They Are Hurting Kids, Speakers Say at Statewide Forums

Kess Keuther, a 5th-grade student at the Milwaukee Elm Creative Arts School, doesn't like being a victim of school district revenue caps.

"Last year our school lost two teaching assistants, a secretary, a full-time librarian, and a half-time reading resource teacher because of budget cuts," she said at an October 17 forum in West Allis. "The teaching assistants we do have tutor students in the hallways and carve out space in alcoves to tutor students because of lack of money to provide rooms for these groups to work."

Tess' comments were among hundreds that were made throughout the state in October during a series of five forums on the impact of school district revenue controls.

From one end of the state to another, educators, administrators students, parents, and citizens gave example after example of how revenue controls are undermining the quality of education in their communities.

Schools in Green Bay are "holding on by the tips of our fingers." Florence schools have eliminated the K-4 art programs. Phelps schools could not replace their 4th grade teacher and had to combine grades 1 and 2. Superior schools cut eight positions last year and 14 this year and face 22 more next year. The stories went on and on.

The forums - in Janesville, Appleton, Rhinelander, Superior, and West Allis - were conducted by the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools, a grassroots network of researchers, parents and educators. WEAC is a member of the alliance. Another forum was scheduled for November 2 in Stevens Point.

Each forum featured a panel of alliance commissioners representing local districts plus two traveling commissioners who attended all forums. Those two traveling panel members were Herbert Grover, who served as the state's public school superintendent from 1981 to 1993, and Winnie Doxsie, Wisconsin PTA president.

The alliance will compile its findings into a report to be delivered to Gov. Thompson and the Legislature.

'Just holding on'

"In Green Bay, we're holding on by the tips of our fingers," Helen Schaal, president of the Green Bay Education Association and a representative for the school district, said at the Appleton forum October 10. "I feel like we're being punished."

Appleton Education Association President Marcia Engen said teachers are spending increasing amounts of their own money to make up for shortfalls caused by revenue caps. Engen said that five years ago, the average Appleton teacher spent $500 a year on classroom materials. This year, she said, at least one teacher spent $1,700.

At the Superior forum October 12, where 600 people turned out, District Administrator Jay Mitchell said staff cuts that may total 44 over three years are taking a toll. Fifth-grade band has been cut at three schools, and 7th-graders no longer have vocational tech or consumer education courses.

Students complained about the limited selection of classes, including art and music; inadequate heat in the schools; and outdated textbooks.

"In my German I textbook, the Berlin wall has not fallen yet, and that's not a good thing," said freshman Crystal Nisle.

June Nyberg, a grandmother, said, "It grieves me to sit here and see our children begging for an education. What's the matter with us? These are our children, our most precious possession."

Failing young people

In the Janesville forum October 5, a former student scolded the state for allowing inadequate school funding to threaten quality.

"By forcing increased class sizes, programming cuts and delayed maintenance projects, Wisconsin is failing in its responsibility to educate its young people," said Jennifer Dye, a 1999 Janesville Parker High School graduate now attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "We are not only capping the revenue that schools can spend. But more importantly, we are capping the education of Wisconsin's youth."

Dye testified the law has simply transferred the burden from the property taxpayer to the future leaders of the state.

The majority of the Janesville forum speakers blasted the law as a threat to quality education.

Sandy Sulzer of Madison, a 16-year-old junior who did her Spanish class homework while waiting for her turn at the microphone, detailed how the law has cut opportunities for students to learn beyond reading, writing and arithmetic.

Some have lost art classes. And while everyone used to be able to participate in sports, some students are now being cut from freshman teams.

"You need to give the kids a reason to be motivated," Sulzer said. "Because of revenue controls, students are not getting the best education they could."

While most called for the repeal of the law, one speaker near the end of the public testimony portion said he spoke for the "silent majority" who supported retention of revenue controls as long as changes are implemented.

"I have great empathy for the taxpayer. . I believe in the revenue caps. . A lot of changes need to be made to them (caps), but not to eliminate them," John Lader of Janesville testified.

