Category Archives: Take Action

by | October 26, 2009 · 7:50 pm

Breaking News — MMSD Budget and Levy

At a fairly boring meeting (only one vote was not 7-0;  Beth Moss and Ed Hughes voted against option three, to forgo $3.08 million in maintenance  referendum authority and defer projects, Beth Moss discussed but did not introduce  an amendment halve this to $1.5 million) , the Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education passed the 2009-10 Budget and tax levy (agenda with linked documents here).

Every option to minimize the property tax levy that was offered was enacted, plus one more from Lucy Mathiak.  The basic strategies were re-budgets to reflect past history and new efficiencies, rescheduling of debt payments, forgoing referendum authority and use of Fund Balance Equity.  Madison will not be taxing to the max.

More than one member offered accurate, detailed and impassioned words about the failure of the state of Wisconsin to meet its obligations for educational investment.  I give Arlene Silveira the points for detail and a tie between Arlene and Marj Passman for passion.  Arlene emphasized the need to hold our elected officials accountable in the coming months.  I’m with her on that…November 1010 elections aren’t that far off.

Probably more on the meeting later.

Here are the details of the budget and levy:

Total Levy — $234,240,964

Fund 10 –$ 218, 955, 521

Property Tax Charge-back — $85,945

Fund 38 – $65,250

Fund 39 – 0

Fund 41 – $6,835,765

Fund 80 – $8,298,483

Mil Rate 10.18 (an increase of .37 over 2008-9)

Impact on $250,000 home = $92.83 higher taxes.

Work on the 2010-11 budget will begin immediately.  It will be hard and it will not be good.

One last note, although I would have liked a more thorough consideration of Fund Balance practices prior to the pasages of this budget, it appears that that will happen before the next budget cycle really kicks in next Spring.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | October 26, 2009 · 3:11 pm

Wisconsin School Budget and Tax Levy Roundup

mp_main_half_SchoolMoneySidewalk212Like Madison, many Wisconsin School Districts will be finalizing their 2009-10 budget and tax levies tonight (Monday, October 26, 2009).  Some have previously been highlighted on AMPS — most recently West Bend — , the struggles to deal with declining state funding has been documented in many posts, as has the trend of Not Taxing to the Max to keep property taxes as low as possible but it has been impossible to keep up with all the news.

That’s why I’m offering some linked recent school budget related headlines.  Just reading these gives a good idea of how hard things are for districts.  Click a few and get more of the sad details.

When you are done, click one more link and sent a note to Governor Jim Doyle, your State Senator and your State Representative.  If we don’t pull their heads out of the sand, next year will be even worse and the following years I don’t want to think about.

This is far from comprehensive and they are in no particular order.

Schools see decline in state aid

Rapids School Board approves 12 percent tax rate increase

Higher school property taxes stress Fox Valley homeowners in grips of recession

Despite cuts, West Salem school taxes going up

School superintendents share money woes during forum

Most area school districts lose state aid

District to consider nearly 19 percent levy increase at tonight’s budget hearing

State forces schools to raise taxes

Cuts in aid put more of the burden on taxpayers

Board retools school budget

State aid estimate lowered; tax levy raised

School aid loss hits Chippewa Falls taxpayers

School board reduces tax increase to 11.55 percent

Fewer state dollars blamed for EC school tax hike

Altoona taxpayers to pay more for schools

Osseo-Fairchild school taxes rising 6.2 percent

Portage school deficit goes up; expected millage rate goes down

Decrease in state aid challenges Marshfield-area school districts

Read’em and weep, then get active.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | October 25, 2009 · 4:10 pm

West Bend School Budget Protest, “”Go ahead: Raise my taxes” and More

Vodpod videos no longer available.Video from WITI -Fox 6

You got to love it, students in conservative West Bend out marching against school budget cuts.  These kids are great; watch the video!

This is just one of many good things being done and said as that community deals with the impact of 15 years under a state school funding system designed to fail, capped off by a state budget that seems to have accelerating that failure as a goal.  The situation might be desperate, but the need for comprehensive reform message is making some progress.  The pieces are all there, all that is missing is directing the anger and frustration at the correct target — our state elected officials.

