Category Archives: Uncategorized

by | July 14, 2008 · 8:23 am

Talkin’ Referendum

Tav Falco and the Unapproachable Panther Burns – “Money Talks” (click to listen or download)

On July 28th the Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education will begin discussing a possible operating referendum. This is what Board President Arlene Silveira had to say on The Daily Page:

You will start to hear talk of a referendum in November as there is a community group starting to form in support of this action. At this point in time, the Board has not had any discussions on a future referendum. We will have a meeting on July 28 to start the discussion on this topic. The budget gap for the 09/10 school year is projected to be approximately $9.2M. Dan Nerad has our business office reviewing numbers in preparation for our discussion. IF, after our discussions and public hearing, we vote to go to referendum in November, the question(s) are due to the clerk’s office in early September. There will be an opportunity for public input. There is quite a bit of discussion that will take place in a short period of time. If you have any questions/comments, please let me know.

Arlene Silveira Madison Board of Ed

There is also a new note on the front page of the Communities and Schools Together (CAST) site:

At their July 28, 2008 meeting the Board of Education will begin discussions of a possible referendum. If they go forward, a public hearing will be scheduled followed by deliberations on the details of the referendum. The Board needs to hear from us, they need to know a referendum would have support from the community and be aware of what their constituents think is important. Attend a meeting or contact the Board at comments@madison.k12.wi.us.

We need a referendum. The school finance system in Wisconsin is creates annual budget gaps of about 2.3% between the revenue that districts are allowed to collect and what it costs to continue the same level and quality of education. Each year districts must cut programs and services. The only alternative is to hold a referendum and ask the tax-payers for the authority to collect more revenue. Without a referendum there will be about $9.2 million in cuts in the 2009-10 MMSD budget .

In 15 years under this system, Madison schools have eliminated over 600 positions (including about 25 administrators), cut programs and services, and found more efficient ways of doing things. Any further cuts will affect what we value most about our schools. Our children, our schools and our community deserve better.

If a referendum is placed on the ballot, the timeline will likely be short. Communities and Schoools Together — along with other interested groups and individuals — has begun initial pre-campaign organizing. We will need help with big and small things. To get involved, please contact us at madisoncast@sbcglobal.net.

I want to emphasize that this may happen fairly quickly. That means that if there are things you would like to see funded (or not funded) by a referendum, the time to let the Board know that is short. It also means that if you want to volunteer to help pass a referendum it would be good to contact CAST as soon as possible.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | July 10, 2008 · 9:42 am

New Blog – Mica Pollock, schoolracetalk.org

Curtis Mayfield — “Mighty, Mighty (Spade and Whitey)” (click to listen or download)

I’ve highlighted Mica Pollock’s work on the importance of talking about race and other inequalities and ways to cultivate productive conversations here and here on AMPS. She has launched a new blog/site, www.schoolracetalk.org. I suggest you check it out. Here is her description:

I started schoolracetalk.org to create a virtual place where people can talk together about race issues in schools. We have to discuss these issues face to face with local people. But we also need places to go test ideas, and to learn some “gold nugget” ideas from others. We need to think together about how to handle racial inequality and what to “do with” difference and diversity.

Mica Pollock also had a very good guest post at eduwonkette recently.

I’ve said it before in a variety of ways, when those associated with our schools only indirectly address difficult matters of inequality, very little is gained. We might avoid or postpone some conflicts this way, but we don’t move forward toward better schools or a better society.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | July 8, 2008 · 2:17 pm

No Greenbacks for Green Schools — Penny Wise and Pound Foolish

Click on the picture for a very cool interactive vesrion for the Wiscvonsin Department of Natural Resources.

Click on the image for a very cool interactive version from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resourses.

Ray Charles, Greenback Dollar (click to listen or download).

In many, many ways the Wisconsin school finance system is-in-and-of-itself penny wise and pound foolish. Beyond the general truths that a lack of investment in the education of our children weakens our future competitiveness, depresses the earning (and taxpaying) potential of the coming generations and lead to increases in social service and criminal justice spending (see the work of The Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education), our school finance system also precludes many districts from making the kind of investments that in the relatively short term will create great savings. Because of endless cycle of annual same service budget cuts created by the revenue limits, districts are rarely able to look even one or two years ahead for savings to be realized. Energy efficiency is a prime example of this.

Lt. Governor Babara Lawton has spearheaded an Energy Star School Challenge initiative (MMSD has accepted this challenge). This is good program, but there are no funds attached to participation and without funds even the program’s modest goal of a 10% increase in efficiency is beyond the means of many of our cash strapped school districts.

