Madison parents, teachers, students, school board members and others converged at the Capitol in April to talk to legislators about the need to overhaul the state's school funding system.

Jacinth Sohi, a senior at West HS and the school board's alternate student representative, wowed the nearly 200 people attending a school funding news conference crammed into the Capitol's Assembly Parlor. She used personal anecdotes to illustrate how Madison students were adversely affected due to cuts required by state-imposed revenue limits.

"We, as students, urge you to take action on this problem before our school district ends up completely in shambles. If the repercussions are being felt this strongly now, one can only imagine how horrible the situation will be for our students five or ten years in the future.

"Enacting legislation such as that of Representative Pope-Roberts is the first step to giving funding back to our students and taking our schools back to a higher level of excellence," Sohi said to sustained applause. Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts (D-Verona) has introduced Assembly Joint Resolution 35 , which requires the Legislature to change the school funding system by July 1, 2009.

Superintendent Art Rainwater reiterated remarks he made to the Joint Finance committee members at the March DeForest public hearing, "As a superintendent, all I ask our Legislature is to give us the resources to have the state standards met by all our children, or have the courage to stand up and say, 'Wisconsin cannot afford to reach those standards' — which is a way of saying our children don't deserve to reach those standards."

Spurred by the organizing efforts of the school board, about 30 parents, students and teachers from Lowell Elementary made Capitol visits to their state representatives. Parents asked for reform to avoid the annual spring ritual of local school budget revenue limit cuts, and children left pictures they had drawn. Other parents from other schools have also reported meeting with their legislators to press for reform.

Supt. Art Rainwater

West HS Senior Jacinth Sohi

Nearly 30 parents and children from Lowell Elementary crowded into state Rep. Joe Parisi's Capitol office to discuss their concerns related to Wisconsin's school funding crisis.