Category Archives: School Finance

by | February 19, 2008 · 4:44 pm

We are not alone #19

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Many, many referenda on the ballot in Wisconsin today.  Due to the TIF windfall, Madison escaped this round.  A large operating referendum is almost certain for November.

With that in mind, here are links and (very few) excerpts on today’s school referenda votes.

Unified tries to sway voters

Marshfield (links to many stories)

Students Support Marshfield Referendum

“”I think there’s a lot of people who don’t understand how big of an impact these extracurriculars have on our school lives. Like, I’m really into drama and band and I write for the school newspaper. All of those are going to be cut if this doesn’t pass.”

Marshfield School District Needs $2 Million Referendum

Support city school referendum to save education options

“My little sister can’t wait until she is in fifth grade and is able to join band, but that might not even happen. Why would they take away the foundation of the question “What do you want to be when you grow up” I loathe the fact that most people don’t even know or care what’s going on! People also, I feel, are being scared away by the thought of a raise in taxes, but the raise is a small price to pay for your/my future. What about the teachers that might be laid off because of this? Do you have any advice/help?”

Local School District Putting Multi-Million Dollar Referendum on the Ballot

“I’m not sitting here saying the football program will be cut,” Sally Sarnstrom said. “But it’s like any system. When you just keep reducing it, it just isn’t as effective.”

‘Dismantling’ would follow referendum’s failure

“Without the referendum, the district likely would cut four staff positions at its elementary schools and eliminate German from the curriculum at Prairie River Middle School next school year, officials said.

Future cuts would include reduced funding for special education and technology and additional teacher positions.

“The appropriate term to use now is dismantling,” Superintendent Sally Sarnstrom said, implying that the district has no room left to downsize. “”

Merrill voters will consider $2.9 million school measure

Spend the money, although it hurts

“The number of staff eliminated is almost staggering since 2001-2002.”

Oconto Falls Outdoor Facilities Referendum

Rio Schools to go to referendum in February

“After squeezing every penny from its 2004 referendum, the Rio Community School Board hopes that its diligence will convince residents to pass another ballot initiative in February.

“There is no room to cut anymore, and we have been very honest with the community about that,” said Doug Shippert, school board member. “In the past we have made cuts with staff and courses, but you can only make so many reductions. And the community knows we have made good fiscal decisions in the past.”

Thorpe referendum info

Thorpe referendum literature from the Future Farmers of America Alumni (this one broke my heart) 

Waterloo referendum newsletter

Arbor Vitae-Woodruff referendum powerpoint

Arbor Vitae-Woodruff Referendum

AV-W board approves referendum

I’ve said it before, this insanity has to stop.  It is long past time to fix the school finance system in this state.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under Uncategorized, School Finance, Best Practices, Budget, We Are Not Alone, Referenda, Elections, Pope-Roberts/Breske Resolution, education, finance, "education finance"

by | January 30, 2008 · 5:36 pm

Who’s Out to Get Public Schools?

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Gerald Bracey has an interesting report out this morning.

When people think about the groups or individuals who wish to privatize public schools, they probably think of only a few foundations and people. The late Milton Friedman and John Walton and the living Paul Peterson; the Heritage Foundation, Manhattan Institute, Hoover Institution, Heartland Institute, American Enterprise Institute, Goldwater Institute, Bradley, Scaife and a scattering of others.

This is a mistake. A recent study by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy studying the years 2002 to 2006 identified 132 separate school choice organizations (www.ncrp.org, “Strategic Grantmaking”). One hundred and four of these 132 received grants from 1,212 foundations with total contributions exceeding $100,000,000 in some years. The Walton Family Foundation (Wal-Mart) dwarfed all others with grants often exceeding $25 million.

These foundations also funded candidates, political parties, political action groups and 501(c)4 organizations. Overwhelmingly, the recipients of this largess were Republican candidates and causes.

… [There’s] a common flaw in the reasoning of the privatizers: it assumes that there are enough private schools to go around. In fact, the existing private schools, even if they wanted these poor kids, which most of them don’t, could accommodate no more than 4% of students now in the public schools. In the early years of the privatization movement, analogies were often drawn to fast food restaurants—new schools would spring up as fast as McDonald’s or Starbucks. The privatizers have apparently gotten past that particular stupidity and realize that a school is a large and complex ecosystem which requires expert knowledge not needed for hamburger flipping.

