Contacts:
Ethnie Groves, Governor’s Office, 608-261-2156
Wide Ranging Final Report Includes Options for Districts
with Declining Enrollment, Special Education, Early Education, Property Tax
Relief, Attracting the Best Teachers and a Host of Other Topics
Today Governor Doyle received a final report from his Task
Force on Educational Excellence, including 40 separate recommendations and
options on everything from attracting the best teachers to supporting early
education. The wide ranging report is the result of months of work and
public hearings by a group of 28 citizens the Governor charged with
evaluating Wisconsin’s school finance system and suggesting options for
improving it.
“I asked the Task Force to send me a broad based set of
options on how we can improve school financing, attract and retain high
quality teachers, support special education and early education and a host
of other issues,” said Governor Doyle. “The Task Force has done just that.
I look forward to hearing from Wisconsin citizens about the report as I
consider which options to include in my budget next year.”
“I appreciate the hard work of Chairman Mike Spector and all
the members of the Task Force who volunteered their time, energy and ideas
to produce this report,” said Governor Doyle. “There are a lot of proposals
here that deserve serious consideration, and I hope this will generate a
thorough and thoughtful debate about how we fund our schools.”
Highlights of the Task Force’s 40 consensus recommendations
include:
Investing in Early Childhood: The Task Force recommends
providing start-up grants to help districts begin 4K programs; rewarding
districts that adopt community approaches to integrate childcare providers
with the 4K programs; and funding the successful TEACH and REWARD programs
to attract and retain highly qualified childcare teachers.
Investing in Small Classes: The Task Force recommends
improving the successful Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE)
small class size program for kindergarten through 3rd grade by increasing
the current reimbursement rate from $2000 per student to $2500 and allowing
additional schools to participate in the program.
Improving Student Achievement: The Task Force suggests a
number of innovative efforts to improve student achievement, including: a
10-school pilot study in high poverty areas to determine whether an extended
school year would result in improved educational outcomes; exploring the
concept of a residential school for children from homeless families; and, a
study of the possibility of using average daily attendance for all 180
school days as a basis for state aid as an incentive to increase attendance
and reduce truancy.
Repeal of the QEO: The Task Force recommends repealing the
qualified economic offer (QEO) as needed to recruit and retain quality
teachers. The QEO has all but eliminated the ability of districts to
negotiate compensation systems that reward teacher effectiveness and it
discourages innovative efforts to control health care costs. The Task Force
suggests retaining current arbitration criteria, which require that the
greatest weight should be given to revenue caps, and greater weight be given
to local economic conditions, to address concerns that eliminating the QEO
would put too much fiscal pressure on school districts under revenue caps.
Implementation of Knowledge and Skills-Based Compensation
Systems for Teachers: The Task Force recommends that the current standard
salary schedule (which pays teachers solely based on length of service and
the number of credits they have earned) be replaced with one that rewards
the acquisition of knowledge and teaching skills that directly relate to
improved academic performance.
Additional Resources for English Language Learners: The Task
Force proposes significantly increasing the bilingual-bicultural education
categorical aid appropriation and providing additional funds on a per-pupil
basis to school districts that do not meet the enrollment thresholds to be
required to offer bilingual-bicultural education programs, but have
bilingual-needs children who should be served.
Additional Resources for Special Education: The Task Force
recommends creating a new categorical aid program to reimburse costs
incurred for high-need, low-incidence special education students, and also
recommends significantly increasing the special education categorical aid
appropriation to meet more adequately the educational needs of this
population.
Increasing Transportation Aid: The Task Force recommends
increasing the state’s transportation categorical aid, which has not been
increased since 1981, so that districts with especially high transportation
costs, including small rural districts, will not need to cut necessary
educational programs just to pay to transport students to school. The Task
Force suggests that funding for the transportation aid be provided by the
state’s Transportation Fund, rather than the general fund.
Revenue Caps and Categorical Aids: The Task Force did not
recommend the repeal of revenue caps, but concludes that some of the major
problems with the current school finance system result from a lack of
sufficient categorical aid to adequately support students with higher than
average costs (i.e. children with disabilities, economically disadvantaged
children, English language learners, or students with high transportation
expenditures). The Task Force’s recommendations to commit additional
resources these categorical aid programs would reduce the competition for
scarce dollars under the revenue caps.
Delivering Significant Property Tax Relief: The Task Force
recommends cutting school property taxes by an average of 43% (for an
overall property tax reduction of 20%) through the closing of sales tax
loopholes and increasing the sales tax by one penny. For the owner of a
median value home in Wisconsin, the property tax savings should be more than
$500 a year. The continuation of revenue caps will ensure that school
districts must use the additional state funds for property tax relief.
Establishing Wisconsin’s Foundation Level: The Task Force
recommends that a professional “cost out” study be conducted to determine
how much an adequate education costs for a child in Wisconsin. The Task
Force recommends using the result of the cost out study to set the “low
revenue ceiling” at a more meaningful number, thereby establishing a
voluntary “foundation level” for Wisconsin school children.
Addressing Declining Enrollment: The Task Force recommends
additional revenue limit relief for schools districts with declines in
enrollment. Further, the Task Force recommends that all school districts be
required to prepare a Master Plan to create a long-term strategy for how
education will be delivered, including how districts will deal with the
educational and functional effects of significant declines in enrollment,
and, as a result, fewer dollars.
The full report is available online at:
http://edexcellence.wisconsin.gov/final_report.asp
