Author Archives: Thomas J. Mertz

by | July 20, 2007 · 2:32 pm

Citizen members for Board of Education committees needed

From Beth Moss:

Hello,

I am the new Chair for the Board of Education Communications Committee for 2007-08. Thank you for your support of the MMSD and your interest in advocating for change in the state school funding system.

There are currently 2 vacancies on the Communications Committee for citizen members and 1 on the Community Partnerships Committee. Serving on a committee is an excellent way to become educated on the issues that affect our district, play a role in policy-making, and serve the community and our children.

We are looking for fresh ideas and new perspectives, so please take this opportunity, and send in your name. The directions for applying are attached. Also please forward this message to anyone you think may be interested. If you have any questions about the positions, please email or call me at 833-8717.

Thank you for your support of the MMSD, and I look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,

Beth Moss
Member, Board of Education

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by | July 19, 2007 · 6:13 pm

Key K-12 budget provisions for Madison Schools

A memo delivered to the Governor and our legislative delegation by MMSD. These would serve as good talking points when (not if!) you call or write your Reps, the Conference Committee or the Senate and Assembly leadership.

Thomas J. Mertz

Key K-12 budget provisions for Madison Schools
TO: Members of the 2007-09 Budget Conference Committee

FROM: Joe Quick, MMSD Legislative Liaison/Communication Specialist

DATE: July 18, 2007

RE: Key K-12 budget provisions for Madison Schools

Wisconsin’s school districts face a monumental challenge: continued pursuit of academic improvement by students, under the pressure of annual decreases in resources due to state-imposed revenue limits. While general school aids have increased annually, the resources are not targeted to classrooms.

Since the first year of revenue limits in 1993-94, Madison Schools have pared over $60 million from its annual cost-to-continue budget. This has forced larger class size at all grade levels, curtailed services for children in special education, diminished course offerings and extracurricular opportunities for children, and many other detrimental affects. Empty rhetoric maintaining that school officials need to find more “creative” ways to provide more with less is disingenuous, and harmful to our state’s premier K-12 system.

The following lists critical elements of the K-12 budget important for Madison Schools.

Allowable Revenue Limit Increase — Support the Senate position to provide an inflation-adjusted per pupil increase of $264 in 07-08 and $270 in 08-09. Where is the logic in penalizing a school district with an allowable $200 per student revenue limit increase because a district has already settled 2007-08 and 2008-09 contracts, as is the case with Madison and a few dozen other districts?

SAGE — Support the Senate position, ensuring the $250 per pupil increase for SAGE students — the first increase in the program’s 10-year history. This is in accord with the agreement between the Governor and legislative Republicans in 2006, as part of the Milwaukee voucher program enrollment expansion. Oppose Assembly action to dismantle SAGE by making 2nd and 3rd grade optional.

School Safety — Support the Senate position to provide revenue limit flexibility to help ensure safety for school staff and students, by allowing $100 per pupil to be spent — outside the revenue limits — for the critical needs of school safety equipment/personnel.

Bilingual-Bicultural Aid — Support the Senate position, which provides enough funding to maintain the inadequate resources for this state and federally mandated program. When revenue limits began, school districts were reimbursed by the state for 33% of related program expenses. With the additional funds recommended by the Governor and supported by the Senate, the reimbursement remains at 12%.

Special Education Aid — Support the Senate position to increase special education aid by $53.6 million, nudging the state support for special education to 29% by the end of the biennium. When revenue limits began, districts were reimbursed for almost 45% of costs.

Combined, since the inception of revenue limits, the diminished state reimbursement for SPED and bilingual-bicultural aid to Madison Schools translated to a loss of $11.6 million in resources for 2006-07. The District estimates it will have to cut $5-7 million from its “cost to continue” budget for 2008-09 in order to comply with revenue limits.

School Breakfast reimbursement — Support the Senate position to increase by five cents the reimbursement from $0.10 to $0.15 per meal served.

