local taxes and state taxpayer funding in a new Marquette Law School Poll.
The poll found that 63% of voters preferred closing or consolidating schools to increasing taxes to keep them open.
Democrats were the only subset of voters that disagreed with 56% of Democrats preferring increased taxes and 43% supporting closing schools. Republicans far preferred the option of closing and consolidating schools with 84% agreeing and 15% preferring a tax hike.
The poll showed 72% of rural voters preferred closing and consolidating and 56% of suburban voters said the same with 64% of urban voters preferring that option.
The survey was conducted Oct. 14-22, interviewing 818 Wisconsin registered voters, with a margin of error of +/-4.3 percentage points.
The Wisconsin Assembly passed a package of five school consolidation bills last year but the Senate did not advance the measures.
The five consolidation bills would have funded statewide and local feasibility studies, provided a one-time $1,500 per student bump to funding for schools that consolidate in a three-year window and provided bumps for whole-grade sharing and levy differentials.
Bill sponsors positioned the bills as voluntary assistance for schools with declining enrollment, aging buildings and infrastructure and financial struggles related to both that have led to a record number of referenda across the state.
Democrats that opposed the bills in the assembly said “don’t close our schools, fund them.”