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The state could help lowspending rural school districts and start to break a budget stalemate, under an education plan being written by Senate Republicans.

MADISON - The state could help low-spending rural school districts and start to break a budget stalemate, under an education plan being written by Senate Republicans.

Progress on the budget has slowed over the past two weeks as Gov. Scott Walker and Assembly Republicans clashed on whether to allow financially challenged, low-spending districts to raise local property taxes.

GOP senators have come up with an education framework that would use state money to help those districts — meeting part of the Assembly’s goal — while also accommodating Walker’s target of holding the line on property taxes.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) confirmed the plan and said he and his colleagues are still discussing how much state money to pour into it.

“It’s the same concept that the Assembly had targeted,” Fitzgerald said. But “the state would pay for it.”

Along with taxes and transportation, school funding is one of the key issues that have divided Republicans and left them with ever slimmer chances to finish the state budget by their June 30 target date.

Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette), co-chairman of the Joint Finance Committee, said he’s encouraged to see Senate Republicans acknowledge the challenges faced by low-spending schools.

“Where we’re at right now we’re not in agreement. But the fact that they’ve acknowledged (the issue), that gives me hope that we can get to a place where we can agree,” Nygren said.

A spokesman for Walker also signaled that the governor would be open to the Senate plan, which would meet his goals of a healthy funding increase for schools and low property taxes.

“Governor Walker is optimistic the Legislature will reach an agreement that funds his historic investments in K-12 education without raising property taxes,” Tom Evenson said.

But the Senate’s framework still faces challenges. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said he hasn’t even seen it yet and is concerned that the state doesn’t have enough money to create a new category of state aid to schools.

“I prefer to do it through the (local) property tax, but I will listen to their proposal,” Vos said.

Walker wants to put $649 million more toward K-12 schools over the next two years while keeping in place tight state limits on how much money schools can raise from a combination of property taxes and state aid. In general, Senate Republicans have rallied behind the governor’s plan and overall spending goal — Sen. Luther Olsen of Ripon said the Senate GOP position would be within a “few million of that.”

Assembly Republicans have their own plan that would spend about $90 million less in state funding for public schools than what Walker has proposed. The plan would also allow low-spending schools to raise property taxes by more than $90 million more than currently allowed under state limits.

The state’s limits on school funding are imposed on a perpupil basis and placed on the combined total of local property taxes and the main form of state aid.

Those limits were applied based on how much each district had spent historically from those sources, which has meant that some districts are locked into a lower per-student amount. While state schools average about $10,400 in revenue per student under the limits, some districts can take in and spend only a little over $9,100 per pupil.

Fitzgerald noted that these rural districts often face declining student enrollment — which leads to state aid reductions. School leaders also can have trouble getting voters to approve a referendum allowing the district to exceed the state revenue limits.

“There’s a lot of things plaguing smaller school districts,” the Senate leader said.

Olsen said the Senate GOP plan would seek to funnel additional state aid to these low-revenue districts rather than letting them raise property taxes. The state money would be kept outside the revenue limits, so it would enable those schools to increase their spending by a still undecided amount.

For his part, state Schools Superintendent Tony Evers, a Democratic ally, has proposed raising low-spending districts’ per-pupil limits to $9,500 in 2018 and $9,900 in 2019.

“I will not be offended if they use my plan as their blueprint. It’s time we all reset our priorities and focus on the kids and working together to advance educational equity,” Evers said in a statement.

Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) wasn’t impressed with the Senate GOP plan, noting that Walker and Republicans cut aid for schools substantially in 2011 to help close a state budget shortfall. Walker and GOP lawmakers have pointed out that they made up for most of the cuts by requiring teachers and other school employees to contribute more for their benefits.

“State general aid funding for local schools is lower today than it was six years ago which has contributed to teacher shortages, crowded classrooms and a record number of referendums across the state,” Shilling said in a statement.