Madison Teachers Ask State Panel to Increase Special Education Funding
Eleven Madison teachers asked the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee
Thursday (April 16, 1999) to increase the state's funding of special
education costs.
In a news release in conjunction with the lobbying effort, Madison
Teachers Inc. Executive Director John Matthews said the state is obligated
by law to reimburse local school districts for 63% of their special
education costs. However, the governor's state budget proposal provides
only 35% reimbursement and proposes to delete the 63% requirement from
the statutes.
"With the governor's revenue controls on local school districts,
there is no other way for the school board to raise the necessary revenue,"
Matthews said.
That has created an $11 million shortfall in the Madison school district's
budget.
"Because the Madison schools, and all districts, are mandated
to perform the necessary services to special education youngsters, the
$11 million has to be carved out of the programs for regular education
children," he said.
Matthews and Madison Superintendent Art Rainwater recently sent a joint
letter to all educational unions and local superintendents asking their
assistance in seeking increased state funding of special education costs.
That effort was an outgrowth of the Joint Committee on the Common Good,
created in the 1997 contract settlement between MTI and the school district.
Thursday's lobbying initiative was a project of the Committee for the
Common Good. Teachers who testified included MTI President Barbara Keresty,
President-Elect Paula Ferrara-Parrish, Bargaining Committee member Barb
DeMarco, Past President Sara Bringman, Past President Bill Keys, Mary
Powell, Linda Crowly, Barb Jung, Yer Yang, Barbara Otis, and Bridget
McGrain.
In her testimony, Keresty emphasized the negative impact of the state
not meeting its 63% obligation on such programs as the Reading Recovery
early intervention program, which has been highly successful in permanently
reversing reading problems of elementary school students and putting
them on track in their education.
In an e-mail to the Joint Finance Committee, MTI Special Education
Committee Chair Lisa Flax, a special education teacher at Schenk Elementary
School, described the deterioration in teachers' ability to meet the
education needs of students and said the governor's effort to eliminate
the state's 63% obligation is "appalling."
Posted April 16, 1999