Others wanted to establish charter schools or other new programs. Some wanted to install computers and pay for training to use them. Others wanted to pay for building improvements or maintenance costs. Many wanted to release extra money to operate new schools. The fact that caps were lifted for many different reasons speaks to the beauty of the system.
Local taxpayers help determine local needs, in concert with their elected school boards.
State-imposed caps on local school spending have not come without some pain, but they held down school property taxes and forced local boards, administrators, teachers and taxpayers to make tough choices. In the process, public confidence in the fiscal management of those schools has been boosted. By marching on Madison, opponents of school spending caps are exercising their democratic rights. By voting yes or no on hundreds of referendums to lift those caps, state taxpayers are exercising their democratic rights, too. The article once again affirms that to maintain State funding of total K-12 school costs, revenue controls must remain in place, with the final say on spending resting in the voters hands through the referendum process.