Education Cuts: Joint Finance Could Bring Reason to Governor’s Budget

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin is open to working with members of the Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance to restore reason to Governor Walker’s budget proposals for K-12 public education in Wisconsin. The Governor is recommending slashing equalization and categorical aids to school districts rather than trying to fix a school funding formula that many have regarded as broken for years.

Christopher Ahmuty, Executive Director of the ACLU of Wisconsin called the proposed cuts, “‘penny wise pound foolish.’ You can’t put our children’s education on hold. These proposals will widen the already shocking gap between the education children receive in poor districts versus well-off districts.

“If the Governor and his ideological allies intend to create an underclass of Wisconsinites who will have less of a chance to become productive citizens, his budget proposals will move our families toward that outcome.

“In the weeks ahead the ACLU of Wisconsin will be working with parents, students, school board leaders and educators to show legislators that the Governor’s proposals will fail under-served children in all parts of our state,” Ahmuty concluded.

For more on education cuts in the state budget, read this Wisconsin State Journal article about increased funding for private schools and decreased funding and resources for public schools.

Public Education Needs a Better Funding Solution to Help Disparities Problem

This month, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction shared their new ideas on restructuring of the state’s school funding formula. For too long our state has relied on a school funding plan that is tied to property taxes which gives disproportionate funding to schools in wealthy areas. Wisconsin schools Superintendent Tony Evers’s “Fair Funding for our Future” proposal would move schools toward considering student need, not property wealth, in allocating state aid.

“We agree with Superintendent Evers that our state funding formulas need to be structured to ensure greater support for children with greater needs,” stated ACLU of Wisconsin Executive Director Chris Ahmuty. “Shifting away from the school levy tax credits – which benefit higher-wealth households more than children in need – is a start.

“However, in moving forward with this proposal, we must keep in mind that it’s not only children in poverty who have additional needs,” Ahmuty added. “We need to ensure that the state is also addressing the concerns over Wisconsin’s significant racial disparities in graduation rates throughout the state.

“The ACLU of Wisconsin believes that racial disparities in graduation rates can no longer be ignored. We support a comprehensive approach that uses limited resources in the most effective way to ensure all children across Wisconsin have the opportunity to succeed,” Ahmuty concluded.

Media reports say that at first glance, the proposal could have support from newly elected Republican leadership.

Public School Legislative Action Needed Now!

On January 6, 2010 the ACLU of Wisconsin’s executive director Christopher Ahmuty sent the following statement to members of the Wisconsin Legislature and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. He urged them to move beyond a perceived impasse on legislation to aid the Milwaukee Public Schools. Ahmuty’s statement:

“Some media, including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Wispolitics.com, report that after a January 5th marathon hearing on Milwaukee Public Schools, the Wisconsin Legislature is unlikely to come up with a fix for the district’s woes any time soon. As someone who attended the hearing for eight hours, I believe the media reports misrepresent the current situation.

“While the prospect of a mayoral takeover of MPS should be dead, that doesn’t mean that the Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and legislative leaders can’t or won’t display the kind of leadership on education that both opponents and proponents of mayoral control would welcome. Mayor Barrett, in particular, can still deliver for MPS and parents and students across Wisconsin by agreeing to legislation that would address the core issues we all face.

“The school funding formula adopted by the Legislature in 1992 is a shambles and needs to be replaced. Public schools need the resources to provide an adequate education to their students. Different districts have different needs. Poor rural and urban districts (including Beloit and Racine as well as Milwaukee) have challenges that wealthier districts do not face. A new formula can help districts with concentrations of poor students, English language learners, and special needs without harming districts with more advantaged students. A good way to enhance Governor Doyle legacy on educational issues might be to revisit the 2004 recommendations of Doyle’s Task Force on Educational Excellence for additional measures that would help districts across the state.

“A proposal by State Senator Spencer Coggs and State Representative Tamara Grigsby could be modified to include provisions on funding that will help districts statewide, not just Milwaukee. Barrett and legislative leaders could be statesmen, if Barrett recognizes the needs of districts statewide, just as legislators must now recognize the urgent needs of MPS, not for control, but for support from all segments of the public and all parts of Wisconsin.”

You can read the ACLU’s testimony from the hearing (PDF) or read our press release (PDF) on-line.

We’ve blogged before about the reasons why the Mayor shouldn’t take over the Milwaukee Public Schools. We also tweeted live from yesterday’s hearing.

The ACLU of Wisconsin was quoted on the subject in OnMilwaukee. Coverage of the hearing and the mayoral takeover issue also included Milwaukee Public Radio, TMJ4, WisPolitics, the Milwaukee Business Journal, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WISN, the La Crosse Tribune, and got a mention on Madison’s Channel 3000.

