News and information for staff members and the Madison community
Vol. II No. 4 - January 29, 2007
Madison legislators were unequivocal: the state's education community needs to coalesce around specific changes to improve school funding and work together for that common goal. Local legislators met with members of the Madison School Board recently to discuss important education issues prior to the Governor's budget introduction in February.
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison), a member of the Legislature's budget-writing Joint Finance committee said, "There has to be a single message, repeated over and over again. If not, legislators will go in different directions." Pocan maintained that during last session's budget hearings, K-12 was well represented, but that there was little uniformity in the testimony.
Much of the meeting's discussion focused on school funding and revenue limits. While State Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) has urged expanding the sales tax base to take schools off the property tax, the Governor was tepid towards the idea and fellow Democrats have been reluctant to embrace the proposal.
Legislators were also told about under-funded state mandates, in particular special education and English Language Learner (ELL) funding. When revenue limits started in 1993-94, the state reimbursed school districts for 45% of special education expenses; now the reimbursement rate is 28% — a loss of $9.1 million in resources. For ELL the reimbursement rate has dropped from 33.1% to 12%, a loss of about $2.5 million in state aid for Madison.
The school board and Madison-area legislators meet annually to discuss important K-12 education issues.
Candidates will vie for three seats on the Madison school board. Only one of the seats will be contested in the February 20 primary. Shwaw Vang is not running for re-election and those hoping to win the seat are: Pam Cross-Leone, 4621 Kennedy Rd.; Beth Moss, 2 Highgate Circle and Rick Thomas, 5814 Raymond Rd.
Challenging BOE President Johnny Winston, Jr. is Tom Brew, 5905 Mayhill Dr. Facing off to replace Ruth Robarts, who is not running for re-election, are Maya Cole, 1818 Keyes Ave. and Marjorie Passman, 3118 Todd Dr.
Falk Elementary School is hosting a School Board Candidate Forum on Tuesday February 13 from 6:30-8:00/8:30pm at the Falk Elementary School gym. All seven candidates were invited and to date, six have said they will attend. The format will allow opening statements and then questions from the audience.
Rep. Spencer Black chats with BOE President Johnny Winston, Jr. and BOE member Arlene Silviera following the BOE meeting with Madison-area legislators.
Last Updated: Fri Feb 16 14:37:25 2007
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