Some districts have taken matters in their own hands and have gone to the voters with referendums to fund energy efficiency investments. In April of 2007, the voters of the Rice Lake District approved $3.88 million for an upgrade of an 1980s era system. Superintendent Paul Vine said, “We use the savings to try to maintain and support other student educational programs.” A failed boiler at Waterloo High School led to school officials to investigate an upgrade. In February of 2008, voters in the Waterloo District approved $1.5 million to replace a 50 year-old boiler that was 60% efficient with a new 98% efficient system. As a news story noted:

Without voter approval to exceed the state-imposed revenue caps, the board would have had to cut educational programs to pay for a new boiler. Revenue caps limit the amount of money a school district can raise through the property tax levy. The project is nothing the district can do within its budget officials have said.

The Colby district is going forward with a similar referendum. The current system operates at 50% efficiency, the upgrade would be 95% efficient. The financial numbers are good, in the longer term:

A district-wide upgrade of heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems would cost about $841,000, but it would pay for itself in a little more than nine years and save the district over $92,000 annually, according to the study.

Like Waterloo, Colby can’t make the investment required to realize these saving without going to referendum. meanwhile, Colby struggles to with annual same service cuts like most other districts in Wisconsin. Two failed operating referenda in 2006 have already led to the closure of a school and an early learning center, and cuts to “classes like agriculture, foreign languages, business, consumer ed, music, and art” are now being contemplated (thanks to Terri Wiersma of the Marshfield News Herald for information and a local perspective).

The Colby referendum will also seek to  refinance existing debts at a lower the interest rate. High interest rate debts and obligations, particularly those associated retirement benefits, are a growing problem for many Wisconsin districts. the inability of districts to do the fiscally responsible thing by refinancing is yet another example of the “penny wise and pound foolish” choices our school finance system creates. I’ll probably be posting more on this in the future.

Efficient word burning, like that sought by Colby, is also more sustainable than fossil based fuel consumption. A study by the Biomass Energy Resource Center concluded that:

Biomass heating in schools holds great promise to advance renewable energy policy, stabilize and reduce school heating costs, benefit the local economy, support the forest products industry, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

So we can add global energy and greenhouse gas issues to the growing list of benefits that our state school finance system makes it difficult to realize. While I’m at it, I want to point out that the long bus rides caused by school closures, mergers, consolidations and dissolutions forced on districts by the state finance system aren’t helping the environment or energy consumption.

Currently about eleven districts on Wisconsin are using wood heat. There is a nice report on the Barron system here. Barron saves an estimated $100,000 a year via efficient wood heating and cooling. That’s money that is instead being used to educate students.

What a great idea, too bad our state finance system puts short term property tax cuts ahead of education.

Penny wise and pound foolish.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | July 2, 2008 · 7:47 am

Third Time a Charm? Another Wausaukee Referendum in the Works (Updated, Again)

You’d better hold on to what you’ve got
You’d better hold on to what you’ve got
Cause if you think nobody wants it
Just throw it away and you will see
Someone will have it before you can count 1, 2, 3
Yes they will, yes they will

Joe Tex, “Hold On to What You Got” (click to listen)

[Updates at the bottom. Update number 2 is a clarification from District Administrator Jan Dooley. Scroll down.]

WBAY is reporting that the Wausaukee Board of Education has instructed staff to draft another referendum. The Board will vote Thursday (July 3) to decide whether this will be placed before the electorate. The details are sketchy. WBAY reports that:

The school board decided Tuesday night on a $675,000 referendum. For the average $100,000 home, that’s an added $102 in property taxes for the next ten years.

An attorney will now draft the proposal for approval by the board on Thursday. It would then go before residents for a vote in 45 days.

If a third referendum fails, the Wausaukee School District is prepared to close. It’s nearly $200,000 in debt.

This sounds like a ten year nonrecurring referendum, but it is hard to tell. More on AMPS as the story develops.

A February four year nonrecurring referendum (at $1,250,000 the first year and $1,000,000 the subsequent years) failed by a vote of 1,334 to 394; on June 24 a one year nonrecurring $575,000 referendum failed by a vote of 563-544.

More on AMPS here and commentary from John Smart here.

Stay tuned.

Update #1

This video report from WLUK-TV gives more details, but adds to the confusion. According to the story, they are considering what sounds like a 2 1/2 year nonrecurring referendum. I’m not sure that is possible.

Keep checking back, I’ll post more as it becomes available.

Update #2

I received this very informative email from District Administrator Jan Dooley:

After receiving over 640 taxpayer signatures in support of another referendum, the board voted, at last night’s meeting (July 1), to authorize me to work with legal counsel to draft the resolutions for a third referendum. The referendum will be to exceed our revenue limit by $675,000 per year for ten years. The board will be voting on the resolutions at Thursday night’s meeting.

During the meeting last evening, our school board president, Dennis Taylor, indicated that the yearly school tax increase for this referendum amount on a $100,000 home would be approximately $102 per year. This amount is based on a zero percent increase in equalized value. If equalized value of property in the district increases, the actual impact for the referendum amount will be less per year.

