Neillsville District Administrator Talks State Budget and Public Education, Part 2 Funding and Vouchers
Tuesday, July 28th, 2015 -- 11:42 AM
-With the passing of the state budget recently, many people are not happy with the lack of support for public education, especially for small, rural schools.I spoke with Neillsville District Administrator John Gaier about the budget with regards to public education. Mr. Gaier gave an overview of funding for public schools.
"First, for the first time ever, revenue limits for school districts will be frozen. And, in the past, we have gotten some increase, even though very few of the increases even matched inflationary increases. So, even during those times, districts were cutting back on the things that they were able to do."
"If you read what some of the legislators put out there, you would think that public schools are flush with money. They will claim that they put over $300 million into K12 public school funding and that is true, but if you look at it much closer, you'll understand that the $300 million that were put were actually put in to two pots. $100 million was given to the general aid, which goes to the poorest districts, but $200 million was put into the levy credit which goes to the wealthiest districts. But none of that $300 million gives any school district a cent more to spend. Both of those pots of monies are just used to reduce property taxes."
"I think one thing that's important to know is we've been pretty popular for saying that we will always do more with less. Well, the truth of the matter is, that you can't do more with less. In fact, you can't even do the same with less. At some point, people are going to have to understand that you're going to get less for less."
He also talked about the implications of lifting the limits on vouchers.
"The number of students that can accept vouchers to go to private schools will increase each year and then the cap will come off within 10 years. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau predicts that within 10 years, the state will be spending $800 million a year, of taxpayer money, to go to private voucher schools that have no accountability."
"Now, must of us will advocate for people to have a choice of how to educate their kids and I am certainly an advocate of that. But, people have had a choice on how they want to educate their kids for a long time. And certainly a lot earlier than vouchers ever came around. The truth of the matter is that the current vouchers are actually going to 80% of the kids that are already in private schools."
"The other issue with the voucher expansion is it really creates two systems of public education. One where there's no accountability, but taxpayer monies go to voucher schools. The other where there is a high level of accountability. The other thing that is important to know is that voucher schools are going to be funded sum sufficiently, which means no matter how much it cost, the state has to come up with the money to pay for them. Public education is funded by a sum certain number, which means the legislator can set any number they want to. Also, there is a tax credit for parents who send their kids to private schools now. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates that will cost the state about $31 million in revenue each year."
"The other great concern I have about the voucher schools is the way that they are going to be funded. The money for the voucher schools are going to come out of the general aid for the state. So, to fund the voucher schools, the legislator had decided to take the money from the poorest districts."
Coming up on Wednesday, Mr. Gaier will talk about school ratings and testing as well as taking a civics test to graduate.
For More:
Part 1, Overall: http://cwbradio.com/news/?fn_mode=fullnews&fn_id=14701
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