Dave Zweifel: School funding needs reform now
By Dave Zweifel
We ran a picture several days ago of five Madison West High School students holding textbooks that were older than they were.
The young men and women were part of a group that testified at a legislative hearing in the State Capitol to urge legislators to find a better way to finance public education in Wisconsin.
The current system, which relies on the property tax and features so-called revenue caps to supposedly lessen the impact of that tax, is causing havoc in school districts around the state. As the West students demonstrated, even supposedly "wealthy" districts like Madison can't buy up-to-date textbooks because of the caps. La Follette High students told legislators that a class aimed at helping students get ahead in mathematics had to be canceled, just one example of how public education is suffering in our state.
Congratulations to those young people who had enough gumption to tell legislators that the time has come to get off the dime and do something to reform the way we finance education.
Too bad more adults don't do the same, because if we continue to force school districts to make draconian cuts in their budgets, it's not going to be too long before Wisconsin's once-vaunted education system will be mediocre at best -- large classes, old textbooks, fewer extracurricular activities, a steady loss of the best teachers to more rewarding opportunities.
That is happening already, and it's time for all of us to make a stand, just like those students did at the State Capitol the other day.
There's got to be a better way than constantly pitting property taxpayers against the needs of young people who hold the key to our state's and nation's future. Wisconsin needs to remove schools from the property taxes and come up with a statewide system that treats public education fairly and responsibly.
Take education off the property tax and let those taxes fund all police, fire, garbage collection, parks and other services that truly benefit property owners.
Divert the state aids that now go to municipalities to the schools. That would go a long way to cover the loss of property tax revenue and result in a system paid for by income and sales taxes, which would be much more fair than the regressive property tax -- a tax that is oppressing many of our senior citizens on fixed incomes.
Wisconsin has conducted several studies on how we can fix the funding of our education system. Isn't it time that the governor and Legislature start looking at those recommendations and consider other ideas instead of foolishly tinkering with the same old broken system?
It may sound hyperbolic, but the future really is at stake.
Dave Zweifel is editor of The Capital Times, Madison, WI newspaper.
Published: May 2, 2007
By Dave Zweifel
We ran a picture several days ago of five Madison West High School students holding textbooks that were older than they were.
The young men and women were part of a group that testified at a legislative hearing in the State Capitol to urge legislators to find a better way to finance public education in Wisconsin.
The current system, which relies on the property tax and features so-called revenue caps to supposedly lessen the impact of that tax, is causing havoc in school districts around the state. As the West students demonstrated, even supposedly "wealthy" districts like Madison can't buy up-to-date textbooks because of the caps. La Follette High students told legislators that a class aimed at helping students get ahead in mathematics had to be canceled, just one example of how public education is suffering in our state.
Congratulations to those young people who had enough gumption to tell legislators that the time has come to get off the dime and do something to reform the way we finance education.
Too bad more adults don't do the same, because if we continue to force school districts to make draconian cuts in their budgets, it's not going to be too long before Wisconsin's once-vaunted education system will be mediocre at best -- large classes, old textbooks, fewer extracurricular activities, a steady loss of the best teachers to more rewarding opportunities.
That is happening already, and it's time for all of us to make a stand, just like those students did at the State Capitol the other day.
There's got to be a better way than constantly pitting property taxpayers against the needs of young people who hold the key to our state's and nation's future. Wisconsin needs to remove schools from the property taxes and come up with a statewide system that treats public education fairly and responsibly.
Take education off the property tax and let those taxes fund all police, fire, garbage collection, parks and other services that truly benefit property owners.
Divert the state aids that now go to municipalities to the schools. That would go a long way to cover the loss of property tax revenue and result in a system paid for by income and sales taxes, which would be much more fair than the regressive property tax -- a tax that is oppressing many of our senior citizens on fixed incomes.
Wisconsin has conducted several studies on how we can fix the funding of our education system. Isn't it time that the governor and Legislature start looking at those recommendations and consider other ideas instead of foolishly tinkering with the same old broken system?
It may sound hyperbolic, but the future really is at stake.
Dave Zweifel is editor of The Capital Times, Madison, WI newspaper.
Published: May 2, 2007
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