Where the confusion may enter in is that Mr. Taylor indicated that in 2 ½ years our building debt will be paid off. Our current annual payment for our building debt is $675,000; thus, when our building is paid off, the school tax increase from the referendum will be offset by the decrease in school taxes from the pay off of the building debt. Thus, the increase from the referendum will be felt by taxpayers for the next three years, and then the school tax will revert to near existing levels. I trust that is the basis for the reporting of an increase of $102 per year for 2 ½ years on a $100,000 home.

With anticipated declining enrollment, our district will continue to realize a natural increase in our tax rate because of a drop in state aid.

As I have said before and will say again, “Educating our children should not be this difficult.” Our children deserve a solid education, and there should be sufficient revenue with which to provide such an education. A major problem that our district faces is our shrinking state aid. Since state aid is based on property wealth per student, and we are faced with high property values and declining enrollment, you understand the end result. Currently, our district is aided at 14.93%; thus, our taxpayers are already paying over 85% of our total revenue limit. This fact makes passing a referendum exceedingly difficult, at best. The sobering reality is that nearly 50% of our student population receives free and reduced lunches. Our district may be property rich, but many families are income poor.

So, we’re caught in a vice grip. Our state constitution guarantees a fair and equitable education for every child in the state. We have reduced our programming to a level where we believe any further cuts will greatly harm our children. We need additional revenue to provide this level of education for our children. Our taxpayers feel overtaxed with the state picking up only 14.93% of the cost. When our board of education reluctantly voted on June 26 to consider dissolving our school district, in the wake of our failed referendum on June 24, the board members were taking a stand for children.

Moving to this third referendum will not halt the dissolution process. The two processes will run parallel with one another. Since we do not know whether the referendum will pass in August, the board is scheduled to take action on ordering the dissolution of the school district on July 8. Should our referendum pass and our district receive additional money for operational costs, this factor will be weighed by the state in deciding the future of our district.

If you have any additional questions or need further clarification, please feel free to contact me at any time.

Jan Dooley, District Administrator

School District of Wausaukee

So it is a ten year nonrecurring referendum proposal, but the retirement of debt from a building project will lessen the apparent property tax impact after 2 1/2 years.

I wish Ms Dooley, all the staff, parents, students, Board and community members in Wausaukee the best. The most important way we can way to help them is to keep the pressure on the Governor and the Legislature.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | June 27, 2008 · 8:25 pm

Wausaukee School District Votes to Dissolve

19 votes.

That was the margin by which the June 24, 2008 non-recurring, one year $575,000 school operating referendum lost in Wausaukee. 19 votes out of 1107 cast (number from the DPI site, the linked Peshtigo Times story appears to be wrong). Now according to the Eagle-Herald, the Wausaukee Board of Education feels that the best thing to do is to dissolve the district.

[In a story from WBAY (Green Bay)] School Board President Dennis Taylor says, “the choice is not ours. The choice is the taxpayers of this community. The community has to decide if they’re willing to spend an extra $180, in some cases $150 a year to keep a school open in this community.”

Blaming those who voted against a referendum, although accurate because they are the proximate cause, misses the bigger picture, the role of the state school finance system.

District Administrator Jan Dooley provided some of this:

She feels hopes for a state “bail out” are in vain. She said there are many districts in almost the same financial position as Wausaukee, and if the state lets one it will have to help them all. “I don’t see the state intervening by offering assistance to Wausaukee over and above what is offered ot all districts in the state, because then the floodgates would open. The only chance would be a change in the state aid formula.”

“We have cut, and we have cut to a level that we feel we cannot risk cutting more staffing without losing kids,” Dooley declared. “I think everyone in the district should be asking, ‘What do we want for the children of our district, and what do we need to do to bring that about?’ Our children don’t deserve to have more programs cut on them,” she declared. “This is about children and their futures! I am an educator at the core of my being and this resonates deep within me. Right now it’s the children that are at the forefront in my mind.”

She said Wausaukee is at a point where “We’re caught in what I call the death spiral. We have established what we believe is a sound education for our children. If we cut more, parents will say I want more, so they will take their children and put them into another district. If we cut more, we risk losing more students, which means we lose more aids, and have to cut still more programs. it’s a downward spiral that won’t end.”

“The children in the School District of Wausaukee deserve an education that is no less than any other children in the state,” she declared.

The failure of a referendum in February inspired a thorough discussion of the roll of state finance system in this sad turn of events. After that vote, people on both sides of the issue looked to our elected state officials for change.

[Gerry] Gerbers described the proposed referendum as, “Ill designed and ill conceived,” in that it offered no long-term solutions…

Gerbers cited figures showing that the district is property rich and income poor. Wausaukee School District residents have family and individual incomes below the state average. More than 10 percent of the population is at or below the poverty level. He and Kipp said residents cannot afford more tax increases.

