Assembly
Republican budget proposal
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Great schools place kids in classrooms that work
The Assembly Republican budget puts great schools at risk by:
- Failing to provide flexibility under revenue caps and only
requesting a study of school finance.
- Retreating from funding 2/3 school operation costs by capping
the amount of aid that the state will provide to districts for
school building projects.
- Failing to provide a fair level of reimbursement to school
districts for special education costs.
- Eliminating state aid for four-year-old kindergarten.
- Expanding the voucher program.
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Revenue
Caps
The state-imposed revenue caps, which limit the amount
of money school districts are entitled to receive in state aids and
property taxes, are keeping many school districts from providing classrooms
that work.
Districts are being forced to delay spending on necessities
such as building maintenance and the purchase of computers and other
technology. They have also cut or eliminated important programs and
services for kids.
Assembly Republican Budget: No Flexibility Under Revenue Caps
- Provide no revenue cap flexibility to school districts other than
a one-time grant for unexpected high increases in fuel costs during
the winter of 2000-2001. The grant was approved for a total of $5
million to be shared among all districts statewide.
- Request the creation of a study committee on school financing and
reverse up to $115 million of school aid payment delays.
- Retreat from the state's commitment to fund 2/3 of school construction
costs by establishing a statewide cap of $460 million on school capital
expenditures aided by the state.
While reversing the delay in aid payments can be considered a wise
fiscal move, they do nothing to provide flexibility from revenue caps.
School districts will continue to be required to go to referendum to
exceed revenue caps, but the state will cap its share of aid for school
construction costs.
If the proposal is passed by the full Legislature, $460 million of
total school capital expenditures - the level reached this year - will
be allowable statewide for shared costs. Previously, there was no limit;
the state paid two-thirds of such costs. The provision on 2/3 will cause
districts to refrain from passing future referenda.
Special Education
The ability of Wisconsin schools to provide classrooms that work for
all kids is being challenged because of the state's failure to keep
its commitment to fund special education. Schools are being forced to
choose between special education and regular education.
Assembly Republican Budget: No Additional Aid for Special Education
- Provide no additional funding to reimburse local schools for the
cost of mandated state and federal special education programs.
- Require the UW-Madison School of Education, in cooperation with
the UW-Madison Medical School Department of Neurology, to study methods
of identifying special education students with dyslexia and irlen
syndrome and methods of remediation. Require DPI to disseminate information
from the study to school districts
- Request a Legislative Council Study on Select Special Education
Issues to review criteria to: 1) determine the need for special education
services; 2) examine the extent of the problem of providing services
to violent special education students and make recommendations on
how to address the problem; 3) review the availability of alternative
regular education programs that might be more appropriate placements
for some students who are currently placed in special education; 4)
examine what impact statewide standardized tests have on referrals
to special education; 5) review current training provided to teachers
in the area of special education; and 6) examine whether opportunities
exist to recover a larger percentage of federal MA funds for special
education services provided.
School districts do not need to study the impact on their communities
of increasing special education costs. They know that the state-imposed
revenue caps are preventing them from providing every kid with a great
school.
The state should be a partner in funding special education costs by
helping to fund "low-incidence/high cost" kids in special
education and increasing categorical aids to schools for mandated special
education programs. The Assembly Republicans did neither of these things
in their budget.
Four-Year-Old Kindergarten
The success of Wisconsin's public school classrooms is linked to the
general readiness of students to learn. That is why appropriate funding
for four-year-old kindergarten is important. We must provide the youngest
learners with every opportunity to reach their full potential so they
remain successful throughout their elementary and secondary years in
school.
Assembly Republican Budget: Cut State Aid for Four-Year-Old Kindergarten
- Eliminate state aid for four-year-old kindergarten in the second
year of the biennium.
More than 240 school districts across the state operate four-year-old
kindergarten programs. The state must encourage districts to offer early
childhood learning opportunities, not strip away funding for such programs.
Vouchers for Private and Religious Schools
Working classrooms can only be created with adequate resources. The
problem with private school voucher programs is that they shift scarce
resources from public schools to private schools. Unlike public schools,
voucher schools have no accountability for student achievement or use
of taxpayer dollars.
