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9/3/2008
Is enough ever enough?

Someone in Brown County suggested that when the Packer tax (1/2 cent sales tax) ends in a few years, we should give this money to our public schools because they just don't have enough money. (I bet the Wisconsin Way report will suggest a sales tax to lower property taxes and give even more to schools.)

Another person’s response: even if he sent in his entire paycheck all the time, schools still wouldn't have enough money (at least according to the education community).

We’ve had spending controls on schools for over a decade. Even with them in place, we are spending nearly $11,500 per child. Can you imagine how much we would be spending with the decisions completely in the education community's hands? How much do you think we would be spending per student without revenue controls that allow increases each year per student? K-12 taxes make up roughly half our property tax bills, and nearly all of our income taxes go to state aids. Our schools are the single largest spending item for both the state and our local taxes.

For years, my office has been tabulating data from our schools. This is self-reported data on the money and where it comes from, the number of students, number of teachers, and the total number of staff. It is in easy-to-see spread sheets. One for each of the 426 school districts in our state.

These spreadsheets show growth in money spent, spending per student and spending per teacher and per staff member. People are amazed at how much we are spending today. And at how fast it continues to grow, even as the student numbers decline.

The data are available at my School Funding page. Just click on your county, then pick your district. State wide and county averages are also available on the website.

If schools are in trouble in Wisconsin, it’s not because of the money.

Statewide school funding has increased from $7.5 billion in 2000, to nearly $10 billion in 2006 – increases of nearly 5% per year.

This is despite the fact that we’ve got fewer students. Between 2000 and 2006, the statewide number of K-12 students in Wisconsin fell by over 3,200. That didn’t stop us from hiring more teachers: over the same period, the number of teachers in Wisconsin public schools grew by 740.

Am I the only one who finds that odd?

More money and fewer students means our per-student spending is up: statewide, per-student spending in Wisconsin went over $10,000 for the first time in 2003, up from under $8,500 in 1999.

Other states that are getting similar results educating their children are often spending less than we are.

Educating our kids is important. It isn’t only about money and ever more staff. It is about methods, style, results, and accountability. We need more of these and our kids will benefit. They will be smarter, better and even more above average than they are now.

Frank Lasee is a Republican and represents the 2nd Assembly District.

COMMENTS

Rep. Lasee:
Are these inflation adjusted numbers? Looking at your spreadsheets, these numbers look like actual spending. Strip out inflation, and the numbers look less frightening - a 2% per year increase is still an increase, though. How does Wisconsin rate relative to other states? Which states spend less than $10,000 per student? Which spend more? How have Wisconsin students performed on standardized testing over the 2000-2006 period? Some context for these numbers will either make them even more concerning or much less so.

Doug Martin (Tue Sep 02 10:03:52 2008)

Every time I read my husband's teacher's union newsletter, I want to barf. The sense of entitlement and self-importance these people have!!! (He can't stand even to read it; he pays union dues, though, so we might as well get their info.)

I have children that would be classified as special ed. They did not all learn to read by age 7 or even 8, but they all now read past their grade level. It cost less than $50 per child to teach them, and they did NOT have "extensive one-on-one."

Yes, they are homeschooled, and NO, homeschooling does not necessarily mean that each child gets a huge amount of undivided time. You try juggilng keeping livestock, growing and preserving almost all your own food, working half-time, and teaching multiple children; see how much "specialized time" they actually get.

My point is, that if my special-ed kids (all 5 of them) can succeed on a shoestring budget, in above circumstances, why can't the school districts? "Professional" teachers, some of whom can't even spell, argue "that of course homeschoolers succeed, because they have so much time to themselves", etc. Look at the above scenario--this time crunch is typical of most homeschoolers I know.

Maybe if schools returned to teaching basics, and stopped following fads, such as classes with assignments on "how to write the perfect suicide note" (YES, in my husband's school!) the kids would actually LEARN the basics, and it would cost less.

I know, I'm a hopeless dreamer...

emay matthews (Thu Sep 04 09:18:41 2008)

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