Village President Clark Caine argued that the state kicks in and pays property taxes for poor households under the Homestead property Tax Relief law, “so that is really not an issue.” [Editor’s Note: In theory this is correct, but the Homestead Credit formula has not been adjusted for inflation, so many people who should qualify, don’t. — TJM}

Gerbers reviewed a bit of the state aid formula. Wausaukee, because of huge amounts of recreational properties which are rapidly rising in value, gets only 14.93 percent of its expenses reimbursed by the state. Peshtigo gets five times more aid per student than Wausaukee.

Gerbers is calling attention to the problems of the many high property value, high cost, low income districts in the state. These are described further in the Atlas of School Finance from the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future. Some believe that the current “Sparsity Aid” — ironically featured on the front page of the DPI website today (snap shot, here) — sufficiently addresses the needs of the districts. It doesn’t. Gerbers is right about this, but he was wrong to oppose the referendum because it isn’t a long term solution. referendum supporters had the right idea:

Ann Hartnell asked why not call for approval of this referendum, and use that approval anyway to buy time for the changes they plan to propose. She said the school board would not be obligated to levy the full amount authorized by the referendum.

Caine also urged approving the referendum, then pushing for change….

Trustee Hilbert Radtke said people in Madison and Milwaukee do not realize the difficulties faced by rural districts under existing funding formulas, and we don’t have enough votes here to change it.

A suggestion from the floor was to enlist the help of non-resident property owners, since they also pay taxes in the district. Get them to contact their legislators from parts of the state where there are enough votes.

Hartnell agreed, but said even a concerted campaign from all of Marinette County might make a huge difference.

I hope that despite the disappointment these plans go forward and that this situation catches the attention of the Governor and the Legislature.

What next for Wausaukee? Some people are already working for yet another referendum.

Resident Gerald Schimidt says, “the community has the potential to basically shrivel up, die, go away. We don’t want to see that.”

John May says, “it will be a shame for a small community like this to lose a big school like that.” His son Cody goes to school here, but the way things are going he may not be for much longer.

The school is now considering shutting down. It’s nearly $200,000 in debt and the board says it can’t cut costs anymore.

School board member Dave Kipp says, “the level of frustration is very high. We have done everything we can to cut costs to the bone without sacrificing a quality education for our kids. That’s the key point.”

The only way to potentially save the school is for taxpayers to step up. Which is exactly what John Guarisco is doing at this barbeque, collecting signatures to ask the school board for yet another referendum and another chance for taxpayers to save their school district.

Meanwhile the planning for a July 2009 closure has begun. If this happens, the students will be disbursed to five neighboring school districts — Crivitz, Pembine, Marinette, Wabeno, or Goodman-Armstrong Creek — all of which face similar difficulties under our state school finance system, a system designed not to educate, but to keep property taxes low and politics safe.

Please join the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools and others in working to enact a way of funding schools that puts education first. Please contact your Legislators and Governor Doyle and tell them this has gone on too long.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | June 21, 2008 · 1:45 pm

“Ain’t No Miracle Worker”

The Brogues, “I Ain’t No Miracle Worker” (click to listen).

There is a lot of excitement about Dan Nerad taking the reins as Superintendent of MMSD. I share this excitement. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him three or four times, have read numerous articles about him and his work, have talked to people who know him from Green Bay and have researched what he has accomplished in his career. All this leads me to believe that Dan Nerad is a very high quality district leader who will fit well in Madison and contribute greatly to the improvement of our schools.

Still. I worry that expectations are unreasonably high and that we may be setting Nerad and ourselves up for a fall. Over and over again I have heard and read people saying “when Dan Nerad gets here” either preceded or followed by some hope or promise of a positive change. There will be changes and I think that (from my perspective) they will be mostly positive. So what’s the problem? Here is a list:

  • It doesn’t recognize all the good work of the recent past. Not Just Art Rainwater’s contributions, but the contributions of our Board members, our staff and teachers and our community. Looking to Nerad to for huge improvements can make it seem like MMSD has been stagnant or failing. It hasn’t. For some nice overviews and reflections on Art Rainwater and his time with MMSD, see the current MMSD Today.
  • We shouldn’t forget that educational improvement is incremental. Perhaps the best history of educational reform is David Tyack and Larry Cuban’s Tinkering Toward Utopia. In their prologue they write:

Although policy talk about reform has had a utopian ring, actual reforms have typically been gradual and incremental — tinkering with the system. It may be fashionable to decry such change as piecemeal and inadequate, but over long periods of time such revisions of practices adapted to local contexts can substantially improve schools. Rather than seeing the hybridizing of reform ideas as a fault, we suggest it can be a virtue. Tinkering is one way of preserving what is valuable and reworking what is not.