In September the estimates were that the revenue limit for West Bend would allow for a 12.1% property tax increase to partially make up for$2,4 million of cuts in state aid.  Over 700 people attended the annual meeting a week earlier (video at the link) —   the teabaggers were out again.

Local blogger Kristina had a great response, here is part of it.

To all the proud, No voters at the last school board meeting. How proud you must be. No band or orchestra in 6th grade, no band lessons in high school, higher athletic fees, loss of teachers and aides, cutting librarians, program support teachers, gifted and talented teacher cuts at all levels, increase in class sizes 35 – 40 and mandatory one additional class to be taught, getting rid of 1 east and west teacher and replace them with an aide. Wait let’s not forget counseling services, school social workers, athletic directors, dean of students at McLane, possibly eliminating a principal position at elementary level, all gone without a tax levy.

Hang on there’s more beautiful things the no’s I am sure are proud to stand behind. The elimination of business and technology departments and all classes go too. Middle school exploratories, world culture and tech ed. Elementary fitness, which the no’s can scream about childhood obesity and laziness of our youth but still use TV and video games as babysitters. Makes sense right? Sure, sarcasm was needed there….

Stop thinking about this as what this levy would do to you, and ask yourself what it would do to all the kids. Is $100.00 bucks or so a year worth under educating them? No! Take the 10 bucks a month you spend on fast food, coffee, case of soda, or something and set it aside at the end of the year you will be up $200.00 bucks.

The district did not set out secretly planning ways to ‘get’ the taxpayers. The district was put in this mess by the state cutting their funds without telling them before this year’s budget had to be completed. Pat Herdrich or any other school official is not trying to screw anyone or squeeze more money out of people to spend on extra candy vending machines or so the admin and teachers can give themselves all raises and fly to Europe for fun. They are asking for it so classes are not cut, teachers let go, and in the end, the students are the ones left with the consequences. This is defiantly a NEED not a WANT.

At an October 5th workshop meeting,  the Board approved $300,000 in cuts, which along with some new numbers from the state brought the proposed levy increase down to 9% with a mil rate of 7.44.

Some good community education happened at this meeting.

At least a couple residents looking on changed their views, saying no cuts were needed, after hearing the history, state limitations and politics involved.

“I changed my mind,” said Doug Rakowski at the end of the nearly 4-hour session that was closed to public comments. “I will get up at the next meeting and support this.”

He cited the state budget conditions that are expected to negatively affect the West Bend district in the future.

And from a later story:

To keep previous budgets in check during a time of state revenue caps, the district has made cuts for the past 15 years, often in areas such as maintenance and supplies, administrators say. Consequently, salaries have taken up a larger percentage of the budget.

With state aid projected to tighten in the next three years, the focus for the next round of cuts will be on programs and staff..

The top five prioritized cuts for 2010-2011: $300,000 in athletics by having one high school, $134,000 by closing the pool, $206,000 by eliminating 2.8 social workers, $50,000 by eliminating three elementary head custodians and $75,000 by reclassifying custodians.

The biggest cuts appear to off the table for now, but  like many other districts, 2010-11 is looking worse:

[West Bend School District Superintendent Pat] Herdrich said that the state aid formula and biennial budget that favors high-spending districts will have West Bend, with the lowest levy rate in Southeastern Wisconsin, facing double-digit increases in 2010-11. If the district is not near its revenue cap this year, it might face a 17 percent increase next year to maintain current programs, she said.

“How deep do you want the cuts to be next year?” she asked the seven board members. “Where you leave off is where you start for next year.”

The October 12 meeting also brought out the students in the video at the top and other school supporters, quoted in this report from TMJ4 – Milwaukee as saying “Go ahead: Raise my taxes.”

A Support West Bend Schools group is now active.

More new numbers from the state all but eliminated the progress toward a lower limit made at the October 6 meeting.

Now it appears the choices on Monday, October 26 final Budget and Levy meeting will range between a 9.0% increase and a 10.9% levy increases.  The 10.9 increase is the maximum allowed based on the final revenue limit calculations from the state.

Like many districts around Wisconsin, West Bend may not be taxing to the max this year.

A 9% increase would now mean $586,523 in new cuts.  The administration is recommending a 10.9% increase and a 7.47 mil rate.