Assembly Republican Budget: Expand the Voucher Program
- Authorize all eligible private schools in Milwaukee County to participate
in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP).
- Restore Gov. McCallum's budget language to allow pupils to participate
in the MPCP if their total family income does not exceed 185% of the
federal poverty level. In addition, once a pupil attends a school
through MPCP, he or she can remain in the program even if the family
no longer meets the income criteria.
- Eliminate the cap on the number of MPS students who can participate
in the MPCP.
- Specify that private schools wishing to participate in MPCP must
submit applications to DPI by February 1. DPI is then required to
make a determination and notify choice school applicants by March
1.
- Create a sum sufficient appropriation for a "school choice"
hold harmless payment to districts that loose aid as a result of funding
the voucher program in Milwaukee. Direct the DPI to inform school
districts that are "winners" under the plan.
- Require the Legislative Audit Bureau to administer a longitudinal
study of the voucher program over a 12-year period. Costs for the
study would be privately financed and include the use of state standardized
tests during the study, with results released at regular intervals.
The study would also review graduation rates and other indicators
of academic achievement. The first report under this section shall
be released no later than October 1, 2003. Provide 1.0 PR FTE to fund
the staff to monitor such a contract for the study.
Assembly Republicans withdrew their proposal to expand the voucher
program to Racine, Kenosha, Beloit and Madison. This means it won't
be a subject for negotiation at the budget conference committee.
This result is a credit to the hard work of the WEAC Political, Legislative,
Federal and Agency Relations staff in holding Assembly Republicans accountable
to their statements on this issue during candidate screenings last election
cycle.
The voucher program must be held accountable both academically and
financially to the taxpayers of Wisconsin. It is simply not known how
well children in voucher schools perform academically because they are
not required to take the same tests that public school children take.
In addition, voucher schools are not required to report how taxpayer
dollars are spent. Any expansion of this program should not be allowed
until accountability measures are added to the program. In addition,
any expansion to the voucher program in Milwaukee leads directly to
a property tax increase in many school districts across the state.
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Great schools benefit everyone
The Assembly Republican budget puts great schools at risk by:
- Expanding the charter school law
- Removing the parent opt-out for the High School Graduation
test
- Allowing private schools access to TEACH education technology
funding
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Charter Schools
In order for public schools to benefit everyone, they need to be accountable
to the voters through their elected representatives on school boards.
That is why WEAC feels so strongly that new charter schools must be
instrumentalities of the local school districts and that employees of
charter schools must be employees of the district with full bargaining
rights.
Assembly Republican Budget: Expand Charters Beyond the Scope of
School Boards
- Allow CESAs and UW-Parkside to charter schools. A charter school
created under this provision would not be an instrumentality of any
school district.
- Allow a technical college outside of Milwaukee to create a charter
school if they have an agreement with school districts to participate.
Change statutes to allow students in districts that have a charter
school agreement with the technical college to attend the charter
school even though it may not be located in the school district of
residence.
- Modify statutes that prevent Milwaukee Chapter 220 students and
others from attending charter schools in MPS. Currently students must
attend a school in Milwaukee to attend a MPS charter school, and Chapter
220 students attend schools outside MPS.
- Specify that independent charter schools in Milwaukee would have
the same access to student transportation services that other charter
schools in Milwaukee have.
- Modify charter school statutes to provide uniform timelines for
action on charter school application requirements, so that a school
district must grant or deny a charter school application within 60
days after a hearing on the charter school proposal. Unlike Milwaukee
charter school applications, current law does not require other school
boards to act on a charter school application. In addition, school
boards would be required to provide written reasons for a decision
to grant or deny a charter school application. Finally, if a school
board revokes a charter school, it must provide the reasons for the
revocation in writing. The decision can be appealed to the courts
to test the sufficiency of the reasons for the revocation decision
and the courts may award reasonable attorney fees, damages, and other
costs to a prevailing party.
- Require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to annually provide
a report to the Legislature with information about existing charter
schools, the number of applications for new charter schools, the decisions
taken on charter school applications for each school district, and
actions taken by the department on appeals regarding charter schools.
- Expand charter school authority to counties.
Expanding charter schools to CESAs and the WTCS was included in Gov.
McCallum's original budget request. The Republicans plan adds counties
into the mix. Organizations representing the counties have indicated
that they did not request this authority.
