Act NOW for Equity

Doug Haselow, AEF Executive Director

Now that Governor Doyle has presented his budget plan, school districts across the state have their work cut out for them. It's time for each of you to initiate discussions with your legislators about the need for school finance reform in the 2003-04 Legislative Session.

Those of you attending the WASB Day at the Capitol on Wednesday, March 12 should have an early opportunity to speak directly about equity issues. You'll have a great deal to say about many other items, I'm sure, but these are the key points we'd like you to communicate:

(1) Our state school funding system must provide equal access to state and local revenues
(2) Our state must have additional revenues to meet additional educational needs as specified by the State Supreme Court in the 2001 standard.

Here's one specific example you can use. Governor Doyle's budget proposal to eliminate the primary aid hold harmless provision was met with opposition by the property wealthy school districts. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel listed 28 districts that would be adversely affected. Of those, one would gain from the proposal and six are unaffected according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

For those districts that do experience a loss, the maximum impact is only 2.3% (not 20% as some have speculated), and that loss would be softened by supplemental aid, which provides 85% of the prior year payment.

Big Spenders
Last session, then-Governor McCallum made a point of identifying the big spenders in government. That list of 28 school districts complaining about the elimination of the primary aid hold harmless is as close to a list of big spenders as we can get.

On a per-pupil basis, those 28 districts spend about 25% more than the state average. The amount over the secondary cost ceiling is subject to negative aids and should act as a spending disincentive. Such a result is just what the legislature intended when the secondary valuation was established a generation ago.

I urge you to make sure your legislators understand that elimination of the primary aid hold harmless would restore a spending disincentive for those who no longer have one.

Think about how and why the primary aid level and primary aid hold harmless were established effective for 1996-97. At that time Wisconsin had a minimum per-pupil aid payment to school districts. Those minimum aids could not be justified from a public policy perspective and were about to be challenged in court.

The 1995 Legislature abolished the minimum aids and created a new method of sending money back to high spending, property wealthy districts. That new method was the third tier for the first $1,000 of per-pupil costs and the primary aid hold harmless. The logic of aiding the first $1,000 differently was nothing but a gimmick to send state school aid to districts that would not benefit from equalization.

I urge you to let your legislators know that continuing to send state money to high-wealth high-spending school districts is not fair to either children or taxpayers.

Despite earlier speculation to the contrary, the Governor did not propose to eliminate school aid for capital improvements. It seems clear that the Administration recognizes the equalizing value of keeping those costs aidable and subject to full equalization.

School Finance Task Force
The Governor's staff is beginning to work on assembling a school finance task force for the purpose of making recommendations to reform the school finance system. We anticipate that the task force will be formed by spring and will make recommendations that can be considered later this legislative session.