The meeting has been moved to the Field House, which seats 3,400 and 90 minutes has been set aside for public testimony.  It should be an interesting meeting.

That’s great for those of us who study school politics and/or consider them a spectator sport.  It isn’t great for the community, the School Board or the students.

It is clear from what is happening in West Bend and elsewhere that comprehensive reform and balanced, sustainable revenues are needed.  The Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools proposal for a Pennies for Kids small sales tax dedicated to education would get us out this revenue crisis and make reforms — such as those of the School Finance Network possible.

If the people of West Bend don’t want to go through this next year and the year after (and the year after…), they getting involved in these campaigns and work to convince their legislators that this can and must be done.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | October 21, 2009 · 8:06 am

Headline of the Day — “School budget decreases, tax levy increases”

down-and-up-arrows

Parilament, “Up for the Down Stroke” (click to listen or download)..

This headline from the the Beaver Dam Daily Citizen succinctly captures what is happening all over Wisconsin, including Madison.  This is what the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools and the School Finance Network are talking about here.  This is why we need Pennies for Kids to meet the unfolding crisis and why we need comprehensive reform to assure a strong and prosperous future for our state.  This is why you need to get involved.

Here are excerpts from the story on the Waupun Area district:

School budget decreases, tax levy increases

…“It’s a concern Randy [Refsland, district administrator] and I have because next year’s budget might look even tougher,” Zeininger said. “The state of Wisconsin is in bad shape and I think it’s going to take longer than just this year to turn things around.”

…“With economics the way they are, I have real sympathy for the tax payers,” Lori Lemmenes, school board president, said. “We also need to look to the future.”

Really, the headline says it all.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | October 17, 2009 · 1:10 pm

SAGE on the (Chopping) Block

chp_socratesAs the struggles of underfunded education in Wisconsin continue some of our best programs are being placed in danger.  This is starting to happen with the Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) initiative and like so much else will be worse in the 2010-11 district budgets.

SAGE includes four components:

  • class sizes of no more than 15:1 in grades K-3;
  • increased collaboration between schools and their communities;
  • implementation of a rigorous curriculum; and
  • improved professional development and staff-evaluation practices.

All of these are to one degree or another “best practices” backed by research and common sense.

While good, SAGE isn’t perfect.  Only a limited number of SAGE contracts are available, meaning that some districts don’t have access to the program and others like Madison must make hard choices about where to implement SAGE.   SAGE is supposed to be targeted to children in poverty, but there are no direct strictures requiring a certain number or percentage  of students in poverty in the SAGE contracts.  Unlike the more comprehensive poverty aids in the School Finance Network plan, SAGE is limited to only those students in the earliest grades.  On top of all this, SAGE is woefully underfunded, requiring extensive money from district’s general operating budgets for implementation in in all schools but those with the highest poverty levels.

I’ve written about these issues before; recent events have made them more relevant than ever.  SAGE is currently funded by the state at $2,250 per low income student in a SAGE classroom.   If you have nearly 100% poverty this funding covers the cost of the additional class rooms and teachers needed to reach 15-1 ratio; as the poverty percentage goes down, the need for local funding to reduce class size goes up (see some calculations here).  One unfortunate ‘solution” that has been broached is to concentrate students in poverty in certain schools.

Madison has mostly used a percentage over numbers approach, meaning that SAFE contracts have been assigned in a way that serves the schools with the higher percentages of students in poverty, but not the highest numbers of students in poverty.  This is because implementing SAGE in a large scho0l with a middling poverty level is expensive.  I think (I’m not 100% sure) , in part due to this approach the MMSD budget passed in May projected that there would be 100 fewer children in poverty in Madison SAGE classrooms.

The reality is that as general operating budgets get squeezed, the local funds won’t be there, even the promise of the SAGE partial reimbursement will not be enough and districts will abandon the program.  As 2009-10 district budgets are finalized, SAGE is on the chopping block.

A school in Wisconsin Rapids came close to losing SAGE because they couldn’t meet the 15-1 ratio, but the Department of Public Instruction gave a temporary waiver.  The future status is still undecided.