The point in the last sentence is related to my concerns about belittling what has been accomplished in our schools. Tyack develops this further in one of my favorite essays “A Conservationist Ethic in Education Reform.”

  • No policy, reform, set of policies or reforms will make everyone happy. Uncontested school board races and an apparent conflict and controversy avoidance strategy by the Board of Education may have lulled some into thinking that divisions are a thing of the past in Madison school politics. They aren’t. I recognize that most people involved share many values and even have much agreement about how best to put those values into action, but also know from personal experience that there are passionate disagreements among people of good will when it comes to education. Whatever Dan Nerad does or does not do, tries or does not try, some vocal segments of our community will object that it is too much or too little or just plain wrong. The divisions that have been hidden will become apparent again at some point. I believe that Dan Nerad is skilled at working toward consensus, finding common ground and building coalitions. This will serve him (and our community) well, but it won’t satisfy everyone.
  • The challenges Madison’s schools face are great, too great for any individual to address alone. The issues raised by demographic changes are well documented; the insane choices created by the state school finance system are well known; the pressures from testing and other ill-devised mandates of NCLB are readily apparent. I don’t believe these are intractable, but I do recognize that there are no simple answers and that sustained hard work and cooperation from all associated with the district and all segments of our community are necessary if we are to be successful in meeting these challenges. Dan Nerad cannot do this without help from many quarters. Much has been written about his openness, outreach and cooperative spirit, but if some members of the Board of Education continue to be blasé about or dismissive of public engagement, little improvement is possible. The community has to step up too. Schools of Hope (as well as other Urban League programs) and the Foundation for Madison Public Schools are great; Mayor Cieslewicz, Alder Satya Rhodes-Conway and others are actively working to expand school/city/community initiatives; MMSD has wide-ranging partnerships with the University of Wisconsin School of Education and other local research and higher education institutions; PTOs, PTAs and PTGs are doing wonderful things; Thousands of volunteers help our schools on a regular basis; Our legislative delegation — especially Rep. Sondy Pope Roberts — are leaders in the fight for school finance reform; ABC Madison and Get TUFF have been educating and agitating for state school funding changes; Communities and Schools Together and Mad-City Grumps are preparing for the next referendum campaign; countless other individuals and groups are contributing to the betterment of our schools… (apologies if I left out your favorite). An impressive list, but it isn’t enough. We all can and must do more.

So let’s work together to welcome Dan Nerad, expand the good our schools are doing, fix the state finance system, pass a referendum…have realistic expectations about what a change in the superintendency will bring and do our best to help Dan Nerad exceed those expectations.

In this spirit (or maybe just because I like it), here is video from the last referendum campaign.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | June 19, 2008 · 5:15 pm

School-funding reform update, week of June 16

From the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools.

The Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools (WAES) is a statewide, independent, membership-based organization of educators, school board members, students, parents, community leaders, researchers, citizens, and community activists whose lone goal is the comprehensive reform of Wisconsin’s school-funding system. If you would like more information about the organization — or on becoming part of WAES — contact Tom Beebe at 920-650-0525 or tbeebe@wisconsinsfuture.org.

*******

Good news and not so good news out of Winneconne

Because of the flaws in Wisconsin’s school-funding system, more and more communities are forced to go to expensive and divisive referenda in order to operate their public schools. To date, a couple of things are known: The number of votes being taken is increasing and the rate of success is about 50 percent. While a “no” vote tells us that a great many public schools are approaching fiscal and educational crisis, there is also something to be learned in a “yes” vote.

One such lesson comes from Winneconne, where a scaled back referenda to exceed revenue limits by $880,000 in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years (a vote on a $1.19 million and $1.45 million proposal was defeated in April) was approved 1,645 to 1,116.

The good news is the referendum passed and allows the district to cover ongoing labor, transportation, and utility expenses. The not-so-good news is its passage does not eliminate the need for some budget cuts. The board had already identified $310,000 in cuts for next year and an additional $260,000 in 2009-10.

*******

Wisconsin’s tax ranking drops … What does it mean?

According to headlines and stories in media across the state, Wisconsin has, for the first time in years, moved off of the Top 10 tax list. Is that, however, a claim to fame or is it the canary in the mine shaft for those interested in school-funding reform and the protection of the state’s public structures that are financed through state and local taxes?

One view is offered by the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future

Executive Director Karen Royster and Research Director Jack Norman wrote in the May 24 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that instead of worrying about where the state is in regard to total taxes, we need to pay much more attention to tax fairness . We “built momentum (in the last legislative session) for smart tax reform that will modernize our out-of-date system and create a fair and efficient method of raising revenue,” the pair said. The article went on to talk about recent successes and suggestions for the next session of the Legislature.

