Will Wisconsin Republicans Increase Education Funding?

By JACK CRAVER
The Capital Times January 3, 2013

The same discord over taxes that we see among Republicans in Congress is
taking place in the Wisconsin Legislature.
On Wednesday morning I wrote that some moderates in the state Senate,
such as Sen. Luther Olsen, R-Ripon, are suggesting the Legislature
authorize increased spending on K-12 education at the local level by
allowing school districts to increase property taxes.

Olsen’s idea is to restore some of the cuts made in the last legislative
session, when Republicans imposed a 5.5 percent decrease (or roughly
$250 per student) in the revenue limits for school districts. Olsen
would like to raise the limits by roughly $200 – nearly restoring the
pre-Walker levels.

That was apparently news to Rep. Steve Nass, R-Town of La Grange, who
lashed out later Wednesday in a press release to Assembly Republican
leadership after reading the article.

“The last time the Assembly Republican majority failed to stop tax
increases was 2007,” he warns. “The voters punished that failure on
taxes by giving us the minority status after the 2008 election.”

Nass spokesman Mike Mikalsen says any suggestion that property taxes
could go up sends the wrong message to taxpayers, as well as to school
districts.

“Statements like Luther’s are taken very seriously by school district
administrators,” he says. “That $200 figure is now a target that every
school administrator is going to be shooting for. That’s the problem, it
builds up hope.”

A spokesperson for Olsen said the senator had no comment in response.

Although some insiders shrugged off Nass’ outburst (he’s gained a
reputation for inflammatory statements), they acknowledge it represents
a contentious debate that will likely take place within the GOP caucus
over spending in the coming months. While many Republicans say they will
support increased state spending on education, many of the most fiscally
conservative members bristle at suggestions that school districts need
the ability to raise more money.

“The (revenue limits) were put in pretty tight but we gave them other
tools to use,” says Rep. Pat Strachota, R-West Bend, referring to the
near-elimination of collective bargaining for school district employees,
as well as mandates that employees pick up a larger share of their
health insurance and pension.

Rep. Dean Knudson, R-Hudson, who sits on the Joint Finance Committee
with Strachota, echoed that logic.

“Districts are creatively implementing changes that will help them keep
costs under control,” he wrote in an email. “I would be surprised to see
a return to large annual increases in the revenue limit for all
schools.”

Incoming state Rep. Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, says she hopes both
parties can get behind increased funding for schools. She is
nevertheless skeptical.

“It’s hard to move forward on addressing it when so many Republicans
have taken pledges not to raise taxes,” she says.

It does not appear leadership has taken a position on revenue limits.

“At this juncture, it isn’t beneficial to the process to get into
hypotheticals,” says Tom Evenson, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader
Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau. “We’ll get a better view of the landscape
when Governor Walker presents his budget proposal in February.”

Wisconsin residents: 2-to-1 margin favor education funding over tax cuts

 

http://www4.uwm.edu/cuir/research/upload/Wisconsin-Economic-Scorecard-Brief-10-29-2012.pdf

 

Wisconsin Economic Scorecard

The Wisconsin Economic Scorecard is a quarterly poll of Wisconsin residents conducted by the UWM Center for Urban Initiatives and Research (CUIR), in cooperation with Milwaukee public radio station WUWM and WisBusiness.com. This tracking poll measures perceptions of the health of Wisconsin’s economy as well as personal economic circumstances of Wisconsin residents. The October 2012 Wisconsin Economic Scorecard was a random digit dial (RDD) landline/mobile telephone survey of 472 Wisconsin residents, conducted by the CUIR Survey Center at UWM from October 22‐25. The sampling margin of error is ±4.5% at the 95% confidence level.

 

Major findings:

Wisconsin residents would prefer state revenues to be spent on additional funding for education over receiving tax cuts by a 2-to-1 margin (56.9% to 27.3%).

 

Feature: Opinions on uses for increased state revenues

In light of improved state revenues, state officials are looking at how to allocate those tax dollars in the next state budget. Proposals being considered include income tax cuts and increased funding for education. Respondents were asked about their preferences regarding the ultimate use of this extra flexibility in the upcoming budget. Figure 13 shows that Wisconsin residents prefer increased funding for education over income tax cuts by a 2‐to‐1 margin (56.9% to 27.3%). About 16% of respondents indicated that they would prefer those tax dollars be allocated in some other way.

