While there may be widespread agreement with that statement, how we got into this predicament and, more importantly, how we resolve the funding issue is where disagreement exists.

As the saying goes, “one must know history well or history is bound to repeat itself.”    A brief review of school funding history is in order.

During the late 80’s and early ‘90’s, education spending was out of control. Double-digit property tax increases were common.  The only way to control school taxes and spending was to oust local school board members—always a difficult feat.  Fiscally responsible school boards were rendered helpless by state mediation/arbitration law which sent contract disputes to an arbitrator for resolution.  The problem was, the arbitrator’s decision was heavily influenced by settlements in surrounding districts.  If one district settled at a high level of salary and benefit increases, soon all districts were mandated to provide such settlements.   Large settlements combined with increased hiring led to escalating school spending and taxes.  Property taxes in particular rose at unbearable rates angering taxpayers across Wisconsin.

In the early 90’s, responding to an angry electorate, the legislature passed a “revenue cap” law limiting the amount of revenue a district could collect from property and state taxes, effectively limiting spending. This cap was formulated to allow for inflation and student enrollment changes.  Some contend that districts are only allowed to increase spending by 2% annually, but Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance figures show that school spending increases have averaged 4% yearly since 2001.

To make revenue caps workable, salary and benefits (80% of school budgets) also needed to be reigned in.  The legislature passed what is commonly called the QEO: Qualified Economic Offer.  This law prohibits mediation/arbitration if a district offers the teachers union at least a 3.8% salary and benefit increase.  However, huge loopholes developed in QEO law resulting in average salary increases of over 5% annually, not including the increasing cost of health and retirement benefits.  

This legislation intentionally created a shortfall between the money generated by revenue caps and the QEO to force districts to prioritize spending within their budgets that had

become padded with new programs and staff for years.  To provide for some local control of spending, the legislature included the referendum process for any spending over the revenue caps. 

Also passed was “two-thirds funding”.  This means that the state provides 2/3 of the cost of education in Wisconsin.  This was a huge shift in taxes from the local to the state level.  This 2/3 funding is actually a very complex formula that distributes this money unevenly.  Property rich districts and big spending districts get less state money than property poor districts and lesser spending districts.  Waukesha is considered a property rich district so we receive less than 2/3 funding. 

The state of Wisconsin currently spends $5.89 billion on K-12 education.  This represents 39.3% of the state’s General Fund.  Local property taxes (after all credits) increased 5.4% to $3.79 billion.  These figures demonstrate how generous Wisconsin taxpayers are to our schools.

Changes in education funding have focused on getting rid of revenue caps and the QEO instead of modifying laws.   Meanwhile, loopholes have eroded the intent of the original legislation and school costs are again getting out of control.

Those who want to spend even more money won’t say where the additional money will come from.  Will it come from the justice system budget? The public safety budget? The healthcare budget? Corporations and businesses that employ Wisconsin citizens? A new tax? Or most likely, higher property taxes? 

Our children are the pawns in this debate.  Those who don’t favor unlimited education spending are portrayed as “anti-child”.  What the WTL advocates is balance.  Limits to taxpayer ability to pay must be respected by all government entities including education.  When taxation is too high, the ability to attract new business and retain existing businesses is reduced.    People may leave at retirement (even the teachers union advises its members to retire elsewhere due to Wisconsin’s high taxes). A stagnant or declining tax base will detrimentally affect education. 

We believe the state legislature should fine tune the laws to eliminate the discrepancies that allow employee compensation to rise faster than revenue caps.  Eliminating the loopholes in both QEO and revenue caps would be a good place to start.   What we cannot do is return to the free spending 80’s that hurt so many property and business owners.  Taxpayers have an obligation to provide our children with a good education.   Educators have an obligation to keep their demands reasonable and parents have an obligation to send their children to school ready to learn so the schools can concentrate on teaching and not parenting.  Together we can provide our children with the education they need and leave taxpayers with enough money they need to meet their other obligations.