Schools struggling to meet needs, Johnson says

A report this week by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance indicating that statewide school spending rose 4.6% last year is incomplete and misleading, WEAC President Stan Johnson said Wednesday (October 12, 2005).

"This report leaves the impression that school spending is high when nothing could be further from the truth," Johnson said. "Most Wisconsin school districts are struggling to meet the basic educational needs of children, many are cutting programs and staff, and some are on the verge of bankruptcy. The state's school funding system is in such disarray that we even have one district - the Florence County School District - that has voted to dissolve, and others may follow."

The Taxpayers Alliance study only addresses two years worth of data and thus misses larger and more compelling trends that ultimately contradict some of the study’s claims, Johnson said. School property taxes experienced an above-average increase in 2004 because the state reduced levels of aid, the result of fiscal crisis. It was the state's fiscal problems, not teacher pay, that led to the one-year bump in local spending.

Governor Doyle resolved the fiscal crisis and used his veto pen in July to create a state budget that restores the state's promise to fund two-thirds of the cost of education while providing relief to property taxpayers, Johnson said.

Contrary to the impression left by the Taxpayers Alliance, Johnson said, schools actually have declined as a share of property taxes statewide, and teacher salaries are losing ground to inflation and teacher pay nationally.

Johnson offered these statistics:

• Since revenue controls were imposed in 1993, schooling declined from 53% to 43% of all property taxes collected statewide.
• Last decade, due to a combination of increased state aid and revenue controls, the total amount of local tax dollars used to run the schools actually dropped by 3.6%.
• Taxes increased less than the rate of inflation in 83% of school districts statewide.
• Non-school factors, such as county and municipal rates and increasing home valuations, are driving up property taxes more than school costs.
• Not only are schools declining as a share of property taxes, teacher pay is declining too. Pay for Wisconsin’s teachers dropped from 15th to 24th nationally the last 10 years, losing 9% to inflation along the way.
• Per capita income – which measures earnings for all Wisconsin workers – increased 111% since 1987, more than twice the 54% increase in teacher pay.
• Even when the cost of health care is included, total compensation for teachers (salary and benefits combined) fell from 49% to 47% of district expenditures statewide. That’s because the Qualified Economic Offer law caps total compensation, meaning that as health costs went up, salaries went down to stay under the 3.8% increase identified in the law.
• Teacher compensation also declined as a share of district expenditures because non-teaching expenses increased at a faster rate. Utility costs, for example, increased 8.8% last year, more than twice the 3.4% increase in compensation for regular classroom teachers.

"Wisconsin residents have a long history of investing in great schools," Johnson said. "Great schools benefit everyone and play a key role in contributing to our economic strength. At a time when some of our great schools are struggling just to survive, we need to have complete, honest discussions about the needs of children, the benefits of quality education, the level of funding for our schools and the fairness of our tax system."

Posted October 12, 2005