Superior is also requesting a waiver.  Without the waiver, the district will have to spend an additional$240,000 to meet the 15-1 ration.   Even if the waiver is granted,  Superintendent Janna Stevens “intends to assemble a group to look closely at SAGE and determine the program’s future in Superior.”  this doesn’t sound too promising.  Business manager Jack Amadio has described the general operating fund as cut “to-the-bone” and projects “another tough year in 2010-11.

“We’ll start looking ahead because we know we’ll have to trim some more out of 2010-11,” Amadio said. “We’ll try to do whatever we can. Maybe we’ll try to limp through for a year, and hopefully in the next biennium, the 2011-13 biennium, there might be a rebound.”

It will take more than hope, it will take action on the part of our elected officials.

Stevens Point has a referendum on the ballot Nov. 3.  If that does not pass, SAGE will be among the items considered for cuts in 2010-11.

I’m guessing SAGE will be targeted for cuts in many more districts in 2010-11.   This is what is happening with class size reduction in California.  California once had a proud public school system, but the anti-tax crowd drowned out common sense, state support kept getting cut and now points of pride are getting scarce.

We can’t let Wisconsin go down this path.  Somebody has to stand up for the good public education does and advocate for full funding.  Recent events and statements indicate that it won’t be our elected officials of either party, so it has to be you and me.  Get involved.

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by | October 2, 2009 · 10:55 am

WAES School-Funding Reform Update — “Pennies for Kids”!

waesgraphicFrom the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools.  Table of contents below, click here for the a pdf of the full update, click on linked items for related content on AMPS.

I also want to highlight the most important and exciting item:  the “Pennies for Kids” dedicated sales tax campaign.  This is a major initiative to try to get our state lawmakers to enact a new revenue source for investments in education.  Although not the “big fix” comprehensive reform so many of us have been working for, it would provide crucial resources to meet the growing crisis caused by decreased state aid and rising school property taxes, while simultaneously moving Wisconsin closer tor adequate, equitable and sustainable school funding.  Watch for more in the coming weeks and months (Disclosure:  I am on the Board of WAES).

Here is what the WAES update has to say:

As crisis grows, WAES goes after “Pennies for Kids”

The crisis of funding in Wisconsin ’s public schools is so deep and so wide that immediate legislative action is needed to just protect the education our children have now─much less the education they deserve in the future.

To address that crisis, WAES has launched “Pennies for Kids,” a campaign to raise the sales tax one-cent to help fill the gap in public school funding created by the 2009-11 budget and to try to keep the lid on property taxes. At the same time, WAES will continue to work for comprehensive reform, understanding the long-term answer to the problem is a new, sustainable funding system that recognizes the needs of children and the goal of quality education for every student.

If passed, a one-cent increase in the sales tax will raise about $830 million annually. According to the plan being worked out by WAES members, the largest portion of that revenue would be devoted to children in classrooms through increases in categorical aid. Additionally, because it would increase the state’s share of school aid “Pennies for Kids” would slow increases in property taxes expected in the wake of the most recent state budget. To find out more about this new initiative — and to find out how you can get involved — got to http://www.excellentschools.org.

WAES School-funding reform update, week of Sept. 28

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | September 9, 2009 · 3:58 pm

Wisconsin School Referenda in Tough Times

20081008_mpls_levysign_33With most Wisconsin school districts contemplating or committed to sizable local property tax increases for 2009-10 and looking at continued service and program cuts combined with more property tax increases in 2010-11, this is not the best time to be asking the voters to approve a referendum.  Personal budgets are tight, the economy is uncertain and there is a delicate balance between program and service cuts as demonstrations of fiscal responsibility and program and service cuts undermining quality to the extent that it is difficult to garner further support (the “starve the beast” idea).

Yet because the problems caused by the latest state budget were piled on top of 16 years of struggles due to the broken state school finance system, some districts feel they have no choice.  These include ones seeking building projects, ones who feel they cannot endure any more cuts and continue to provide the quality of education they are committed to, and ones that are anticipating the expiration of a non-recurring referendum and the budget gap this will produce.

Although there has been little or no official acknowledgment or discussion, the Madison Metropolitan School District is in this last category.  At the end of the 2009-10 fiscal year, Madison will lose about $5.5 million in revenue authority for ‘maintenance and technology.”   The probable cuts for 2010-11 are bad; without this money they will be more horrific than anything we have experienced lately.  If the district wants to extend this authority, the time to start making their pitch is now.   I hope they do and I hope they get started.

