Governor's
1999-2001 Biennial Budget
Summary of issues concerning WEAC members
On February 16, 1999, the governor released his 1999-2001 biennial
budget to the Legislature. The bill was introduced as 1999 AB 133 and
1999 SB 45. This is an initial summary of the major provisions affecting
WEAC members. This summary was compiled by Bob Burke in the WEAC Government
Relations Division and is based on documents released by the Department
of Administration Division of Executive Budget and Finance. Some analysis
was also compiled from a DPI summary. Check back later to OnWEAC and
other WEAC publications for additional analysis of the budget bill.
Department of Public Instruction:
(SAGE) Student Achievement Guarantee in Education Funding:
- Increase funding for SAGE by $3.5 million in FY00 and $13.5 million
in FY01. This will add an estimated 32 SAGE schools, including 20
in Milwaukee Public Schools.
(NOTE: DPI requested funds to completely honor existing contracts
under the SAGE program ($40M base funding) and to provide a modest expansion
($6.5M) to fund approximately one-third of the remaining SAGE eligible
schools. The governor basically included DPI's request for SAGE in the
budget). WEAC supports full funding of SAGE. It is important to note
that the newly eligible SAGE schools would qualify under changed criteria
(80% low-income school population in MPS and 62% for out-state schools).
Charter Schools Expansion:
- Statewide prohibited subjects: Make the reassignment of staff,
regardless of seniority, a prohibited subject of bargaining when a
district decides to contract with a person to operate a charter school
or to convert a private nonsectarian school to a charter school.
- Testing: Require that all charter schools, including those
created by the City of Milwaukee, MATC or UW-M, administer all state
assessments.
- Handicapped aids: Authorize the payment of handicapped education
aid to charter schools created by the City of Milwaukee, MATC or UW-M.
Pay these aids, beginning in FY00, on a current-year basis.
- MPS: Repeal current law that provides that if the City of
Milwaukee contracts with a for-profit entity to operate a charter
school, the school is an instrumentality of MPS.
- Appeals process: Provide that if a petitioner applies to
a school board to establish a charter school and the school board
rejects or fails to act on the request, the petitioner may appeal
the decision to DPI.
NOTE: The governor has supported substantial expansions of charter
schools every year since the original law was passed in 1993. WEAC has
expressed concerns over these expansions and their impact on charter
school accountability. WEAC recently testified in favor of the testing
requirements proposed above.
School Board Authority to Close Schools and Contract Out for Educational
Services:
- Closing Schools: Authorize school boards to close schools
they identify as low performing and reopen them as new public schools.
Authorize school boards to transfer staff into or out of the schools
they close. If a superintendent recommends to the board that a school
be closed, he or she shall state the reasons for the recommendation
in writing. If the board closes a school, the superintendent may reassign
the school's staff members without regard to seniority in service.
If the board reopens the school, the superintendent may reassign staff
members to the school without regard to seniority in service.
- Subcontracting: Authorize school boards to contract with
nonsectarian private schools and agencies to provide educational programs.
Boards must ensure that each private school or agency complies with
pupil records and pupil nondiscrimination laws, certain federal laws
and all health and safety laws and rules that apply to public schools.
NOTE: Many of these subcontracting provisions were proposed
in previous budgets. WEAC has consistently opposed privatization attempts
and has also opposed giving school boards authority to close schools
without regard to individual collective bargaining rights.
School to Work
- Create a nine-member Board to manage the state's work-based learning
programs. The Board will be attached administratively to the Department
of Workforce Development. Members will include the governor (the chair),
the state superintendent, the secretary of DWD, the administrator
of the Workforce Development division in DWD, the Director of the
Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS), the President of WTCS,
a representative of labor, a representative of business and industry,
and a public representative.
- Move oversight of the work-based learning programs of the DWD, the
DPI and the WTCS to this board. The employees will physically remain
with their respective agencies.
- Transfer approximately $2,000,000 in federal Carl Perkins Title
III (tech-prep) funds from DPI to the above Board, including $90,000
in administrative funds. The proposal would not transfer any DPI positions
to the Board.
- Transfer the "Jobs for America's Graduates" program and
the $250,000 annually that supports this program from DPI to the above
Board.
NOTE: The governor has proposed changes in the school-to-work
concept in several consecutive budgets. This proposal, although guided
by a new board, will be completely administered in the Department of
Workforce Development.
Standards and Testing:
- Provide $3.6 million in FY00 and $6.6 million in FY01 to fund continued
development of the high school graduation test.
- Provide 6.00 FTE positions to DPI for continued development--four
subject area specialists, one education specialist and one program
assistant.
- Require that all students take the high school graduation test except
as provided under current law for EEN and LEP students.
- Provide that in the next biennium only juniors and seniors may take
the high school graduation test.
- Require notification to DPI by October 1 if a district is not going
to use the state high school graduation test.
- Repeal the sunset of the 10th grade student assessment.
- Maintain current law regarding the 4th and 8th grade assessments.
