We Are Capping the Education of Wisconsin's Youth'

By Joanne M. Haas

Revenue controls are causing a gradual deterioration of quality throughout Wisconsin's public schools, students, educators and citizens said Thursday (October 5, 2000) at a public hearing on the impact of the seven-year-old law that limits school district spending.

"By forcing increased class sizes, programming cuts and delayed maintenance projects, Wisconsin is failing in its responsibility to educate its young people," said Jennifer Dye, a 1999 Janesville Parker High School graduate now attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "We are not only capping the revenue that schools can spend. But more importantly, we are capping the education of Wisconsin's youth."

Dye testified the law has simply transferred the burden from the property taxpayer to the future leaders of the state at the expense of the state's future.

Dye was among about 75 people who attended the public forum on revenue caps at the Holiday Inn in Janesville. The Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools, a grassroots network of researchers, parents and educators, has organized five such forums to gather testimony statewide regarding the 1993 law's effects on local public schools

As was the case in Janesville, each forum will feature a panel of alliance commissioners representing local districts plus two traveling commissioners who will attend all forums. Those two traveling panel members are Herbert Grover, who served as the state's public school superintendent from 1981 to 1993, and Winnie Doxsie, the current president of the Wisconsin PTA.

After all the forums are completed, the alliance will compile its findings into a report to be delivered to Gov. Thompson and the Legislature.

The majority of the Janesville forum speakers blasted the law as a threat to quality education. Initially promoted as a way to ease the financial burden on property taxpayers, critics contend the law linking spending limits to enrollment fluctuations has harmed the quality of education for all. The law allows for spending beyond the limit only upon approval of a local referendum.

Cutting opportunities for students

Sandy Sulzer of Madison, a 16-year-old junior who did her Spanish class homework while waiting for her turn at the microphone, detailed how the law has cut opportunities for students to learn beyond reading, writing and arithmetic.

Some have lost art classes. And while everyone used to be able to participate in sports, some students are now being cut from freshman teams.

"You need to give the kids a reason to be motivated," Sulzer said. "Because of revenue controls, students are not getting the best education they could."

'A lot of changes need to be made'

While most called for the repeal of the law, one speaker near the end of the public testimony portion said he spoke for the "silent majority" who supported retention of revenue controls as long as changes are implemented.

"I have great empathy for the taxpayer.I believe in the revenue caps.A lot of changes need to be made to them (caps), but not to eliminate them," John Lader of Janesville testified.

Palmyra-Eagle cuts staff and maintenance

Erin Gauthier, business manager for the Palmyra-Eagle Area School District, painted a dire picture of the financial situation in her district. The district's budget increase under the law for the last two years has been short by $170,000 of the agreed upon salary and benefit increases. The law limits districts to revenue increases of about 2% per year, and overall teacher salary and benefits under the Qualified Economic Offer law increase 3.8%.

To break even in the school years 1999-2001, the district cut three full-time teaching positions and one support staff, and slashed maintenance and preventive maintenance on the district's two major buildings - a 38-year-old high school and a 48-year-old middle and elementary school. Voters have said no to six building referendums in the last several years, she added.

On top of that, 65 students have enrolled in other districts this year under the open enrollment provisions, costing the district $300,000 in lost state aid.

"This situation becomes a downward spiral of losing students - losing state aid with those students - program cuts due to less funding - difficulty in passing referendums in part due to the state aid formula - more students leaving because program/facilities cannot be funded to be competitive," she wrote in a letter to the governor and Legislature and distributed at the forum.

Special education needs force cuts elsewhere

Former Madison school board President Carol Carstensen testified the increasing numbers of students classified as needing special education puts more burdens on the district's budgets. She said special education students increased from 12% to 18% in the 1990s with no increase in government aid to meet federal and state mandates regarding special education. This forces districts to look elsewhere for cuts to meet the unfunded government mandates, thereby reducing educational opportunities for all, she said.

"The revenue caps are in the process of destroying the quality education that the state has worked hard to create," she said.

Janesville committee cites myriad problems

The revenue control law does not allow districts to keep pace with underlying costs, unfunded state and federal mandates, or specific local needs, according to a report by the Joint Legislative Committee of the School District of Janesville, said committee representative Mike Rundle.

Among the committee's recommendations to close the "gap under the cap" include a return of local control to the local school boards and full funding of all government mandates.

The other four October forums are:

• Appleton: October 10, 7 - 9 p.m., Appleton North High School Library Media Center
• Rhinelander: October 11, 6 - 8 p.m., Holiday Inn in Rhinelander
• Superior: October 12, 6 - 8 p.m., Superior High School Performing Arts Center
• West Allis: October 17, 7 - 9 p.m., F. L. Wright Middle School Library.