January, 2006

School districts across Wisconsin are preparing to begin the yearly ritual of reducing services to their students. Under the current revenue caps there really is no choice for most of us. For most districts the easy choices were made long ago. After twelve years of revenue caps there are only choices left that harm our children.

At the same time that educational research is showing us more effective ways to ensure that all children learn, inadequate school finance systems are ensuring that we do not have the resources to implement what we know.

Generations of Wisconsin students have had access to an outstanding academic education and the opportunity to be engaged actively in the arts, athletics and other activities that enhance the quality of their adult life and the lives of all of us. Without a serious change in the way we finance schools, these will soon be only a memory.

For example, we know that young children learn better in small classes. Research also tells us that children learn better with a teacher educated through on-going professional development to employ the best current teaching methods. Many districts are now faced with the impossible task of choosing between these two critically important needs.

Or, the choice this year for some may be the reduction of the advanced courses that allow our state's students to be competitive with students globally, thus limiting the availability of the highly educated work force that our state needs to be competitive.

Under the current law, the dilemma is not which of these reductions will have to be made, it is rather when they will have to be made.

The current finance system -- which relies heavily on the residential property tax -- places the welfare of our elderly citizens on fixed incomes in direct competition with the educational needs of our next generation. This is no more acceptable than it is acceptable to dismantle our great public school system.

The only solution is a bipartisan effort to completely revamp the way we finance our public schools. The funding of public education has to be removed from the political re-election process. The need to create a sound policy to fund public education is so important to the future of all of our citizens that it must be a non-partisan shared responsibility.

The public policy debate must clearly define the quality of education the citizens of our state want for our children. Then, working together, our legislators must develop a funding system that draws the needed revenue from a variety of tax streams.

In my naiveté, I hope that the issue for the voters becomes not what did the candidate do to "one up" his/her opponent for votes, but how did we work together to create a better future for our next generation.

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