Testing
Both the state and national government have focused debate on increasing
student performance and accountability through increased testing. One
reason expressed for support of testing is so that everyone in the community
becomes aware of how students are progressing in school. Sometimes a
child does not perform well on standardized tests. In such cases, a
parent should be allowed to opt a child out of the standardized test
in favor of another form of academic evaluation.
Assembly Republican Budget: Fund HSGT but Eliminate Parent Opt Out
- Provide $6.272 million in funding for the High School Graduation
Test. Give students three chances, rather than four, to take the HSGT.
Eliminate the 10th grade knowledge and concepts exam (-$460,000 GPR/yr).
Provide $100,000 GPR to DPI to complete an equating study to make
sure the HSGT meets federal requirements as a result of eliminating
the 10th grade test
- Eliminate the HSGT parental opt-out.
- Restore Gov. McCallum's budget language on viewing tests.
Parent organizations across the state have fought to maintain the opt-out
provision of the HSGT in past budgets.
TEACH
The TEACH program was established to provide Wisconsin's public schools
with access to advanced telecommunications and technology. Schools and
libraries have utilized the TEACH program to wire buildings for the
Internet and for other technology improvements. In recent years, groups
have expanded the use of TEACH funds to non-public entities that are
not available to everyone in the community.
Assembly Republican Budget: Expand TEACH to Private Schools
- Allow private schools to access TEACH funding and provide retroactive
payments for those that were denied funding due to a lawsuit that
prevailed.
A court has already ruled that using public funds to provide private
schools access to TEACH is unconstitutional. This Republican budget
item would overturn that court decision.
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Great schools depend on great staff
The Assembly Republican budget puts great schools at risk by:
- Making the choice of health care provider a prohibited subject
of bargaining.
- Changing the definition of a QEO to provide only "substantially
similar" benefits.
- Make establishment of the school calendar a permissive subject
of bargaining and modify the current opt out provisions in law.
- Establish "paycheck protection" restrictions on
unions.
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Bargaining for Health Care Provider and Changes to QEO
The quality of a school staff is enhanced when the staff is part of
decision-making over issues such as health care options. One reason
that Wisconsin has such high-quality school staff is the fact that it
has been involved, through collective bargaining, in decisions over
health care.
Assembly Republican Budget: Assault Bargaining Rights
- Restore Governor McCallum's budget language making the choice of
health care provider a prohibited subject of bargaining. Change the
definition of a QEO regarding provision of health care benefits so
that only "substantially similar" benefits are offered in
order to qualify as a QEO.
- Authorize school districts to consider, in addition to the sealed
bids, health insurance available through the state health insurance
pool so that the school district can consider whether or not to opt
into the state system.
Bargaining the School Calendar
Another example of collective bargaining leading to high-quality staff
is decision-making over establishment of the school calendar. Having
staff involved in discussions relating to the academic calendar has
served our schools well.
Assembly Republican Budget: Assault Bargaining Rights
- Make the establishment of the school calendar a permissive subject
of bargaining, but require that the impact of a calendar decision
on wages, hours and conditions of employment remain a mandatory subject
of bargaining.
- Modify the current school start date opt-out law by allowing a school
district to commence the school term before September 1 if it requests
a DPI waiver.
It is essential that educators remain involved in making decisions
about the school calendar. Recent WERC decisions have interpreted the
QEO law to allow school district employers to evaporate permissive items
in a contract when a QEO is imposed.
If the Republican language passes the full Legislature, educators will
essentially be taken completely out of the calendar decision-making
process if they are in a district where a QEO is imposed at the bargaining
table.
"Paycheck Protection" Law
The union and its members operate in accordance with democratic principles.
So-called paycheck protection laws seek to destroy the right of union
members to participate in the political and legislative decision-making
processes.
Assembly Republican Budget: Establish a Paycheck Protection Law
in Wisconsin
- Prevent any employer or labor organization from increasing the salary
of an officer or employee with the intention that the money received
in the pay increase will be used to make a political contribution.
- Prevent any employer or labor organization from discriminating against
and officer or employee with respect to the condition of their employment
for failure to make a political contribution or failure to support
or oppose a candidate, proposition or political party.
