- Every child deserves the best education possible.
- Regular education should NOT be pitted against special education; the
state has a moral obligation to be a partner with local districts for
special education expenses.
- State law requires the state to reimburse local school districts for 63%
of special education costs - the Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates that
the rate for the 1998-99 school year will be less than 35%. The governor's
budget eliminates the state's 63% statutory reimbursement rate.
- If the state returned to the reimbursement rate when revenue limits
started (1993-94 -- 45%), the Madison school district would have an
additional $4.5M in spending authority. If the state actually kept its
statutory commitment of 63% reimbursement, the Madison school district would
have over $11M in increased spending authority - enough to reduce class size
in grades K-3, complete backlogged maintenance work, and maintain the
district's computer system ($2M annual cost).
- Handicapped aids (the state's categorical fund that finances special
education) has been frozen at $275.5M since 1994-95 -- the governor's budget
continues this freeze through 2000-01.
- With revenue limits in place school districts must use resources from the
regular education portion of the budget to fund state and federally mandated
special education programs/services.
- Special education costs for Madison have increased $10.1M since the
inception of revenue limits - state aid has increased only $1.1M.
- Bilingual education costs have increased $1.8M since the start of revenue
limits - state aid for this mandated program has increased a mere $66,000.
2001-03 Biennial State Budget
