Nearly two-thirds (roughly 66%) of Wisconsin’s 421 school districts have passed an operational referendum since 2023 to help pay for staff and basic services.
As of 2026, our neighboring districts of Cambridge, Deerfield, Jefferson, Johnson Creek, Fort Atkinson, and Waterloo have all successfully secured voter-approved operational referendums through community support. These measures allow districts to exceed state-imposed revenue limits to fund daily operations such as special education and mental health services, competitive teacher and staff wages, technology, transportation services, and routine building maintenance.
Lake Mills remains one of the few districts, both locally and statewide, operating solely within the standard state funding formula. This creates a widening financial gap between Lake Mills and our immediate neighbors.
What is the difference between a capital referendum and an operational referendum?
Think of it like a household budget: a Capital Referendum is like a mortgage (to buy or renovate the house), while an Operational Referendum is like your paycheck (to pay for groceries, the electric bill, and the people living there).
2026 Statewide Referendum
As you can see from the attached chart, recent data from Wisconsin school referenda reveals a growing trend of voter support for local education funding between 2025 and 2026. Capital improvement passage rates saw a significant jump from 61% to 75%, while operational questions saw both a higher volume of requests and a stronger passage rate, climbing from 52% (30 of 58) in 2025 to 59% (37 of 63) in 2026.
The number of successful requests increased, suggesting that more Wisconsin communities were willing to approve funding to sustain school operations in 2026 compared to the previous year.
In our next edition, we will focus on defining the revenue limit.
