Rural schools, students and families were left behind in the GOP’s rush to adopt the largest giveaway to a foreign corporation in history.
Overall, the K-12 budget we heard a lot about today devotes the SECOND LOWEST percentage of the state’s general fund to 850,000+ public school students since 1995. (LFB 9/21/17)
I have the privilege of representing 40 school districts and the students and families who rely on them. State aid covers only 44% of our budgets, leaving property taxpayers to make up the rest.
The cost of voucher expansion into our area falls squarely on property taxpayers, and Republicans have refused to give property taxpayers a say.
We lost more in sparsity aid and more in revenue authority because of the changes to the budget. The current plan to “make up for” those broken promises costs our schools one full year and at least 2/3 of the sparsity aid that had been promised.
And Northern taxpayers are being saddled with the bill for Fox Conn even though WEDC itself projects no benefit for our area.
Rural and Northern Wisconsin has a right to expect more for what the Republican leadership in Madison takes from us. Our students should have sparsity aid increases and revenue relief right now. And the GOP has ignored the Superintendent’s Fair Funding formula for too many budgets. The time is now.
Rural Schools, students and families got the short end of the deal from our GOP colleagues who put FoxConn first last fall. Sparsity aid increases were eliminated and revenue cap relief was vetoed.
What could we expect from the GOP over the next FOUR state budgets, when the FoxConn handout will take four times more from working taxpayers than anything the GOP added for public schools in Wisconsin over the last four budgets? (LFB 9/12/17)
Last Update: Jan 24, 2018 4:23 pm CST
