Subcommittee Recommends Repeal of QEO

That is one of dozens of initial recommendations submitted to the Governor's Task Force on Educational Excellence this week (March 30, 2004).

The task force's four subcommittees issued their recommendations to the full group for consideration after several months of research and discussion.

"The subcommittees studied and debated the issues with a great deal of public input," WEAC General Counsel and task force member Bruce Meredith said. "The full task force will now review the ideas and develop a package of recommendations to submit to the governor later this year."

The Teacher Issues Subcommittee report states, "It is clear that the current teacher compensation structure is designed exclusively to hold down costs and provides no incentive for either teachers or school boards to improve instructional quality." The report also said the QEO has caused morale problems for teachers.

The subcommittee did not reach consensus on specific changes to the system, but agreed that the QEO should be eliminated.

"Increasing teachers' knowledge and skills related to their teaching responsibilities will improve pupil learning," according to the report. "Linking teacher salary increases to teachers' acquisition of knowledge and skills better promotes this goal than a system based exclusively on length of service and credits earned."

"WEAC has long advocated for a compensation system that recognizes skills and knowledge, but continues to oppose any system that ties teachers' salaries to student test scores," Meredith said. "Virtually all members of the subcommittee opposed such a system."

The subcommittee report also recommended that the state address increasing school health care costs, "so the growing costs of fringe benefits do not make the needed improvements in teacher salaries impossible, or too burdensome for districts and their taxpayers." The subcommittee recognized that school health care costs were part of a broader Wisconsin problem of high insurance costs

The report said decisions about changes to health care benefits "should respect the fact that health care benefits have been established through the collective bargaining process, often at the expense of higher salaries."

The subcommittee also found that retaining teachers is a bigger concern than recruiting teachers.

Members recommended a variety of proposals to increase recruitment and retention, including $1,500 income tax credits for teachers who work in high-poverty or low-enrollment school districts; funding programs such as mentor programs that assist initial educators; and a grant for master educators in low-income districts to serve as resources for students, staff and the community.

The Academic Achievement Subcommittee focused on barriers to student achievement in and outside of school. According to the report, "student achievement is affected by many factors in a child's life, including what happens in the earliest stages of life before a child enters school, the child's school environment, the child's health, the child's home environment, and the child's community. As a consequence, barriers a child encounters in any of these environments can become an impediment to academic achievement."

The committee identified the most significant barriers to academic achievement as a child's economic situation and limited English language skills.

"The subcommittee also strongly believes that the school climate, as influenced by racial, ethnic, and cultural biases among students and staff within schools can produce serious impediments to student achievement," according to the report. "Steps must be taken to address these barriers in order to ensure that each student in Wisconsin has an equal opportunity to a sound, basic education."

The subcommittee is recommending the state:
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• Encourage all schools to promote strong and vibrant school climates that provide staff development opportunities on tolerance and respect for all children; and implement standards for students that stress the importance of a positive school climate that encourages tolerance and respect.
• Create a pilot program in 10 low-income school districts to develop an extended-year program.
• Increase the revenue cap for summer school enrollment.
• Create a pilot program for homeless students and children living in poverty that provides a residential/academy environment.
• Create a pilot program that provides incentives for high poverty districts and schools to create before- and after-school programs.
• Expand the SAGE class-size reduction program by increasing state per-pupil payments, increase funding to existing SAGE schools that are seeking to expand the program, and permit more schools to participate in the program.
• Increase the state's bilingual-bicultural program funding.

The Special Education Subcommittee looked for ways to adequately fund special education, including ways to share costs more evenly across the state. According to the report, subcommittee members were concerned about the current level of special education funding, but decided against making a specific recommendation on funding at this time. Members agreed that special education funding changes should be made in the context of reforming the entire school funding system.

It is recommending the state:

• Create an alternative funding system for preK-12 education as part of a comprehensive reorganization of public school funding in Wisconsin.
• Create a new categorical aid appropriation to reimburse school districts for costs associated with high-cost special education students.
• Explore the possibility of providing fiscal relief to school districts with large numbers of high-cost special education students.
• Support investments in early childhood programs as a means of reducing the need for other educational programs in later years.

The Early Education Subcommittee recommended the state:

• Create a grant program to help cover the implementation costs of 4-year-old kindergarten.
• Expand the scope of the Community Service Levy to allow for local investments in early care and education.
• Maintain full funding of 4-year-old kindergarten.
• Continue to fully fund the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program.
• Provide additional staff for school districts that adopt "community approaches" to early care and education.

Although not directly discussed in the subcommittees' various reporters, Meredith said numerous members expressed concerns about the potential negative impact on quality instruction of the federally imposed Elementary and Secondary Education Act, called the "No Child Left Behind" act by the Bush Administration.

All four reports are available online at the official Web site of the Governor's Task Force on Educational Excellence.

Resource page on the QEO law

Posted April 1, 2004