On May 29, Norman joined Andrew Reschovsky, professor of public affairs and applied economics with the LaFollette Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Wisconsin Public Radio to talk about taxes and public spending in Wisconsin. You can hear the complete hour on “Conversations with Joy Cardin” by clicking here.

*******

Tomah Journal wants candidates to get real about spending cuts
Sometimes, a newspaper editorial hits the nail squarely on the head in its insight and intelligence. June 5, the Tomah Journal did just that in an editorial titled, “Cut state spending? Candidates should offer specifics.” The paper vowed to make sure candidates in the upcoming election who talk about cutting spending are specific about those cuts.

The editorial was an answer to the fact Wisconsin dropped from 10th to 11th in terms of tax ranking. “Tax rankings by themselves have little meaning,” the editorial said. “What matters is tax value. Are state and local governments effectively providing public services that are cost-prohibitive for most individuals to purchase on their own? And is Wisconsin upholding its moral responsibility to make sure the poor, sick, and vulnerable aren’t doomed to destitution?”

That just about says it all and is the measure of good government … not just the relative position of tax payments. “Just as politicians who advocate more spending have an obligation to identify which taxes they would raise,” the Journal says, “aggressive tax-cutters have an obligation to identify the spending they would cut. And, if they can’t identify specific cuts, then it’s a concession that Wisconsin is making the right choices on taxes and spending.”

*******

WAES upgrades website; joins YouTube and Facebook

It will be a while before it is finished, but we are in the process of giving a new look and feel to the WAES website in order to make it more user friendly and, most importantly, valuable to those involved in reforming the way Wisconsin funds its public schools.

At the present time, not much will look different, but that will change. One of the new features is that you can join WAES online and send in your dues with a credit card or with PayPal. It should also be easier to sign up for and read the e-mail update and to register for a school-funding reform presentation. Give the site a look-see at http://www.excellentschools.org. Let me know what features you feel would make it more valuable for you.

That’s not all that’s new. WAES has also entered the brave new world of Facebook and YouTube. For those of you using the former, check us out, join up, bring in your friends, use this new and exciting technology to spread the word about school-funding reform, and show your support and network with other people working to change school finance by joining the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools Facebook cause. Also, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. If that’s true, then video must be worth a million. WAES is new at it, but go to the WAES YouTube Channel and, thanks to WAES members and technical folks at Advocates for Madison Public Schools, see what’s going on. Be sure to subscribe to the WAES Channel on YouTube or check back for updates
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Sen. Schultz continues to advocate school-funding reform

Too many people think that school-funding reform is all about Republicans vs. Democrats. It’s not, and Sen. Dale Schultz, a Republican from Richland Center, is a good example. In a recent column in The Monroe Evening Times, he praised the Governor for signaling his willingness to talk about reform and said he looks “forward to joining him to improve how our schools are funded.”

Sen. Schultz also offered some good comments on the property tax levy credit, part of the school-funding formula that directs state aid intended for children in classrooms to property taxpayers. “The name is misleading,” Schultz said, “because school levy credits actually are payments to municipalities to offset municipal tax levies, and schools never see the money. The shifting of millions of aid dollars to the levy credit meant less in general school aids that go where needs are greatest — small, rural, and poor school districts … ”

The comments didn’t go quite far enough, however, because there are “small, rural, and poor school districts” in some parts of the state — those with artificially high property values — that actually do benefit from the levy credit. Because of their high property values, these groups get very little if any state aid. Taxpayers in those districts do, however, get the levy credit. It is, therefore, a big piece of the school budget for many districts.

WAES Wisconsin Adequacy Plan addresses the problems in both types of school districts and looks forward to working with Sen. Schultz and other legislators to actually change what is an unfair and inadequate funding system.

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WAES needs your support now more than ever

There’s a great deal going on around the country and in Wisconsin that will affect our communities and our families for years to come, but nothing is more important than the the future of our public schools. At a time we need a state school-funding formula that moves our children’s education to the next level, however, we have one that is unequal, inadequate, and too complicated. It doesn’t work for children. It doesn’t work for families, and, it doesn’t work for schools.

We need to change the way we fund public schools in Wisconsin and we need to do it soon. If we don’t act, we should expect nothing more than the status quo which, for the last 15 years,has been laying off teachers, increasing class sizes, divisive referenda just to run our schools, and cuts in the quality programs and services we used to offer Wisconsin’s children. The quality and quantity of education continues to erode in virtually every corner of Wisconsin.

Nothing will change until we demand that the Legislature and the Governor do what is right for children and for taxpayers. That is the sole purpose of WAES — to make that demand and to work with the people of the state to make it happen.

As an independent, dues-supported, non-profit organization, WAES needs your help to continue this important work. As more and more school districts edge toward the brink of fiscal and educational crisis, this work and your support are more important than ever.

