Protect Wisconsin's Schools

A Milwaukee kindergarten teacher Thursday (July 26, 2007) urged the legislature’s budget conference committee to protect Wisconsin’s great schools from decline by including pro-public education measures in its final proposal to the governor.

Kelly McMahon, a kindergarten teacher in the Milwaukee Public School System, talks on camera as part of a WisconsinEye broadcast following her remarks at a Wisconsin Values event Thursday (July 26, 2007), at the State Capitol.

Kelly McMahon, who teaches five-year-olds in the Milwaukee Public School system, made her comments at the State Capitol as part of the Wisconsin Values initiative. Wisconsin Values is a diverse coalition of 29 organizations advocating for a state budget that reflects the priorities that are important to the state – including education, health care and social services.

McMahon was one of several people who gave personal accounts of the importance of proper funding for areas such as public education, universities and technical colleges, health care, child care and social services.

“Reducing the per-pupil revenue limit adjustment to $200, not even an inflationary increase, would translate into roughly 1,700 teachers losing their jobs in Wisconsin,” McMahon said, referring to the Assembly Republicans’ budget proposal. “Milwaukee Public Schools alone would face the prospect of having to cut an additional 200 teachers.”

The result of that for MPS and other public schools would be crowded classrooms and elimination of educational programs such as art, music, foreign languages, forensics, and physical education, McMahon noted.

The Assembly Republicans in their budget also slash general school aid by $85.4 million over the next two years, compounding the cuts that will be necessary in Wisconsin school districts, McMahon said.

McMahon outlined several parts of the Assembly’s budget that would harm children:

• Four-year-old Kindergarten: The Assembly budget cuts $3 million in start-up grants throughout the state. Four-year-old kindergarten is widely proven to have long-term social and economic benefits, but can be costly for individual districts to implement without start-up grants.
• SAGE Class Size Reduction Program: Assembly Republicans break their promise to fully fund the increase per-pupil reimbursement rate for the SAGE program, which keeps class sizes small in the earliest grades. The SAGE per-pupil amount has not been increased since the program was started in 1996. Last session, the Legislature promised to fund a per-pupil increase in the SAGE program from $2,000 to $2,250.
• Private School Voucher Program: Milwaukee’s private school voucher program is not the answer, McMahon said of the Assembly’s recommendation to expand the program. The schools participating in the program do not have to meet the same rigorous standards as public schools, and are largely unaccountable to taxpayers. It was only in the last budget cycle that teachers in the private school voucher program were actually required to have a high school diploma.
• School Breakfast: The Assembly budget cuts $3.3 million designed to increase the reimbursement rate for school breakfast by a mere 5 cents per meal. The per-meal increase would encourage more districts to provide breakfast to children who come to school hungry -- a barrier to learning. Wisconsin ranks 50th in the nation among those states providing a breakfast option to its children.

“In the weeks and months to come, I hope the conference committee will say ‘Yes’ to public education, say ‘Yes’ to ensuring our children reach their full potential, and say ‘Yes’ to preparing our youth for the jobs of tomorrow that will grow our economy,” McMahon concluded.

Posted July 27, 2007