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JFC Adopts K12 Budget
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | August 29, 2017
From WisPolitics.com …
The Joint Finance Committee voted 12-4 along party lines to change Gov. Scott Walker’s K-12 education plan by adding a boost for low-spending school districts and increasing the income cutoff for students in the statewide voucher program.
Dems slammed the proposal late yesterday afternoon, saying the additional $639 million provided by the motion still left public schools short of where they were before Republicans took over in 2011, when taking into account things like inflation.
“No matter how tough times are, you have to find a way to pay for the basics, and the basics as far as the state of Wisconsin is concerned is good roads, good schools, not in that order,” said state Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton.
The plan would spend about $10 million less than Walker’s original proposal. But it would keep his plan to pump more than $500 million into per-pupil categorical aids that are split evenly among school districts based on enrollment.
Dems also argued the proposal would expand the statewide choice program at the expense of public schools. They pointed to Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates that districts losing students to the voucher program would raise property taxes by $30 million to make up for the state aid they’d lose.
But Rep. Dale Kooyenga, R-Brookfield, took issue with the suggestion.
“Parents expand school choice,” Kooyenga said. “We can have all the best intentions in the world of expanding school choice, but if parents tell us that’s silly, then school choice does not expand.”
State Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Brookfield, voted for the 18-page motion, even though she took issue with two provisions. She preferred raising the income cap higher than the GOP proposal and removing the caps on enrollment.
She also knocked the committee’s action on the energy efficiency exemption to school revenue limits. Walker had proposed eliminating it, but instead, members would impose a one-year pause on the program.
Vukmir, who’s weighing a bid for the U.S. Senate, noted West Allis voters rejected a $12.5 million referendum only to see the district use the energy efficiency exemption to exceed the caps by $12.8 million.
“This provision has been abused, and the governor was right when he eliminated it,” Vukmir said, adding it was “an end-run around the taxpayers.”
Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, also expressed disappointment the committee voted to eliminate the guv’s sparsity aid boost, saying the focus on low-spending districts instead would hurt schools he represents.
Walker thanked JFC members for “supporting the education portion of my budget.”
“Once signed, this budget will include more actual dollars for K-12 education than ever before in our history,” he said.
The Joint Finance Committee will meet again in one week to take up transportation and the remaining pieces of the budget.
Co-chair Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, said the committee is also keeping open Wednesday and Thursday of next week to finish the budget and exec the Foxconn bill.
See Wisconsin State Journal Coverage here.
See Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Coverage here.
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