Primer: Education Issues - Lingering Problems

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There are many problems which continue to plague public education. Five of the most significant ones include the poor condition of many school buildings, the perceived lack of safety and discipline, problems related to adequate and equitable financing, the difficulty of meeting the needs of all students, and access to, and appropriate use of, computer technology. Each of these problems is discussed briefly, with reference to appropriate research.

1. The Condition of Wisconsin's School Buildings

Over the past decade, there have been numerous studies which have concluded that a significant proportion of the nation's school buildings have problems related to inadequate maintenance, obsolescence, environmental hazards, overcrowding, and unsound structures. For example, a national study by the American Association of School Administrators in 1992 concluded that 74% of school facilities should be replaced or repaired immediately. An additional 12% were identified as inadequate places of learning (Hanson, 1992). Buildings with these characteristics are most likely to be found in urban and rural school districts.

Often the justification for maintaining schools in good condition is based on appeals to safety or economics. However, Frazier (1993) reminds us that school conditions can affect student learning.

In 1994, the Association of Wisconsin School Administrators (AWSA) and the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) collaborated to gather information about public school buildings in Wisconsin. Selected findings follow:

Building Conditions

• In general, principals report that most school buildings in Wisconsin are in reasonably good shape. However, slightly more than ten percent of the buildings (10.2%) were identified by the principals as being in poor physical condition. Statewide, this represents about 206 buildings.
• The lowest-rated buildings are somewhat more likely to be found in rural or urban areas, whereas the top-rated buildings are more likely to be a feature of suburban or small city school districts.

Programs and Services

• About one-fourth of all buildings (27.3% or 552 buildings throughout the state) were judged as not meeting student and program needs.
• One-eighth of all school buildings make use of portable classrooms. These buildings average slightly more than two portable classrooms each (2.27). However, there are more extreme cases; twenty buildings use from three to ten portable classrooms.
• Air conditioning is a rarity in the majority of classrooms in Wisconsin; nearly two-thirds of the buildings do not have a single classroom which is air conditioned. At the other extreme, in nearly 15% of buildings all of the classrooms are air conditioned.
• Six percent of Wisconsin's school buildings do not have a separate space for a library/media center. Of these, 75% serve elementary age students.

All public schools in Wisconsin are required to offer courses in the arts and other enrichment areas. However, schools are not required to have a special room for instruction. Nonetheless, most schools have set aside space in which these subjects are taught by certified, licensed teachers. The greatest percent of buildings have set aside rooms for art (87%), followed by a computer lab (79%), and rooms for chorus/choir (67%) and band/orchestra (64%).

· Research shows that parent and community involvement and support are essential for a quality school system. However, only a small percent of school buildings (6%) have added a parent center to encourage parents and community members to visit the schools.

Working Conditions

• At a time when approximately two-thirds of Americans use computers in their work, the majority of teachers do not even have immediate access to a private telephone. In more than one-half of the buildings (58%) there are four or fewer private telephones available. In fact, 36% of principals report that they have only one or two telephones in their building, while 6.5% report that there is not a single private telephone in the building for use by teachers.
• A professional library for teachers and administrators can be found in two-thirds of Wisconsin's public school buildings. As would be expected, these libraries vary considerably in quality.

2. Violence & Discipline

Americans believe that some of the most serious problems facing the public schools relate to issues of safety and discipline. Both in 1994 and 1995, the Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll asked national samples of adults to identify the biggest problems facing the local public schools (Elam, September 1994, and 1995). Of the top ten problems identified by the public, five are directly related to student behaviors.

Americans also are convinced that the level of student violence is increasing in the public schools. In the 1995 Gallup Poll, 37% of the national sample said that in their local public school violence has "increased a great deal," while 30% said it "increased some." Only 6% felt that the level of violence had declined. However, when people are closer to the schools in question, and have more contact with them, they are less likely to believe that violence is a serious problem. For example, only 15% of parents felt that violence has increased a great deal in the school attended by their oldest child.

Americans believe that lack of parental control and the breakdown of family life are the major reasons for increases in school violence and lack of discipline. The 1995 Gallup Poll reported that five reasons were most frequently cited as the causes of school disruption and violence. Those reasons, in order of importance, are shown below.