However, provide only $82,000 in FY00 and $142,000 in FY01 for increases
needed to administer the existing assessments. Funds requested to
develop new assessments to implement the "no social promotion"
law were not appropriated.
- Provide $22,000 in FY00 and $45,000 in FY01, funds requested by
the DPI to continue to administer the Wisconsin Reading Comprehension
Test.
- Provide $10,000 annually to support a requirement that the DPI develop
individual electronic report cards on public schools.
NOTE: Both Education Committees in the Legislature have held
public hearings on standards and testing. The provisions in the governor's
budget will receive a great deal of debate prior to final approval by
the Assembly and Senate. The governor's budget removes the "parent
opt-out" provisions from the high school exit exam. It is also
important to note that no funds were appropriated to develop high stakes
exams for the new 4th & 8th grade "no social promotion law."
Teacher Licensing and Certification:
- Prohibit DPI from renewing a teacher's license unless the teacher
has received instruction in educational technology. DPI would specify
this change in rule. This would be effective one year after the budget
is signed.
- Modify the school district waiver statutes to provide that a school
board may request waivers from teacher licensing requirements (as
they may now do with administrator or business manager licenses).
NOTE: Most of the governor's and the DPI's initiative to establish
a new licensure system for Wisconsin Teachers -- Pre-service Exams,
Initial, Professional and Master level licenses -- will be accomplished
through the administrative rules process and is not part of the budget
bill. WEAC supports the new DPI licensure initiative. It is not clear
that at the same time why, when we are working to raise standards for
teacher licensure, the governor has introduced the new waiver request
authority for school boards.
Certification by National Board of Professional Teaching Standards
(NBPTS):
- Provide $50,000 in FY00 and $112,000 in FY01 in a sum sufficient
appropriation to pay for $2,000 grants to teachers who are certified
by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and to pay
$2,500 per year bonuses for up to nine years if the teacher maintains
his or her certification by NBPTS; maintains a license as a teacher
or remains employed in a private school located in this state; remains
a resident of this state; and remains employed as a teacher in this
state.
NOTE: This is essentially the exact proposal that WEAC advocated
for during the last biennial budget.
Professional Training and Development:
- Provide $500,000 GPR in FY00 and $1M in FY01 for professional staff
development. These funds will be to continue programs under the WASDI
summer program in DPI.
TEACH -- Education Technology and Telecommunications:
- Provide $500,000 annually to the TEACH Board for teacher training
and technology assistance grants.
- Re-estimate telecommunications access funding by adding $2.2 million
in FY00 and $3.8 million in FY01 to ensure that every applicant with
a request for a T-1 line will receive funding.
- Provide that a school district may request from TEACH several data
lines if this would prove cost-effective.
- Provide that a school district may share excess capacity for accessing
a data line under a shared arrangement with a local unit of government.
- Provide $1 million over the biennium for TEACH training funding
and require that each CESA region is guaranteed a TEACH training grant.
- Provide $350,000 annually to the TEACH board for grants to consortia
utilizing technology for foreign language instruction in elementary
schools.
- Provide $2.5M for TEACH access to private colleges, public libraries
and technical colleges.
- Provide $621,000 FY00 and $1.2M FY01 for TEACH access to private
schools.
NOTE: The funds for private schools in TEACH does not come from
general purpose revenue and is not generated through public tax dollars.
School Funding & 2/3 Estimate:
- General Aids: Add to the amount appropriated for state school
aids $213 million in FY00 and $410 million in FY01 to fulfill the
state's commitment to pay 2/3 of estimated partial school revenues.
Of these amounts $196 million in FY00 and $378 million in FY01 will
be equalization aids.
Relief from Revenue Caps:
- Inflationary Index: Eliminate the CPI inflation add-on for
the per pupil increase permitted school districts under the revenue
caps. Instead, maintain the per pupil increase at $208.88 both years
of the biennium unless a greater amount is approved by voters.
- Declining Enrollments: Continue the current 75% hold harmless
exemption for declining enrollments. This is established as a one-year
nonrecurring increase in the caps equal to the allowable revenues
that 75.0 percent of the decline in their three-year rolling average
membership would have generated. This is estimated to cost $12-15
million in FY00 and $20 million in FY01.
- Chpt. 220: Effective FY01 modify "sender" aid under
the chapter 220 program by requiring resident districts to count students
transferred under the program @ 50% FTE for school aid purposes. Over
a three-year period, phase-in requiring districts to count students
transferred under the program @ 50% FTE for revenue limit purposes.
Receiving school districts are held harmless.
- MPS Voucher/Charter Students: Effective FY00 MPS may no longer
count Milwaukee parental school choice and Milwaukee (non-MPS) charter
students for aid or revenue limit purposes. Aid for these entities
will no longer be deducted from MPS's aid allocation; rather, it will
be taken from the equalization aid appropriation.
NOTE: WEAC remains committed to the eventual full repeal of
revenue caps. While the governor continues a declining enrollment provision,
he has eliminated the inflationary add-on and capped the per-pupil allowable
increase at last year's level.
