Budget Committee Votes are Major Step Forward for SAGE, Special Education
The Legislature's Joint Finance Committee voted Thursday (May 20, 1999)
to increase funding for special education and the SAGE class size reduction
program -- two of the top legislative priorities of WEAC and education
coalitions.
The key votes came two days after about 200 educators, parents and citizens
came to the Capitol to lobby
for special education funding and two weeks after a similar lobby
day focused on the SAGE (Student Achievement
Guarantee in Education) program. Both lobby days were organized by coalitions
that include WEAC.
The Joint Finance Committee voted, 14-2, to increase categorical aids
for special education by $35 million over the next two years. While that
amount is less than what was sought by educators and parents, it was a
significant improvement over the governor's budget proposal, which froze
special education categorical aids at $275.5 million.
State statutes require that the state fund 63% of special education costs,
but the state contribution has fallen over the last few years and is now
at about 31%. Educators who came to the Capitol earlier in the week lobbied
for at least 50% state funding. They said school districts are increasingly
being forced to take money from regular education programs to fund special
education services, which are required by law. While the Joint Finance
action is a step in the right direction, it is not likely to raise the
state's percentage above the current 31% but will prevent it from falling
much further.
"At least the committee recognizes there is a problem here that
must be addressed," said WEAC President Terry Craney. "They
haven't by any means solved it, but they are moving in the right direction."
The Joint Finance Committee is the Legislature's key budget panel. It
takes the governor's two-year budget proposal, rewrites it and submits
it to the full Legislature for floor action.
In another key vote, the committee voted, 14-2, to spend a total of $53
million to increase the number of schools participating in the SAGE program
from 80 to 146. Fifty-three of the additional 66 participating schools
will be in Milwaukee.
SAGE provides state funding to help reduce class sizes in kindergarten
through 3rd grade in schools with significant concentrations of children
from low-income families. The goal is to keep those classes to a maximum
of 15 students. Follow-up studies have shown it to be extremely successful
in raising achievement levels of students.
The governor's budget proposal had set different eligibility criteria
for Milwaukee schools. For a Milwaukee school to be eligible for SAGE
funding, at least 80% of its students had to be from low-income families.
Outside Milwaukee, the threshold was 62%. The Joint Finance action changed
the requirement to 65% for all schools, including those in Milwaukee.
In other votes, the Joint Finance Committee took three actions that affect
school district revenue controls. It:
- Provided $6.5 million for an inflationary adjustment to the revenue
caps. This will allow school districts to increase revenue to $212.43
per pupil in 1999-2001 and $216.68 in 2000-'01. The governor recommended
freezing the per pupil cap at $208.88 indefinitely.
- Provided $1.5 million to decrease the disparity between low-revenue
and high-revenue school districts. This will provide additional flexibility
under the caps for the poorest districts in the state.
- Approved the governor's plan to relieve the impact of revenue controls
on districts with declining enrollments. This provision allows school
districts to calculate decreasing pupil counts as 75% of what they otherwise
would be for the purposes of calculating allowable revenue increases
under the caps. However, the committee modified this plan to apply the
same 75% calculation to increasing enrollments.
In other action, the committee:
- BadgerLink: Approved $2.5 million to continue BadgerLink, an
Internet-based research service that is popular in school libraries.
Federal funding for BadgerLink ends in December, and the service would
be discontinued without state funding. The governor had initially included
no BadgerLink funding in his budget proposal but has since agreed to
a
funding plan that uses money from the TEACH (Technology for Educational
Achievement) Wisconsin initiative.
- Preschool to Grade 5 Grants: Provided $350,200 annually for
P-5 categorical aids. The P-5 program operates in 39 elementary schools
in four school districts with high concentrations of economically disadvantaged
low-achieving pupils. It promotes 4-year-old-kindergarten, remedial
assistance for low-performing pupils, parent involvement and staff development.
P-5 schools are excluded from the SAGE program.
Posted May 21, 1999