Last year, Madison Metropolitan School District hit taxpayers with the largest property tax hike in over three decades: a jaw-dropping 20.4% increase following a pair of referenda voters approved in 2024. Families were told it was necessary. A one-time correction. An investment in the future.
One year later, the district is back. This time, they want 8.5% more.
MMSD’s proposed $609 million operating budget, up $35.5 million from last year, would cost the owner of an average Madison home an additional $311 annually. That’s on top of last year’s hit. On top of the year before that. On top of the 400-year property tax hike.
So what are taxpayers getting for this relentless appetite?
Certainly not results.
Madison’s racial achievement gap is among the worst in the state, and the state of Wisconsin already ranks near the bottom nationally. Reading and math proficiency scores for Black and Hispanic students lag far behind. Sadly, these aren’t new problems in Madison. They’ve persisted for years, across budget cycle after budget cycle, referendum after referendum, with no significant improvement. The district has had the money, the time, and the mandate to fix this, yet the gap sadly remains.
The 2026-27 proposed budget devotes $3.8 million to address “salary compression” for veteran teachers, a clear response to union pressure, not student need. According to the report, these salary bumps will be awarded based not on the effectiveness of the teacher, but simply on how long they have been employed with the school district. Parents cannot expect better results until the best teachers are compensated accordingly.
And buried in the fine print: $1 million toward a recreational expansion near West Towne Mall, part of a project estimated to cost up to $9.4 million. A warm-water pool and a full-size gym. This is an odd choice for a school district that’s stagnating on student enrollment, while its most vulnerable kids are being failed in every meaningful way.
The Wisconsin Policy Forum is already warning that additional referenda may be needed by 2028. Read that again: we haven’t finished paying for the last round of referenda, and the next ask is already being penciled in. At what point will Madison taxpayers say it’s enough?
Sadly, this is what liberal school district governance looks like. Spend first, ask questions never. Protect the union, expand the bureaucracy, and pass the bill to homeowners while children sit in classrooms where the achievement gap stubbornly refuses to budge.
And here’s what should terrify every Wisconsin taxpayer: this budget exists with Act 10 in place. Act 10, the 2011 reform that reined in collective bargaining for public employees, is the only thing standing between what you see now and something far worse. Wisconsin Democrats have made repealing Act 10 a priority. If they succeed, districts like Madison would face no meaningful constraints on union demands. The spending you see today would look quaint by comparison. And if it’s happening in the Madison school district, it is going to spread to other liberal-dominated cities soon.
Madison’s school board isn’t governing or helping students. It’s redistributing from working families to administrators and union contracts. Until accountability replaces platitudes and outcomes matter more than union bosses, taxpayers should demand answers before writing another check.