Palmyra-Eagle cuts staff

Erin Gauthier, business manager for the Palmyra-Eagle Area School District, painted a dire picture of the financial situation in her district. The district's budget increase under the law for the last two years has been short by $170,000 of the agreed-upon salary and benefit increases. The law limits districts to revenue increases of about 2% per year, and overall teacher salary and benefits under the Qualified Economic Offer law increase 3.8%.

To break even in the school years 1999-2001, the district cut three full-time teaching positions and one support staff, and slashed maintenance and preventive maintenance on the district's two major buildings - a 38-year-old high school and a 48-year-old middle and elementary school. Voters have said no to six building referendums in the last several years, she added.

On top of that, 65 students have enrolled in other districts this year under the open enrollment provisions, costing the district $300,000 in lost state aid.

"This situation becomes a downward spiral of losing students - losing state aid with those students - program cuts due to less funding - difficulty in passing referendums in part due to the state aid formula - more students leaving because program/facilities cannot be funded to be competitive," she wrote in a letter to the governor and Legislature and distributed at the forum.

Special ed forces cuts elsewhere

Former Madison school board President Carol Carstensen testified the increasing numbers of students classified as needing special education puts more burdens on the district's budgets. She said special education students increased from 12% to 18% in the 1990s with no increase in government aid to meet federal and state mandates regarding special education. This forces districts to look elsewhere for cuts to meet the unfunded government mandates, thereby reducing educational opportunities for all, she said.

The revenue control law does not allow districts to keep pace with underlying costs, unfunded state and federal mandates, or specific local needs, according to a report by the Joint Legislative Committee of the School District of Janesville, said committee representative Mike Rundle.

Among the committee's recommendations to close the "gap under the cap" include a return of local control to the local school boards and full funding of all government mandates.

West Allis forum

"Revenue controls are eroding the quality of education in Wisconsin and jeopardizing the future of our children," Jill Anderson of Kenosha County told a West Allis forum October 17. "As revenues decrease, something must go. In this case, it's programs and services."

Anderson, a member of the state PTA Board of Directors, told the forum that state officials need to "put their heads together and find an equitable way" to develop school budgets.

Racine teacher Connie Molbeck voiced concern about the increasing costs of special education.

"At what point do we declare this to be a district that functions only for special education students - and sing a funeral dirge and just shut down?"

A group of students from the Milwaukee Elm Creative Arts School told WAES commissioners that revenue controls are cutting away at the heart of their school.

Student Tess Keuther complained about staff cuts and lack of resources.

"I have great schools with great kids and great teachers. Please don't cut anything from our budget so that changes," she said.

Fourth-grader Michael Guardalebene said his cello lessons have been cut back and the school's laminating machine broke and can't be replaced.

"We believe in sharing," he said, "but it is pretty bad when my class of 28 has to share 10 scissors and six bottles of glue to complete an art project."

Glendale Superintendent Robert Kattman told the forum his district is facing the possibility of bankruptcy.

Glendale has eliminated its recreation department and summer school, reduced maintenance, imposed fees, and cut staff and administrators.

Kattman said the district was forced to close a classroom because of revenue controls.

"We simply gave up," he said. "We couldn't fix the roof or plaster, and just shut the door."

He said Glendale is facing severe budget shortfalls over the next few years and he fears the district is facing bankruptcy.

Dennis Batchelet, a social studies teacher at Brookfield East High School, told the forum students are feeling the effects of revenue caps. His school district does not have the funds to pay for enough textbooks.

Batchelet's social studies department had a meeting the first day of school this year to "decide which teachers weren't getting books. And those teachers were fighting for their kids," he said. "They wanted their kids to have books."

Batchelet warned that revenue controls are causing morale problems and harming the quality of instruction at schools.

"Teachers are being bludgeoned by revenue caps and the QEO," he said. "To me it is unconscionable that teachers should be treated so poorly."

Grafton special education teacher Sue Katrosits told the group her district has made many cuts to comply with revenue caps. She said that special education has been especially affected by revenue controls.

"We have a legal and moral obligation to educate these kids," she said. "When the school district has to pay 70% of these costs, the money comes out of the regular education budget. We are having difficulty putting that money together."

Posted October 23, 2000