Chapter 220 — Oppose Assembly provision to eliminate the program, a loss of nearly $500,000 for Madison Schools.

Policy Items — Delete policy items in the K-12 portion of the budget, including, but not limited to: school referenda elections, the “autism scholarship” program, distribution of Common School Fund resources to school districts, elimination of the Qualified Economic Offer, and, the expansion of the Milwaukee voucher program to all of Milwaukee County and Racine County.

If you have questions about these positions, or would like more information, please contact me at 663-1902.

C: Madison Legislative Delegation
Gov. Jim Doyle

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Filed under AMPS, Budget, Local News, School Finance, Take Action

by | July 18, 2007 · 9:40 pm

Knowledge,Research, Education and Reform

I was following the links from the latest Carnival of Education today as well as making the rounds of some of my regular online education stops. The theme that hit me today concerned what we know about how to make schools or education work. Below are links, quotes and comments from the posts that got me thinking.

Tim Fredrick at the The Teacher Research Blog had a post on Scientifically-Based Research & Teacher Research. He writes:

And, when I think about it, nothing about teaching reminds me of “science”. Even my best methods, the ones that always work, I find that they don’t always work with every student. Classroom teachers know that not everything works every time with every student. It just doesn’t. Naming methods as based on “scientific research” intimates that they work in every scenario. Just as I get suspicious that the newest diet method is “easy” and “fast,” I get suspicious when educational products work all the time – even most of the time – for everyone – even most teachers….

When will politicians and policy-makers learn that education is not something else? It is not business. It is not medicine. It is something entirely of its own and the person who is most qualified to decide if a method or educational product works is the classroom teacher. Reading the document from NIL was helpful in understanding what is meant by this oft-used term. But, I couldn’t help but get the feeling that the document intimates that knowledge about good teaching is not created by teachers, but rather by “scientists”. This does not sit well with me and it should not sit well with other teachers, as well.

This is pretty close to my position. I understand the value of research but also think that the limitations of research get lost when it moves from the academic community to policy discussions. Some of this is related to Sherman Dorn’s insights on Folk Positivism.

That brings up the issue of tests and accountability. I really like what Dr. Jan had to say on this topic:

In education, we have a tendency to measure not what we want to (need to) measure but what we can measure… it’s a lot like measuring someone’s height because you can’t measure their weight. If a person’s weight is proportionate to their height then measuring their height might be a prediction of their weight; but if not, then what’s the point of measuring their height?

In other words, why are we measuring the stuff we are measuring with standardized and criterion-referenced tests when what we really want to measure is children’s ability to collaboratively problem solve and effectively communicate?

I especially like the formulation of the ends of education as “children’s ability to collaboratively problem solve and effectively communicate.”

Dr. Jan is responding to a post by Greg Farr. Farr is much more sanguine about the state of knowledge than Tim Frederick (or me). He takes a theme from a paraphrase of Dr. Brian McNulty:

“All the research has basically converged. It is all pretty much saying the same thing. WE KNOW WHAT TO DO. The question is, why aren’t we doing it?”

Farr then explores some of the things we do know and outlines his resolve to put this knowledge into practice. I think Farr will find some success and I applaud his his “time to stop talking and start doing” program.

Yet I continue to have misgivings about the way ideas move from research to policy and practice. I believe that the desire for utility (mostly on the part of researchers) and simple answers (mostly on the part of policy makers) blinds many to the limits and tentative nature of (even scientific) research findings. I am much more comfortable with data guided policy than data driven policy and prefer policy makers and practitioners who are cognizant of what research (scientific based and other) and data can tell us and what it can’t.

Related links:

What Works Clearinghouse
The National Center for Fair & Open Testing
Think Tank Review Project
MMSD Classroom Action Research

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under Accountability, AMPS, Best Practices, No Child Left Behind

by | July 18, 2007 · 2:43 pm

YearlyKos: Education Uprising/ Education for Democracy

As part of the YearlyKos NetRoots Convention (Chicago, August 2-5), TeacherKen has put together a great panel based on the Education Uprising/Education for Democracy ongoing project.

