Revenue controls: A slow strangulation

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School boards have found their ability to operate essential programs and services dramatically curtailed since the state government imposed revenue caps in 1993.

Nearly 90 percent of school superintendents in Wisconsin’s public schools say the long-term effects of the caps are increasingly negative, harming their schools and staff. The Wisconsin Education Association Council and the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators survey school superintendents annually on the effects of revenue caps.

According to the survey:

52 percent of districts reduced the number of academic courses offered.
60 percent reduced programs for gifted and talented students.
51 percent reduced at-risk programs.
68 percent increased class sizes.

Superintendents also reported they have been forced to make cuts that harm working conditions in their schools, making it more difficult to recruit and retain teachers and education support professionals.

71 percent laid off aides or other support staff.
79 percent did not replace departing staff.
70 percent increased teacher workload.
78 percent increased administrative workload.

In communities throughout Wisconsin, revenue controls trigger painful cuts year after year. Class sizes grow. Money for new textbooks evaporates. Aging computers are not upgraded. Dollars previously earmarked for classroom instruction go to repair roofs and fix antiquated heating systems – or buildings deteriorate without needed maintenance.

In districts large and small, rich and poor, in every region of the state, schools suffer from a slow starvation caused by revenue controls and funding shortages.

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Posted July 9, 2004