New study says little
doubt remains
that budget hurts kids and
their schools
The evidence keeps piling up --
the cuts to public education in
the 2011-13 budget are not good for children, their schools, or their
communities.
Two of Wisconsin's leading education professionals studied the impact of the
budget and published a policy brief entitled,
"Making
Matters Worse: School Funding, Achievement Gaps and Poverty under Wisconsin Act
32." The findings were startling but not unexpected: Reductions in
state aid and revenue limit authority -- leaving school districts with $1.6
billion less revenue -- are and will be devastating, especially for children
from poverty.
James Shaw and Carolyn Kelly wrote the policy brief for the University of
Wisconsin-Madison Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. It examined the
impact of the budget on school funding, teacher quality, student learning, and
property taxes. Shaw and Kelly are state educators with expertise in school
reform and school leadership development.
The pair's key findings are:
- State
budget cuts hit high poverty districts the hardest.
- High
poverty districts have less state revenue to support the needs of children
and taxpayers in high poverty districts pay taxes at increasingly higher
rates.
- Reductions
in employee compensation hit high poverty districts the hardest.
- Reductions
in the size of the workforce hit high poverty districts hardest.
- Act 32
(the budget) increases funding gaps for poor and minority students.
In other words, “this
study paints a grim picture of funding gaps in Wisconsin public education. …
The reductions in state support for public education threaten to increase
achievement gaps, and challenge Wisconsin’s constitutional and long-standing
commitment to equal education opportunity.”