The privatizers can be critical of how conservatives fund voucher movements. Many think it is silly to fund the large think tanks such as AEI and Heritage, because they end up forming partnerships with people whose primary interest is in maintaining the status quo. Many advocate small funding to, say, parents, who have a direct interest (it is alleged) in change. In fact some people have accused the large conservative think tanks with having a basic distrust of democracy. Giving money directly to parents, on the other hand, reflects a belief that parents can select the schools best for their children.

It is interesting in this connection that supporters of the oldest (18 years) and largest (19,000 students) voucher program in the country, that in Milwaukee, have just begun a million-dollar campaign to build support for the program. According to an article in the January 28, 2008 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the group “will sponsor television, radio and print advertising over the next four months as well as undertaking other activities aimed at increasing positive opinions of the program.”

Of course, the simplest way to build support would be to show that the program works. This has not been done in Milwaukee or elsewhere (the alleged big gains Paul Peterson found for blacks in New York City disappeared when proper statistical techniques were used). Evaluations of the program after five years reached contradictory conclusions, the most reasonable one being, in my opinion, that the program had no impact on reading achievement and a small impact on mathematics achievement. The researcher, Cecilia Rouse of Princeton, observed, though, that voucher students attended smaller classes and that class size could easily be the source of the voucher students’ advantage. After that evaluation, voucher supporters in the legislature expressed their confidence in the program by killing any further funding for evaluations.

And of course the other meme that will come to be employed with increasing frequency in the future, is the one that says education evaluation is not a science and therefore can’t be trusted. Except of course when it’s your own think tank that produces the results that confirm the efficacy of the voucher program you hope to promote.

Robert Godfrey


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Filed under Accountability, Equity, Gimme Some Truth, School Finance, Uncategorized

by | January 29, 2008 · 6:19 pm

Wolf in sheep’s clothing or a Trojan horse?

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In his state of the union address last night, President Bush touted “Pell Grants for Kids,” (PGFK) a $300 million federal voucher program. Pell grants are a popular program that provides needs-based post secondary tuition assistance. The program, like most things involving education, has been underfunded during the Bush presidency. Of course PGFK also tries to do things on the cheap, promising only $500 per student in aid, hardly enough to make a difference for most of the low income families who would be eligible. As policy PGFK is ridiculous; as symbolism it is important. The hook is that like pell grants, the “new” program could be used at private and religious institutions. In 1,000 ways higher education and k-12 education developed differently in this country — for example there are no compulsory higher education laws — and using tax dollars to fund private and religious education for children is not the same as helping adults afford to attend the college of their choice.

Of course unlike PGFK, pell grants can also be used at public institutions. Wouldn’t it be great if Bush had proposed giving every school district $500 more per student in federal aid. Although this probably still wouldn’t take care of all the underfunded federal mandates, it would mean about $12 million a year more for MMSD. Don’t hold your breath.

I put “new” in quotation marks above because this is an old idea all around. It was introduced as “The GI Bill for kids” By Lamar Alexander, when he was Secretary of Education under Bush I. Again, the attempt to create confusion by naming a voucher program after a popular program for adults. This went nowhere and it was reborn as PGFK in 2004, with a push from (then and now) Senator Lamar Alexander. The Senate testimony of (then) Arlington, VA Superintendent Robert Smith from 2004 gives a nice summary of how wrongheaded the proposal was and is. Andrew Rotherman of EdSector/Edwonk noted at the time that this was all about scoring a “political point” for school choice (note: I agree with Rotherman that this was and is about politics; I don’t agree with much else he has to say about it).

The title of this post is a trick question, the correct answer is both. Invoking pell grants covers the wolf of vouchers in the sheep’s clothing. Voucher proponents like Bush and Alexander hope to smuggle a small part of their policies into law under disguise thereby scoring points with people like the Hoover Institution, opening the door to more privatization and further undermining support for public education (and less support means more underfunding, which in turn leads to less support…starve the beast).

Don’t let it happen.

Thomas J. Mertz

Related links:

The New York Times, Grants Would Finance Private Schooling

Educational Whisper, Pell Grants For Kids = Vouchers In Disquise

Senate Hearing from 2004

Think Progress, SOTU: Bush’s ‘Pell Grants for Kids’ Plan Is Vouchers In Disguise

Engaged Intellectuals, Pell Grants for Kids?!

