Educators Support Governor's Budget

Educators from the state's largest city - Milwaukee - and one of its smaller communities - Lodi - testified in favor of Governor Doyle's education initiatives this week, with some adding that even more needs to be done to guarantee the future of strong public education in Wisconsin.

In testimony before the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, Milwaukee kindergarten teacher Kelly McMahon applauded the governor's budget proposals to increase funding for the SAGE class-size reduction program, 4-year-old kindergarten, school breakfast and driver's education, and to eliminate the Qualified Economic Offer (QEO) law.

"However," she added, "if we truly want to improve the quality of life and economic growth in Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin, the current school funding formula needs to be addressed and fixed."

Dennis Oulahan

Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association President Dennis Oulahan echoed that sentiment after expressing strong support for the governor's proposed investments in special education, SAGE, driver's education, and school security.

"We believe these initiatives will help our members do their jobs more effectively and narrow the achievement gaps which currently exist between certain groups within our schools and between MPS students and other students across Wisconsin," Oulahan said. "While we understand that it will take a change in the school funding formula in order to sustain gains we make through the improvements the governor's proposed budget would fund, we do not intend to sit on our hands in the interim. We can do things differently, and achieve different results, while we work for a change in the funding formula."

During the hearing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Monday (March 19, 2007), McMahon especially touted the benefits of the Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) class-size reduction program and 4-year-old kindergarten.

Kelly McMahon

"As a kindergarten teacher, I see the benefits of K4 in my classroom every day," she said. "My students that attended K4 are at a great advantage in comparison to their peers that did not attend K4, on their first day of K5. Our K4 programs are providing our students with early literacy, mathematical, science, and socio-emotional developmental opportunities that will help MPS close the achievement gap.

"Although the current funding formula for K4 isn't ideal, the additional $3 million proposal to help districts establish K4 programs is critical in providing children with similar backgrounds as my students begin their educational careers on the right foot."

In addition, she said, her SAGE students "are soaring academically in the kindergarten classroom. They are becoming successful readers, writers, mathematicians and inquisitive individuals due to the effective one-on-one and small group instruction I am able to provide them because of the SAGE program."

Penny Urben

Milwaukee special education teacher Penny Urben said we have a crisis in special education due to the rising numbers of students with disabilities and a shortage of trained, qualified special education teachers. She said the governor's proposal to increase special education funding by $53.6 million, including $6.5 million for MPS, "is very important" in meeting the needs of children needing special education services and students in regular education.

At a hearing Wednesday (March 21, 2007) in Arlington near Madison, two Lodi educators asked the Joint Finance Committee to support the governor's proposal to repeal the QEO law, saying it is undermining teacher pay and benefits, making it more difficult to retain and attract qualified people to the education profession.

Shirley Mayer

"Four more of my colleagues left teaching, including my son-in-law," said middle school teacher Shirley Mayer. "Currently, 11 out of 33 of my fellow middle school teachers are working other part-time jobs to make ends meet. One teacher’s three girls would qualify for free and reduced lunch if she didn’t work an additional job outside of school. You could meet a Lodi teacher working at the DeForest or Waunakee Piggly Wiggly, on a roof working construction, or working at MATC. This kind of grueling schedule can hinder a person's health and patience, affecting one’s ability to be as effective as possible in the classroom."

This problem is compounded by the fact that student behavior has become more challenging in recent years, she said, and students require more supervision. To make matters worse, she said, many school districts are responding to budget problems by increasing class sizes and reducing the number of teachers and education support professionals, increasing the workload and stress level of people who work in the schools.

Anne Lembcke

Another Lodi teacher, Anne Lembcke, said the repeal of the QEO law "would increase fairness and allow for more creative bargaining so the School District of Lodi can attract and retain quality staff members."

Lembcke said she has had to work part-time jobs since she began teaching. She currently works as an adjunct professor on weekends but she formerly worked as a wait staffer three nights a week. The demands of working at a stressful weekday job and a part-time job drains her energy, she said.

The QEO, she said, has reduced the standard of living for teachers. Increases in health insurance costs are taken out of teachers' salary increases. In fact, she said, Lodi teachers took a salary cut to maintain their health insurance.

DeForest Education Association President Susan Wilson delivers anti-QEO petitions to Sen. Mark Miller.

"An amount of $171 was removed from each cell in the salary schedule," she said. "This created negative morale among the staff this year. The highly superior teacher that I have mentored for the past four years is choosing to leave teaching due to not feeling valued in this profession."

Stoughton Superintendent Mary Gavigan testified with school board member John Pundt and teacher Mike Dreyer. She said Wisconsin's school funding system is broken "and we are on the verge of severely compromising programs and services to Stoughton's children."

"With 85% of the district's budget allocated to salaries and benefits that increase a minimum of 3.8% annually, coupled with yearly increasing energy, transportation and insurance costs, it is impossible to maintain services when revenues to cover these costs increase annually at a lower percent," Gavigan said. "Community discussions around reductions in services occur at the very time we are aggressively working to meet the needs of all of our students and meet the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law."

Gavigan, Pundt and Dreyer testified in favor of the governor's proposals to increase funding for general school aid, special education costs, and 4-year-old kindergarten.

"In closing," Gavigan said, "no relief for Wisconsin public K-12 schools will be truly meaningful until the formula that is used to determine how much money each school district gets and where the money comes from is fundamentally overhauled."

In other Milwaukee testimony:

• Milwaukee art teacher Jeff Johnson said making sure students are receiving health care coverage "will enable them to focus and concentrate to reach their potential." Governor Doyle's budget would provide health coverage to every child in Wisconsin. Low-income families would simply enroll their children into BadgerCare Plus, while families at higher incomes would be able to buy into the program, starting at about $10 a month. Johnson also supported the governor's plan to fully fund, at the state level, the cost of additional students in the Milwaukee private school voucher program. That proposal, he said, would provide Milwaukee families relief from having to shoulder the cost of the voucher program and free up local dollars to support public school programs. Johnson also expressed support for the governor's $15 million in new categorical aids for MPS which will help close the achievement gaps. "Please help empower our students to smooth our state's transition to a knowledge-based powerhouse," he said.
• Milwaukee school nurse Connie Phillips applauded the governor's plan to fund additional nurses in MPS but spoke against the concept of using money to hire Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) nurses. "As employees of Milwaukee Public Schools," Phillips said, "we have a greater understanding of policies and procedures within the educational system. This affords us an advantage in delivery of and accountability for comprehensive school health services."
• West Suburban Council UniServ Director Sandy Nass and Terrilynn Doucette from Wauwatosa asked the committee "to recognize and acknowledge that the current funding system is not working" and to increase school districts' allowable revenue increases. "Implementing the governor’s proposals for school funding maintains the status quo, but does not improve the struggles that school districts will continue to face in their efforts to educate the children of this state," they said in a joint statement. "To suggest that school districts can continue to offer quality services with fewer dollars than the governor is proposing is absurd. To suggest that school districts can continue to offer quality services by maintaining the status quo for the indefinite future, shows a very incomplete understanding of the circumstances."

Governor's budget repeals QEO, maintains two-thirds state funding
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Posted March 21, 2007