Dear Editor,
Front page story from the Wisconsin State Journal, April 15, 2029:
Dodgeville Public Schools became the latest Wisconsin school system to shut down their school operations. This follows the failed vote on the eighth consecutive school referendum attempting to keep its schools heated and teachers in the classrooms. Dodgeville is the thirty-seventh school district in the state to shutter their doors since the elections of 2026. A year earlier, Dodgeville had ended all athletic and other extracurricular programs, cut many academic programs, and laid off a third of the teaching staff.
The final meeting of the school board was conducted in the high school gymnasium to accommodate the large crowd estimated at 800 people. Speaker after speaker pleaded with the school board to keep the buildings open. But in the end, the board agreed there was nothing left to cut and that the school system had been gutted. Without an infusion of the referendum money, there was no point in continuing. Dodgeville schools had not given teachers a raise in three years and could no longer attract teachers at such low pay compared to surrounding districts. They couldn’t even afford to pay the few teachers who were willing to teach in Dodgeville at non-competitive salaries.
Each school board member made a statement before the final 7-0 vote announced the dissolution of their school district. Many in the crowd of students and parents, some of whom were alumni of the school district, wept as it became clear that the once vibrant school system was ending its operations. As the meeting ended, one school board member was overheard: “We tried to warn the voters that this could happen. Not enough of them took us seriously.” After the final vote, citizens of all ages lingered in the gymnasium, as though they couldn’t bear to say farewell to such an essential part of their lives.
When asked about this latest school closing, a spokesperson for Republican Governor Tom Tiffany shrugged his shoulders. “We gave these towns the tool to save their schools. Running referenda is the answer to their problems. They shouldn’t expect state government to keep handing out tax payer money.” Dianne Hesselbein, Democratic Senate Majority leader of the Wisconsin State Senate, promised action: “It is unconscionable to allow school district after school district to close down. When the Hustisford School District shut down in 2026, we should have acted. How do you bring back a school district once it has dissolved and been taken over by neighboring districts?”
However, with Republican control of the state assembly and the governor’s office, it is unlikely changes will occur anytime soon. All the other school districts that have dissolved have consolidated with surrounding districts. The taxpayers from the now closed school districts have seen their property taxes rise significantly, as they have to pay what their new districts expect of them.
Farfetched? Not at all. Think about your vote on November 3. Michael Knoedler Senior Citizen, Dodgeville School District