As many readers of The Monroe Times learned recently, Rep. Brett Davis has proposed an educational improvement plan that aims to align revenue limits and the Qualified Economic Offer (QEO) provisions contained in our current school funding formula, along with directing more resources into classroom instruction and student achievement testing.
As a taxpayer, parent of school-aged children, and member of the Monroe school board, I have had the unique opportunity to see this issue from many sides, and I support the efforts of Rep. Davis to push for reforms that seek to maintain the vitality of Wisconsin's schools in an environment of low growth rates in student populations.
Wisconsin's school funding formula, while difficult to understand, is even harder to manage from a practical standpoint in school districts with flat enrollment. A fundamental disconnect between the growth rate in revenue authority, based on changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and the QEO law results in an annual structural budget deficit of 1 percent to 2 percent in districts with flat enrollment. In school districts, this has meant the continued loss of programs and staff, or ongoing referendum requests that are a difficult sell in today's economy. Area districts have fared well due to strong support from local communities, but there are no permanent solutions in sight to this recurring problem.
Davis' plan has been criticized for not involving enough major stakeholders or groups in the process of developing his current proposal. However, since 1984, 13 statewide initiatives on school funding have yielded no results. Impressive-sounding groups like the Governor's Task Force on School Finance, or the Wisconsin School Finance Adequacy Project, or even the Commission on Schools for the 21st Century, have floundered and failed at real reform on these issues.
Stakeholders, special interests and bureaucrats alike have all let us and the children of the next generation down by failing to come together and solving these issues for the sake of the one group who's voice is rarely heard - the children of our state. Their hopes and dreams, their opportunities and obstacles, their futures - all rise and fall with the successes and failures of these initiatives. This problem must be solved, and solved now.
I applaud Davis, or any legislator for that matter, for taking a new approach to solving a difficult problem. Learning from the mistakes of these past policy initiatives might not be such a bad idea. Critics of Davis' plan offer no alternative approaches beyond those that have failed so many times before. I hope that the many groups that have so much at stake in this process will come together and support true reform of our school funding system, and ensure the viability of our local school districts for many years to come.
As a taxpayer, parent of school-aged children, and member of the Monroe school board, I have had the unique opportunity to see this issue from many sides, and I support the efforts of Rep. Davis to push for reforms that seek to maintain the vitality of Wisconsin's schools in an environment of low growth rates in student populations.
Wisconsin's school funding formula, while difficult to understand, is even harder to manage from a practical standpoint in school districts with flat enrollment. A fundamental disconnect between the growth rate in revenue authority, based on changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and the QEO law results in an annual structural budget deficit of 1 percent to 2 percent in districts with flat enrollment. In school districts, this has meant the continued loss of programs and staff, or ongoing referendum requests that are a difficult sell in today's economy. Area districts have fared well due to strong support from local communities, but there are no permanent solutions in sight to this recurring problem.
Davis' plan has been criticized for not involving enough major stakeholders or groups in the process of developing his current proposal. However, since 1984, 13 statewide initiatives on school funding have yielded no results. Impressive-sounding groups like the Governor's Task Force on School Finance, or the Wisconsin School Finance Adequacy Project, or even the Commission on Schools for the 21st Century, have floundered and failed at real reform on these issues.
Stakeholders, special interests and bureaucrats alike have all let us and the children of the next generation down by failing to come together and solving these issues for the sake of the one group who's voice is rarely heard - the children of our state. Their hopes and dreams, their opportunities and obstacles, their futures - all rise and fall with the successes and failures of these initiatives. This problem must be solved, and solved now.
I applaud Davis, or any legislator for that matter, for taking a new approach to solving a difficult problem. Learning from the mistakes of these past policy initiatives might not be such a bad idea. Critics of Davis' plan offer no alternative approaches beyond those that have failed so many times before. I hope that the many groups that have so much at stake in this process will come together and support true reform of our school funding system, and ensure the viability of our local school districts for many years to come.
