WAES, DPI talk about next state budget

Representatives of the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) said, July 25, they need the help of WAES partners if Wisconsin is going to have a kid- and school-friendly budget during the next two years, much less any hope for long-overdue school-funding reform.

Tony Evers, deputy state superintendent, and Brian Pahnke, assistant state superintendent in the Division of Finance and Management, met with about 40 WAES partners for a 90-minute discussion about the budget DPI will send to the Governor in late September, when State Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster delivers her annual state-of-education speech. The meeting, held in Stevens Point, was requested by WAES in order to help the statewide school-funding reform coalition impact and better understand the budget process so it can get involved at key steps along the way.

The budget process continues with the Governor getting DPI’s requests, along with those of all other departments. He completes his budget and delivers it to the citizens of the state in an address in early February. Throughout the spring, the Legislature, specifically the Joint Finance Committee, will work on the document with passage probably in the late summer of 2007.

Evers told the group that Superintendent Burmaster delivered good things for schools in her last budget and can be expected to do the same this time around. “She was nailed to the wall the last time around,” Evers said, so this time we need to be strategic about how the budget is promoted. He explained that “it is a political battle,” and “it will be even more difficult this time” to pass a plan that is good for education.

Superintendent Burmaster’s bully pulpit for schools and children, the deputy state superintendent said, “is only as effective as all of us working together” make it. Evers said “we need your help,” and promised to work with WAES partners as the process moves along.

WAES partners set the tone

To guarantee the discussion between WAES and DPI concentrated on the crises around the state created by the school-funding system, five coalition partners opened the session by telling Evers and Pahnke how the education and the futures of the children in their communities were being impacted.

Chris Perillo, president of the Kenosha Education Association, talked about how his district, despite increasing enrollment, had to deal with diminishing resources and the resulting cuts in programs and services for the children most in need. Joyce Behlke — former school board member and teacher and present member of the Racine Interfaith Council — echoed Perillo’s words. Since 1993 and the start of revenue limits, she said, increasing costs over which the district has no control have resulted in increasing class sizes and cuts in many areas. “We need comprehensive reform (of the system),” she said, because we are “not meeting kids’ needs.”

Reform veteran Storm Carroll, superintendent of the Laona School District, said the funding system has taken his good, small school district and reduced it considerably as the community struggles with state and federal mandates and lost programs and services.

Pecatonica PTA President Jill Gaskell put a little different, but no less serious face on the problem. She said the paucity of educational challenges in her small, southwestern Wisconsin school district led parents to start the PTA. The group, Gaskell said, soon realized that the funding system was the culprit, resulting in the bare minimum of courses, with very few electives, and a large group of emergency certified teachers because the district is near the bottom in a comparison of starting teacher pay across the state.

Finally, Rev. Kurt Handrich — a parent, Beloit school board member, and a member of WISDOM — told Evers and Pahnke that he didn’t want to be at this meeting today. As a matter of fact, he said he was there on his vacation. Things aren’t getting any better, he said. “We shouldn’t have to be here,” but kids are our future and “we aren’t giving them what they need” to succeed. We’ve created “a segregated school district (in Beloit),” Handrich said, because parents have to choose between adequate services for their children and their own neighborhood schools. They can’t have both, he explained.

Evers showed he understood the plight of the state’s schools and children. “Parts of this state are starting to look like an educational Appalachia.” We need to change that, the deputy state superintendent said. He said doing the right thing in the next budget is all about politics, so we need a sound political strategy — something he admitted WAES is good at. “There is no lack of ideas. There is a lack of political will” to change the school funding system.

WAES is following the right strategy, Evers said, by getting in on the front end of the budget process. He urged the coalition’s partners to stay involved every step of the way … from the time it is handed to the Governor on through the work of the Joint Finance Committee and the full Legislature.

He also warned WAES partners about the “enemies” of public education using small differences between like-minded groups to create big wedges in the pro-reform effort. “Don’t let the small things divide you,” Evers said. “Keep true to the big goals.”

Pahnke reminded the crowd that Superintendent Burmaster is an advocate for children and proved it in her last budget. He talked briefly about her proposals in 2005 for the first increase in ELL categorical aid since 1990; a big bump in the categorical aid for transportation; an expansion of the SAGE program; an increase in special education funding; and new money and programs for talented and gifted programs, teacher mentoring, and high-cost, low-incidence special education students.