 

A number of variables are related to how respondents say they would prefer these tax revenues to be allocated. While every age group preferred increased funding for education over tax cuts or other programs, that preference weakened as age increased; 73.1% of respondents aged 18‐29 preferred increased revenues be spent on education, but just 47.9% of those aged 60 and up agreed. Women preferred education funding over tax cuts 64%/23%, while men were split 50%/31%. Those with children under 18 living in the household preferred education funding over tax cuts 63%/23%, while those in households without children were split 54%/29%. However, the most influential variable when it came to shaping opinion on how tax revenues should be allocated was party identification. Figure 14 shows that Democrats preferred education spending to tax cuts by 89%/6%, while just 30% of Republicans supported education spending and 51% preferred tax cuts. Political independents favored education spending over tax cuts 50%/28%.

August 14 Election: Crucial to Milwaukee’s Future

By Larry Miller

There are crucial elections occurring on August 14. Private school vouchers are a central issue facing the candidates. While the Republican Party stands firmly behind voucher privatization, too many Democrats stand with them.

I hear Democrats say this or that person is good on most issues, just not vouchers. We can no longer say that vouchers and privatization of public education is a secondary or side issue. Just as Republicans have abandoned any real demand for jobs in Milwaukee’s communities of color, so have too many Democrats. We have also seen both sides of the aisle silent on the discriminatory criminal justice and incarceration policies that mainly affect African-American men.

I determined my support on these issues; voucher school privatization, jobs for poor communities in Milwaukee and the fight to end the new Jim Crow policies of incarceration of black men under the guise of the “war on drugs.”

I give my support to Mandela Barnes and Nikiya Harris. They will be new voices in the state legislature not afraid to address these life-and-death issues.

An important determinant for me in these crucial elections has been the involvement of the American Federation for Children (AFC). This Michigan-based right-wing organization is pro-voucher and has the support of the Tea Party and the Koch brothers. The AFC actively opposes the election of Mandela Barnes and the Nikiya Harris, along with Sandy Pasch (another candidate I support.)

Opposition by the AFC is a clear indication of who to vote for on issues of school privatization, jobs for the black community, discriminatory criminal justice issues, healthcare and much more. There has been silence by some Democrats in response to the AFC’s opportunist falsehoods and fabrications.

Please vote August 14. Your vote matters.

In putting forward these endorsements, I in no way represent the MPS board of directors or any of its members, including MPS school Board President Michael Bonds who has maintained neutrality in these Senate and Assembly races.

Democrats Running for Governor Need to Fully Support Public Education

Removing the Walker regime is within the grasp of Wisconsin voters. Walker’s policies, if allowed to continue, will make pain and suffering the order of the day for many people, while corporations and the wealthy will flourish.

As an advocate of public education, working for over 80,000 Milwaukee students, my goal is to steer education policy and funding away from privatization, and toward teaching all students with equity in funding and resources.

The past two years have seen education used as a political football to advance schemes that have nothing to do with improving the lives of all Wisconsin’s children. There was an attempt to take over Milwaukee Public Schools. With the new legislature coming to office in 2011, private school vouchers have been expanded, along with a move toward universal vouchers. The charter movement is working to flood the Milwaukee education market with so-called “miracle” schools.

Democrats should support public education at all levels because –

1. An educated population is the cornerstone of democracy. This nation’s well-being depends on the decisions of its educated, informed citizens.
2. Education reduces costs to taxpayers. For every dollar spent to keep a child in school, the future costs of welfare, prison, and intervention services are reduced. It can cost less to educate a child now than to support a teenage parent or a repeat offender in the future. Education monies help to secure the future of all citizens.
3. Public schools are the only schools that must meet the needs of all students. They do not turn children or families away. Public schools serve children with physical, emotional, and mental disabilities, those who are extremely gifted and those who are learning challenged, right along with children without special needs.
4.  Public schools foster interactions and understanding among people of different ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
5. “Education is the best provision for old age”– Aristotle. The future support of our aging population depends on strong public schools.
6. More than 95 percent of our future jobs will require at least a high school education. There is no question about the need for an educated work force.
7. The nation pays a high price for poorly educated workers. When retraining and remediation are needed to prepare a worker to do even simple tasks, the cost is paid by both employers and consumers.
8. The cost of dropouts affects us all. This nation loses more than $240 billion per year in earnings and taxes that dropouts would have generated over their lifetimes. Well-supported public schools can engage all students in learning and graduate productive and competent citizens.
9. Children are our nation’s future. Their development affects all of us. Good education is not cheap, but ignorance costs far more.
10. Public education is a worthy investment for public funds. We can invest now, or we can pay later.