MTEA forum focuses on school funding reform

Whether rural, suburban or urban, Wisconsin public schools are all in the same boat when it comes to our school funding system. Fundamental flaws in that system prevent schools from getting the funding they need, and the problem is compounded every year.

At a forum hosted by the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association (MTEA) Wednesday (October 22, 2008), experts discussed a better way to fund our public schools and continue Wisconsin’s tradition of education excellence.

“It’s time that things are changed,” WEAC President Mary Bell said, in discussing the School Finance Network plan. The plan addresses funding problems and offers sensible solutions. It was crafted in partnership with WEAC and nine other groups, including the School Administrators Alliance and Wisconsin Association of School Boards.

“These solutions represent significant changes to the school funding system,” said Jeff Leverich, senior researcher for WEAC, noting that the proposal does not call immediately for elimination of revenue controls. “We strongly oppose revenue controls as a philosophy and as a law,” he stressed, but said the network wanted to put together a plan with a viable chance for passage in the Legislature.

“Wisconsin public schools are moving in the wrong direction,” Leverich said. “We are working to find the best set of proposals to turn this ship around and start moving in the right direction.”

Jack Norman of the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future / Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools stressed that it will take cooperation across the state – and action in the state Legislature – to bring about change. “All of the state districts have the same problems,” he said. “We cannot solve the problems in Milwaukee alone. Our problems are common. Our solution is common.”

Teresa Thomas-Boyd, whose children all attended Milwaukee Public Schools, spoke on behalf of Milwaukee parents as director of Parent and Citizen Action of Milwaukee. “We need a simple message to take to every community throughout the state,” Thomas-Boyd said, stressing the urgency of the situation. “We need to be organizing and go to Madison to make this happen.”

Bell agreed, noting that opponents of public education are quick to spread a message of fear. “But the education voices in the state are coming together,” she said. “We’re saying, ‘Let’s talk about this in terms of investing in education.’ We have to look at a message of hope, not fear.”

Bell noted that changing the way schools are funded in Wisconsin's is one of WEAC's top five priorities.

Kelly McMahon, a K5 teacher at Lancaster Elementary School and chair of the MTEA Legislative Committee, which planned the event, said school funding reform is also one of MTEA's top legislative priorities."We think it’s important for educators, parents, students, and concerned members of the community to learn more about the current system and talk about potential solutions together," McMahon said.

Posted October 24, 2008