For more information, contact:

Dustin Beilke
WEAC media relations officer
608-298-2445

State-imposed education caps are devastating the curriculum in our state's great schools and worsening over time, according to a survey released today by the Wisconsin Education Association Council and the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators.

The survey of the state's school superintendents has been conducted every year since 1994, the year after the Wisconsin Legislature imposed the revenue caps law on local school districts. Sixty-five percent of Wisconsin's school district superintendents responded to the survey this year.

Cuts have worsened across the board since the 1998-99 school year in each of the 27 program and service areas included in the survey. For example, the survey found that 48% of the school districts increased class sizes in 1998-99 because of the caps while 70% did in the 2004-05 school year. Thirty-six percent of districts laid off teachers in 1998-99 while 70% did in 2004-05.

"Supporters of the latest TABOR proposal, the so-called Taxpayer Protection Amendment, have said that TABOR will be 'revenue controls on everything'," WEAC President Stan Johnson said. "This survey shows that revenue controls are not working for Wisconsin's schools and are not something we should inflict on the rest of our state."

For the first time, this survey asked superintendents to predict cuts they would be forced to make in the next three years and asked if they represented districts where student enrollment is declining or stable.

The impact is about twice as severe in districts with declining enrollment because the education caps are tied so strictly to enrollment numbers. Subjects that are tested in compliance with the federal "No Child Left Behind" law such as math, English, science and social science are impacted, but not as profoundly as subjects such as vocational and technical education, art, foreign language and music that are not tested.

"Wisconsin's schools have always been a leader in the nation, but they will not continue to be if we do not change this law," said WASDA Executive Director Miles Turner. "The failure to invest in our infrastructure poses a real and permanent threat to the basic quality of our schools."

Sixty percent of the districts with declining enrollment predicted they would have to cut vocational and technical education programs and art programs in the next three years if the education caps law is not changed, and more than 50% said they would cut programs in foreign language and music. Even among districts with increasing or stable enrollment, approximately half as many superintendents predicted making cuts in those areas.

Wisconsin Association For Language Teachers past-president Jim Oakley cited recent news that the Monroe School District has decided to eliminate its French and Japanese programs because of the education caps law. This is especially distressing, he said, as schools try to prepare students to compete in the global economy.

"It is a sad day when school districts can no longer ask themselves the question, 'How can we better serve the children in our care?'" Oakley said. "Now they have to ask, 'What programs can we eliminate, what services can we deny our children, in order to maintain fiscal viability?'"

Other findings in the 2004-05 study include:

• 62% of districts offered fewer courses.
• 57% reduced the number of academic courses.
• 61% reduced programs for gifted and talented students.
• 66% laid off school support staff.
• 65% increased student fees.
• 53% reduced extracurricular programs.
• 53% reduced programs for at-risk students.