This project has been so rich in ideas and insights that I suggest you read all the material linked to the post on the Education Policy Blog. Here is the basic description:

The design of American education is obsolete, not meeting the needs of our students and our society, and ignores most of what we have learned about education and learning in the past century. This panel will explore a new paradigm, including some specific examples, of how education in America can be reshaped in more productive and democratic fashions.

And a little more in the way of excerpts:

Education Uprising – Education for Democracy

Historically, one of our society’s central problem in improving public schools has been our disagreement over the purposes of public schools. We believe in three central purposes: preparing students to participate in our democratic society, empowering students to learn on their own, and encouraging them to explore their dreams.

A free and adequate public education is a right of every child. Not all children attend public schools, but all Americans must support public education that both fosters democracy and is treated as a right. Public education is a public good. It is a part of the commons for which we are all responsible. We start this brief essay by discussing the nature of education as a public good before we delve into meeting the individual needs of students, the curriculum, instruction, teachers, and accountability.

Education as a Public Good

There are two parts of education as a public good. One is the role of education in developing citizenship—not reflexive obedience but a deliberative and engaged public. If adults need the skills and confidence to debate public policy and act wisely, students need to learn those skills. The other part of public education is the obligation to operate democratically—to provide equal educational opportunities and to operate transparently and accountably.

Subtopics include: Fostering Democracy, Being Treated as a Right, Guaranteeing Equality, Building Relationships, Experimenting with Curricula, Supporting Teachers and Using Assessment.

Sherman Dorn, Mi Corazon and Marion Brady will be joining TeacherKen on the panels.

I doubt I will be able to attend, but I plan to follow along in the cybersphere.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under Accountability, AMPS, Best Practices, National News, No Child Left Behind, Take Action

by | July 17, 2007 · 10:33 pm

School Finance Update from WAES

From the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools:

Hopes for early state budget fade into the distance
School districts lose under Assembly version of the budget
“Extra” Assembly school aid goes to taxpayers, not kids

School-funding reform calendar
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.

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Hopes for early budget fade into the distance

It seems to happen every two years: Wisconsin gets into the budget season, the rhetoric begin to fly, and … before you know it … school-funding reform once again recedes into the background and the crisis continues to grow. This budget cycle is no exception, and it could go on for quite a while.

The Senate and the Assembly passed vastly different versions of the budget — by some reports up to $10 billion apart — along party lines. Additionally, the policy focus of the budgets is quite different, leading many to believe it could be well into the fall before a conference committee agrees on a compromise budget and sends it to both houses and eventually the Governor for approval.

Your best bet to follow news coverage of the budget process is to log into your hometown newspaper or go to one of two excellent statewide sites and follow the links. Your choices are The Wheeler Report or wispolitics.com.

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School districts lose under Assembly version of the budget

Depending upon your party affiliation, political or social point-of-view, or how much stake you put in the need for adequate school funding, the differing versions of the 2007-09 budget are the best and worst of all possible worlds.

If you want to wade through the hundreds of pages in both the Senate and Assembly versions, go here. The sad fact is that once the numbers are run through the filter of the Assembly budget, every district in the state loses or stands pat in the revenue limit formula.

Also analyzing the Assembly version of the budget are: WEAC; the Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance; and the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families You can also find analysis on the websites of The Wheeler Report or wispolitics.com.

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“Extra” Assembly school aid goes to taxpayers, not kids

Between passage of the budget and the start of the work of the conference committee, points and counterpoints have been flying between legislators, especially over what the budget really means to Wisconsin public school districts.

One claim being made by many legislators is that the Assembly budget actually puts more money into public schools … more money, for example, than the Governor’s budget.

One such claim was made by Assembly Education Committee chair and 80th Assembly District Rep. Brett Davis. Reacting to 79th Assembly District Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts criticizing him for comments during the budget debate, Rep. Davis said the Assembly actually put more state money into the budget for schools than the Governor asked for.

