Campaign season offers hope
for school-funding reform
It’s that time again … the political campaign
season. We all have the opportunity to go to the polls on
Nov. 2, 2010 (Sept. 14, 2010, for the primary), to elect a
new governor, 99 Representatives, and 17 Senators. Adding
to the importance of upcoming ballot is that over 20 legislators
have announced their retirement and the balance of power is
at stake.
Over the next weeks and months candidates will be telling
us how important their agendas are. We’ll hear about
upholding the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution and
why Wisconsin needs to send illegals back home. We’ll
hear about the glorious days ahead because of the ban on smoking
or will it be the possibility of a troubled future because
we are … pick one … hemorrhaging, losing, or gaining
back too slowly jobs. We’ll also know more than we probably
care to know about candidates’ opinions on concealed
carry, taking care of wetlands, raw milk, and regulations
on ultimate fighting.
The one thing you won’t hear much about is school-funding
reform so we can restore Wisconsin’s once-proud public
education system. As important as all of the rest of these
issues are to somebody, our schools have, arguably, the biggest
and most important impact on everyone in communities from
Superior to Platteville and from Kohler to Galesville.
Why do companies and corporations stay in or come to Wisconsin
— bringing desperately needed jobs with them? If you
actually ask them, an educated workforce is at the top of
the list. What’s the easiest and most effective way
to make sure your property value is appreciating? The experts
say it is living in a community with excellent schools. And,
what’s the best way to make sure government works, society
functions, and everyone succeeds. Is there any doubt that
a quality education is at the top of the list.
Yet, the one thing candidates and incumbents for public office
don’t want to talk seriously about is funding our public
schools. Short of a few platitudes, some political nonsense,
and an occasional history lesson on the bad system we have
no one — not Republican or Democrat, conservative or
liberal, Assembly or Senate candidate — is willing to
take on what has become the third and untouchable rail of
Wisconsin politics.
If we, as voters, allow that to continue the future of our
kids will continue to evaporate, our property taxes will continue
to climb at the same time programs and services in our schools
are being cut, and the security of our communities will fade.
It’s time to say, “Enough is enough.” You
need to let candidates in the upcoming election know that
your kids and their schools are important enough to you that
their unwillingness to talk about it — much less act
on the crisis — is no longer acceptable.
Step 1: Get some knowledge — Talk
to others in your community, school board members, educators,
and students about what has happened in your schools. Ask
about cuts to programs and services, staff lay-offs, increasing
class sizes, and operating referenda that merely pass along
the state’s unwillingness to fix the system to local
property taxpayers. Once you know what is going on in your
community, check out websites like this one to see what is
going on in other communities, learn about possible solutions,
and link up with school-funding reform efforts elsewhere.
In addition to the WAES website, try http://www.apennyforkids
and http://www.sfnwisconsin.org).
Step 2: Get in the candidate’s world
— Be where office seekers are and get into their worlds.
Attend candidate forums and candidate appearances. Call into
local radio programs that feature those running for office.
Go to their websites and check out their stands on school
funding. Tell them that if they truly value public education
then you want them to have an opinion and take a stand on
school funding, because we know what has happened over the
last 17 years and it isn’t good. Above all else, tell
candidates you will hold them accountable not only for what
they say but also for what they actually do. If they look
like they don’t get it, tell them that accountability,
in this case, means votes.
Step 3: Ask good, hard questions —
For too long we’ve allowed politicians to kiss babies,
praise education, and let that pass as support for our children
and their schools. It hasn’t worked well and we have
been duped in the process. The answer is to ask them the types
of questions that actually get to the root of the serious
problems we face and the daunting solutions we seek. First,
make sure you know the local stories in your school district
— the more personal the better — and then ask
the questions that matter:
-
Do you believe Wisconsin's public schools are the state's
economic driver and the glue that holds our communities
together and makes the futures of all of us better?
-
Do you support or oppose policies and investment to
provide an excellent education to every student, including
programs to reduce class size, provide students and teachers
with sufficient resources and materials, supply education
technology, and support school maintenance and development?
-
Over the last several years, newspapers have been filled
with stories about schools cutting back programs and staff
to make ends meet. Do you believe there is a school funding
crisis in Wisconsin?
-
Do you support or oppose a system of public school funding
that provides all children with the equal opportunity
for a quality education guaranteed by the Wisconsin Constitution,
the Supreme Court and federal and state statutes?
-
Over the last several years, newspapers have been filled
with stories about schools cutting back programs and staff
to make ends meet. Do you believe Wisconsin's statewide
school-funding formula is unsustainable and in crisis,
resulting in annual staff lay-offs, class size increases,
cuts to programs and services, and property tax increases?
-
If you don’t think there is a crisis, what would
you say to the parents who have seen the effects of budget
cuts and know that their youngest children will not get
the same opportunities that their older children had?
-
If you think there is a crisis, do you support or oppose
comprehensively reforming the state's deeply flawed school
funding formula, which is based on an outdated method
for evaluating a school district’s wealth, and which
is complicated by a mixture of enrollment counts, equalization
formulas, categorical aid and revenue limits?
-
Will you support in the 2011-13 legislative session
long-term, comprehensive, and sustainable school-funding
reform based on the actual cost of education?
-
Did the unprecedented cut in aid to our public schools
in the 2009-11 budget create a revenue crisis in school
funding (following the 15-year effects of the formula)
in communities around Wisconsin?
-
Do you support or oppose “A Penny for Kids,”
a one-cent sales tax increase 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?
-
Do you support or oppose any other new sources of revenue
for public schools, and if so, what?
Remember, this is about your kids, their schools, and our
communities. The system we have is no longer sustainable for
any of us. Historically, those we have elected to represent
us in Madison have not had the foresight, knowledge, or political
courage to change that course. It’s up to all of us
to make sure we elect legislators and a governor who say they
will do the right thing … and then hold them accountable.
That all starts when we get involved in the upcoming campaign.
Tell your candidates that its time to lead on the issue of
school-funding reform or it’s time to get out of the
way.
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