Education spending, recurring problems with revenue shared at the budget hearing

Wisconsin residents — who had two minutes each to make their case — rolled out increased revenue caps for schools, raised special education payments, increased shared revenue funding, a childcare number program, and expanded childcare.

Lawmakers did not comment between speakers as many people are scheduled to speak. At 2:48 p.m., the committee had just been hearing from speakers who had taped at 8:30 a.m.—an hour and a half before the session was due to start—and the committee had to extend the session by an additional hour.

Public school advocates, superintendents and other officials have urged lawmakers to include increases in maximum spending per pupil, funding for special education and mental health investments in the budget.

Students deserve good teachers, small classes, librarians, music and art teachers, and adequate funding for private education, Bob Peterson, president of the Milwaukee Public School Board, said during a news conference.

“We need the Joint Finance Committee and the state legislature—which has a moral, civil, and legal responsibility—to provide adequate funding for all public schools throughout Wisconsin,” Peterson said. Public schools have been and should remain the cornerstone of our democracy. Please, please provide a real lesson in civics for all of our students in Wisconsin and adequately fund our public schools.”

Advocates said they were asking the commission to either meet or exceed the limit set forth in Governor Tony Evers’ budget proposal.

keep up with inflation

Evers Proposal An increase of more than $2.6 billion in the total for public schools, including $1 billion for the state’s general equivalency aid formula, more than $1 billion in funding for private education and an increase in per-pupil school revenue limit by $350 in the first year of the budget and an additional $650 in the second year.

Raising spending caps on aid is especially important because it didn’t happen in the last budget, executive director of the Wisconsin Public Education Network Heather Dubois-Bornan said at a news conference.

“Raising revenue limits to allow counties to spend the aid they receive is critical, and that’s what the state didn’t do in the previous budget,” Dubois-Bornan said. “It was basically a local property tax exemption disguised as government aid.”

Republicans included an increase in school aid during the last budget, but not an increase in the amount districts were allowed to spend per student. The extra aid can only be used for property tax cuts for those areas that have already reached their spending cap.

DuBois Bourenane also said it would take at least a $1,500 increase per student just to keep up with inflation since the last budget.

“Anything less is a cutoff,” said Dubois-Bornan. “If we don’t match the inflationary needs of our children and their public schools, we’re taking resources away, and that’s our minimum expectation.”

Rebecca Tewitz, superintendent of DeForest Public Schools, said the increases will help schools cover staffing, transportation and energy costs, while making up for years of not adequately funding public schools. She also highlighted the importance of increasing private education payments from 30 cents to 60 cents in the first year of the budget and to 90 cents in the second year.

Twitz told the commission her district raised hourly wages last year, but even after that schools still had vacancies and a “revolving door” in assistant positions.

Endangering special education

“This puts the entire special education program at risk when students experience constant changes with the turnover rate of their support staff,” said Tuetz. Special education teachers also begin to burn out as they work to recruit, train and retain their assistants. If private education is fully funded, it will allow districts to pay competitive wages, provide paid training days and purchase high-quality materials to meet the unique needs of our students.”

A large group of attendees wearing green shirts called for more spending on private schools and private schools. Anthony McHenry, CEO of the Milwaukee Academy of Sciences, said the group is looking for “equal school funding.” He said charter schools and private schools should have the same amount of funding per pupil as public schools.

“At the very least, what that allows us to serve our existing children is, and to provide more support and better resources for our children and staff,” McHenry said. “but [it] It may also create opportunities to be able to expand and serve more children.”

Republican lawmakers have said in the past that they would like to see an expansion of Wisconsin’s School Choice program along with investments in public schools.

An appeal to expand Medicaid

Many attendees spoke of the importance of Wisconsin joining the 40 other states that have already accepted federal Medicaid expansion.

“Just last week, North Carolina accepted an expansion of Medicaid,” Dr. Lynne Curry of Germantown told the panel. “Expanding Medicaid — or Badgercare — will bring coverage to nearly 90,000 Wisconsin. As you all know, it will bring billions of dollars to our state in federal support and state aid.”

Evers did it again and again Proposal Taking the federal Medicaid expansion.

Becky Cooper, a member of the Main Street Alliance, an organization that advocates for small businesses, said the expansion could help her employees access healthcare. She said she employs 27 people at her company, Bounce MKE. While her business offers to pay 80% of her employees’ health insurance, she said it remains out of reach for some of her employees because the cost of private health insurance is so expensive.