Wisconsin teacher salaries rank almost dead last. Only North Dakota pays new teachers less. According to the “The Survey and Analysis of Teacher Salary Trends 2005,” Wisconsin teachers just entering the field are earning far less than their national counterparts. Wisconsin was ranked 49th in the nation for beginning teacher salaries, at $25,222, only slightly ahead of North Dakota. Read more here.
Robert Godfrey
Filed under AMPS, Budget, Local News, National News, School Finance
There has been some tension between MMSD Board members and administrators, but generally the relationships have been civil and those involved have displayed mutual respect. All involved should be proud of this.
The situation in the Menomonie Area district appears to be pretty bad. (More here and here.)
Besides limiting contact between board members and administrators, the March 30 letter tells school board members that administrators have been instructed to notify Harness if a school board member contacts them by phone, e-mail or in person.
In addition, the letter requires administrators to request permission from Harness before contacting a school board member; they must also provide a reason for doing so.
According to the memo, Harness must be present during any meetings between administrators and school board members and that the meetings must be prearranged.
The letter, signed by the administrators in the district, indicated that they felt their trust had been violated when an alternate staffing plan was introduced at a March 19 school board meeting. The plan was aimed at saving programs and positions in an effort to forestall the need for a referendum at this time.
I don’t think you can blame this entirely on the state finance system, but clearly the pressures of annual budget conflicts and the difficulties of referenda are part of it.
Thomas J. Mertz
Filed under AMPS, Budget, Referenda, School Finance, We Are Not Alone
A group of parents and community members has begun organizing to agitate for an operating referendum to be placed on the ballot February 19th 2008 (the Spring Primary, including presidential). The details of the referendum are still in the early planning stages. I am part of this group.
As they consider the 2007-2008 budget (including school closings), it is important to show the Board of Education that there is broad and growing support for this referendum. With the realistic possibility of a successful referendum prior to the next budget cycle the Board can be induced to take nearly irreversible cuts (such as closing schools or eliminating 5th Grade Strings) off the table for this year.
You can help with this. There is a letter that will be submitted to the Board on April 19th here. If you support this, please say so and add your name and information in the comments. There are also some talking points here. We are asking that as many people as possible attend the upcoming Board meetings (April 17th and April 19th in particular) and express support for a referendum and not cutting those things that will be difficult to restore. We are also asking that individuals and groups contact the Board and news outlets (Capital Times: tctvoice@madison.com; Wisconsin State Journal: wsjopine@madison.com) to express support.
As always, educating and agitating on the state finance system that has created these conditions is important.
Thank you
Thomas J. Mertz
Filed under AMPS, Budget, Elections, Local News, Referenda, School Finance, Take Action, We Are Not Alone
Dear Members of the Joint Committee on Finance and Gov. Doyle,
I used to be an active parent volunteer in the Madison public schools. I helped with reading groups and on field trips when my children were in elementary school, then tutored middle schoolers and tutored and led after-school clubs as my children got older.
Then a couple years ago, I had to stop my in-class volunteering. Why? Like hundred of parents and school staff across the state, all my volunteer hours were eaten up with supporting a series of referenda to keep intact programs that both benefited my children and are needed to support the learning of thousands of Wisconsin’s children. Over the past 8 years, I have seen music and arts programs cut, driver’s education eliminated, family and consumer education and technology education at the middle schools eliminated, class sizes increased and sorely-needed social work, counseling and psychology positions cuts.
Still, the cuts loom large. This year, schools with great reputations and devoted community support may close. Activity fees will continue to increase. Middle school and high school course options are at risk. I paid more last year on start-of-school fees and supplies than I did on Christmas gifts. Yet, the cuts go on, the fees continue to rise.
So, what’s involved in passing a referendum? There are multiple evening meetings to PTA groups and neighborhood associations to educate them on complicated school finance issues. There are letters to write, phone calls to make, meetings to attend, signs to assemble, fundraising to organize, and general public relations discussions to have with neighbors, colleagues, friends and relatives. You lose friends. It’s very political and it’s not very fun. And to top it all off, it pulls hundreds of civic-minded, good-hearted, kid-loving adults away from children, classrooms and teaching and into a role they never asked for and don’t relish: politics and deal-making.