If you haven’t joined already, now is the time to join WAES. You can go to our website and use PayPal or your credit card. If that doesn’t work for you, print the Membership Statement, fill it out and mail it, along with your check, to Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools, 315 Maple Street, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538. To get the dues structure for organizations — or for more information — contact Tom Beebe at 920-650-0525 or tbeebe@wisconsinsfuture.org.

You can make a difference.

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Yet more proof that early-childhood-education programs work

It isn’t something we don’t already know, but the latest analysis of a long-running early-childhood-education program for children of low-income families in Chicago suggests economic payoffs from such services that continue well into childhood.

The most recent work reported by the Early Childhood Focus says that attendance in the preschool program for 18 months — averaging a cost of $6,692 per child — generated a return to society of $47,759 per participant. This figure includes increased taxes on earnings due to educational attainment ($7,243), savings to the criminal justice system ($7,130), reductions in school remedial services ($4,652) and averted tangible costs to crime victims ($6,127).

This research is recognized by WAES and is included as a key piece in most adequacy funding reform models — including the Wisconsin Adequacy Plan — that is based on research. At the same time, it flies in the face of the claims made by some members of the State Legislature arguing against increases in public school revenue.

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School-funding reform organization welcomes four new members
WAES welcomed two new members since the last e-mail update. We need your help now, so please consider joining as a dues-paying member of the school-funding reform organization

New members are (you can see the complete list here):

Individuals: Doug Leuck and Carol Krogmann

School district:Athens and Cadott

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Help us better serve you by letting us know when you change your e-mail address. In that way we can stop sending the update to the old one and switch over to the new address as soon as possible.
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School-funding reform calendar
June 19 — School-funding reform presentation for the Northwoods School Funding Alliance, 7 p.m., at Lakeland Union High School in Minocqua.

June 20 — School-funding reform presentation as part of the finance class of the education leadership course offered through Edgewood College, 10 a.m., DC Everest School District office, 6300 Alderson Street, Weston
July 29 — School-funding reform presentation as part of the School Law and Politics class offered through Marian University , 9 a.m., Northcentral Technical College, Wausau.

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Please feel free to share your copy of the WAES school-funding update with anyone interested in this important public policy issue. Contact Tom Beebe at tbeebe@wisconsinsfuture.org or 920-650-0525 for details.
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Thomas S. Beebe, Outreach SpecialistWisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools315 Maple StreetFort Atkinson, WI 53538Cell: 920-650-0525E-mail: tbeebe@wisconsinsfuture.org.

The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped,” — Hubert Humphrey, 1976

[Disclosure: I am a member of the WAES Board of Directors}

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | June 17, 2008 · 3:21 pm

Where’s the QEO? (again)

At times I feel like a broken record, asking the same questions over and over again. But as long as our news media continues to leave essential information out of their reports — like pages missing from the middle of a book –, I’m going stay stuck in this groove.

The inspiration today is the story in the Wisconsin State Journal by Sandy Cullen on the arbitrator’s decision on the 2006-2008 MMSD contracts with the Madison Teachers Incorporated affiliated clerical, security and educational assistants bargaining units (disclosure: My spouse is a Special Education Assistant with MMSD). The question (and some of the text) is the same as this post from over a year ago on the MTI teacher contract negotiations: “Where is the QEO?”

If the story had been solely about the district employees covered by the arbitration, leaving out the QEO might have been acceptable. But teachers are part of the story Cullen wrote and once teacher contracts — and the place of health insurance in these contracts — are raised, some discussion of the Qualified Economic Offer Law is needed.

In brief, (quoting from my previous post), “The QEO requires districts that wish to avoid arbitration to offer each year a total package that is at least 3.8% larger than the previous contract. Total package means salary and benefits combined. With health care costs rising that has meant very small salary increases for Madison’s teachers…. This mix or balance has been their choice, how they have wished to “spend” their 3.8%. The state says this is their money and that health care is part of collective bargaining.”

The clerical employees, the security employees and assistants bargain on a very different court of play, one without the floor (or ceiling) provided by the QEO and one that is less orientated toward a single “total package” figure.

As John Matthews of MTI notes in Cullen’s story, ” “I expect they will now come back and try it [to obtain a change in health insurance providers/choices] again with the teacher group.” When that happens, some fool will no doubt point to this arbitrator decision or the the contracts negotiated for administrators or even Dane County employees and accuse the Board or the District or the Union of malfeasance if the changes don’t go through.

A basic understanding of the QEO exposes these comparisons as absurd. For this reason, in the interest of informed public discussion is is essential that all discussions of teacher contracts in Wisconsin include some explanation of the QEO.

A couple of other issues with Cullen’s article.