Finally, when asked about ways to deal with students who are guilty of disruptive behavior or violence, only 20% of the public favors expulsion. The majority (66%) favors transferring disruptive students to separate facilities where they can be given special attention.

Students' Perceptions About Violence, Social Tension, and Equality

A national survey of 2,524 public school students asked their opinions on violence, social tension, and equality among teenagers (Louis Harris and Associates, 1996).

The most significant conclusion of this study is that schools can take steps to have a positive effect on how well students get along with each other. This finding is important because many educators feel they have no control over the social conditions which confront their students and which they feel represent the major source of discipline and behavior problems.

Three factors were identified as being most important in affecting relationships among students: (1) teachers' relationships with students, (2) the quality of education, and (3) the social skills that teachers give to students.

"When teachers support students by treating them with respect and caring about their futures, and encourage students by helping them to succeed, students are more likely to respect and get along with one another; when taught how to be more tolerant of others, students exhibit greater tolerance. One important implication of these findings is that students can and do learn from teachers how to get along better with their fellow students" (Louis Harris and Associates, p. 3).

Safety and Discipline in Wisconsin Public Schools

A 1994 statewide poll in Wisconsin by the Wisconsin Education Association Council shows that residents of Wisconsin are as concerned about school safety as adults throughout the country. Among a random statewide sample of 600 adults, every person indicated that safety was important in determining whether or not a school was a good school (98% said safety was "very important;" 2% said it was "somewhat important").

More recently, it was found that 36% of adults in Wisconsin believe that safety and discipline problems in the public schools are worse than they were five years ago. Seventeen percent feel that conditions have improved, while one-third say they are about the same. The rest (13%) report that they do not know (WEAC Poll, 1996).

Teachers, of course, deal with issues of safety and discipline every hour during the school week. In order to determine their experiences, attitudes, and perceptions, the Wisconsin Education Association Council surveyed 499 teacher members during the period, February 26 - March 6, 1996 (Allen and Leverich, 1996).

Selected findings follow :

• Overall, nearly two-thirds of teachers (63%) say that disruptive behavior on the part of students is a "somewhat" or "very serious" problem.
• Nearly 40% of teachers report that "most" or "almost all" behavior problems are caused by students with special needs. (Statewide, students with special needs represent about 10% of all students).

· Approximately one-fourth of teachers (26%) feel that levels of safety and security are worse than they were five years ago. Nearly one-half of teachers (46%) feel that student disruptions are worse.

· Most teachers feel safe in their schools: 81% of teachers report they feel "very safe" while inside their school building. Likewise, 77% of teachers feel safe in the vicinity of their school.

· From the beginning of the 1994 school year until late February of 1996, between 13% and 16% of teachers report that they either were attacked by a student, received a threatening or obscene telephone call, or had damage to personal property. Of those who report a physical attack, nearly one-third were "attacked" in the process of breaking up a fight between students.

• Over the course of their entire teaching career, 15% of teachers report that they have been injured at least once as a result of breaking up a fight or disciplining students.
• Two-thirds of teachers agree with the statement, "There are some teachers in your school building who need to treat students with more respect. "

· 55% of teachers say they need additional training to deal more effectively with the problems of discipline and safety.

• When asked about strategies to deal with safety and discipline problems, most teachers favored consistent enforcement of rules and regulations and smaller class sizes.
• Three-fourths of teachers report that in recent years their school has established new policies or procedures to address problems of safety and security. The policies or procedures are listed below.

3. Public School Funding

Funding Equity

Per pupil spending varies considerably across Wisconsin's school districts. The average annual per pupil expenditure was $ 6,201 in 1993-94. However, fourteen districts spent less than $5,000 per student, whereas spending in one district was nearly $11,000 per student.

For most districts, local property taxes are the largest source of funding for schools. In a few districts, however, state aids represent the predominant funding source Statewide, property taxes accounted for 53.6% of school revenues in 1993-94.

