Daily Newspapers Support Wisconsin School Finance Reform

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Editorial:

The need for a new state school funding system is starkly illustrated by the fix in which the Waukesha School District finds itself. Caught between rising costs, state mandates and state caps, the district faces a $3.4 million budget shortfall in the next school year. To meet the shortfall, district administrators have suggested cutting the equivalent of about 62 full-time positions in 2007-'08.

The cuts may not prove devastating to the system right now, but they do point to the fact that many school districts have pared the fat from their systems and are now starting to cut into bone. And more cutting will come as expenses, especially health care costs, continue to rise.

What's needed is not mere tinkering, such as the proposal to eliminate the "qualified economic offer," which has helped to suppress teacher pay. What's needed is a new plan that rethinks how schools are financed and is able to put some kind of brake on racing health care costs.

Wisconsin State Journal Editorial:

Aloud school bell has been ringing across Wisconsin for years now, and it's not the end of recess.

It's an alarm bell -- one that state leaders can no longer ignore.

Wisconsin's school financing system is an out-of-date and unfair mess. For many schools, the state essentially forces them to increase spending faster than they are allowed to raise revenue.

About the only way around the rigid formula is to ask voters for more money in referendums, which are difficult to pass, divide communities, hinder efficiencies and create financial instability. Districts also have dramatically different transportation, special education and security needs, which a new funding formula must better account for.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at January 18, 2007 6:00 AM
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