Select Categorical Aid Funding:
- Freeze fifteen categorical aid programs, including handicapped education
aids and bilingual-bicultural aids. Delete from the statutes a statement
that the state will pay 63% of handicapped education costs and 51%
of school psychologist-social worker costs. NOTE: The failure
of the state to fully fund handicapped education costs is an issue
receiving a great deal of attention in the Legislature. This represents
the first attempt by the governor to repeal the 63% requirement in
law.
- Fully fund the morning milk program,
- Double the appropriation for the state Head Start supplement, increasing
it by nearly $5 million annually.
- Increase American Indian Language and Culture Education aid from
$185 per pupil to $200 per pupil and fund it from Indian gaming revenues.
The appropriations will total $198,000 in FY00 and $203,000 in FY01.
- Increase peer review and mentoring grant funds by $500,000 annually.
This doubles the current appropriation.
- Reduce open enrollment transportation aid from $1,000,000 to $500,000
annually.
Milwaukee Public Schools Intra-district Aid:
- Effective FY00 MPS must pay 10% of its intra-district aid (approximately
$3.0 million) to build or lease neighborhood schools. Milwaukee received
$33M in aid this year for this purpose.
Aid to Milwaukee Public Schools:
- Use $7.5M in federal aids to fund full-day kindergarten at private
day care centers for income-eligible children at MPS. Use the same
funding for alliterative programming for Learnfare students. This
program is attached to an initiative through the Department of Workforce
Development. NOTE: These federal funds will be counted against
the 2/3 funding of local school operational costs.
Other Statutory Language Changes and Educational Programs
- School Start Date: Provide that no school district may begin
its school year until after September 1, effective with the 2001-02
school year.
- Scheduling Referenda: Require school districts to hold referenda
concurrently with either the spring general or November general elections
or, in odd numbered years, the first Tuesday after the first Monday
in November.
- Early Childhood Education: Provide federal TANF funding for
an Early Childhood Excellence Initiative which calls for building
at least five new high-tech, early learning centers for at-risk children
0-4, at least two of which will be located in Milwaukee.
NOTE: Both the school start date and the scheduling of referenda
issues have been introduced as separate bills this session.
Wisconsin Technical College System:
- The Governor did not approve the general state aid increase of $4.9M
FY00 and $10.6M FY01 for the WTCS.
- Provide $3.3M for new WTCS Study Grants -- tuition rebate grants
for high school students with a designated grade point average.
- Require the WTCS System Board to expend $125,000/yr FED on youth
apprenticeship for the new Work-based Learning Board.
NOTE: The governor rejected nearly $6.4M FY00 and nearly $12M
FY01 from the WTCS original budget request.
Education/Prevention of Smoking and Health Initiatives:
- $2M to UW for the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention --
prevention strategies for targeted groups such as teenage girls.
- $1M to Medical College of WI for training and research.
- $1M to create a new DPI grant program for smoking prevention. The
program will be targeted to K-8 pupils and will total $500,000 annually.
The maximum grant will be $10,000 for a school district.
- $1M to DHFS to establish a smoking prevention program for women
and children.
- $200,000 to the Office of Commissioner of Insurance create a small
employer insurance pool.
NOTE: WEAC is a participant in the Tobacco Free Coalition and
the TRUST Campaign for use of the tobacco lawsuit settlement funds.
The TRUST Campaign is made of up over 48 groups seeking nearly $80M/yr
for education, health and prevention funding. Wisconsin will receive
nearly $160M/yr from the tobacco settlement. The governor's initiatives
will be seen as falling dramatically short of what is needed to prevent
children from smoking.
Youth Aids/Corrections:
- Increase Youth Aids to Counties by $6M to cover increased costs
for operating juvenile correctional centers
- Fund a Lincoln Hills - North Central Technical College vocational
program. This program provides certification in welding, business
applications, mechanical drafting and parts inventory control. Thirty
to thirty-five youth will participate in the program.
Campaign Finance Reform:
- Establish an April 1, 1999, deadline for the Department of Administration
secretary to submit to the co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee
a bill on campaign finance reform.
NOTE: The governor made only a brief reference to campaign finance
reform during his speech. This deadline for a package will be added
to several other reform bills currently under construction in the Legislature.
Employment Relations Commission:
- Create a new fee for providing collective bargaining units and Wisconsin
employers with names of registered ad hoc arbitrators. NOTE:
The WERC will set the new fee.
Ethics Board/Lobbying:
- Provide $40,000 to maintain the new Ethics Board Web site. Also
provide a sum sufficient amount for the governor to employ special
counsel for the purpose of assisting the board in investigating or
prosecuting an alleged violation of the lobby laws.
NOTE -- The WEAC Government Relations Division will work with
other WEAC divisions and supporters of public education to continually
update this information as the budget is debated before the Legislature.
If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contact Bob
Burke.
Posted February 17, 1999; Updated February 18.