Under legislation passed in 1995, the state of Wisconsin will spend an estimated additional 1.2 billion dollars in state aid for property tax relief, and will assume approximately two-thirds of the cost of education. However, in October, 1995, approximately 100 school districts filed a lawsuit challenging the new legislation for failing to address the inequities in spending across school districts.

Those who filed the lawsuit argued that under the new legislation the poorest districts (which have the greatest needs) will continue to spend the least on education. These districts would like the state to address the gaps in district spending.

Where the Money Goes

Critics are quick to point out that even though spending on education has increased during the past quarter-century, there has been little or no improvement in quality. They conclude that additional funding is simply wasteful in view of the fact that student test scores have not shown dramatic improvements.

Most of the new money over the past 25 years has gone to programs which are not allocated to regular education. For example, Miles and Rothstein (1995) report that from 1965-1990, additional spending in education has been allocated to the following:

• Special education programs (30%)
• Smaller classes sizes (30%)
• School breakfast and lunch programs (10%)
• Teacher salary increases (8%)
• Transportation (5%)
• Dropout prevention (3%)

Rothstein argues that only 28% of the new dollars spent on education during the past 25 years (about 1% each year) has gone to regular classrooms. About 60% has been gone to special needs students (e.g., disabilities/Limited English proficient). Rothstein also argues that the nation's spending on schools climbed 61% during the past 25 years; it has not doubled, as many have claimed (Lindsay, November 22, 1995).

A 1996 study of spending during the 1993-94 school year by the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau of spending found that approximately one-half (48.8%) of district spending in Wisconsin went for regular instruction. The other costs were as follows: special education (9.8%), administration (8.8%), building operation/ maintenance (9.5%), transportation (4.3%), extracurricular activities (1.6%), teacher training (4.5%), pupil support (guidance counselors, nurses, etc.--4.2%), and debt payment (4.2%).

Increased spending for special education students has strained the budgets of many school districts. In Wisconsin, the number of special education students increased from 99,414 during the 1993-94 school year to 102,268 in 1994-95. Figures for 1995-96 are not yet available. In Milwaukee public schools approximately 13% of all students now are identified as having special needs.

There are several reasons for the rising numbers of special needs children, including increases in the number of children living in poverty, the long-term consequences of poor prenatal care, and better identification of children who have learning disabilities.

Teacher Salaries

Teacher salaries have grown 21%--less than 1% a year--from an average of $27,221 in 1965 (1990 dollars) to $33,977 in 1990. Since 1975, starting teacher pay has not kept up with the starting pay for other professionals with bachelor's degrees. One consequence is that highly qualified students, especially female students, who once had few alternative career choices other than teaching and nursing, are not as likely to go into teaching.

In Wisconsin, public school teachers averaged $9,729 during the 1970-71 school year. By 1993-94 the average salary was slightly less than $36,000. Although the increase appears to be substantial, salaries in 1993-94 were 93% of 1970-71 salaries when inflation is taken into account. (As noted on page 5 of this paper, only 12% of Wisconsin's adults believe that teachers are overpaid).

Since the revenue caps went into place, teacher salaries in Wisconsin can increase by no more than 2.1% annually. This has been less than the increase in the cost of living.

The Revenue Caps

Wisconsin Act 16, passed in 1993, imposed a five year limitation on the total amount of money that public school districts were allowed to raise through a combination of state aids and the local property tax. For a five year period (1993-98) the annual increase in a district's revenue per pupil was limited to a specific dollar amount ($190 in 1993-94) or the rate of inflation times the per pupil cost. Beginning with the 1994-95 school year, the per pupil dollar amount was to be adjusted for inflation.

There were significant changes in this legislation made in the 1995-97 state budget. For example, the revenue controls were made permanent, and the per pupil increases were set at a fixed dollar amount ($200 per pupil in 1995-96 and $206 per pupil in 1996-97). This means that districts can no longer choose between a fixed dollar amount and the Consumer Price Index.

After the first year of implementation, many district officials charged that the revenue controls were beginning to harm existing programs and services because district expenses were increasing at rates in excess of the allowable amounts.

During the summers of 1994, 1995, and 1996 the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators and the Wisconsin Education Association Council surveyed public school superintendents to determine the specific effects of the state revenue caps on district programs and services.

