Legislature Balancing Tax Cuts, Education Needs

Preview of 1999-2001 session

• WEAC Legislative Priorities

Major education issues have the attention of key legislators in the Capitol, but Republican efforts to enact sweeping income tax cuts could take center stage as the Legislature struggles to pass a state budget by July.

Key Republicans, including Gov. Thompson and Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen have made tax cuts their number one priority. It appears that Jensen in particular will support consideration of other issues only if they don’t jeopardize tax cuts.

Nobody knows for sure what the budget situation is. Revenues present a moving target as projections change weekly.

Republicans have promised to cut the income tax rate 10% across the board over the next five years. Jensen leads a large GOP contingent that insists it will deliver tax cuts, even if it means cutting existing programs.

Grobschmidt

Thompson and Jensen, however, don’t control the Senate where Democrats hold a 17-16 majority. Several key WEAC priorities could start in the upper house where Sen. Richard Grobschmidt (D-South Milwaukee) chairs the Senate Education Committee.

“Certainly the QEO issue will be looked at,” Grobschmidt said. “There needs to be, at the least, more modification, particularly as it relates to veteran teachers.”

Under the Qualified Economic Offer provision of state law, school boards are not obliged to go to arbitration if their offer is equivalent to a 3.8% combined increase in salary and benefits.

WEAC supports a full repeal of the QEO law. That’s not likely to happen, Grobschmidt said, but he’s looking for legislation to ease the pain.

“We need to at least modify the QEO so teachers are not limited to meager salary increases,” Grobschmidt said. “It’s having an effect on recruiting and retaining teachers in Wisconsin.”

As an example of the problem, Grobschmidt cited statistics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

“Within the last year, UW-Milwaukee graduated only 10 teachers certified in science, 10 in math and only one in computer science,” he said. “Young people are going into other fields – fields other than education – because there’s this cap on teacher salaries caused by the QEO.”

Olsen Nass

Grobschmidt’s counterpart in the Assembly, Rep. Luther Olsen, said he doesn’t foresee any action on the QEO in his committee. Olsen (R-Berlin) chairs the Assembly Education Committee.

“We’ve dealt with that issue already,” Olsen said. “Unless there’s a big jump in inflation, I don’t see a need to revisit it.

“The QEO is doing what it was intended to do,” Olsen said, adding he sees no need to modify it.

Rep. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) is another key legislator on education issues. He’s chair of the newly created Assembly Education Reform Committee.

“I don’t see any action on QEO in my committee,” Nass said. “I think it will probably come out of the Senate Education Committee and then be directed to the Joint Committee on Finance.

“QEO is a complex issue involving a lot more than just teacher salaries,” Nass said. “It also affects issues with huge fiscal effects such as cost controls. Therefore, I believe it will probably end up being treated more as a finance issue instead of an education issue.”

Other education issues lend themselves to less partisanship, the committee chairs said.

Social promotion

“One of the first issues we’ll take up in the Assembly is social promotion,” Olsen said. “It’s already received a lot of attention from both sides of the aisle.”

Olsen and Grobschmidt have already discussed the issue – involving the advancement of students from one grade to another despite low achievement – in meetings with State Superintendent John Benson.

“I think there’s a general agreement that we need accountability,” Olsen said. “The question is to what extent do we draw a line.”

The concept of social promotion was addressed last session with passage of a bill requiring advancement tests in 4th, 8th and 12th grades. Students must pass all phases of the tests to move on or graduate, beginning in 2003.

“Our first public hearing (February 10) will deal with assessments,” Grobschmidt said. “That includes the social promotion issue. “We are already starting to hear from parents and school administrators long before this goes into effect in 2002-2003,” Grobschmidt said.

“We are hearing, and I agree, that there’s got to be a better way to do this.

“I believe there should be more local control regarding the advancement requirements,” Grobschmidt said. “I agree tests are one measure to use, but there are other factors and indicators to consider.”

Class size

Grobschmidt said he intends to deal with the issue of class size and how it’s related to revenue caps.

“We are seeing districts react to revenue caps by increasing class sizes,” he said. “There seems to be no disagreement with the fact that kids learn more in smaller classes, so we have to address that issue.”

Early childhood education

Early childhood education is another priority for Grobschmidt.

“Research shows that kids engaged in stimulating activities at an early age do better in school,” he said. “We need to increase funding for Head Start and fully fund K-4 as well as K-5.”

Professional development

In addition to social promotion, Olsen said he expects his committee to deal with the issue of improving teacher performance.

“I’m looking at this from the point of trying to help teachers improve,” Olsen said. “I’m convinced better teachers improve learning more than smaller class sizes.”

Milwaukee Public Schools

Nass said his committee may get some of the more “controversial” issues.

“I think we’ll be dealing first of all with the Milwaukee Public Schools issue in general,” he said. “Some of the specific issues we’ll see are school choice and charter schools.

“I’ve met with former MPS Superintendent Howard Fuller and DPI Secretary John Benson to get ideas on how to proceed,” Nass said. “I plan to talk with Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, as well as parents and teachers in Milwaukee to see where we can go to improve that situation.”

Posted February 9, 1999