Gov. Walker Proposes Bold Education Budget

Governor Scott Walker did not shy away from educational reforms in his 2015 State Budget Address. The second-term administration proposed sweeping changes that included a statewide school voucher program, A-F grades for all publicly funded schools, the creation of a statewide independent charter school authorizer, and a $141.9 million per-pupil funding supplement in 2016-17.

That's a lot to process, so let's just get down to brass tacks. Here are the major reforms that Gov. Walker unveiled in his 2015 Budget Address:

Walker's biggest announcement was the creation of a new statewide school choice program that would allow students throughout Wisconsin to attend the private school of their choice through a state-funded voucher. It will run alongside - and prospectively sunset - the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program, (WPCP) which was created in 2013 but limited to only 1,000 students per year. However, the new, as-of-yet-unnamed voucher program would have one major difference from the current statewide system.

These new vouchers will only be made available to students who are currently attending public schools - a caveat that allays concerns that the majority of WPCP students had previously attended private schools before accepting state funds. These students must come from families that earn less than 185 percent of the federal poverty limit - $44,122.50 for a family of four last year. Any private school wishing to accept voucher students would also have to consent to the state's school accountability program and receive grades through the Department of Public Instruction's (DPI) School Report Card formula.

That's a significant reform in Wisconsin - a state that was the birthplace of modern school choice. A statewide program aimed at underprivileged students that are currently attending public schools will help expand educational options for the pupils that need them the most.

Walker's accountability plan doesn't make many major changes like the Assembly's punitive regulations, but it does offer some significant differences in how the state will measure school performance in all publicly funded institutions in Wisconsin. These schools would now be given A-F grades to denote their performance in a given year - something that the DPI and several district administrators had testified against in public hearings this year and last. Schools that earn a "D" or "F" grade would be compelled to send a list of other nearby schools - traditional public, charter, and voucher - and their Report Card grades home with their students so that parents can better understand their educational options.

The new accountability program would also weight student grades based on the amount of time they spend in their school. As a result, the test scores of a student who has attended his or her school for just one year would have a smaller impact on the school's overall score than a student that has attended that school for three years or more. Students that have just transferred in to their school and have been there for less than one year would not count in DPI's assessment. There are also weights in place to help schools with large populations of low-income students balance traditionally low standardized test scores on these Report Cards.

Walker's plan would also allow schools increased flexibility in choosing the standardized test by which they are graded. The University of Wisconsin Value Added Research Center (VARC) will create a list of authorized, normed tests from which school districts, charter, and voucher schools can choose. Those tests would be processed by VARC to create a balanced system of measurement for all publicly funded schools.

Walker's call to add a statewide charter school authorizer may get lost behind the voucher expansion headlines, but it's a step forward in expanding the presence of independent charter schools across the state. The state's Charter School Oversight Board will allow for the creation of more of these public schools - schools that have consistently outperformed their MPS peers in Milwaukee. The board will provide a supplemental source of governance for schools outside of their local school board for educational stakeholders who want to create meaningful alternatives in K-12 education.

Eleven appointed members would oversee these public schools. They would be in charge of not only authorizing charters but also holding them accountable. The Budget in Brief suggests that only nonsectarian, nonprofit groups will be eligible to apply for these charters.

The 2015-17 budget featured several changes in K-12 funding levels. This included: • Supplementing per-pupil aid by a total of $141.9 million in 2016-17 after keeping funding levels static in 2015-16. This is less growth than in the last budget cycle, when $289 million was sent to traditional public schools over that two-year span. Essentially, this would not renew the $75 per student per year increases that occurred over the two years of the last budget cycle in 2015-16. $75 per student would be added back to that fund in 2016-17. • Increasing rural school funding (through sparsity and high-cost pupil transportation categorical aids) by $13.2 million over two years. • Providing $105.6m each year to fund the school levy tax credit and $104.1m in 2016-17 for equalization aids to maintain revenue limits despite property tax relief.

This unveiling was an ambitious one for education policy in Wisconsin. Walker is primed to expand school choice to new heights by increasing access to school vouchers and independent charter schools in the Badger State. These significant reforms will be a cornerstone for debate at the Capitol this spring, and it's a certainty that Tuesday's announcement will bring plenty of stakeholders to testify - both in favor and against - in Madison. Should these changes become law, it will mark a new era of school choice in Wisconsin, but there's still plenty of ground to cover before anything becomes official.