Madison has not begun discussions, but others have.  There are five referenda on the ballot at special elections in October and November 2009 and more being contemplated.

Two of the ones that are set are for building projects.  These are being fast tracked in order to try for the 0% interest ARRA srtimulus bonds.

On November 3, voters in Pewaukee will vote on $24.95 million in debt authorization for classroom construction and other renovations, including a swimming pool (more from the district here and from a pro-referendum community group here).  That same day the Trevor-Wilmont voters will  decide on an $11 million plan to build an addition and renovate (more from the district here).

Pewaukee is also asking for $400,000 in annual recurring authority for general operating purposes for the new facilities.

Wheatland will go back to the voters on October 27, asking for four years of nonrecurring authority in the amount of $300,000 per year.  Nonrecurring authority in this amount expired at the end of the 1008-9 year, so this is in a sense a renewal.

A similar referendum failed last April (here and here).  The language is a great example in truth in marketing:

BE IT RESOLVED by the School Board of the Joint School District Number 1, Towns of Wheatland, Brighton, Randall and Salem, Kenosha County, Wisconsin, that the revenues included in the School District budget for the 2009-2010 school year and for three school years thereafter, to and including the 2012-2013 school year be authorized to exceed the revenue limit specified in Section 121.91, Wisconsin Statutes, by $300,000 a year, for non-recurring purposes in order to maintain the current educational level of the District and cover shortfalls due to decreased funding.” (italics and bold added).

Sad but true, the shortfalls are bigger than ever and referenda continue to be the only way to fully fund education.

On October 6, 2009 the Whitehall district has a three year non recurring maintenance, technology and infrastructure referendum on the ballot. The amounts are $200,000 for 2009-10, $150,00 for 2010-11 and $100,000 for 2011-12.  Superintendent Mike Beighley explained the thinking behind the referendum:

“When we look at the ability to improve our district with the limited increase in taxes, I think we have an obligation at least to present that to the public as an option,” said Beighley.

All across the state other districts see similar opportunities to “improve,” yet know that refrerenda are difficult and the odds of passage are less than 50%, so they don’t even ask.

Two districts struggling to finalize referenda plans are Wisconsin Dells and Rhinelander.

In the Dells, the possibility of the ARRA 0% bonding makes building an addition for 4 year-old kindergarten an attractive option. The district is holding a community meeting on September 9 and may go for the November 3 date.  They are also considering an operating referendum to make up for part of  the state budget created mess:

[District Administrator Chuck] Whitsell also said the district is facing an $800,000 budget deficit next school year, and because of no raise in the per pupil taxing authority it has been given from the state, the district might ask taxpayers to increase the revenue limits in another referendum question.

I hope they do ask for the operating money and get it.

In Rhinelander the need is clear, but the path to meeting the need has been continually blocked.  It is one of those districts that has been caught in almost all the faults of the current school funding system.  The district is geographically large, but the economies of scale are small or negative.  Enrollment has declined and incomes are not great, but property values remain relatively high.  Referenda have repeatedly failed.  There have been cuts for 16 years, 150 positions have been lost in the last seven years and more are on the table.

Here in Madison we think we have experienced the failures of the school funding system (and we have to a great extent), but I talk to my friends in Rhinelander and can only shake my head and think how lucky we are to have avoided the full weight of these failures.

Dating back to 2004, 10 operating referenda have been voted down in Rhinelander.  Yet it looks like they will try again.  I am filled with admiration for their perseverance and commitment.

The date hasn’t been set, but the word is  Rhinelander voters will get two questions this time.  One will ask for three years of $1,5 million revenue authority for operations and the other is for $13.7 million in construction bonding to maintain and remodel facilities.

Superintendent Roger Erdahl summed up the situation succinctly:

“It would stop closing buildings, it would stop laying off staff, which are the techniques we currently use to balance our budget.”

