The 2011-13 biennial budget withdraws more than $45 million in state support for specific programs in Wisconsin school districts programs that help prepare our students to become the leaders of future generations.
This budget withdraws all support for a number of programs in school districts, including Advanced Placement courses. The budget also eliminates grants for alternative education, extra assistance for elementary programs in high-poverty districts, tutoring assistance in Milwaukee Public Schools, and other programs. Programs that the budget did not eliminate were subject to a 10% cut, including programs for school day milk, gifted and talented services, and 4-year-old kindergarten, among others.There’s more. In addition to these cuts in support for specific school district services, the state is also cutting more than $750 million in general aid and implementing new restrictions on how much revenue districts are allowed to raise at the local level through the property tax.
The total bottom line for districts: a cut of more than a billion dollars over the biennium.
Can we expect Wisconsin students to thrive in a system facing such an unprecedented loss of resources? Instead of making massive cuts to one of our state’s most valuable assets, Wisconsin should build on past success. After all, we have one of the best public school systems in the nation, and consistently rank among the top states in terms of graduation rates, ACT scores, and educational quality. Let’s maintain our commitment to public education; it’s one of the soundest, most important investments in Wisconsin’s future.
Tamarine Cornelius
Tomorrow—Way #19: Child Labor Laws
About the series: “31 Ways in 31 Days” is a series of posts to the WCCF blog exploring the recently-passed biennial budget’s impact on children and families in Wisconsin. Each day in July, we are posting a description of one way the budget will affect kids and families, with an eye toward what should be done going forward to help improve outcomes and move us closer to the goal of making Wisconsin a place where every child has the opportunity to grow up, learn, and thrive in a safe, healthy, economically secure home and community.