Technically, he was right. The Assembly budget reduced the amount of school aid in the Joint Finance Committee version by $85 million and did increase the state share of school funding by $200 million over two years — with the key phrase being state share. What Rep. Davis didn’t say was that the net effect of the Assembly action was to take money away from public school children. Every cent of the $200 million increase went for property tax relief (bringing the total to just short of $800 million). Not one penny went into a classroom or to a child.

As Rep. Pope-Roberts said, “You’d have to be delusional to divert money from students and classrooms, squander it on tax cuts, and still call it an ‘investment in education.'” Another take on the Pope-Roberts vs. Davis debate can be found here.

After taking a look at the Assembly budget, the budget coverage, the budget analysis, the budget comment, and the budget vote, please contact your state representatives and let them know what you think. To find out who represents you, go to http://waml.legis.state.wi.us/. Remember, this is the starting point for the compromise our schools will have to live with for the next two years.

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Help us better serve you by letting us know when you change e-mail addresses. In that way we can stop sending the update to the old one and switch over to the new one as soon as possible.

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School-funding reform calendar

Sept. 8 — Jack Norman, IWF research director, will be part of a discussion on TABOR and school funding at Fighting Bob Fest (http://www.fightingbobfest.org/), noon, at the Sauk County Fairgrounds in Baraboo (follow the link to “getting there” at the website)

Sept. 13 — School-funding reform presentation at Hayward High School, details to follow
Sept. 20 — School-funding reform presentation for District 1 of the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, 10 a.m. at the Behring Senior Center, 113 10th St., Monroe

Sept. 20 — School-funding reform presentation for the Manitowoc League of Women’s Voters, 7 p.m., other details to follow

Oct. 23 — School-funding reform presentation for the Janesville Retired Educators Association

Please feel free to share your copy of the WAES school-funding update with anyone interested in school-finance reform. Contact Tom Beebe (tbeebe@wisconsinsfuture.org) at 414-384-9094 for details.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under AMPS, Budget, Pope-Roberts/Breske Resolution, School Finance, Take Action

by | July 17, 2007 · 5:06 am

State Budget News Roundup

The biggest news is the appointment of the Budget Conference Committee. Here are the members’ home pages:

Senate

Judy Robson (D)
Russell Decker (D)
Robert Jauch (D)
Scott Fitzgerald (R)

Assembly

Michael Huebsch (R)
Kitty Rhoades (R)
Jeff Fitzgerald (R)
James Kreuser (D)

Not really news, but I think it is timely to give a plug for the Take Back the Assembly project.

In Effect is optimistic (more here and some good links in both):

Sure, a handful of Republicans in the Assembly will hold out for a budget like this one, but enough will ultimately side with a budget that looks far more like what came out of the JFC last month.

Adam Wise (Wisconsin Rapids Tribune) correctly locates education issues at the center of the budget conflicts.

WCLO (Janesville) reports that “Assembly budget would hurt many school districts.”

The Herald Times (Manitowoc) editorializes “Major policy issues don’t belong in budgeting process.”

The Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee) saw through the GOP rhetoric on school funding and correctly reported “Assembly aims to limit taxes, as well as school funds.”

The Beloit daily News continues this theme with the story: “Proposed budget hurts schools.”

The Appleton Post Crescent reports on the partisanship of the process but also includes a reminder that the state GOP is not all on board with the extremism of the Assembly budget.

Appleton Mayor Tim Hanna sided with the governor, literally, at a news conference at an Appleton fire station.

“I don’t necessarily agree with everything the governor has to say, but I do agree that that what’s in the Republican Assembly package would be bad for Appleton and it would be bad for the state,” said Hanna, a longtime Republican. “However, I believe the Senate Democratic package is just as extreme on the other end.”

More reports and press releases from the Governor’s swing around the state:

Milwaukee, Madison, Superior, La Crosse, Wausau, and Kenosha.

