Racine School District Is 1 Step Closer To Secession Battle

Gov. Scott Walker promised a handful of vetoes in order to get the state budget through the Senate, but School District Creation wasn’t one of them.

School District Creation is an amendment in the budget that makes it easier for villages to break off and form their own school districts, and Racine Unified School District is one step away from meeting the criteria.

If villages want to form their own school district, the one they’re leaving must:

1. encompass a city with a population greater than 75,000 residents and at least two villages.
2. have 15,000 students enrolled.
3. have failed it’s two most recent accountability report cards.
4. have received integration aid when it made that failing grade.

The village boards can vote to leave the school district, and if approved, there will be a study and then a referendum. Under this legislation, only those in the proposed new school district will vote on its approval.

Critics of this legislation say it will segregate the Racine school district and rob students of the opportunities a larger school district offers. However, those in the villages surrounding Racine see it as a school choice issue.

The amendment was debated prior to budget approval with legislators on both sides of the aisle speaking up. Democrats brought up the issue of segregation and “white flight.”

“The taxpayers, which a majority of which do not live in the city of Racine, the majority of taxpayers are in the suburbs, those taxpayers have the right to decide if they want to continue sending their kids to a failing school system,” said Rep. Thomas Weatherston, R-Caledonia.

According to 2010 census data, the village of Caledonia is about 91 percent white.

Stacey Wilde, a mother living in the village of Caledonia, chose not to send her kids to public school because she was concerned about RUSD’s middle school and high school performances. She said this isn’t about segregation; it’s about making sure people don’t leave the village for better schools.

“It’s not like the doors would be closed on Caledonia and nobody from Racine would be allowed in,” Wilde said. “Anybody from Racine would be able to school choice into Caledonia, just as Caledonia residents are forced to school choice into better schools.”

Critics of the legislation say it will not only hurt the city of Racine, it’ll hurt the villages that choose to secede because their property taxes will increase to cover the cost of a new district.