I will work toward providing additional funding for the University of Wisconsin, the technical college system, and PK-12 education. I believe that additional funding is important because quality education is the foundation of our economy, and the key to the future of our children. It is a matter of statewide concern, which requires more funding from the State, and less reliance on the local property tax.
The next Legislature will consider significant reforms in our system of school funding, but to date, there is no consensus as to what should be done. I will support reforms that are designed to make the funding of our schools more fair, sustainable, transparent and accountable for results.
In this context, I believe that at least three steps are essential. First, although it will be difficult in the current economic environment, we must find a new source of state funding
for the costs of our public schools, so that we can provide adequate funding for quality education, and reduce reliance on the local property tax. Second, we must remove the revenue caps that were imposed in 1993, because they have prevented local school boards from meeting increasing costs, and have forced them to make painful cuts in curriculum, programs and services, without the local option of raising additional revenue. Third, we must support successful categorical aid programs, such as the SAGE program, which has demonstrated that the reduction of class sizes in participating K-3 schools is an effective approach to narrowing gaps in achievement between different schools.
A reform of our school funding system will require an ability on the part of our State Representative to evaluate highly complex reams of information, and the disparate views of different organizations and citizens. As noted in more detail in the previous discussion of environmental issues, I have demonstrated the ability to deal with difficult and complex issues in my work with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, and I believe that the ability to absorb and master such complex issues will be important in the process of enacting needed reforms in our school
funding system.
As the parent of three children who have had the benefit of outstanding educational opportunities at Shorewood Hills Elementary School, Hamilton Middle School, and West High School, I appreciate the value of education as a means of helping our children to achieve their fullest potential and preparing them to deal with the challenges they will meet in life. However, I am concerned that we are not on a sustainable path for maintaining such opportunities. I am concerned that the children of today and tomorrow may be deprived of the opportunity to do better than their parents if we do not find a better way to fund PK-12 education, and assure that each child will have an opportunity to receive a quality education.
As a citizen, I recognize that our schools provide the foundation for our state economy, by creating a workforce that will be capable of attracting and retaining jobs in a competitive world economy. In addition, I recognize that education provides the basis for the informed citizenry that is essential to maintaining our representative democracy. As a result, I believe it is important
for us to understand that education is a matter of statewide concern, which affects all of us, whether we have children in school or not.
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I come from a family that values education, and the teachers who provide it. My wife, Marilyn Townsend, grew up on a dairy farm in northern Wisconsin, attended her local public schools, and was enabled to attend the University of Wisconsin and ultimately become a lawyer as a result of the education she received in the public schools. Two ofher sisters became High School teachers (of English and Biology), and a third has served as a speech therapist in the East Troy public schools. A brother-in-law, who served as a professor of education at the UW-Whitewater for many years, is also a source of insights about education.
My commitment to quality education is one reason that I have advocated reforms that would prevent governors from using their partial veto power to create new laws without the approval of the Legislature. Let me give you two examples.
First, a major component of the way the State currently funds education is the $900 million School Levy Tax Credit, which is supposed to reduce the burden of education costs that are paid by homeowners through the property tax. However, according to one expert, only half of the amount we are spending is actually serving to reduce the amount of property tax that homeowners pay on their principal residence.
The tax credit can be traced back to Governor Thompson's veto of Section 2135t of 1991 Wisconsin Act 39, which created a "School Tax Credit," and funded it by creating an annual appropriation of $319,305,000, without legislative approval. Once that credit was put in place by means of the 1991 veto, new legislation could not amend or repeal it without the approval of a governor. The tax credit has been re-authorized at higher levels of funding in subsequent years, and a total of more than $8 billion has been spent, for a policy that appears to be ineffective in achieving its objective, and that the Legislature might not have funded at all in the first place.
Second, the undemocratic power of the partial veto is a threat that will loom over any serious attempt to reform our school funding system. As the Wisconsin Education Association Council pointed out in a brief challenging an earlier use of the veto power to make laws without legislative approval:
The brief also pointed out that, if a governor wished to radically transform the way that the State compensates for lower tax bases among school districts, “he would have only to strike the zeros
. . . to alter Wisconsin’s school finance system by eliminating almost all state aid for many poorer school districts.”
In a nutshell, I would make support for education a priority, because I believe quality education is the foundation of our future. And I would work to limit the veto power, because I believe the school funding decisions in a democracy should be made by the representatives of the people in the Legislature, and not by one man or woman who may happen to be governor. We need to do better, and I will work to see that we do.
Authorized and paid for Wade for Assembly,
Marilyn Townsend, Treasurer
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