Here is what will happen if there is no successful referendum (from NewsoftheNorth.Net):

The following actions would be taken in the year 2010-11, in order of priority:

  • Close and sell South Parking building, requiring a mandatory grade re-configuration, for a savings of $117,000.
  • Close and sell Cassian-Woodboro building, with an accompanying grade re-configuration, for a savings of $120,000.
  • Reduce extra-curricular activities for a savings of $27,800.
  • Reduce custodial staff, for a savings of $472,000.
  • Reduce regular education paraprofessional staff, for a savings of $200,000.
  • Reduce full-time teaching staff by 12.5 by raising class sizes from the current low 20s to low to mid-30s in grades 4-12; or by reducing electives at the middle and high schools; or by doing a combination of larger class sizes and the reduction of electives, for a savings of $1 million.

In the year 2011-12, the following drawdown actions would be taken:

  • Reduce full-time staff, raise class sizes and reduce electives to achieve a savings of $296,000.
  • Decertify the elementary and secondary charter school and absorb these students into the other district school buildings for a savings of $240,000.
  • Reduce high school graduation requirements and move to a six-period day; reduce staff at the middle school and eliminate all professional travel and staff development, for a savings of $160,000.
  • Eliminate all Fund 10 staff development and travel and impose a moratorium on the acquisition of textbooks and instructional materials; eliminate middle school activities and travel; reduce administration staff, for a savings of $320,000.
  • Move 7th and 8th grade to the high school building; with grades 3 – 6 moving to the middle school building to reduce full-time staff, for a savings of $240,000.
  • Close and sell Crescent school building for a savings of $125,000.
  • Moratorium on all maintenance upkeep and repair of buildings, except for emergencies, for a savings of $500,000.

This is the destruction of public education.  This is the inevitable result of what Ruth Page Jones has called the “Going out of Business Plan” that is Wisconsin’s system for investing in education and the future.

Next time the Governor or a Legislator starts gabbing about how “education is a priority we protected in the state budget,” drop them a line and ask about Rhinelander.  Ask them if education has been “strengthened” as their political mouthpiece claims. Ask them what they are going to do to fix the mess they have made and inherited.

And be proactive.  The best way to help the children of Rhinelander and Wisconsin is to work for change via the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools (WAES).  Our state needs to look  for ways to fully fund the education of every child in every district, we need to consider a “Cents for Schools” dedicated sales tax, we need to make sure that the money is going where it is needed most, we need to do better.  WAES is the loudest and clearest voice saying these things.  Lend your voice and make the call for reform even louder.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | September 4, 2009 · 7:08 pm

Right and Wrong — MMSD Board Members on School Finance, State and Local

I had not recently thought about what was said by Madison Metropolitan Board of Education members as they passed their initial budget in May, but the happenings in Washburn brought them to mind and reminded me that the struggle to recognize that investments in education are a state responsibility requiring a state solution isn’t over in Madison.

As we now know the state budget produced multiple financial problems for MMSD (we know this, but you wouldn’t know it by going to the MMSD budget page or the news releases, or the “recently in the news” — they missed this from Board President Arlene Silviera and everything else that has happened since January).  As a result, the entire Board of Education has been in one way or another looking to the state for long and short term help.

Back in May, that was not the case.  One member got things right; most were too happy with what then seemed like a positive budget to bring up the long term state issues; one got things wrong in an offensive and dangerous manner

Johnny Winston Jr. is the one who got it right.

He revealed the truth, school finance is a state and federal problem and requires at the very least a state solution. Recent developments at the state finance level have moved us further from that solution.

For a variety of reasons (listed below), until the latest state budget Madison had enjoyed relatively painless budgeting in the most recent years. At the same time, the state school funding system remains broken, any of the varied nips and tucks that have been made at the local level have only provided limited relief, they’ve only been partial remediations – and temporary. The real fix has to come at the state level, it must be comprehensive and it must be sustainable.

Lucy Mathiak is the one who got it wrong.

In addition to her misguided championing of local solutions to a state created problem (see here for MMSD’s official and correct position), Mathiak mostly misidentified and wrongly interpreted the main factors that contributed to the recent lack of major harmful budget cuts in Madison.

