Rural schools stand to gain

Plan includes transportation, technology aid

Gov. Scott Walker plans to offer more support to Wisconsin’s rural schools by funneling $20 million more to sparsely populated school districts and offering $10 million more for high-cost transportation aid, according to a statement released Wednesday.

He also wants to increase technology grant funding by more than $22 million, create a new training pathway for rural paraprofessionals to become full-time teachers, and put an additional $1 million in the budget to support school fabrication labs.

The proposals represent Walker’s first concrete plans for increasing funding to K-12 schools as part of his 2017-’19 state budget plan. They come as state Superintendent Tony Evers is making his own push to increase funding for all schools, and as Walker, a Republican, feels pressure from his party’s rural lawmakers who have increasingly heard from their local school administrators and parents about tight school resources.

“I think a lot of this is the result of the governor’s listening sessions around the state. And I think he heard pretty loud and clear from rural areas” that schools are struggling, said state Rep. Rob Swearingen (RRhinelander), who chaired an Assembly task force on rural schools during the 2013-’14 legislative session.

Walker’s statement pointed out that his plan to increase sparsity aid by $20 million was $12.3 million more than Evers requested and that his plan would total a $55.4 million investment in that aid over the two-year budget.

“Every student matters, and there’s no doubt that Wisconsin’s rural schools face unique challenges,” Walker said in a statement before his planned visits to the Wauzeka-Steuben, Hilbert and Crandon school districts.

Evers in a statement applauded Walker’s proposals and touted his own efforts to engage rural communities to find solutions to their issues.

“Many of the items included in the governor’s proposal originally came from that process and were included as part of the budget request I submitted,” said Evers, who faces two challengers in his bid for re-election.

Evers also praised Walker’s efforts to address educator shortages but said the proposal doesn’t address the root cause of staffing problems in rural areas.

“To properly stem the tide of professionals leaving rural districts, the state must provide a funding stream to equalize the differences between rural districts and their wealthier, often more urban, counterparts,” Evers said.

The state school boards association welcomed the proposals, while Democratic lawmakers took aim at Walker for taking credit for solving a problem — school funding shortages — they say he created.

Rep. Sondy Pope (D-Middleton) said Wisconsin schools are

challenged with educating children with a level of resources that are not back to 2010-’11 levels.

“(Walker) has taken six years to appease millionaire donors before attempting to help schools in any way,” she said in a statement.

Some specifics Walker’s plan include:

Increasing the perpupil reimbursement rate for districts that previously qualified for sparsity aid to $400 per pupil. That aid is for districts with fewer than 745 pupils and a population density of less than 10 pupils per square mile. A new $100 per pupil tier of sparsity aid funding would be available for districts with 746 to 1,000 pupils.

Providing a 100% reimbursement for rural school districts that have to bus students long distances by investing $25.4 million over the two-year budget, which Walker’s statement said is a $10.4 million increase over the last budget. The 2015-’16 reimbursement rate was pro-rated at roughly 60%.

Providing $92,000 over the two-year budget for pupil transportation and increasing reimbursement of

rates for that transportation.

Increasing funding for technology infrastructure grants for schools by $22.5 million. Districts would also be able to apply for grants to fund mobile hot spots on buses and take-home hot spots for students.

Increasing the Broadband Expansion Grant Program by an estimated $13 million.

Requiring the University of Wisconsin Flexible Option to develop a track for paraprofessionals currently working in schools to train to become full-time teachers. Department of Workforce Development grant funding may be available to help pay for some of the training.

Kim Kaukl, executive director of the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance, said he was pleased to see more funding aimed at technology infrastructure grants. He said his group had asked for a second tier of slightly more populated school districts to be granted sparsity aid, up to a threshold of 1,500 students. But Walker proposed limiting the extra aid to districts with up to 1,000 students.

John Ashley, executive director of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, thanked Walker for recognizing the needs of rural schools

but encouraged him to consider expanding the UW Flex Option to all districts, especially urban ones, dealing with the same educator staffing pipeline problems.

Rep. Romaine Quinn (R-Rice Lake), who helped create a package of bills supporting rural schools in the last legislative session, praised the plans and said “the broad outlines look great, but we’ll need to do our due diligence.”

Sen. Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) sided with the more critical view from Democrats, pointing out that Walker had cut $1 billion from Wisconsin schools since 2011 and that the three rural districts he intended to visit — Wauzeka-Steuben, Hilbert and Crandon — had seen their state funding cut by 12.4%, 16% and 33.9%, respectively, under Walker’s tenure.

Walker’s statement said his plans for a “significant investment” in all K-12 schools will be announced soon.