thing.

>> All right.

We leave it there.

Don Millis, thanks very much.

>> Thank you.

Have a good weekend.

>> In other news, dozens of school districts around the state asked voters for $1 billion in ballot referendums in the latest spring election.

Much of that money was just to keep the schools open and operating.

But many of those referendums failed.

And that means some schools in rural Wisconsin will permanently close.

Here and now.

Reporter Steven Potter has this report on rural school closures.

>> Thousands of the state's public schools are closing for summer break.

But there are two schools set next to farms in central Wisconsin.

>> We had to make the difficult decision to shut the doors of two of our rural schools.

>> That won't reopen next fall or ever again.

>> This is definitely the worst day of my career as an educator, and I think it's one of the darkest days in the history of Portage.

>> Josh Swain is the district administrator for the Portage Community School District.

He says the decision to close two elementary schools, one in Marquette County, the other in Columbia County, couldn't be avoided.

>> Purely for budgetary reasons.

And that is something that's going on all over the state.

>> Swain says.

They did try to keep Lewiston and Endeavor elementary schools open as long as they could.

>> The issue is funding, right?

We just don't have the funding to be able to do that.

>> After a referendum asking voters for more money failed this spring, the school district made the difficult decision.

Portage isn't alone.

Last year, school districts in several rural counties such as Dunn, Vilas, Jefferson, Richland, Juneau and others all closed at least one school the year before that.

Another handful of schools in other, lesser populated counties also closed.

And earlier this spring, the Hustisford School Board in Dodge County voted to completely dissolve the school district, which means the elementary, middle and high schools will all close this year.

Education experts say that the impact of school closures on small communities is very painful.

>> A rural school is the heart and soul and the identity of a community.

>> Bradley Karl studies rural school systems for the UW-Madison, Wisconsin, Center for Education Research.

He says that part of the reason that small rural schools are so missed when they close is because they do so much so well.

>> Things like small class sizes and strong relationships between teachers and students, and strong relationships between school districts and employers in the community.

>> Services beyond the regular school day are important for working parents.

>> School districts also provide after school care, before school care, and summer programs, and that has an economic impact in terms of allowing families to work.

>> Schools in rural areas can also be a social hub for the community.

>> Everyone goes to the basketball games on Friday night or the football games on Friday night, but it's so much more than that, too.

It's going to the theater productions and the homecoming parades.

>> School closures are not unique to rural areas.

Over the last 20 years, more than 600 public schools across Wisconsin have closed, but nearly 40% of them have been in small, rural counties of less than 100,000 residents.

In all, that's around 250 rural schools that have closed.

Like in Portage.

There's just not enough money to keep the doors open.

And that's usually because there are fewer students enrolled.

>> Two thirds, maybe three quarters of the rural districts in Wisconsin.

As is the case around the country, are facing declining enrollment.

Given the way we fund schools, declining enrollment means declining revenue from the state.

>> Figures from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction show that student enrollment in public schools has declined roughly 7% over the last two decades.

Population experts agree that this is a nationwide problem, largely due to shrinking birthrates.

>> Declining enrollment is real, and it's a challenge.

>> Jeff I.D.

knows the problems facing rural school districts better than most.

He's the executive director of the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance.

>> 70% of the schools in the state are rural, so we have a lot of rural schools.

Not the majority of the students are within our rural areas, but that's a large footprint in Wisconsin.

>> I.D.

says rural schools are doing their best.

>> They are working their buns off.

They're working hard to do the best they can with the resources that they have.

>> He adds that what the state provides in per student funding isn't 100% of what a school needs to operate, so they pull in money from local government and property taxes to make up the difference.

And over the years, more and more small and rural communities are having to go to ballot referendums to ask residents for more money to keep their schools open.

>> I do see school referendums at this time as a continuing trend, unfortunately.

I'm hoping one day that it becomes an anomaly and not a need.

>> Another major factor is the rising cost of everything from gas for busses to heating and cooling costs, to building and even playground maintenance, as well as school supplies and the need for new technology.

It's simply becoming more and more expensive to educate students.

>> But I think everybody's struggling with the funding formula that we currently have.

>> Swain and ID agree that changes to the state's school funding formula are needed, like a per student rate increase tied to inflation.

That was part of the school funding formula more than a decade ago.

But state lawmakers discontinued the practice back during the Great Recession.

>> We need to make sure we're doing the best we can to meet the rate of inflation.

We haven't done that for many years.

>> If inflationary increases had continued from 2009 to the end of this biennium, we would not have a gap of it's $3,573 per student that we would have gotten in state aid or in that per pupil revenue.

>> But in order for there to be a change in the school funding formula at the state level, state lawmakers and the governor would need to agree on what those changes would be.

>> There's a lot of challenges in a rural district.

Also.

There's a lot of really great things about a smaller rural school.

>> In the state Assembly.

Democrat Karen DeSiato represents the area that includes the Portage Community School District, where those two schools are closing.

She says schools are a draw for residents.

>> When a school falters, especially in a very small rural community, it affects everyone.

If a school is not there in a smaller community, it discourages people to live there.

>> DeSiato is open to changes in school funding.

>> Our budgets are based on our values.

As Wisconsinites.

Our values are to support our kids in public education and we are not doing that.

>> Across the political aisle.

Republican State Representative Lindy Brill from Sheboygan Falls says state budgets need to be balanced.

education is a priority in our state, which I do believe our future generations is a priority, then we need to figure out where we're cutting elsewhere.

state school funding formula.

>> I do think we are well overdue to look at it now.

That doesn't mean a complete overhaul, but I do think we need to figure out if this is the best way to serve the state.

compromise, school boards and administrators will continue to struggle and keep asking voters for more money.

day, we still need to balance the budget.

And we don't we don't have the money to do it.

>> And in many cases, it's all but certain that rural communities will keep closing schools.

Reporting closing schools.

Reporting