Solid budget for public schools

Columnist Alan J. Borsuk noted last week that educators shouldn’t be doing a victory dance quite yet over the education proposals in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget. Borsuk is right but, as he also noted, there are good things in this budget for school districts across Wisconsin.

There are some issues of concern, especially involving how school aids are apportioned, and all of the proposals will require vetting by the Legislature and undoubtedly face challenges and changes from legislators. But a lot of what Walker is proposing deserves passage:

An increase in per-pupil categorical aid to $450 per pupil next year and $654 per pupil the following year. Districts now receive $250 in per-pupil categorical aid. That’s a sizable increase after the cuts in recent budgets.

More support to Wisconsin’s rural schools by funneling $20 million more to sparsely populated school districts.

$10 million more for highcost transportation aid.

An increase in technology grant funding by more than $22 million.

An increase in the Broadband Expansion Grant Program by an estimated $13 million.

A new training pathway for rural paraprofessionals to become full-time teachers.

An additional $1 million in the budget to support school fabrication labs.

State Rep. Rob Swearingen (R-Rhinelander), who chaired an Assembly task force on rural schools during the 2013’14 legislative session, said he thought the proposals came out of listening sessions the governor held around the state.

Even state School Superintendent Tony Evers, running for re-election this spring, praised Walker’s proposals while touting his own efforts to engage rural communities to find solutions to their issues, the Journal Sentinel reported.

Wherever the ideas came from, Walker is smart to make use of them to boost K-12 education in the state and to provide funding for transportation and broadband, which are especially troublesome issues in rural Wisconsin.

But there are concerns. Walker’s budget puts $509 million more into a relatively new form of school aid that doesn’t account for the poverty of school districts or their students. That’s a mistake.

We’ll grant that the school aid formula is overly complex and that maybe only a handful of people across the state really understand it. Reforming it is a good idea, and a flat per-pupil payment for all districts fair. Except that, it really isn’t. If the state is going to help school districts, the whole point should be that it should help those districts who most need it.

The governor and legislators should ensure that students in poor rural and urban public school districts have the same educational opportunities as their counterparts in wealthier districts.

The other concern is a provision that requires districts to certify to the Department of Public Instruction that their employees will pay at least 12% of all costs and payments associated with employee health care plans. Aimed at making sure districts fully comply with Act 10, that measure strikes us as heavy handed intrusion by Big Brother Walker. It’s unnecessary. Leave such local decisions in the hands of local officials, a point that Republicans used to make routinely.