Committee members include local school district representatives and experts and legislators from both parties. Schultz also brought in two "strong voices for small, rural districts" -- Pecatonica Area Schools Superintendent Nancy Hendrickson and Cuba City School Board President Gary Andrews.
"Hearing a lot about school funding, we've tried to address some things in the budget, and this is just another opportunity to bring up the subject," Schultz said.
Schultz said he's hoping the committee will recommend things like changing the three-year rolling average requirement in the school aid formula to encompass more years -- four or five, maybe.
"In the case of declining (enrollment) districts, they get more flexibility," he said.
Schultz also said he believes districts with higher transportation costs should get "a little more consideration in the formula."
Schultz is hopeful Senate Democrats, who now are the majority, will receive the committee's recommendations warmly.
"Funding of education is not a partisan issue," he said. "Kids don't walk around with R's or D's on their lapels.
"It benefits kids all over Wisconsin. I hope people will feel good about it."
The committee, he said, is nearly done developing its recommendations, which will be released in time for inclusion in the upcoming biennial budget.
While Schultz is examining the school aid formula, Erpenbach is examining the state sales tax.
His plan would remove exemptions under the state's 5 percent sales tax, and the additional revenue generated could be used to remove the reliance on property taxes to fund schools.
"There are more exemptions out there than we tax," Erpenbach said.
The plan would remove such things as clothes, food, shelter, health care and agriculture, and consumers would pay a sales tax on "everything else," he said, citing advertising or accounting as examples.
"The general idea is if you can afford the item, you can afford the sales tax," Erpenbach said.
Erpenbach said he was prompted to develop his plan by the "tremendous amount of stress on the homeowner."
"If you close the exemptions on the sales tax, it would take schools off the local property tax completely and leave you with $800 million more than we have now (to fund schools)," he said. "At one time, these exemptions were probably worthwhile."
Erpenbach added that, by broadening the sales tax base, "overall people should have more money in their pocket at the end of the day than they do now."
Although his plan is in its infancy, he said it should be solid enough to introduce shortly into the new legislative session.
"This (solving the school funding problem) isn't going to happen today, but we have to start talking," he said.
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