Here is my list, in approximate order of importance:

  • Tax Incremental Finance District closure windfall (over $5.4 million).
  • Successful Operating Referendum, ($5 million for 2009-10).
  • Confused and overzealous fiscal conservatism in the 2007-8 budget (scroll down), resulting in a $4.3 million general fund surplus (added to the Fund Balance).  Astute readers will remember that the 2007-8 fiscal year was the year that MMSD was a rough budget season and that schools were almost closed and many harmful cuts were made (in my opinion, the two biggest factors in this surplus were underestimates for state special education funding and local salary savings, see more here).
  • A new management team. Superintendent Dan Nerad and Asst. Superintendent Erik Kass have brought new eyes to the budgeting process and found some savings and efficiencies. However, as their experiences in Green Bay and Waukesha demonstrate, there are serious limits to what any management team can do to stave off harmful cuts.
  • Losing students to open enrollment. This made FTE cuts less painful for the 2009-10 budget. The benefits of this are limited and only work when efficiencies of size are present, but because the structural gap in the state finance system is based on per pupil funding, fewer pupils means a smaller gap.

Right and wrong, partial and temporary, these factors are all about played out. The party is over and the bills must be paid.

As Asst. Superintendent Erik Kass said, 2010-11 is looking “ugly,” and I’ll add that this ugliness has nothing to do with mythical local mismanagement (in fact the recent surpluses and the harm caused by the cuts and conflicts that created those surpluses reveal that the very Board members Mathiak praises had pushed the district too far on issues of  budgeting and were the ones closest to mismanaging) and the solution will not be found via equally mythical miraculous local administration and governance.

The new state budget has brought back to MMSD the hard choices needed to make the cuts that do the least harm and to find the fiscal strategies that can be sustained. The Title I and IDEA stimulus money will soften the blows, but that is yet another partial and temporary band-aid.

The self-serving myths Mathiak mouthed back in May are dangerous because they make it harder to convince people that school finance reform must be a priority.  I’m glad I remembered what she said, because these falsehoods must be countered at every opportunity.

Join the movement for real education funding reform.  Check out the School Finance Network; become a member of the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools.

If you do these things, you will be going a long way towards righting some very significant wrongs.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | September 4, 2009 · 7:06 pm

Happy Labor Day!

The Labor Day extravaganza starts with a lengthy excerpt from the1886 Platform of the Knights of Labor.  It is a good reminder that the sruggle has been going on for a long time.

Preamble

The alarming development and aggressiveness of great capitalists and corporations, unless checked, will inevitably lead to the pauperization and hopeless degradation of the toiling masses. It is imperative, if we desire to enjoy the full blessings of life, that a check be placed upon unjust accumulation, and the power for evil of aggregated wealth. This much-desired object can be accomplished only by the united efforts of those who obey the divine injunction, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.”

Therefore we have formed the Order of the Knights of Labor, for the purpose of organizing and directing the power of the industrial masses, not as a political party, for it is more — in it are crystalized sentiments and measures for the benefit of the whole people, but it should be borne in mind, when exercising the right of suffrage, that most of the objects herein set forth can only be obtained through legislation, and that it is the duty of all to assist in nominating and supporting with their votes only such candidates as will pledge their support to these measures, regardless of party. But no one shall, however, be compelled to vote with the majority, and calling upon all who believe in securing the greatest good to the greatest number, to join and assist us.

Declaration of Principles

We declare to the world that our aims are:

1. To make industrial and moral worth, not wealth, the true standard of individual and national greatness.

2. To secure to the worker the full enjoyment of the wealth they create, sufficient leisure in which to develop their intellectual, moral and social faculties; all of the benefits, recreation and pleasures of association; in a word, to enable them to share in the gains and honors of advancing civilization.

Next up is a reminder to attend the South Central Federation of Labor LaborFest, at the Labor Temple (Park and Wingra).  Lots of good people, activities for all ages, good food and drink and music from Mel Ford and Paul Cebar and the Milwaukeeans.  You can download a flier here.

While on the topic of reminders, the pending bill requiring that labor history be taught in Wisconsin schools could use your support. Find out more here and also check out the other great things that the Wisconsin Labor History Society has to offer.

Last, that labor classic “I’m Sticking with the Union” as performed by a stellar cast at Pete Seeger’s 90th Birthday concert.

Last year’s Labor Day post, with more music and history can be found here.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under Blast from the Past, education, Local News, National News, Take Action

by | September 4, 2009 · 3:32 pm

Sandbagged! Now Teabagged?

