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July 29, 2003
The Honorable James E. Doyle
115 East - State Capitol
Madison, WI 53702
Dear Governor Doyle,
Thank you for keeping your promise to the citizens of Wisconsin. For over two years you expressed that your vision for Wisconsin's future would be to continue to build on our excellent K-12 education system and ensure its historic vitality. You are to be commended for your courageous veto of the Legislature's expedient change to the revenue limit law. Your veto recognizes that locally elected officials are responsive to their constituents, and accountable to the electorate.
Over the ten years of revenue limits, Madison Schools have cut nearly $28 million from budgets and eliminated nearly 300 positions. This year alone, we eliminated the district's registrar position responsible for enrolling students, administering the state's open enrollment law, and reporting on a variety of mandates to the state. As part of the over $3 million cut this year, we also eliminated useful student assessments in grades 5-7 and cut in half the amount of resources available for staff development for ESL/bilingual staff, at a time when the ESL population has doubled since 1998.
The reaction of the Legislature to your vetoes underscores the need for school finance reform. Special education and bilingual federal and state mandates drive local spending. In Madison, being a relatively high property value district, we only receive about 25% of our aid from the state. If the Legislature really wants to provide much needed relief to local property tax payers, they should provide adequate funding for these mandates.
Thank you again for your ongoing support of K-12 education. Your commitment to this priority is appreciated by all of us who work for Wisconsin's children. I look forward to working with you to improve Wisconsin's school finance system and keeping our state's schools among the best in the nation.
Sincerely,
Art Rainwater
Superintendent