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September 12, 2005School-funding updateTwo gubernatorial candidates endorse school-funding reform The Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools (WAES) is a statewide network of educators, school board members, parents, community leaders, and researchers. Its Wisconsin Adequacy Plan -- a proposal for school-finance reform -- is the result of research into the cost of educating children to meet state proficiency standards. Two gubernatorial candidates endorse school-funding reform Speaking at separate events in Florence County, last week, Governor Jim Doyle, a Democrat, and his possible Republican opponent, Congressman Mark Green, both backed comprehensive school-funding reform while talking about the recent decision by the school board to dissolve the district (http://www.florenceminingnews.com). According to Green, "every governor for the last couple of decades has recognized that the school-funding formula isn't working, that it is collapsing on itself." He said reform needs to be pushed by the governor because too many lawmakers represent districts that do well under the formula. You've got to have leadership from the man or woman who represents the entire state." For his part, Doyle said his budget addressed one significant cost to rural schools, transportation. He bemoaned, however, the Legislature's failure to even include in the 2005-07 budget a change in the way enrollment is counted that "would have made several hundred thousand dollars difference in Florence." "Republicans in the Legislature," he said, "many of whom represent small school districts, never even gave it a hearing; just knocked it out." As the school year begins, the pace of WAES school-funding reform presentations picks up throughout the state, with events scheduled in the next two months including Kenosha, Madison, Kelly Lake, Merrill, and Baraboo ... among others. The full schedule is at the end of this e-mail update. If you need more information on any event, give me a call or e-mail. It's also time for you to sign up for a presentation and get involved in the school-funding reform effort. All you have to do to get the ball rolling is go to http://www.excellentschools.org and click on "About WAES" and then on "Sign up for a free presentation." It's as easy as that. The revenue limits put on Wisconsin's public schools back in 1993 have had a devastating affect on many schools and children. Despite that track record, there are a handful of state legislators and others who want to make it worse. This group is trying to amend the state constitution in order to force every unit of state and local government to freeze spending at current levels. Known as TABOR (which stands, facetiously, for Taxpayers Bill of Rights), the amendment, if passed would also allow any local government to ignore any new state law that isn't "paid for." TABOR has been in Colorado’s constitution since 1992, and residents in that state are now facing serious problems because there is not enough money to run state operations effectively. If TABOR should ever go into effect in Wisconsin, hope for needed school-funding reform will be dashed. To learn what you can do to fight for local control, top-notch state and local government services, and adequate school funding, go to http://www.wisconsinsfuture.org, click on "Projects," then on "Taxes," and, finally, on "TABOR." Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas
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