Budget Brief: Keep the Commitment to Fully Fund Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) Program Contracts
Background
Supporters of public education are opposed to cuts in the highly successful
SAGE class-size reduction program. School administrators, educators,
parents and local school board members have joined to tell stories about
how SAGE benefits everyone in his or her community. Individuals from
various backgrounds appeared as panels at each of the Joint Finance
public hearings on the state budget and are now personally visiting
with legislators to seek full funding of SAGE school contracts.
SAGE is a program committed to putting kids in classrooms
that work, maintaining quality staff and benefiting everyone in the
community. SAGE turns schools into "lighted schoolhouses" open for extended
hours; develops a rigorous, high-expectations curriculum; and gives
attention to professional development and staff evaluation practices.
It also requires parent and family involvement in schools.
The governor's budget, as introduced, cuts SAGE by
about $37 Million and only allows schools with poverty rates above 50%
to expand SAGE to 2nd and 3rd. Aid to 370 schools with poverty rates
below 50% is capped so that SAGE reaches only children in kindergarten
and the 1st grade.
The education community is united in asking that the
SAGE program be made permanent and that all SAGE school contracts be
fully funded through the 3rd grade. The Wisconsin Education Association
Councils is part of an Education Community Coalition composed of groups
supporting SAGE. The coalition includes: the Wisconsin PTA; the School
Administrators Alliance; the Wisconsin Federation of Teachers; the Institute
for Wisconsin's Future; the Wisconsin Coalition for Advocacy; and representatives
from the Janesville, Madison and Milwaukee school districts.
Legislative History
The objective of the SAGE program is to improve academic
achievement, particularly for poor children. Schools sign five-year
contracts with the state, receiving $2,000 per low-income child to reduce
class sizes to 15 in kindergarten through the 3rd grade. In 1996-97
a total of 3,267 children were served in 30 SAGE schools. The program
serves 61,400 children in 566 schools this year (2000-2001). This expansion
was the result of bi-partisan support for the program in the 1999-2001
state budget.
Evaluations in each of the first four years of the
program have shown that students in SAGE schools scored significantly
higher than students in the comparison schools in all subjects tested.
The results have been particularly promising for minority pupils.
WEAC Position on Fully Funding SAGE Contracts
WEAC is asking the Legislature to approve funding
for SAGE as requested by the Department of Public Instruction.
The DPI budget request asked that SAGE be made permanent.
DPI also asked for about $17 million next year and an additional $35
million in 2002-03. This above-base funding will allow the new SAGE
schools to phase the program up to the 2nd and 3rd grades over the next
two years, as required by law.
Finally, WEAC believes that the DPI should retain
responsibility to evaluate SAGE. The governor's budget strips the evaluation
of SAGE away from the DPI and places it in a newly created Board of
Education Evaluation and Accountability. The new board would be attached
to the Department of Administration.
Talking Points
- The Legislature and the governor should keep the commitment to
fully fund the SAGE program. School districts have signed contracts
with the DPI that require the program to expand through the third
grade. Statutory language authorizing the program clearly intends
to fund the expansion of the program.
- SAGE must be made permanent. This is especially important for the
30 original schools that started SAGE during the 1996-97 school year.
The law was originally set up as a pilot program for these schools
and their five-year contracts will expire at the end of this school
year if the law is not changed.
- SAGE puts kids in classrooms that work. SAGE has proven that lower
class sizes increase pupil achievement. Four annual reports by the
UW-Milwaukee School of Education have shown that children in SAGE
schools outscored the comparison group in all subjects tested.
- SAGE is a long-term investment in our children and the future. The
program will improve student achievement now and for the long term.
The number-one priority in government needs to be education. To cut
funding that allows more one-on-one attention to students is ludicrous.
- SAGE benefits everyone. Programs like SAGE save taxpayers money
in the long run by keeping children out of special education and other
programs for at-risk children. SAGE is a preventive program: it starts
kids out on the right road at an early age.
For additional information
Please feel free to contact Bob Burke, WEAC Legislative
Coordinator, at 800-362-8034 ext. 254 or by e-mail at burkeb@weac.org
for additional information about this budget brief.
Posted May 14, 2001