I’ve heard elected officials say that before a school district should come to the legislature for funding, they should really work a little harder locally at passing a referendum. What? I was under the impression that teachers, principals, superintendents and other school leaders were hired to educate children, not launch political campaigns. I want my district’s principals hiring and supervising teams of high-quality teachers and exploring new ways to teach students in meaningful ways, not spend their days on talk radio and their evenings at civic forums.
And I want to go back into classrooms again. I want to talk to kids about their passions and comment on their improvements in writing, not spend Saturdays stapling yard signs together and Sunday afternoons strategizing on campaign slogans or calling long voter lists.
So, I am asking please, that the State Legislature:
— Fund at two-thirds its original commitment to categorical aids, the program that provides special education services to students with disabilities. This would mean a $45 million increase in the first year of new budget and $55 million next year.
— Continue its commitment to SAGE programs that cap class sizes to 15 in schools with high poverty rates.
— Remove the revenue caps that make districts across the state incapable of simultaneously balancing their budgets and retaining existing program levels for students.
Beth Swedeen
Filed under AMPS, Budget, Elections, Referenda, School Finance, Take Action
John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band – Gimme Some Truth
There has been some talk among the AMPS participants about doing retrospective analyses of the recent election and the press coverage of that election. Watch for those in the coming weeks. Retrospective analyses have their place, but there is something to be said for striking while the iron is hot. The Isthmus retrospective published Thursday is certainly hot, as in “liar, liar pants on fire.” This is long, but I think worth doing.
Titled “Mandate for New Thinking,” Jason Shepard’s latest stretches the truth well past the breaking point.
Let’s start at the top. The title refers to a mandate but even the Isthmus editors can’t bring themselves to identify what the supposed mandate was for and instead fall back on the meaningless phrase “new thinking.” The only candidate pictured or quoted is Maya Cole; this implies a connection between Ms Cole and the titular “mandate” (a connection made explicit in the final paragraph). Ms Cole deserves congratulations for her victory, however that victory can hardly be called a mandate. Among the victors, Ms Cole garnered 8,268 fewer votes than Johnny Winston Jr. and 8,257 fewer than Beth Moss. Ms Cole was not the big winner on Tuesday.
The quotes from Ms Cole in the first paragraphs are the usual half-truths about “ineffective governance,” “budget[ing] to crisis” and vague calls to “get away from that model.” I say half-truths because there is a crisis and there is ineffective governance but the vast majority of the ineffective governance is at the state level and the clear cause of the crisis is the broken state finance system.
The next paragraph asserts that Passman was better financed. This may be true; it may not. There is no way of knowing until the July campaign finance reports are in. This is sloppy reporting to say the least. It also portrays Passman as having run “mainly on the issue of inadequate state funding for public schools.” Passman certainly used her campaign to call attention to this truth, but the main message of her campaign was that her many years of experience as an educator would be an asset in the difficult decisions forced on the district by the broken state finance system.
More half-truths in the following paragraph:
Her victory marks three consecutive years in which voters have picked more reform-minded candidates over those backed by the teachers union and political establishment. And given the union’s failure to endorse Johnny Winston Jr., who handily won re-election, it’s the first time in a generation that a majority of board members are not endorsed by MTI.
First, in each of the last three elections the voters have picked as many or more candidates associated with the Board’s current majority as they have with those Shepard calls “reformers.” Johnny Winston Jr. did not enjoy the support of MTI this year, but I think it is a stretch to associate his victory with an anti-MTI vote.
The next paragraph misrepresents Beth Moss’s positions in order to paint her victory as one with Ms Cole’s.
Beth Moss’ big victory on Tuesday brings to three the number of MTI-endorsed candidates, although she took pains in the campaign to stress her independence, advocating for teacher health-insurance changes and new charter schools.
I don’t know about “taking pains to stress her independence,” but certainly Ms Moss did try to counter the almost unrelenting portrayal — by Mr. Shepard and others — of MTI endorsed candidates and Board members as puppets of John Matthews. A review of recent votes and statements of current board members who have been endorsed by MTI should make it clear that none are marionettes. It also needs to be noted that at every opportunity Ms Moss expressed her pride in having the support of Madison’s organized teachers. Her opponent did little but tout his “independence.” On health insurance and charter schools I think a review of Ms Moss’s statements is in order.
Health Insurance:
On the Daily Page
Running for seat 3, Beth Moss, endorsed by MTI, says she favors winning changes through negotiations.From the MTI Questionaire
Do you agree that the health insurance provided to District employees should be mutually selected through the collective bargaining process?