Carpetbagger Report, ‘Pell Grants for Kids’ = Vouchers

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Filed under Gimme Some Truth, National News, nclb, No Child Left Behind, School Finance, Uncategorized

by | January 27, 2008 · 1:12 am

We are not alone #18

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Today’s entry in this series is about the Weston School District. Many of you may recall the tragic school shooting there in 2006. What I remember most from the news reports and conversations with people who knew the district, was how the community came together and found strength. They need that strength now.

Like Florence a couple of years ago and maybe Park Falls in the near future the insanity of our state finance system has the Weston district considering dissolution.

It looks like the future existence of the district hinges on an April 1 operating referendum vote. Some excerpts from three Reedsburg Times-Press articles tell the story (here and here and here).

Weston budget critically low

CAZENOVIA-The Weston school district faces another great challenge. If the school cannot solve its financial crisis, the district could be forced to disband, sending Weston’s students to one of its neighboring school districts, which include Reedsburg, River Valley, Ithaca, Wonewoc-Union Center, Hillsboro and Richland. This has happened to other districts in the state that were unable to overcome deficits.

Weston District Administrator Tom Andres and former district administrator Terry Milfred gave a presentation on this crisis to about 70 residents in the school library on an extremely foggy Monday evening. The presentation showcased the district’s current deficit and the larger ones projected each following year in the future that could bankrupt the school by the 2009-10. Without serious cuts or a cash influx, Weston’s administration projects the district’s fund balance to be more than $1.5 million in the red by the 2011-12 school year….

Both Andres and Milfred blame the state’s funding formula and revenue limits, established in 1993, for forcing the district to consider an operational tax funding referendum.

“The general fund goes up and down but typically costs go up,” Milfred said, noting that the cost of utilities has skyrocketed recently. “The legislature anticipated that we might have these kind of problems so they set up the option of having a local referendum. The problem with that is people are used to a referendum for a building or a roof. If people see a referendum for operation, they wonder what’s going on.”

Andres said the predicament has left the school few options.

“If you look at the numbers, you see what happens if we don’t,” he told the audience. “But before we make that step, what does this district want to do?”

Andres has put forward eliminating his own position as another option to cut costs. Andres, a former superintendent and guidance counselor, came out of retirement to help Weston after the 2006 school shooting and was eventually hired as district administrator…

“What we’re going to do is have one administrator for the entire district. That would cut back on some of the expenses going toward administration,” he said before encouraging audience members to air their views…

Support for a referendum

Several audience members spoke out in favor stopping cuts and passing a referendum.

“You are the custodian of the future generation. You shouldn’t be cutting anything,” Roderick Baker, a Cazenovia resident, said. “Somehow we’re going to have to bite the bullet to pay for their education. You know what’s going to hit the fan, and we’re going to have the ante up and pay the bill.”

Bob Smith agreed, saying that the inequality of the school funding system was the culprit.

“The rich schools get the money, the poor school districts don’t. This school district is dying a death of 1,000 cuts,” Smith said. “I have a firm opinion that the future of our country is in our children. There’s no reason why this district or any other district in Wisconsin can’t afford a good system. You need to go to referendum obviously to make up for the lost funds.”

Mitzi Hizel, who lives in the Weston district but works for the Reedsburg School District, said the money not invested in education might be lost on other expense.

“You can invest in kids now or we can pay for it in another way” she said. “It could be public defenders, the prison system and welfare.”

Weston voting on referendum Monday

Three options

The committee looked over three referendum options, but will recommend only one to the board. The district administration projects that the first two, one with allowing $390,000 additional property tax revenue each year and the second starting at $225,000 and rising to $400,000 over four years, will only sustain the district until the 2011-12 school year.

“Real bare minimum, doesn’t get us out of trouble for very long,” Andres characterized them. “Can we break out even so that at the end we don’t ask for more?”

So the committee is recommending a third option, which will raise the mill rate to 12.25 per $1,000 for the next two school years and then keep the mill rate pegged at 12 for the future.

“I don’t think we’re going to satisfy everyone, but I think that’s the best middle ground,” Tim Fichtel, a school board member, said.

Administration projects this will keep the school’s budget in the black at least five years, so the district will not have to return to voters for another operational referendum soon.

“That does keep the books and equipment in the budget year after year,” Kathy Stoltz, Weston’s business manager, said.

After having enough to get by the first two years, eventually this option will give the district some breathing room…

Unless a referendum passes, the district makes severe cuts or the state reforms its school funding formula, Weston will be bankrupt by the 2009-10 school year. The Department of Instruction would likely partition Weston among its neighbors, a fate met by other Wisconsin school districts unable to overcome their deficits.

