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Candidates discuss education

State budget, Act 10, referendums

By Robert Cloud


State Assembly candidates Rep. Kevin Petersen and challenger Erin Tracy have one thing in common when they discuss education.

Their focus immediately turns to state funding.

Petersen said the 2018-19 state biennial budget increased state aid to public schools by $639 million.

“Wisconsin taxpayers invested $11.5 billion to educate 870,000 K-12 children enrolled in over 2,200 schools,” Petersen said.

Petersen noted that 37 cents of every tax dollar collected funds education in the state of Wisconsin.

He also argued that the last state budget of the Doyle administration, 2010-11, spent $10.7 billion on education, while the current budget provides $11.5 billion. for schools.

“Only in Madison can an increase in spending of nearly $1 billion be considered a cut,” Petersen said.

Tracy points to the historic number of referendums as evidence Wisconsin school districts are struggling to pay their bills due to lower state aid.

For example, the Waupaca School District has seen a cumulative loss of $3.8 million in state aid since 2008.

In 2016, 83 referendums sought approval for bonds to build new or refurbish existing school buildings. Seventy-seven percent of them passed, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum. Statewide, 71 referendums sought to exceed revenue caps in 2016.

Voters approved a total of $1.35 billion in additional school spending in 2016.

School referendums in 2016 included Iola-Scandinavia, where voters approved $2 million to fund school improvements and exceeding the revenue limit by a total of $4.6 million over five years.

Weyauwega-Fremont passed a $21 million referendum for building renovations.
In April 2018, voters statewide approved 56 out of 66 school referendums, for a total of $566 million. In November, 61 school districts will ask voters for a total of $1.4 billion.

On November’s ballot, the New London School District will have a $13 million referendum and the Manawa School District will have a referendum seeking $12 million for facility upgrades and $365,000 to exceed the revenue limit in 2019-20 to demolish a vacant building.

Act 10
Petersen said Act 10 compensated schools for the cuts in state spending.

“School boards were given the tools to have teachers, staff and administrators pay 12 percent of health insurance premiums and 6 percent of retirement contributions,” Petersen said. “The money is going directly into the classroom.”

Tracy believes the repeal of Act 10 is unlikely. However, she supports amending the law.

“I think Act 10 was devastating to education in our state, and I would work to fix some of the damage that it caused and undo whatever I can,” Tracy said.

She holds Act 10 responsible for the current teacher shortage in Wisconsin.

“The pay and benefits don’t justify the expense and student debt they go into in order to become qualified teachers,” Tracy said.

School funding
“I would look at the school funding formula and put weights in it that would help rural schools that are facing declining enrollments,” Tracy said.

She believes a contributing factor to declining state spending on education has been the corporate tax breaks that shift the costs onto local property owners and small businesses.

She supports a tax system where “everyone in Wisconsin pays their fair share, particularly wealthy corporations and individuals.”

Petersen said much of the current state budget’s increase in school funding is targeting rural schools.

He noted the school district’s revenue caps were set in the 1990s. Low spending districts became locked in to lower levels of state aid and limited in their ability to raise property taxes.

The revenue caps hit rural schools with declining enrollments especially hard.

Under current law, all school receive at least $9,100 per pupil.

The new budget will increase aid to low-spending districts.

Locally, Iola-Scandinavia will see its per pupil revenues raised to $9,260, while Manawa will go to $9,200, Weyauwega-Fremont will go to $9,205 and New London will rise to $9,265.

Petersen said sparsity aid, which provides additional funding for districts with less than 745 students, will increase payments to district from $300 per pupil to $400 per pupil.

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