FFRF Launches Ad Campaign Targeting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s Expanded School Voucher Program "Among Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker‘s litany of faults is his decision to support vouchers that would ultimately use taxpayer money to fund religious schools. Before his budget [Source: "Think Progress"] is approved by state legislators, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is launching an ad campaign warning people about the voucher problem specifically.

There’s this billboard that will go up in downtown Madison later this month:

Then there are these commercials which will air during local (and national) news broadcasts beginning on Monday:........"

April 5, 2015 - Gary Jason, American Thinker: Good News for School Reform "Several recent news reports are worth reviewing for the good news they bring about American K-12 school reform.

The first is the news out of Atlanta that eleven out of twelve accused Atlanta educators have been found guilty of school test fraud.

....Even better news is the report that the massive Republican gains in state legislatures last November is resulting in an explosion of school choice legislation. Focusing just upon bills that will enable more students to switch from the public schools (as opposed to charter schools, which are generally substantially independent of the local public school system but still part of it), 34 states have introduced new bills of various sorts – up from 29 a year ago.................."

I'm not a fan of vouchers. I'd rather go in the opposite direction, that the government would have no control over private schools, except for health and safety regulations. Private accrediting agencies could better assure standards than the gov can. You cannot have government money without government interference.

Would the private schools survive without vouchers? Of course. Many people would sacrifice to escape government testing, common core, regulations that make it very difficult to expel disruptors. If it were true private enterprise, schools would quickly emerge that are excellent and affordable. How? Keep it simple, the academics excellent, and the discipline very stern.

I’m a huge fan of parental educational choice, including vouchers. This gets it wrong, on several levels...

First, by making a voucher tied to lower income, the Governor is passing off vouchers as welfare instead of parental choice. No. No. No.

Next, by disqualifying previous defectors from public schooling, the program punishes the hard work and sacrifices so many parents are already making. Moral: no good deed goes unpunished. Again, packaging parental choice as a government freebie only available to those not previously engaged in creating a better educational environment for their children. This is morally wrong.

Finally, the offer of vouchers comes at an impossible cost: subjugating programs that receive them to the same government standards that parents are desperately trying to leave, in the first place. Vouchers must have no strings attached. If we don’t trust parents to choose what’s best for their children, then what’s the point of parental school choice?

I know you’re a Gov Wallker fan CincyWife, but this doesn’t reflect well on him. It’s a total sellout on why vouchers are conservative, in the first place. I am trying not to be critical of the Gov because I do value him as a compromise choice: if the base and the establishment stalemate each other, he has feet in both camps. He’s not my first choice, but I would consider him. But. But. Articles like this, ideas like this do not demonstrate his conservative bonafides. It’s not enough just to say vouchers if the actual program totally undermines the parental freedom vouchers are supposed to represent.

I agree , but that egg is already scrambled...no going back...

Vouchers can be a powerful tool to reform our inner city corrupt public education system if used in the right way...

The inner city children deserve at least an opportunity to succeed...

I can't imagine the utter frustration of the vast majority of inner city parents that know the schools they HAVE to send their children to are cesspools of corruption, failure and violence...

At least vouchers give them an option...

Big Education has been in the slow cooker for 60+ years - Walker isn’t blowing it up, he’s methodically weaning them off the crippling, addictive public/welfare/social engineering heroin tit. [don’t think I could have mixed metaphors much more than that]

You don’t do this overnight. He keeps moving this to the right and the people see it’s working and want more. People who didn’t think this day would come are coming out and supporting Walker.

Now the unions, that had to be a mighty battle and Walker (and his allies in WI and around the country) won that to clear the field for these reforms.

That’s great for Wisconsin but I’m more interested to know Walker’s views on the Federal government’s role in primary education. What are his views on Common-Core, Head-Start, the school lunch program, etc?

I applaud your ease of defecting onto something else - an effective and familiar way to bury the good and keep me chasing my tail answering questions.

: )

But I found some things for you, (busy with starting family Easter dinner).

