WI Joint Committee on Finance Keeps Repeal of QEO/Arbitration Changes

QEO/Arbitration Factors Remain in State Budget Proposal

The co-chairs of the Joint Committee on Finance, Sen. Mark Miller (D-Monona) and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison), announced that they intend to remove 45 of the 80 items in the governor's 2009-11 state budget that have been identified by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau as non-fiscal policy items. Among the list of items to be removed and drafted as separate legislation includes the governor's proposal to require three credits of math and science for high school graduation.

The co-chairs intend to retain the non-fiscal policy items that would:

• repeal the qualified economic offer (QEO);
• eliminate the greatest and greater weight given to revenue limits and local economic conditions in arbitration decisions;
• allow teacher contracts of up to four years;
• make it easier to combine school district collective bargaining units;
• ease retirement eligibility for educational support personnel; and
• impose greater accountability measures on the Milwaukee voucher program.

In previous budgets, proposals to repeal the QEO were identified as non-fiscal policy and removed by the co-chairs.

Here is the MMSD's Legislative Agenda for 2009-2011. Feel free to share this information with your legislators and Rep. Pocan and Sen. Miller.

Public Education Finance

A lot is going on with school finance and budgets this year. One expert in Public Education in America is Dr. Marguerite Rosa.

Here is a nice conversation with Seattle, Washington's (KPLU) Public Radio host Gary Davis and his interview with Rosa regarding positive changes for education.

Roza recently published the recession/financial crisis and its cost to public education:

Nearly all state budgets are in the red, suggesting looming cuts and possible job loss in K-12 education. New estimates of shortfalls in state revenues and K-12 staffing data enable early projections of the magnitude of both the impact on K-12 public education spending and corresponding job loss. These projections can help policymakers at all levels understand the size and scope of the problem as they work to craft next steps.

Assuming the absence of intervention via increased taxes or federal stimulus spending, this analysis projects an 18.5 percent drop in state funds for K-12 education from 2009 budgeted figures to FY 2011, creating an 8.7 percent drop in total public education spending over the same period. The implication is that states will spend a total of $54 billion less on public K-12 education during the 2009 and 2010 calendar years than if spending had been held at budgeted FY 2009 levels. That number jumps to $80 billion for state spending on K-16 education, if higher education spending projections are included.

For many districts, spending cuts will imply job loss. For the projected shortfalls modeled here, this analysis suggests that school districts may need to eliminate just over 9 percent of total jobs in K-12 education. In raw numbers, the implication is that 574,277 jobs would be eliminated during the three school years, many via attrition. That figure, however, assumes that districts do indeed reduce spending via the elimination of jobs, rather than by shortening the school year or reducing pay.

All is not bad news, according to Rosa, as she says the recession provides a real opportunity to fix systems [in public education] that no longer work. Let's hope we can have that conversation at a state and local level.

Wisconsin Stimulus Spending on Education

States Eye Education Stimulus to Fill Budget Gaps

Local Officials Crying Foul As Governors Grab for Aid By Michele McNeil

Desperate for cash to fill growing budget deficits, state governments are starting to tangle with federal and local officials over a $39.8 billion pot of economic-stimulus money that was designed to prop up the budgets of local school districts, but is increasingly being eyed as a patch for states’ own financial woes.

Vague language and loopholes in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—the stimulus package signed into law in February by President Barack Obama—are sparking questions about how much discretion states have over education stimulus funding. Mayors and school boards in a number of states fear being shortchanged by revenue-hungry governors and legislatures.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is putting state-level officials on notice that spending the first chunk of stimulus money unwisely could jeopardize aid that his office will distribute later.

Is Wisconsin the only state plugging holes in their budget with education funds?

Apparently not.

A few weeks ago I submitted an opinion piece online about the state's dismal response to citizen throughout the state asking for reform in how we fund schools.

If you want to read more about what U.S. Education Sec. Arnie Duncan is saying and the latest national coverage go to the Schools and Stimulus section of Education Week.