Why the Milwaukee Mayor should not take over MPS

There is currently a controversy brewing in Milwaukee where it has been proposed that there should be a mayoral takeover of the city’s public schools. Milwaukee students need and deserve safety and equality in their schools. But changing the governance of Milwaukee Public Schools will not remedy Wisconsin’s failure to provide an adequate education to far too many of Milwaukee’s children.

A mayoral takeover will not narrow the racial achievement gap, which should deeply trouble all Wisconsinites. Schemes such as mayoral control and school vouchers that focus on control rather than education in the classroom are bound to fail our children.

Rather than spending time and effort to push through a controversial takeover program that will not provide resources for programs that work, the governor, mayor and state legislators need to ensure that all Milwaukee children have the opportunity to obtain a meaningful, adequate education.

Those genuinely concerned about student performance need to evaluate what programs and services – such as smaller class sizes – help students succeed. They must look at researched-based findings on what programs and services best educate students with disabilities, English language learners, and low income students. In light of the racial achievement gaps in our community, they must look at whether specific programs are needed to support children of color. Then they must determine what these programs cost, and how those programs will be fairly and adequately funded. That is the kind of adequate education that all Milwaukee students deserve – but are too often denied.

Moreover, efforts to improve the education of Milwaukee children must address the needs of all students who attend taxpayer-supported schools, not just those who attend schools operated by MPS. Approximately 1/5 of Milwaukee students attend private voucher schools at taxpayers’ expense – and most of those schools perform no better than MPS, and in some cases fall short of MPS performance. Yet neither the takeover proposal nor any other plan that has been offered seek to improve education for those 20,000 Milwaukee children.

Nor does the takeover plan deal with the negative impacts of voucher turnover on MPS schools. As a recent audit shows, each year far more students leave voucher schools forMPS than transfer from MPS to voucher schools. Some voucher schools close during or after the school year, for reasons ranging from poor physical conditions to financial mismanagement. Voucher schools can and do expel students who present behavioral and other challenges. And research has also shown that voucher schools educate a far smaller percentage of students with disabilities and English language learners than MPS – requiring MPS to divert a far greater percentage of its resources to educate these children.

The poor outcomes of voucher schools are a clear indication that quick fixes will not meet the educational needs of Milwaukee children. Vouchers were sold as a free market, competitive model that would succeed without regulation, oversight or public disclosure – but overall, the system has failed and should be phased out, starting with those voucher schools that are underperforming MPS.

Nor should there be a headlong rush for other quick fixes. Neighborhood schools, for example, were sold – and funded – as a way to provide a better education to Milwaukee children, and they too have failed. There is no evidence that yet another quick fix – a mayoral takeover of the public schools – will have any more success in meeting students’ needs.

The ACLU of Wisconsin believes the primary constitutional responsibility for the education of Milwaukee’s children rests with the State of Wisconsin. The state needs to put adequate resources into the public school system to provide the educational services and supports those children need – including adequate supports for children living in poverty, children with disabilities, English language learners, and other special needs children. It needs to ensure that the per-pupil funding for Milwaukee Public Schools students is at least comparable to that of suburban districts. Those are the reforms that will help Milwaukee students succeed.

What the State of the State means to civil liberties in 2009

Governor Doyle just gave his State of the State Address (PDF or watch it on Wisconsin Eye) and it was a mixed bag in terms of civil liberties.

While it is true that we are all facing hard times with our current economy and a large state deficit, we can’t ignore how important it is to have a budget that includes a plan for educational equity in school funding, repealing or at least defunding Real ID, and including health insurance coverage for the domestic partners of all state employees, among many other issues.

“The ACLU of Wisconsin applauds the Governor’s commitment to public education and changing the way that schools are funded,” said ACLU of Wisconsin Executive Director Chris Ahmuty. “We hope that the Governor establishes comprehensive school funding reform that provides an adequate education for all Wisconsin students. Reform must ensure that all children have an adequate education, whether they are in Superior, Crandon, or Milwaukee; whether they live in concentrated poverty, are English language learners, or have other obstacles in their paths.”

The Governor is right to demand a change in how Wisconsin deals with drunken driving, but the call for sobriety checkpoints will only subject innocent drivers to suspicionless searches.

“While drunken driving is a serious issue, the ACLU of Wisconsin is disappointed that the Governor chose to stress sobriety checkpoints in his State of the State address. We believe that there are more cost effective ways to deter drunken drivers, ones that do not offend the civil liberties of innocent drivers. We urge the Legislature to concentrate on other measures.”

While the Governor can’t include every issue in his State of the State Address, we hope to see more attention to details including a reasonable state position on the now-discredited federal Real ID program and a commitment to providing health insurance coverage to the same sex domestic partners of all state employees.

Stay tuned to Cap City Liberty and ACLU-WI.org for more on the budget and its relationship to civil liberties and equality.