State Government is not Keeping Its Promises to our Public Schools 

In today’s global environment, students in Wisconsin are no longer competing just with those in nearby school districts or states, but rather with kids all over the world. That’s why it’s now more critical than ever that our public schools are successful.

For decades, our schools have done what we needed them to do. As long as adults provided the resources, the education system provided the opportunities students needed to learn in school and succeed in life.

That has all changed over the past 20 years. Despite a longstanding and successful partnership, the state now pays a smaller share of the cost of quality education. Most recently, Governor Scott Walker and his predecessor Jim Doyle have made devastating cuts to school aid.As a result, today’s young people receive a lesser quality education, even than their older brothers and sisters. There are fewer teachers in classrooms and fewer programs and services for students, which translate into lost opportunities. At a time when we should be focusing on 21st century learning, we are instead tangled up in endless political debates and budget cuts of the past.

At the core, it’s quite simple—children will have the opportunities they need to help build a better future for all of us if they have great teachers, quality early childhood education, solid and challenging classes, expanded learning options and equitably distributed resources.

A broken state school funding system and the massive cuts to education statewide, however, have made achieving these goals much more difficult.

We apparently need to help state lawmakers do the right thing. First, urge them to support State Superintendent Tony Evers’s “Fair Funding for Our Future,” a reform model that works for children and for property taxpayers. Second, state government needs to adopt “A Penny for Kids,”  a one-cent increase in the sales tax to restore the devastating cuts to public schools in the last state budget, and begin reinvesting in our children.

Public education is a partnership that involves society (through its elected officials), schools and children. All must do their part if it is to succeed. If we fail, our young people will continue to struggle and the rest of the world will continue to eat our lunch. If we fail, it will cost us dearly.

Opportunity to Learn-Wisconsin is the statewide school-funding reform campaign staffed by the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools, which is a project of the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future. 

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A note to readers: Over the past year, Wisconsin’s elected officials have made a number of decisions that reflect a significant directional shift in the state’s approach to many issues, including those affecting the the well-being of children and families. This is one in a series of blog posts providing perspectives on some of the state policy changes and fiscal decisions, and the impact they are having on Wisconsin’s children and families. We hope voters will consider these impacts as they make their decisions this election season, and will urge candidates to talk more about these issues. The views expressed in these posts are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of WCCF or the opinions of authors of any of the other posts.