School districts and school finance reform advocates were sandbagged by Governor Jim Doyle and the Democratic controlled Legislature.  For years they had said “if you put us in control, fixing school finance will be a priority.’  We helped put them in control, districts built preliminary budgets based on the assumption that even if they wouldn’t enact a fix right away, they also wouldn’t make things worse.

But that is exactly what they did, make things worse.

They did this in many ways.  They cut the money targeted to the neediest students and districts via categorical aid.  They cut the amount of total revenue available to districts to well below “cost to continue.”  They upped the property tax credits, money that never goes near a classroom, and called it more money for education. They saddled school boards and districts with the unwelcome dual tasks of finding new savings and raising property taxes (for more on how this is playing out in Madison, see here and here).  Sandbagged.

Now — as districts are finalizing their budgets,  setting their tax levies and raising property taxes — the teabagger anti-tax crowd is coming out.  So far the only report I’ve seen is from Washburn, but more may well be on the way.

The Ashland Daily Press reports that   80-90 people showed up at the district budget listening session, many came to protest.  On August 18th, the Board of Education had passed a preliminary budget with what is being called a 24% tax increase in the local property tax contribution (I did the math and the mil rate will go up about 15%, not small, but not 24% either).  Like in Madison, there is a combination of a recent referendum, high property values, and most of all, the miserable state budget.  At the time the budget was passed District Superintendent Sue Masterson laid out the choices:

“We are not happy about it, but there is nothing we can do about it.”

… Masterson said cutting back to what would essentially leave “reading, writing and arithmetic” would be damaging to the community. She said that as part of the referendum process, many cuts had already been made and that the district had made as many cuts as they could without cutting the quality of instruction. She said that further cuts could result in dramatically larger class sizes and might require building changes that the district couldn’t afford in any event.

“The only way you cut now is putting 40 kids in a classroom, eliminating programs, which will result in an exodus of new families and existing families from local schools,” she said. “Consumer science programs, music programs, tech ed programs — when you start cutting those kinds of things… well, today’s public education families expect a rounded education,” Masterson said.

This hasn’t changed, but now the voices from the community are louder and more strident.  The Daily Press described the message from the September 1, 2009 listening session (let me note that MMSD has scheduled no listening sessions on their budget revisions):

One message came across loud and clear: The amount of the increase is unacceptable — and they expect the school board to go back to the budget and rework it so the increase is much closer to the 9 percent increase approved last November in a referendum allowing the district to exceed revenue caps. The tough economy makes a big tax increase especially difficult, many said.

…”The bottom line is we need to cut, and we need to keep Washburn houses filled with families.”

As is usual with these things, they were less forthcoming when asked for suggestions about what to cut and how to save:

Many at the meeting were unhappy they were being asked for suggestions for cuts when they didn’t have a line-item budget to look at for ideas, and others said the reason they hire an administrator and elect a school board is to make intelligent fiscal decisions on behalf of their constituents. Still, some suggestions were made.

Those included delaying improvements to the bleachers, cutting the food service program, and cutting administration costs by sharing an administrator with other school districts.

It is likely that there are some savings to be had, but after 16 years of struggling with annual cuts due to revenues that have been inadequate by design, the potential savings are minimal.

I have some sympathy with the people who are unhappy with the tax increase.  They are correct that too much of the investment in education is coming from property taxes.

I also have much admiration for the Board and administrators who are defending education as a valuable investment and have not yet given in to the anti-tax sentiment (contrast with Madison, where sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between the district and the anti-taxers).

The ones I have no use for are the those who say –as one attendee did — they are  “sick of hearing the excuse ‘the state did this to us.'”

This is both wrong — the state did do this to them — and counter productive, because  it cuts off productive protest directed at the state officials who actually have the power to make things better and electoral action directed to replace the ones who sandbagged us.  Getting mad at district officials over this makes no sense.

We’ve heard this sort of thing in Madison before (one sitting Board member still mouths these ridiculous ideas on occasion), but mostly the message that school funding is a state responsibility in need of a state solution has been heard.  This needs to happen all around the state.  Join the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools to help make that happen.

Thomas J. Mertz

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Filed under "education finance", Budget, education, Elections, finance, Local News, School Finance, Take Action, Uncategorized, We Are Not Alone