As always, the WisPolitics Budget Blog has more.

Don’t forget to let your Reps and Senators know how you feel.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under AMPS, Budget, Elections, Local News, School Finance, Take Action

by | July 16, 2007 · 5:24 pm

Moving the Center

I’m going to post more state budget links as soon as I get a chance. Just an observation for now.

The Assembly budget is a GOP policy wish list. It is extreme. The Senate budget, with the possible exception of the Healthy Wisconsin initiative is a little left of center, but hardly a left wing document. The JFC and Gov. Doyle’s budgets were even more centrist.

Now the fun comes. As the conference committee works to reach an agreement the first and maybe only issue is where the center is, where the compromises will be. All the Democrats involved moved toward the center with their initial proposals, adopting for the most part realistic proposals. In contrast the GOP controlled Assembly swung for the fences. If the conference committee seeks a middle ground, the GOP will have won. The Dems need to adopt a stand firm and “give no quarter” stance (with the possible exception of Healthy Wisconsin). This won’t be easy and may be a tough play on the public opinion front, but anything else is a clear win for the extremists in the GOP and a clear loss for the people of Wisconsin.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | July 12, 2007 · 6:54 pm

Tell the Truth!

From Ruth Page Jones, Project ABC (Waukesha)

Hello,
Thanks to those who wrote or called our Assembly representatives about the budget. Unfortunately, they didn’t listen. But we must continue to share our views with them.

Some of you received responses like this:

Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know your thoughts regarding this important issue. By way of information, the Assembly Republican budget expected to be passed today actually increases K-12 funding by $464 million dollars over the last budget. Rest assured, I will be certain to keep your support for even greater funding at the forefront of my considerations as budget deliberations continue.

Here’s what they really did. I have submitted this as a Guest Editorial to the Waukesha Freeman.

When the Assembly passed their budget this week, the Republican majority voted to short-change children in the classrooms of our public schools. Dept. of Administration analysis indicates Waukesha schools would endure an additional $2.6 million revenue loss, and the firing of 35.4 more teachers over the next two years. Elmbrook would suffer losses of $1.3 million, Muskego-Norway and New Berlin $.9 million, Kettle-Morraine $.8 million and Pewaukee $.4 million. Waukesha’s losses are in addition to the $3.5 million cuts made this spring and projected again for next spring.

In the Freeman on July 9, Rep Bill Kramer implies their plan will benefit schools:
“Although the proposal lists an $85 million cut in public education, Kramer said, the money is directed more at classroom initiatives and spends more than Doyle’s plan”. However —

-“directed at classroom initiatives” really means it takes money from students and classrooms.

-“spends more than Doyle’s plan” really means they put more state money into property tax relief, not classrooms. The Governor included $100 million in tax relief in his budget. The Republican budget adds another $100 million to the tax levy credit for taxpayers, while taking away $85
million from students and classrooms. The extra money going for tax relief lets them say ‘the state is spending more’.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that ‘more state spending’ means more money into education! When the Assembly politicians talk about ‘the state spending more’- they refer to who is paying, not what we are buying. This is only about the 2/3 formula and what percent of school spending is paid by the state and what percent is paid by homeowners.

This has no relationship whatsoever to school budgets. If a school budget is $100, there is zero effect in the classroom when the state/homeowner share of costs changes from $55/$45 to $66/$34. It’s when they reduce the $100, which is what the Assembly did, that you will see an effect in the classroom.

Their Assembly revenue limit increase is actually less than the Governor proposed (Assembly – $200 per pupil increase vs Governor – $264 per pupil increase). It forces more budget cuts because it increases the gap between state-dictated school revenue and state-mandated inflation costs. They also cut money in a special fund, not subject to revenue limits, that would have helped us.

If this budget actually passes, the school district will be cutting again before school starts, after we already cut the $3.5 million this spring and after teacher renewal contracts have been signed. Cuts needed for this fall would have to come from aides or non-teacher expenses. Teacher’s make up 85% of the budget – what is there to cut?