Weston voters face referendum

CAZENOVIA-Voters in the Weston School District will have a tax limit referendum to vote on this spring. The School Board decided unanimously Monday to ask voters to OK an increased mill rate to keep the district’s finances solvent….

Although it was presented with four options, the board approved the committee’s recommended version of the referendum, in which the mill rate rises from 9.1 per $1,000 of assessed value to 12.25 for the next two years and then levels off at 12. According to the district administration’s forecast, this fourth option will stave off deficits despite continuing enrollment decline.

The first two options would result in a negative fund balance by the 2011-12 school year and the third option would leave only $711 in the district’s fund balance by that year.

“I think on this scenario four, we’ve got our tails covered. We can’t go over that, but we can go less,” Norman Klingaman, a board member, said. “Scenario four gets us what we need but is fiscally responsible.”

If approved the referendum would raise $1.88 million over four years. In the first two years, an owner of a $125,000 home would pay an extra $393.75 per year. In the third and fourth year, that total would dip to $362.50.

Board members especially liked the predictability of the mill rate, including Tim Fichtel and Stan Dugenske.

“Farmers can then budget in a long range,” Dugenske said. “Security is a good draw.”

A lot at stake

Assuming no change is made to the state’s school funding formula and the board does not begin making significant cuts again over the next few years, the administration predicts the district will have both a deficit and a negative fund balance by the 2009-10 school year. This pattern would continue until the district’s fund balance goes into the red by more than $1.5 million in 2011-12.

Meanwhile, our distinguished Governor Jim Doyle continues to all but ignore the obvious failings of school finance in the Wisconsin, instead using his State of the State speech to promote unfunded mandates for third year high school math and science and an undefined merit pay plan for teachers. I am sure the people of the Weston District will welcome his bold action.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under AMPS, Budget, Referenda, School Finance, We Are Not Alone

by | December 6, 2007 · 11:08 pm

Senate Hearing Video — Ruth Page Jones

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I have the honor of serving on the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools interim board with Ruth Page Jones. She also heads up Project ABC (Waukesha). She has been fighting the good fight on many fronts for many years.

Her testimony before the Senate Education Comittee speaks for itself (click here for the video). One thing I’d like to highlight is her remarks about guidance counselors, they reminded me of this recent quote of the day from Gloria Balton of Anacostia High School, Washington DC:

“You need more psychologists in the school. You need more counselors in the school, because when you can address the needs of the soul, then you can get them to perform.”

Ms Page Jones also had a great guest column in the Milwaukee Jounal Sentinel recently. Here is an excerpt:

The alliance champions an adequacy approach to reform because we put education and kids first. The Pope-Roberts/Breske resolution that was the topic of the recent Senate Education Committee hearing asks all members of the Legislature to do the same…

The resolution offers a road map to better education for our children. Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts (D-Middleton), Sen. Roger Breske (D-Eland), their 60 co-sponsors and innumerable supporters ask only that our elected officials commit to making a positive change. That means providing the resources schools need based on the actual costs of effective education while holding the line on local property taxes.

Numerous experts from across the United States have defined the resources necessary for schools to meet state and federal performance standards as well as addressing the diverse needs of districts and students.

Funding adequacy is a critical first step toward restoring educational excellence in Wisconsin, moving us all to a more prosperous future.

Video from Wisconsin Eye — the full November 15 hearing can be accessed here — , excerpts posted via YouTube, playlist of all hearing videos posted thus far, here.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | November 30, 2007 · 9:07 pm

Why hasn’t MMSD done this?

The Onion has identified another efficiency that has the potential to save millions for school districts:

Underfunded Schools Forced To Cut Past Tense From Language Programs
November 30, 2007 | Issue 43•48

WASHINGTON—Faced with ongoing budget crises, underfunded schools nationwide are increasingly left with no option but to cut the past tense—a grammatical construction traditionally used to relate all actions, and states that have transpired at an earlier point in time—from their standard English and language arts programs.

A Chicago-area teacher begins the new past tense–free curriculum.
A part of American school curricula for more than 200 years, the past tense was deemed by school administrators to be too expensive to keep in primary and secondary education.

“This was by no means an easy decision, but teaching our students how to conjugate verbs in a way that would allow them to describe events that have already occurred is a luxury that we can no longer afford,” Phoenix-area high-school principal Sam Pennock said. “With our current budget, the past tense must unfortunately become a thing of the past.”