X YES NO
These are almost exactly the positions of the current Board majority and at every point Ms Moss made it clear that under the QEO any relief from budget cuts via teacher health insurance savings would be extremely minimal. This is a reality that the Isthmus, some Board members and candidates have done their best to obscure.
Charters:
From the Campaign Web Site
Charter Schools
I think that it’s very important for the Board to be open to new ideas, and I believe that the expansion of charter schools might have a place in our district. We have to be sure that they fit within a long-range plan for the whole district and that the innovation will benefit the entire district. I will make decisions based on what is best for the district and all of our students. Nuestro Mundo is a great success and shows that our district can support a program that offers an alternative style of teaching and learning.
Charters are one important way that districts can address persistent problems or refine approaches that may benefit the entire district, but they aren’t the only way. Magnet schools and embedded programs can serve the same purposes and have the advantage of being fully integrated in the district and not positioned as competing institutions. Appleton and other districts offer a variety of charter schools, magnet schools and embedded programs. If elected, I will use these to study potential innovations in Madison.
I applaud those parent and community groups who have worked to bring their vision to Madison in the form of charter proposals. I hope they continue to apply their dedication to working to improve education in our community.
From the MTI Questionaire
Do you oppose:
The use of public funds (vouchers) to enable parents to pay tuition with tax payers’ money for religious and private schools?
X YES NO
The expansion of Charter schools within the Madison Metropolitan School District?
X YES NO
Only if sustainable, long-term funding sources are used for a charter school so that it does not cost more per pupil for operating costs, and if the charter addresses persistent needs in the district or holds great promise as a source for piloting programs that would benefit the entire district would I be supportive.
The only place I could find Ms Moss “advocating” charter schools is another paraphrase by Mr Shepard
How anyone can call the above statements “advocating” is beyond me.
The next paragraph praises Ms Cole’s “new approaches” as a “a welcome change from the springtime ritual of torturous budget hearings.” The closest thing I’ve heard from Ms Cole to a change from the yearly budget stresses is a call for drafting a five or ten year plan. As best as I can see, this wouldn’t replace the yearly budget fights, but supplement it with another venue for “parents, children, teachers and support staff [to] wait patiently for hours to yell, beg and cry about budget cuts.” I can see some good coming out of this in the form of a discussion about our priorities as a community and in the light it would shine on the draconian cuts needed to address the structural deficits built into the current state finance system. Still, the law dictates and annual budget process and for the foreseeable future (absent reform at the state level) that process will be tortuous. I’m not opposed to new ways of looking at five and ten year budgeting, but I am realistic about what they have to offer.
This whole “new approaches” and “innovation” discourse brings to mind a political truism: The unnamed candidate almost always polls better than any named candidate. In this case it is the unexamined “new approach” or “innovation” that polls better than confronting real choices.
This slipperiness continues in the next paragraph, which identifies the choices before the Board with “feed[ing] impressions that Madison schools are facing a fiscal crisis, eroding educational quality.” Shepard doesn’t quite say that we aren’t facing a fiscal crisis, that educational quality isn’t in danger of eroding, but there is an implication that those who believe this are crying wolf.
This is followed by the first quote from a sitting Board member, Lawrie Kobza. As Cole was the only candidate quoted, the only Board members quoted (Kobza, Lucy Mathiak and Ruth Robarts) were Cole supporters. I believe Fox News calls this “fair and balanced.”
Skipping ahead (aren’t you glad), three paragraphs later the cause of budget problems is identified as “district’s estimated 4.7% salary and benefits increase for employees.” As usual Shepard fails to place this in the context of the QEO or mention the salary increases earned due to seniority or educational attainments. Blame the teachers, blame the union…half-truths.
Now we come to the portion on Carol Carstensen’s referendum proposal. Ms Kobza is quoted as saying it was “incredibly destructive,” Ms Mathiak portrays it as election ploy designed to garner support for certain candidates and “not a plan. It’s a Band-Aid.” There are no quotes from the many parents and community members who have expressed appreciation for Ms Carstensen’s effort to present a choice to the voters. I’m not sure what this proposal destroyed, but I am sure that at least in the case of the Beth Moss campaign the proposal was not seen as a gift. I worked closely with Beth Moss throughout the campaign, but I don’t speak for her. However, from my observations Ms Moss, like the parents and community members, understood that Ms Carstensen sincerely desired to give our community the means to avoid some of the most difficult budget cuts and offer a vision for not only conserving what is good in our schools, but expanding and restoring the good the schools do. I believe Ms Moss also found it personally difficult to say — whatever merits the proposal might have — the timing was wrong and she could not support it. Did she benefit from this? I have no idea. Did Ms Passman benefit from her support for the proposal? I have no idea. Ms Mathiak’s labeling it a “Band-Aid” is another half-truth. Any solution that doesn’t address the serious problems with the state system is a Band Aid, however Ms Carstensen’s proposal was structured in a way that by authorizing progressive and recurring authority to exceed the revenue caps would have provided long term relief for our district. Ms Mathiak should know that.