- Prevent any employer or person responsible for disbursement of wages
or salaries from withholding a portion of an employee's wages or salary
for the purpose of making a contribution to a political committee
with out written consent of that employee.
- Prevent any labor organization from using money obtained from non-member
individuals to be used for a political contribution, unless expressly
authorized by the individual.
- In addition, establish a penalty of not more than a $500 fine for
each offence. Intentional violations constitute a misdemeanor and
are punishable by a fine of not more than a $1,000, or imprisonment
of not more than six months, or both.
The paycheck protection law would undermine the First Amendment rights
of teachers and other education employees to form voluntary associations
to advance their interests through the exercise of other First Amendment
rights -- free speech and petitioning the government for redress of
grievances. No other types of voluntary membership associations are
subject to such restrictions on constitutionally protected activities.
Other General Education Provisions in the Assembly Republican Package
- Retain current law on school performance reports. Require school
performance reports to compare districts performance to others in
an athletic conference.
- Require the DOA and the DPI to maximize use of federal dollars and
report to the Joint Finance Committee if increased federal dollars
can be used to offset general or categorical school aids.
- Require that future consultants hired by DPI have "education
related experience" as a condition of employment.
· Include provisions of AB383 to make various revisions to
the School for the Deaf.
- Extend by one month - September to October - when a common or union
high school district may hold an annual meeting.
- Permit an educational agency to refuse to employ or to terminate
from employment an unpardoned felon.
- Provide $50,000 GPR in grant money to the Wisconsin Humanities Council
for the Wisconsin Book Festival which highlights state authors, encourages
young authors, and increases literacy efforts.
- "Great Traditions" initiative to require flags in classrooms
(AB343), allow school uniforms (AB255), marriage instruction in schools
(AB125), prohibit calculator use on 4th grade test (AB293), special
observance day listings and April 19th "Patriot's Day",
and prevent schools from discriminating against Boy Scouts and Girl
Scouts who want access to school facilities.
- Allow private schools to access tax-exempt WHEFA financing.
- Include AB 260 to rename the Morning Milk Program to the Milk Program.
- Establish a toll free gun hotline as per AB341.
- Restore financial education program at DFI.
- Count state funding for the state schools for the deaf and blind
as part of 2/3 funding. Cut $6.6 million GPR.
- Exclude certain debt service costs from the computation of state
school aid if the exclusion results in an increase in state aid to
a school district.
- Establish a "first draw" provision from general school
aids for tuition payments for the cost of educating children who live
in properties for which there is no parental property tax support.
Assembly Republican Budget Provisions Related to the WTCS
- Eliminate TOP program beginning July 1, 2002--$8,300,000 GPR cut.
- Reduce fuel and utilities Re-estimate by 20%--$4.3 million GPR cut.
- Increase out-of-state tuition by $6 million, a 2.5% increase per
year.
- Reallocate $8.75 million of WATF dollars to TEACH, cut $8.75 million
GPR from TEACH.
- From WATF, take UW Learning innovations ($3,250,000), Internet2
and wireless networking ($2,500,000), WI advanced distributed learning
co-laboratory ( $1,000,000) and WTCS Internet Courses ($2,000,000).
Fund only the Digital Mammography Machine ($500,000) within the WATF
dissolution.
- Eliminate the appropriation for driver's education teachers--$123,880
GPR cut.
- $3.1 million- 4% (2% each year) increase in WHEG for UW, Tech schools
and private schools.
- $1 million - for aid to Technical schools that have levied to the
statutory cap.
- $1.5 million - to increase "additional course selections"
at Technical colleges.
- Require all four-year UW campuses to accept general education courses
and courses reached in the Credit Transfer Initiatives between the
UW and WTCS from student at technical colleges.
- Allow Wisconsin Technical College system school boards to schedule
referenda to break the statutory cap. Require all such referenda be
scheduled on regularly scheduled election dates.
- Abolish the Pharmacy Internship Board and create a Grant for Wisconsin
Public Safety Institute.
For More Information: Please contact Bob Burke, WEAC Legislative Program
Coordinator with any questions related to the information contained
in this memorandum. Bob can be reached at burkeb@weac.org
or 800-362-8034 ext. 254.
Posted June 29, 2001; Updated July 9, 2001