In the most dramatic display of the new trend yet, the Tennessee Department of Education decided Monday to remove “-ed” endings from all of the state’s English classrooms, saving struggling schools an estimated $3 million each year. Officials say they plan to slowly phase out the tense by first eliminating the past perfect; once students have adjusted to the change, the past progressive, the past continuous, the past perfect progressive, and the simple past will be cut. Hundreds of school districts across the country are expected to follow suit.

“This is the end of an era,” said Alicia Reynolds, a school district director in Tuscaloosa, AL. “For some, reading and writing about things not immediately taking place was almost as much a part of school as history class and social studies.”

“That is, until we were forced to drop history class and social studies a couple of months ago,” Reynolds added.

Nevertheless, a number of educators are coming out against the cuts, claiming that the embattled verb tense, while outmoded, still plays an important role in the development of today’s youth.

“Much like art and music, the past tense provides students with a unique and consistent outlet for self-expression,” South Boston English teacher David Floen said. “Without it I fear many of our students will lack a number of important creative skills. Like being able to describe anything that happened earlier in the day.”

Despite concerns that cutting the past-tense will prevent graduates from communicating effectively in the workplace, the home, the grocery store, church, and various other public spaces, a number of lawmakers, such as Utah’s Sen. Orrin Hatch, have welcomed the cuts as proof that the American school system is taking a more forward-thinking approach to education and the dimension of time.

“Our tax dollars should be spent preparing our children for the future, not for what has already happened,” Hatch said at a recent press conference. “It’s about time we stopped wasting everyone’s time with who ‘did’ what or ‘went’ where. The past tense is, by definition, outdated.”

Said Hatch, “I can’t even remember the last time I had to use it.”

Past-tense instruction is only the latest school program to face the chopping block. School districts in California have been forced to cut addition and subtraction from their math departments, while nearly all high schools have reduced foreign language courses to only the most basic phrases, including “May I please use the bathroom?” and “No, I do not want to go to the beach with Maria and Juan.” Some legislators are even calling for an end to teaching grammar itself, saying that in many inner-city school districts, where funding is most lacking, students rarely use grammar at all.

Regardless of the recent upheaval, students throughout the country are learning to accept, and even embrace, the change to their curriculum.

“At first I think the decision to drop the past tense from class is ridiculous, and I feel very upset by it,” said David Keller, a seventh-grade student at Hampstead School in Fort Meyers, FL. “But now, it’s almost like it never happens.”

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under AMPS, Best Practices, Gimme Some Truth, National News, School Finance

by | November 30, 2007 · 8:40 pm

Senate Hearing Video — Doug Mering

Doug Mering

There was a good story in the Baraboo News Republic on Doug Mering’s testimony before the Senate Education Committee so I thought I’d post the video (click here to watch). One of the most important things Mr. Mering has to say is that school finance should not be seen as a Republican issue or a Democratic issue, that districts, families and children want and deserve legislators who will look past partisan posing and get to work fixing what (almost) everyone agrees is broken. The News Republic story offers some hope that this may happen. Senator Luther Olsen (Republican, Ripon) is quoted as saying:

“I know that we will not come up with a formula that will make everyone and every school district happy, but I do think it is important that we look at the school funding formula.”

Olsen chaired the Special Committee on Review of State School Aid Formula, the materials on their web page are worth reviewing

Video from Wisconsin Eye — the full November 15 hearing can be accessed here — , excerpts posted via YouTube, playlist of all hearing videos posted thus far, here.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under AMPS, Pope-Roberts/Breske Resolution, School Finance, We Are Not Alone

by | November 26, 2007 · 10:37 pm

Senate Hearing Video – Mallory Massey

Time to hear from a student. Mallory Massey attends Pecatonica High School and she does her school proud. No long essay this time, but a quick observation that although there are good things about on line education and virtual schools, they cannot replace the the importance of schools as communities or to communities, nor can things like the forensics classes Mallory mentions (or science lab courses according to a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story) be taught effectively on line.

Video from Wisconsin Eye — the full November 15 hearing can be accessed here — , excerpts posted via YouTube, playlist of all hearing videos posted thus far, here.

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Filed under AMPS, Best Practices, Pope-Roberts/Breske Resolution, School Finance, We Are Not Alone

by | November 24, 2007 · 4:17 pm

To do list

From a Wisconsin State Journal editorial

In Wisconsin we can give thanks that the coming months will bring opportunities to live up to the state’s motto, “Forward,” in some important areas, including:

Financing of public schools.

