Members Testify For QEO Repeal

WEAC members asked the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee Tuesday (March 27, 2007) in Chippewa Falls to revise and improve school funding in Wisconsin, repeal the Qualified Economic Offer (QEO) law, and increase funding for technical colleges.

Menomonie teacher Jacalyn Broughton (right) and Menomonie School Board President Margaret Breisch speak in favor of improved funding of schools.

At one in a series of hearings on Governor Doyle's proposed state budget, Menomonie teacher Jacalyn Broughton told the committee that school district revenue caps and the QEO law are undermining school districts and harming educators.

"I see school budgets being balanced on the back of staff, as if they were personally responsible for the dilemma," she said.

Broughton said schools are hurting financially in many ways. As a special education teacher she sees a decline in services for special education students and has witnessed a battle developing between special education and regular education over very limited funds.

"I don't think that it is fair to take from regular education funds to pay for special education needs," she said. "The point being that all students have unique learning needs and those needs need to be addressed, but not at the expense of one group over another."

Broughton proposed three solutions:

• Demonstrate a strong commitment to education by continuing to provide two-thirds state funding.
• Eliminate the disparity between regular and special education by increasing categorical aids.
• Seek a funding formula that is equitable to all districts, rather than relying on school district revenue caps.

Prescott teacher Bart Appleton told the committee the time has come to change the way Wisconsin funds its public schools and the process by which teachers bargain for fair compensation.

Prescott teacher Bart Appleton speaks in support of the repeal of the Qualified Economic Offer law.

"The QEO law undermines teacher compensation," he said. "Our state government is sending the message to the citizens of Wisconsin that public education is just not that important."

Appleton said the average teacher salary in Wisconsin has lost 11% to inflation since the QEO law went into effect in 1993. "Repealing the QEO law will begin the process of reversing this negative trend," he said.

The QEO law, he said, "is adversely affecting public education by discouraging superior teachers from staying in the profession."

"Retaining quality teachers needs to be the number one fiscal priority for Wisconsin's public schools," he said.

Cathy Peck, a communications instructor at Chippewa Valley Technical College, asked the committee to support funding of technical colleges, which "serve an important role as the state seeks to meet demand for skilled workers."

"Sixteen of the 25 fastest-growing occupations in Wisconsin require not a bachelor's degree but an associate degree or some other form of short-term technical training."

Peck asked the committee to support four items:

• Support Governor Doyle's proposal to provide an additional $6 million for Workforce Advancement Training Grants, which provide training to incumbent workers at local businesses. "The increase in funding would allow the colleges to serve an additional 250 businesses and 35,000 employees," she said.
• Increase general state aid to technical colleges. "Unfortunately," she said, "state aid has remained stagnant since 2000-01. At the same time, the colleges face enrollment growth, increases in fixed costs, and programming that has grown ever more expensive to provide."
• Fully fund the veterans' tuition remission expansion created in 2005-07. Leaving the remission only partially funded pushes the cost onto the backs of current students, she said.
• Increase funding for the Higher Education Aid Grants.

Posted April 3, 2007