On each of the surveys, superintendents were asked to indicate the effects of the revenue caps on district programs and services. They also were asked to describe any unique budgetary circumstances which exist in their district and to give their own opinions about the revenue caps.

The most frequent responses of districts during the past three years have been to cut back on the maintenance and improvement of buildings and grounds. Significant numbers of districts also are delaying building maintenance or improvement projects. In the short run, such actions may seem to be expedient. However, the long term consequences of delaying or ignoring maintenance or improvement projects are invariably negative.

In addition, approximately one-fourth of the districts are taking the following steps to control spending: delaying/reducing purchase of textbooks and curricular materials; limiting purchase of consumable supplies, such as paper; delaying/ reducing purchase of computers and other technology; offering fewer staff develNpment opportunities for teachers; delaying/reducing hiring of new staff; offering fewer field trips for students; increasing class sizes; increasing teacher workload; increasing administrator workload; increasing student fees; and using the fund balance, if there is any, to support the budget.

The effect of the revenue caps has not been the same for all districts. In general, districts which are experiencing stable or declining enrollments are most negatively impacted. Conversely, districts with increasing enrollments have fared better under the caps.

4. Meeting the Needs of All Students

Everyone knows that some students are more difficult and costly to educate. Research by Parrish, Chambers, and Matsumoto (1994) provides relative cost ratios for three categories of K-12 students: (1) special education, (2) compensatory (at-risk) education, and (3) Limited English proficient.

The costs of educating these students are presented as marginal cost ratios, which show the additional cost of educating students over and above the average per pupil expenditure for regular education students. Based on their analysis, and using the "medium" estimate ratios, they determined that the cost to educate a student with special needs is, on average, 2.3 times the cost for a regular education student. For compensatory education (at-risk) students, the cost ratio is 1.4. Finally, the cost ratio for a student who is Limited English Proficient is 1.35.

5. Access to/Use of Computer Technology

There is the perception that the typical school district in Wisconsin is not meeting the promises of computer technology. Furthermore, Wisconsin's citizens believe that modern computers and technology are so important that 84% say that they would be willing to pay increased taxes to purchase the technology (WEAC Poll, July, 1996).

Although we occasionally may hear about schools in which students routinely use computers and related technology to develop inquiry, problem-solving, and collaborative skills, most of us are convinced that the average school has but a handful of computers, usually placed in a computer lab, which are used by students on an infrequent basis to develop keyboard or word processing skills.

In order to gather some information about the status of computer technology in Wisconsin's public schools, the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators and the Wisconsin Education Association Council surveyed school district superintendents in the early summer of 1996. Surveys were completed and returned by approximately two-thirds of superintendents.

Selected findings follow:

• At the end of the 1995-96 school year, there was approximately one computer for every eight students in Wisconsin's public schools. The highest ratio was one computer for every 67 students, compared with a ratio of two students for each computer in three districts.
• In general, "wealthier" school districts have a lower ratio of students to computers. For example, the districts which participated in this study and which spent less than $7,000 per student during the 1995-96 school year average one computer for every nine students. In contrast, districts which spent $7,000 or more have one computer for every seven students.
• Of the computers which are used by students, approximately one-fourth are multi-media equipped, meaning they have a sound board, speakers, and have a CD Rom drive.
• Superintendents report that approximately 60 percent of elementary, middle/ junior high, and secondary level teachers "use computers as part of their classroom instruction." This is a difficult statistic to interpret, for it does not allow us to differentiate between teachers whose students use computers occasionally as word processors, versus teachers whose students use computers in sophisticated ways across all subject areas.
• 81 percent of superintendents who completed a survey report that there is at least one computer in their district which is connected to the Internet. However, statewide only four to five percent of student computers connect with the Internet.
• Although eight in ten districts have "access" to the Internet, in about one-third of the districts access requires payment of a long distance charge.

Although this study provides us with some rough estimates regarding the number, ages, and uses of computers, it does not address other important issues related to computers and computer technology. These include issues of staff development for teachers and on-going district support for computers and related technology.

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