Almost no one is happy with the state’s unfair system for funding schools, though change has been stifled because alternatives generate opposition, too.

However, public discontent is now moving lawmakers closer to reform. At a hearing this month before the state Senate’s Education Committee, 112 people favored changing how Wisconsin pays for schools. One was opposed.

Let 2008 finally be the year for developing a better plan for school financing.

Sounds almost like support for the Pope-Roberts/Breske Resolution.

Thomas J. Mertz

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

by | November 22, 2007 · 8:33 pm

Hope For the Future of our Schools

by John Smart

Two things happened recently that raised my hopes for the future:

The first was an assembly held at the Menasha High School on November 14th dedicated to learning about the ongoing genocide in Darfur, that region of Sudan where nomadic Arab militias covertly sponsored by the Sudanese dictator, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, are ravaging the countryside, murdering, raping, burning villages and driving the indigenous people from their land.

Students in teacher Dean Boyer’s social studies classes were asked to select an international issue to study, and they chose the situation in Darfur. They researched the story thoroughly, and in the process became involved with the Darfur Action Coalition of Wisconsin, an organization working to support efforts to help the victims of this bloody conflict — and to end it. The students are selling tee-shirts and raising funds to send to the Coalition.

They also asked the Coalition for someone to come and speak to a student assembly at their high school about the Darfur crisis, and I volunteered to do so. They weren’t sure how many students would choose to attend, and we were all surprised when the handsome Menasha High School Auditorium filled almost to capacity – over 700 students!

The conversation — for that is what it was — lasted for an hour, and the students were attentive and involved, they asked informed questions and related serious concerns. They exhibited genuine empathy for the unfortunate people in that far-off, African land.

I was so exhilarated from spending time with those wonderful kids that I felt airborne to my next destination! If they are representative of the youth of our state and nation, and I hope and believe they are, the future of the state and nation is indeed in capable, caring hands.

I then went from Menasha to Madison, where, the next morning, I was one of sixty plus citizens who testified at a hearing of the State Senate Committee on Education.

The November 15th public hearing had to be moved to a larger room in the Capitol to accommodate the ever-increasing crowd, and they still had to have an overflow room with a television monitor so that attendees could follow the proceedings. The turnout clearly demonstrated growing public interest in doing something constructive to support our schools.

The purpose of the hearing was to examine Senate Joint Resolution 27, co-sponsored by Assembly Representative Sondy Pope-Roberts, of Middleton, Senator Roger Breske, of Eland, 14 other senators and 43 other assembly representatives. All but one of the people testifying were in support of the resolution.

The resolution calls for the legislature to recognize that the system we’re using to pay for our schools is not fair and equitable, and simply does not work — that it underfunds our schools while throwing too much of the burden on the backs of property taxpayers, who are understandably rebelling. The resolution refers to a number of new funding formulas that all deserve consideration, and it sets a deadline for the legislature to examine these, and any others, and pass a new compromise plan for school funding reform by a deadline date of July 1, 2009.

Several members of the committee, notably Senators Glen Grothman, of West Bend, and Mary Lazich, of New Berlin, insisted on attempting to debate the merits of one or another of the plans, asking how much they would cost and where the money was going to come from. They had to be reminded repeatedly that this resolution only sets a deadline and doesn’t endorse any specific plan.

What lifted my spirits was the enthusiasm of the people attending and the seriousness with which the senators responded. Many of us have struggled for a long time to get the legislature to recognize the problems that the current funding system is causing for our schools, and finally, it is beginning to look like that light at the end of the tunnel may not be an oncoming train!

The fight isn’t over though, not at all. It is probable that the resolution will pass the committee and the senate, but it is still a question as to whether or not the Speaker of the Assembly, Mike Huebsch, will allow this resolution to even come to the floor of that body for debate.

As usual, it is important for citizens to voice their opinions. Letters and phone calls to our legislators actually do have an effect. It is the voice of their constituents that has brought legislators back to this issue again, and more are needed. Please be a part of that “squeeky wheel!”

The students of Wisconsin, like those remarkable young people at the Menasha High School, deserve the best education that we can provide for them. It’s a question of priorities, and to my mind, they are on top of the list.

John Smart serves on the Park Falls School Board, is a member of the Wisconsin Governor’s Commission on the United Nations, the UN Association of the USA and Citizens for Global Solutions. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Uzbekistan from 1995 through 1998 and chairs the Democratic Party of Price County.

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