Great Schools are a Great Investment, Johnson Tells Summit

By Dustin Beilke
WEAC Public Relations Specialist

Investments in schools and schoolchildren are investments in Wisconsin’s economic future, WEAC President Stan Johnson reminded business, government and university leaders at the Wisconsin Economic Summit in Milwaukee November 28.

“We have to take a realistic look at what we call ‘funding our education system’,” Johnson said.

The “three-legged stool” of school district revenue caps, the Qualified Economic Offer law and two-thirds state funding of schools is devised to control property taxes, not to fund education or benefit schools, Johnson told the summit.

A better funding system would be one that takes the needs of students and communities into account, and looks at school funding as an investment in the future rather than an expense, Johnson said.

In the current system, leaders control education spending without really caring about schools, classrooms and kids, he said.

“We have a great property tax relief program, but we call it a school funding system,” Johnson said.

The two-day summit attracted about 900 people. Johnson made his remarks during a panel discussion on the role of K-12 education in the state’s economy. State Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster moderated the panel.

This was the second annual summit, organized by the University of Wisconsin System. This year, the event began on the day federal economists declared that the nation has been in a recession since March.

Wisconsin’s 4.5% unemployment rate is at its highest level in seven years, more than a percentage point higher than it was during the first summit a year ago.

One of the recurring themes throughout this year’s meeting was the problem of “brain drain,” the term used when students educated in Wisconsin’s public schools and universities leave the state to work.

Burmaster, in her opening remarks for the panel, said maintaining our educational excellence is the key to Wisconsin’s future economic success: “We all acknowledge that our schools do a great job of preparing our students for today’s work force, but if we do not do the right things now we will not have a brain to drain 20 years from now.”

In keeping with Burmaster’s sentiments, Johnson reminded the audience that Wisconsin’s schoolchildren are tomorrow’s workers, employers, taxpayers and leaders: “Every kid deserves a great school, and every person in this state benefits from great schools.”

The other panelists were Bryan Albrecht of the Department of Public Instruction, Tony Baez of Milwaukee Area Technical College, Nan Brien from the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, Ken Munson, chief executive officer of Milwaukee’s Bradley School of Technology and Trade High School, and Gerard A. Randall Jr., president and chief executive officer of the Private Industry Council of Milwaukee and vice president of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents.

Posted November 29, 2001