Joint Finance Democrats Fight Anti Education Provisions

Democrats on the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee fought off Republican attempts to insert several anti-education measures into the state budget bill Tuesday (May 15, 2007) and preserved all of the major pro-education provisions in Governor Doyle's 2007-08 state budget plan.

The committee completed most of its action on the education portion of the budget, which is exepcted be sent later to the Democrat-controlled State Senate in early June and later to the Republican-controlled State Assembly. The Joint Finance Committee has eight Democrats and eight Republicans, and it takes nine votes to make changes to education items in the governor's budget at the committee level.

School district revenue: In action on education items, the eight Democrats on the committee were joined by two Republicans - Senator Luther Olsen and Senator Alberta Darling - in defeating a proposal that would dramatically lower the amount of revenue that school districts could raise on a per-pupil basis, in effect cutting school district resources by an estimated $290 million over the biennium. Doyle's budget allows districts to increase revenue by $264 in 2007-08 and an estimated $270 in 2008-09; the Republican plan would have limited the increase to $100 in each year of the biennium.

70% delusion: Olsen also joined Democrats in defeating a proposal that would have required school districts to spend at least 70% of total operating expenditures on instruction and instruction-related activities. This so-called "70% solution" is a plan pushed nationally by anti-public education organizations. Opponents - who refer to it as the "70% delusion" - argue that "instruction-related" costs are narrowly defined and that the plan erodes local control and would ultimately hurt children by forcing arbitrary budget decisions that are disconnected from students’ education needs.

Merit pay: On an 8-8 party-line vote, the committee also turned back an effort by Republicans to create a performance-based merit pay pilot program for teachers.

The Republicans also proposed cutting Doyle’s proposals for class-size reduction, 4-year-old kindergarten and school breakfast programs for low-income children. These proposals all failed to pass the committee.

“This is a time for legislators to bring their best ideas to the table and have a de-politicized discussion about what is best for our state’s future,” WEAC President Stan Johnson said. “But some members of the Joint Finance Committee have shown that they are not here to take part in that kind of discussion. Instead, they are using the time and the spotlight to reach out to narrow special interests to score political points.”

Johnson urged the members of the Joint Finance Committee to work together in good faith and in the best interests of the state’s future.

“I hope the first day is not indicative of how the rest of the negotiations will go,” Johnson said. “Great schools benefit everyone, and all of our legislators need to take this budget seriously.”

Among the governor's major education provisions that survived the Joint Finance review are:

• Provide $235 million in the biennium for general school aids.
• Modify the revenue limit calculation for declining enrollment school districts by increasing the hold-harmless provision from 75% to 100%. In addition, ensure that total district revenues, controlled by the revenue limit, will not decline below the revenue limit allowed in the prior year.
• Increase the low-revenue ceiling by $300 each year of the biennium, from $8,400 to $8,700 in fiscal year 2007-08 and to $9,000 in fiscal year 2008-09.
• Modify school district revenue limits to create a school safety exemption for school safety officers and to purchase school safety equipment.
• Modify school district revenue limits to exempt certain mentoring costs under PI 34 (the teacher licensing law). School districts could exempt up to $2,160 per initial educator less any categorical aid districts receive for mentoring initial educators.
• Provide $53.6 million in the biennium for special education aid to reach a 29% reimbursement rate by fiscal year 2008-09.
• Provide $26 million in the biennium intended to increase the SAGE per-pupil amount from $2,000 to $2,250. However, based on more recent estimates, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau determined an additional $6 million would be required to fully fund this proposal. The Joint Finance Committee locked up 8-8 on providing the additional $6 million, with all of the Republicans voting in opposition.
• Provide $540,000 in fiscal year 2008-09 to open a fourth round of SAGE contracts and fund approximately five new SAGE schools.
• Increase the pupil transportation aid rate for pupils transported 12 or more miles from $180 to $220.
• Provide $3.2 million in the biennium to increase the reimbursement rate for the school breakfast program from 10 cents to 15 cents per meal.
• Provide $3 million in the biennium in bilingual-bicultural aid to maintain the reimbursement rate at 12%.
• Provide $3 million in fiscal year 2008-09 for 4-year-old kindergarten start-up grants.
• Create a new $100 million state property tax credit to pay school property taxes on the first $5,545 of the value of Wisconsin homes, beginning in 2009.
• Provide $15 million for a new categorical aid program to fund grants to Milwaukee Public Schools to improve academic achievement.
• Provide $21 million in the biennium for the state to cover 100% of the costs of additional students beyond 15,000 in the Milwaukee private school voucher program – an investment derived from general purpose revenue, not general school aids.
• Provide $154,000 in the biennium for an auditor for the Milwaukee private school voucher program paid for by schools participating in the program.

The Joint Finance Committee voted to delete the following proposals included in the governor's budget plan:

• Provide $500,000 in fiscal year 2008-09 for grants for world languages instruction.
• Provide $219,000 in the biennium to promote education in science, technology, engineering and math.
• Provide $100,000 in 2008-09 for driver education aid for low-income pupils in Milwaukee Public Schools.

The Joint Finance Committee approved the following free-standing motions:

• Expand the purposes for which school library aid may be used to include the purchase of library-related computers and software, and specifying that at most 25% of a school district’s school library aid could be used for such purposes, and these expenditures would be subject to approval by the school district’s library media coordinator.
• Provide $250,000 General Purpose Revenue in one-time funding in 2008-09 for grants for school district consolidation feasibility studies.
• Allocate $30,000 in 2007-09 within the appropriation for supplemental aid to provide a grant to the Butternut School District to study consolidation with the Glidden and Park Falls school districts.

State budget resource page

Posted May 16, 2007