The closing paragraphs return to the false promises of solutions via “a better way” and “out of the box thinking.” I’m not holding my breath.
What I am doing is continuing to work for reform at the state level, beginning work on a operating budget referendum campaign, making my voice heard on which cuts hurt the least and which do irreparable damage…I’m continuing to work inside the box, within the system we have, to make our schools the best they can be.
Thomas J. Mertz
Filed under AMPS, Budget, Elections, Gimme Some Truth, Local News, School Finance
Another in a series on school finance and referenda in Wisconsin. Unless you believe that mismanagement is endemic to public schools, I think it should be pretty clear that the budget problems in MMSD are not the result of bad or no decision making by our Board and administration. They are the result of bad or no decsion making by our legislatures and governors.
This is a round up of news from Western Wisconsin
Referendums Everywhere
Spring elections are less than a week away and many school districts are depending on your vote to determine whether they get more money to run the schools. If you think there are only one or two referendums in this area, think again.
15 school districts around Western Wisconsin are seeking referendums come April 3rd. One of those districts includes the Independence School District which faces a $70,000 deficit and is asking for $800,000 for 4 years.
School administrator Dave Leahn says they’ve already cut $750,000 in the past year to make ends meet, but they can’t make anymore cuts so now they’re asking for money to keep the school going, “district administrators, reading specialist, learning disability teachers, to custodians, to secretaries.”
Leahn and other staff are worried more cuts will only diminish the quality of education. He says more cuts will mean eliminating a whole program or even grades since the small school only has one section of each grade or program. Leahn and many other school administrators blame the budget problems on the state’s revenue system where the money districts receive are largely based on enrollment numbers.
“If you’re receiving approximately $100,000 in revenue and your expenditures were $200,000, it’s going to catch up with you.
That’s why Leahn says we’re seeing so many referendums coming Tuesday. Independence faces an $800,000 referendum, Eau Claire will have a referendum, New Richmond is seeking more than $2 million, Thorp as well as Lake Holcombe and Barron Area School Districts are also seeking money.
The budget problems are not only in Western Wisconsin but all over the state. Countless numbers of districts across the state are also seeking referendums.
Thomas J. Mertz
Filed under AMPS, Budget, Elections, Referenda, School Finance, We Are Not Alone
Part of a series of posts on school finance and referendums around the state.
Too many referendums and too much news to cover it all. Just a once over this time.
Shell Lake and Spooner have referenda questions on the ballot. The Shell Lake superintendent described the familiar situation:
Superintendent Jerry Gauderman said Shell Lake’s school expenses, as in other school districts, are rising at 4 percent a year while revenue is increasing at only 2 percent. And like many districts in Northern Wisconsin, Shell Lake has experienced a declining enrollment which affects the revenue limit based on student enrollment.
The Spooner business manager explained their situation
The money will be used, primarily, to keep existing programs in place, said school officials. They noted earlier this year that a casulty of a failed referendum may be the elimination of 20 positions, at least three-quarters of them teaching jobs.
Andrew Sarnow, district business manager, projects that without additional funding the district will experience deficits of $1.01 million in the 2007-08 school year; $1.62 million in 2008-09; $2.273 million in 2009-10; and $2.996 million, 2010-11.
The district plans to cut roughly $200,000 in both 2007-08 and 2008-09.
Along with the cuts, if the program maintenance referendum passes, the district will accrue a surplus in the first two years that will cover the larger deficits expected in 2009-10 and 2010-11.
Oconomowoc has a different problem. They are growing, but the rolling average employed to calculate the revenue caps hurts growing districts.
Barry said most of the districts that are struggling are districts with declining enrollment and therefore declining revenue, although their costs are somewhat fixed. In districts where enrollment is flat, so is the revenue.