Simply put, with this Republican Assembly budget, schools get less, the state pays more, some homeowners get a little tax relief, and the politicians get to claim they ‘spent more money on schools’. It’s all about taxes and politics and nothing about supporting public schools.

These politicians are going to work hard to convince the public that their budget is good for schools. IT IS NOT!!! ” Their budget is a shell game of taxes and politics, at the expense of our children’s education.”

Make the case to properly fund schools to our elected officials, to your friends and neighbors, and on the editorial page of the local newspaper. Grassroots outrage on the immigration bill changed the outcome in Washington. Grassroots outrage is the only thing that can change this outcome. The future of Wisconsin depends upon it.

—

Advocates for a Strong School System in Waukesha

Project ABC, Advocating on Behalf of Children
Ruth Page Jones, President
PO Box 1994, Waukesha, WI 53187-1994
262 521-2788

projectabc@projectabc.org
http://www.projectabc.org

Posted by Thomas J. Mertz (Thanks to Deb Gurke, ABC Madison: ABCMadisonschools@yahoo.com)

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Filed under AMPS, Budget, Gimme Some Truth, School Finance, Take Action

by | July 11, 2007 · 10:18 pm

Rep. Pope-Roberts Calls for Immediate Action on School Funding Reform

In a press release and letter to Rep. Donald Pridemore, chairperson of the Assembly Education Reform Committee, Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts (D-Verona) expressed her disappointment that he had not scheduled a hearing on Assembly Joint Resolution 35 (AJR35), which calls on the state to change the school-funding system by July 1, 2009.

“I am disappointed in Representative Pridemore’s continued excuses for turning his back on students, educators and administrators desperate for debate on school funding. I have been told that Representative Pridemore has not scheduled Assembly Joint Resolution 35 for a public hearing because he has yet to receive a formal request from my office.

“This is nothing but a petty partisan excuse; he is making up rules and placing the blame elsewhere. I was hopeful at the beginning of this legislative session that we would be able to act together as legislators invested in education instead of continuing these political games. I have now formally requested a public hearing for AJR 35 which calls upon the legislature to make changes to the school funding formula by July of 2009.”

“If Representative Pridemore isn’t even willing to hold a public hearing on this Resolution, I find it hard to believe he has any intention at all to “bring about meaningful reforms” that will help our education system or any intention of running this committee in a “fair and impartial fashion” as he wrote to me in January.”

In a letter to Pridemore, Pope-Roberts talked about the many phone calls, e-mails, and letters from all over Wisconsin asking that a hearing be scheduled on AJR35.

Please take a couple of minutes to contact Rep. Pridemore. He can be telephoned at 608-267-2367; faxed at 608-282-3699; e-mailed at rep.pridemore@legis.wisconsin.gov; or written to at State Capitol, P.O. Box 8953, Madison 53708. Make sure to ask him to copy your message to the members of the Assembly Education Reform Committee.

Robert Godfrey

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Filed under AMPS, Budget, Local News, Pope-Roberts/Breske Resolution, School Finance, Take Action

by | July 11, 2007 · 5:32 pm

More on the Assembly Budget

The assembly budget passed today with no ammendments. With the exception of Rep. Jeff Wood, R-Chippewa Falls voting against, it was a party line vote.

The DOA has issued a preliminary analysis of the impact on school funding. Madison would lose $1,586,393 this year, $3,346,026 the following and $4,932,419 the year after. That is in addittion to the “normal” $7 million to $9 million in anticipated annual cuts due to the structural gap between costs and allowed revenues. Ugly.

WiscPolitics has a nice set of links to reactions from elected officials to the Assembly’s proposed budget.

Governor Jim Doyle, joined by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk have scheduled a press conference for 2:00 PM today (7/11) at Fire Station #1 (316 West Dayton St.). Be there to show your outrage!

Some suggestions on contacting legislators in this post. Contacting the press is also a good idea (info here).

Thomas J. Mertz

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