Looking ahead, Pahnke said most of the decisions affecting public schools — such as state aid, revenue limits, and categorical aid — won’t be made until August. He did urge WAES partners, however, to endorse Burmaster’s state-of-education speech on Sept. 21 and then to lobby the Governor and Legislature to make sure important school-funding reforms stay in the budget.

Pahnke felt the state superintendent would include a sparsity factor in her budget. Meant to offset the comparably high fixed costs — and, therefore, high per-student spending — of small districts, sparsity includes in the school aid calculation student enrollment, student density, and poverty.

“When the budget goes to the Governor, we’ll let you know,” Pahnke said, “and we’ll ask for your help.”

WAES partners asked tough questions

WAES partners took advantage of the question and answer period to get as many things straight as possible and to follow up on earlier comments:

»Although the state superintendent’s sparsity initiative will concentrate on low enrollment districts spread out over many square miles, Pahnke did say that Burmaster would try to help as many districts as possible.

»In regard to the historical increase in revenue limits of about $250 per student, Pahnke admitted that the status quo won’t help kids as more and more school districts cut deep into their programs and services. He also admitted, in terms of comprehensive reform, that the best defense against even tighter revenue limits may be a good offense. “A lot will depend on the make-up of the Legislature after the November elections,” he explained, when all of the Assembly, half the Senate, and the Governor’s office are up for election.

»Pahnke acknowledged that the present school-funding system is particularly onerous to the large but sparsely populated districts north of Highway 29. He again mentioned the sparcity proposal and said that “Libby (Burmaster) is aware what is going on and won’t forget.”

WAES partners have their say

Part of the program called for DPI’s Evers and Pahnke to deliver information to the WAES partners. As it developed, however, many of the coalition members had things of their own to say:

»Virginia Wyss, a WAES partner from Janesville who served as the meeting’s chair, said that if DPI was willing to be bold and ask for reform of the school-funding system, the coalition would stand behind the agency, contact legislators, and “bring folks to help.” Bruce LaRose, superintendent of the Butternut School District, echoed Wyss’ remarks, only aiming his comments at Governor Jim Doyle. When he was elected, Doyle talked about reform, LaRose said. Based on those comments, he urged the citizens of Butternut to be patient and given the Governor a chance. We can’t wait any longer, the superintendent said, because “our kids’ lives are at stake.” Butternut has a nationally recognized Blue Ribbon Schools, LaRose said, and “we can’t even keep the doors open.” “For God’s sake, give the leadership and we’ll all be in Madison” to help change the system.

»Other speakers also showed a lack of patience after years of promises and studies. Wisconsin PTA President Cyndi Barbian talked about “study after study after study, but things just keep getting worse.” Birchwood Superintendent Frank Helquist also showed his impatience. “We need initiatives (from the Superintendent Burmaster) that are dramatically different to indicate her seriousness about changing the formula.”

»Much said by the coalition partners played off the earlier comments of Evers and Pahnke about the importance of the November 2006 elections. “Until people of like minds (about reforming the system) are in the Legislature,” Joyce Behlke said, “nothing will happen. We need to educate our communities.” John Smart, school board member from Park Falls agreed. He said that the Legislature is the bottleneck. “We know what (legislators) are going to say, so we need to educate our communities” if they are going to impact the lawmakers who represent them. Janet Kane, a former school board member from Middleton, said the elections can be an opportunity. She urged coalition partners to sponsor candidate forums specifically on education and funding reform and then turn out the media and hundreds of constituents, “because (legislators) only listen to numbers.”

It was left to Jack Norman, research director for the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future, to sum up the meeting and lay out the course for the coalition’s relationship with DPI and the upcoming budget process.

“If all we get on Sept. 21 (at the superintendent’s state-of-education speech) is nuance, there is not much WAES can or will do,” Norman said. He explained that the coalition has been right all along, pointing out the flaws in the funding system, how children and communities have been harmed, and how the problems are getting worse.

“We can’t settle for nuance and the status quo,” Norman said. “So, give us something bold and we’ll be there to stand beside you.”

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