This paragraph is a bit one-sided and misleading:

“It certainly will be a benefit to both our employees and the taxpayers,” said Superintendent Art Rainwater, adding that the savings were applied to salary increases for the employees affected.

There is nothing wrong with quoting Supt. Rainwater’s view, but good journalism requires some analysis of that view or at very least an acknowledgment of alternative interpretations. On the point Rainwater makes in this paragraph, Cullen provides neither. I think the MTI negotiating team (and according to MTI employee surveys, a majority of the members of the bargaining units) would disagree that it is a benefit to the employees. After all, they fought tooth and nail against the change. The arbitrator’s decision also had some interesting things to say about the “quid pro quo” trade off of wages and insurance choices (“The Arbitrator concluded that the Employer demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence the need for a change, but it failed to establish by that standard that it offers a quid pro quo for the change“). What is clear is that the 2.5% and 2.9% wage increases are near or below the rate of inflation and that they are exactly the same as the increases proposed by the Union, without any health insurance changes. If I read the statement and the District’s position correctly, they are saying the only way we can provide cost of living increases to some of our lowest paid employees is by cutting their benefit costs. I realize that the broken school finance system creates hard choices, but this kind of balancing the books on the backs of the those at the bottom is not a very attractive idea (I can’t find a copy of the administrator agreement or salary scale, does anyone know what annual increases they receive?).

The other thing that bothered me is that you have to get to the last paragraphs of Cullen’s story to learn that this contract expires in September. The parties spent untold hours and dollars reaching a settlement that will be active for all of 2 1/2 months (the insurance portion, only for a month, beginning August 1). There is no attempt to estimate these costs — including the services of hired guns contracted by the district — anywhere. The story cites a $1.6 million savings for next year. That is probably true because negotiations for the next contract will begin with the terms of this contract, but there really is no guarantee. The only guaranteed savings are for the month of August, 2008 (about $130,000, minus administrative costs involved with the changes).

This isn’t about whether the arbitrator, the district or the union were right or wrong; it isn’t about costs and benefits of WPS as an insurance provider. My primary concern here is the lack of quality reporting and how this lack makes it more difficult to have informed public discussion of issues that should be of concern to all of us.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | June 13, 2008 · 8:18 pm

Quotes of the Day – “Power Concedes Nothing…”

The Chi-Lites, “(For God’s Sake) You’ve Got to Give More Power to the People” (Click to listen).

From Jackie Cody, Oneida County, Wisconsin.

The school funding formula must be changed to offer a long-term solution to the funding of the K-12 public schools in Wisconsin. The elected school officials must take their fight to the state legislators and the governor…

Neither our legislators nor our governor has had the political will or courage to change the formula. They have gotten away with forcing districts to make hard choices over whether to sacrifice maintenance, cut programs, lay off teachers, and eliminate or contract out custodial, maintenance and food preparation, while districts try to live on the fumes of state aid.

Frederick Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and never will.” The school funding situation has reached the point where I believe Frederick Douglass’ quote is a message we must take to heart.

Legislators and the governor must hear our demand to change the formula and must stop sacrificing this state’s future…which is its children!

It is time for ALL to join together and board the bus and head to Madison! Our children deserve nothing less than this from us.

On the eve of Madison’s Juneteenth Celebration (10:00 AM, June 14, Penn Park) it is an appropriate pleasure to offer a couple additional Frederick Douglass Quotes.

A little learning, indeed, may be a dangerous thing, but the want of learning is a calamity to any people.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.

My advice to those who want to join in agitating for school finance reform is to contact the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools. We need your help!.

Thomas J. Mertz

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by | June 11, 2008 · 3:31 pm

New Library Public Hearing

Via Brenda Konkel, This Side of Town…

Here’s your chance to tell the decisions makers what YOU want!

The Library Board and the Surplus Property Committee will be holding a meeting solely to solicit public input prior to issuing a RFP for the downtown library. This is the only item on the agenda. The current proposal for an RFP would incorporate the new library into a larger mixed use building rather than the independent free standing building that currently exists. If you have thoughts about the future of the downtown library this is an opportunity to speak.

The Madison Public Library Board in conjunction with the Central Library Disposal Surplus Property Criteria and Selection Committee is seeking public input on plans for a new Central Library. The hearing will be Monday, June 16th, 6:30 p.m. at the Central Library at 201 West Mifflin Street.

I love libraries!

Here is what I want (to start, no order):

  • Sunday hours, year round.
  • Space to take the collection out of storage (I love finding obscure things on the shelves, with so much in storage that becomes less likely).
  • Comfortable and practical meeting rooms.
  • Nice reading/research rooms.
  • Spacious and flexible children’s room(s?).
  • Natural light.
  • I don’t mind sharing the library with the homeless and the down and out.  They are part of our community too.

What’s on your list?

Thomas J. Mertz

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