“Yet their costs are going up; health insurance for example. That scenario should not be unfamiliar to anybody in Oconomowoc. This district struggled with flat and declining enrollment for 10 years, and it obviously weakened the district’s balance sheet substantially over that period,” Barry pointed out.
“As we look forward to next year, we have a different scenario. Unlike many of our neighboring districts, and unlike almost 70 percent of the districts in our state, Oconomowoc has increasing enrollment, and in our case we have rapidly increasing enrollment,” the assistant superintendent said.
Despite, or because of that advantage, a new circumstance arises that requires prudent planning.
“Our challenge is that the revenue formula, the three-year rolling average, by definition, lags behind your actual enrollment year to year.
“Therein lies the difficulty for us. Our revenue has not caught up to the size of the district and the size of the staff to support the district,” Barry said.“The problem this year is can we, in the budget, earmark enough revenue for the additional staffing that we need? It’s a growth problem, not a cutting problem,” Barry said.
In Baraboo, school board candidates are talking referenda (and private financing)
The “R word” made an appearance in a question over whether the candidates would support a go at another referendum. All said they would. It’s perhaps surprising that an anti-referendum candidate didn’t surface when about half of the district’s voters opposed both attempts last year to increase its levy and there was organized opposition to the measure.
Maxwell, who ran on an anti-referendum platform three years ago, said his experience in the trenches of the district’s operations and finances have changed his perspective.
“I sat on this stage before and fought my personal demons on the word ‘referendum,'” he said. They’ve made the cuts the “no” votes forced upon them and became more efficient, Maxwell said.“I see no options for this district based on the cuts we made in the past, the priorities we’ve set and the goals we want to achieve,” Vodak said. “I wish it didn’t have to come to that.”
Anderson said if the state’s school funding formula doesn’t change a referendum will be inevitable.
“We need to stop voting for state representatives that don’t listen to us and say take care of it at the community level,” Hovde said.
All candidates also agreed that cuts to the music program last year should be reinstated and that such a vital piece of the district’s educational offerings shouldn’t be left to private fund-raising.
Thomas J. Mertz
Filed under AMPS, Budget, Elections, Referenda, School Finance, We Are Not Alone
From Arlene Silveira, Communications Committee Chair
Thomas J. Mertz
All – the Communications Committee of the BOE is holding an informational/advocacy meeting on March 29. Details are attached.
This is the first in a series for meetings. The next meeting will focus on advocacy efforts for the state funding system.
All are welcome to attend, actively participate and ADVOCATE!
Arlene Silveira
“Thursday, March 29, at 6:30 p.m. in the McDaniels Auditorium of the Doyle Administration Building. The meeting will provide you with information about the budget and advocacy “talking points” to contact legislators and gain support for some of the budget’s provisions.”
Filed under AMPS, Budget, Local News, School Finance, Take Action
There has been much talk on the campaign trail about the need for a “cost benefit” analysis and the lack of forward planning. I find it disturbing that some of our candidates seem unaware of the 2002 Functional Analysis that MMSD commissioned from Virchow, Krause & Company, LLP. At that time, the district realized that the flawed state finance system would force cuts in the years ahead and wanted to be prepared. Because we have the analysis, we are prepared (nearly as well) as we can be for the challenges of the yearly budgeting.
I’m glad that this was commissioned and we have it to use. However, we all need to be careful and understand that all educational research and data is contingent, contextual and only provides guidance for decision-making. The factors that make a student achieve or fail are so complex and interactive that attributing causality is at best a matter of likelihood, not certainty. Some of the most important things, like the smile on a teacher’s face, defy quantification. Additionally, all the measures we use are to one degree or another subjective and flawed (see Fair Test for one set of examples). It isn’t science and applying the positivism of science and related reliance on “expertise” to education can be dangerous.
I value data and research as tools to inform educational policy, but I know that human judgment is the final and most important quality that we need on the Board of Education. This is one reason why I am supporting Beth Moss, Marjorie Passman and Johnny Winston Jr. in the April 3d Election. They are knowledgeable about our district and community, open to using data and research and have displayed the kind of judgement we need to keep our schools strong and getting stronger.
Thomas J. Mertz
Filed under AMPS, Best Practices, Budget, Elections, Local News
Question: Would you as a school board member support a referendum to deal with the short fall that the district is currently facing? For example, Carol Carstensen’s version of a referendum.
Maya Cole’s response to referendum question (REACH)
Posted by: Janet Morrow
Fund a Classroom Project in Madison
AMPS 