Walker wants the the UW to have a bigger responsibility in how they spend their money (when the budget doesn't automatically get bigger they can make decisions about priorities). That means the university has to cut the programs that aren't necessary - because there isn't going to be any money for them.

Walker revoked instate tuition for illegals [all part and parcel of the explosion of Leftist hate during the WI protests of 2011].

Walker is in bid to end integration busing program

Walker doesn't want a Common Core mandate - schools should be free to get out.

Scott Walker's budget forcing school districts to trim further

Head Start "....“I am pleased that Governor Walker signed into law the bill that incorporates the on-going work of my Educator Effectiveness Design Team. This group is piloting an educator evaluation system that is centered on student learning and is fair, valid, and reliable. This new law moves our performance-based evaluation system forward to support teachers and principals in their job of educating students and will help them improve throughout their careers...."

Walker Will Include New Teacher-Licensing Method In Budget Proposal "Gov. Scott Walker is proposing another alternative pathway for a college graduate to become a licensed teacher in Wisconsin.

Walker said that someone who has “real-life experience” in a subject area will be able to take a competency exam to gain a teacher's license....."

I was born & raised in Wisconsin.

I went to a one-room school. 14 kids, 8 grades, 1 teacher who had 2 years of college.

The school board consisted of the parents & farmers who paid taxes to support the school.

THEY reviewed every single textbook every year, and the same basic textbooks were used again & again. I am POSITIVE that books were never ordered & then thrown away. Nothing was wasted.

PARENTS bought our school supplies——NOT the teacher.

NO running water—it was brought in every day in a 10 gallon milk can & put into a ceramic container with a spigot. The bathrooms were outside & there was one each for the girls & the boys. In winter—NO ONE lingered there.

The older students who had their work done HAD TO assist & mentor the younger students. NO EXCEPTIONS.

I would bet that at least 50% of those kids got some college education. 25% got a 4 year education in college.

This was in a rural dairy farming community where cows were king.

Today’s schools trend toward fancy buildings & extra rooms for ‘theatre’ & other items which are NOT basic to education. Also- today’s schools are held hostage to the teacher’s union...which have little to commend.

When you are spending that kind of money on the fancy stuff, you’re NOT giving a basic education to the kids. I will add that none of the kids in our area came to school unable to speak English...or write it...or read it.

As long as this “Immersion” of non-English speaking kids continues, we are cheating American kids of the education they need & deserve.

I hate to be a Debbie Downer here but its really just more government in Education. What we need to be moving back to is less govt in education or better yet no govt in education. Private agencies administer education more efficiently and at a higher quality. Vouchers and portability are fine but should be with no strings.

I’m all for education being sent totally back to the state so whatever WI wants to do is fine with me. But I would not put this plan into action in GA. Not that we are doing all that great here either. We need major change away from Common Core and a RINO federal dollar Hoe Governor. Which brings me around to my original point that less or no govt in education should be the key.

Walker said that someone who has “real-life experience” in a subject area will be able to take a competency exam to gain a teacher's license....."

This is a small move in the right direction that addresses the actual goal of preparing people for gainful and competent profession. The biggies are accreditation and opening up testing pursuant to State licensing. Frankly, the States should get out of the licensure business altogether in favor of insurance reforms. Performance validation and risk management are businesses, for which a state monopoly is altogether too subject to special interest manipulation.

So, once again govt is pushing govt via welfare. How about some FREEDOM/LIBERTY for once??

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: The ONLY ‘solution’ is to remove govt/unions (I repeat myself) from the equation by returning education to a service basis (aka college/etc.).

Remove the mandatory property taxes. Parents are thus responsible to the education of their own brood (hey, they want ‘em to dig ditches, let ‘em dig ditches).

Watch as a plethora of schooling choices crop up locally to fill the void.

‘Teachers’ can be fired/hired (even private, one on one), don’t require ‘degrees’ (anyone think Bill Gates/Jobs couldn’t teach business??), while education scores/standards go UP because curricula can be tailored ‘as needed’ (child wants to be a engineer, math, sciences. Artist? art classes. etc.)

No Citizen should be an economic slave for the rest of their years, when they’ve never had children and/or paid for their children’s schooling ‘aeons’ ago.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.