By Natalie Jones

On Tuesday, February 24th, the Eau Claire Area School District announced that they would be filing a lawsuit against the state legislature. The lawsuit is made up of a coalition of schools, teachers’ unions, individuals, community members, and advocacy groups.

“It seems clear to us that the state legislature is not doing its job and following our state constitutional requirement to properly fund public schools. Though we, and many other districts, have been asking for proper funding for the past 30 years, the legislature has not responded with even enough funding to keep up with inflation,” Tim Nordin, the Eau Claire Area School District President, states. When the district heard about the lawsuit, they were “eager to help.”

Because of the many years of inadequate funding, the impact that this has made on our public schools is just now becoming visible, and thus the lawsuit has become urgent. Nordin points out that, “For the upcoming year, some staff members will likely have fewer hours as enrollments being down means that we cannot keep all the incredible teachers and other staff at their current hours.” Students and staff at Memorial are beginning to see these effects take place as well. Unfortunately, many teachers are getting their hours cut, having to travel to other schools during the day, or being let go for the next calendar year because of this funding problem. However, this lawsuit will take time to get any answers back from the state. In the meantime, Tim Nordin states that local referendums will be the school district’s first option in keeping our district afloat until we see answers. Through referendums, Memorial has gotten the opportunity to upgrade many of our spaces. 

“Though the referendum was passed a couple years ago, we’ve just now been able to appreciate the changes it’s brought about,” Avi Miller, a plaintiff in the case against the state legislature and a student at MHS, comments. Memorial’s students are grateful for the chance to use our new library, auditorium, and common spaces, but as Avi Miller suggests, these changes only bring forward the idea that we need more. “Though we did benefit greatly from it at Memorial, there are still plenty of issues in schools around the district that still need our attention and funding.” 

Stephanie Farrar, a member of the Eau Claire Area School District Board points out that “Wisconsin Constitutional requirements for school funding are not a suggestion, they are the law.” She explains that the state should be doing all that they can to adequately fund our public schools, but many people believe that they are not. Farrar also points out this shocking statistic: “If we had had state funding keep pace with inflation since 2009, our district would have had 35 million more dollars in the 2023-24 school year alone.” While being able to pass referendums for some funding, the Eau Claire Area School District has not been able to provide the necessary funds that the public schools need to be able to provide the same, or better, education year after year. 

Overall, the Eau Claire Area School District will continue to hurt if our funding situation does not improve. Even here at Memorial, we are beginning to see the changes that would be implemented. These changes would greatly affect the teachers and staff members that pour all of their time into teaching and making sure that students have a great education. Although these lawsuits take lots of time to settle, people should continue to advocate for more funding for our public schools. The district will continue to pass referendums and do all that they can to stay above this crisis.