Education Policy
Policy Issues
Adequacy
WAES School Funding Briefs
Revenue
Limits
Other School Finance and Education
Areas
Policy Issues
Wisconsin's Education Dilemma:
Finding, supporting and keeping good teachers in Milwaukee and rural school districts
Author: IWF
Date: November 2009
Finding and keeping good teachers is vital to all schools. In Milwaukee, where the racial achievement gap is so wide, it is especially critical as well as in rural areas where lower income students have few environmental resources outside of schools to bolster learning. This report investigates the factors involved in retaining urban and rural teachers as well as maximizing their effectiveness in the classroom.
Interviews with teachers and school officials indicate that modest changes in educational systems could improve teacher retention and performance. Most significant reforms included systematic mentoring for new teachers and more realistic workloads. While these would require more school funding, the amount is not extravagant and the outcome could make the difference between success and failure in many schools.
» Full Report (PDF)
Adequacy
Wisconsin Atlas of School Finance:
Geographic, Demographic, and Fiscal Factors Affecting
School Districts Across the State
Author: Jack Norman, Ph.D. (IWF)
Date: February 2004
This report presents in-depth data on urban, suburban, and rural districts and how they compare in the population of students they serve, the economic factors they confront, and the tax and spending responsibilities they face in Wisconsin's current school-finance system. It also includes a special section on districts in the northern lake region of the state. (44 pp.)
Online Versions:
» Full Report (PDF, 3.58 MB)
» Summary (PDF, 1.65 MB)
Related: Press Release
Funding Our Future: An Adequacy
Model for Wisconsin School Finance
Author: Jack Norman, Ph.D. (IWF)
Date: June 2002
This report describes a new school finance system—one designed to link the needs of students to the state's academic standards to ensure that all children, regardless of their special needs or the location of their schools, have the opportunity to succeed. It serves as the basis to Funding Our Future: The Wisconsin Adequacy Plan (above). The full report includes a cost-out of the Adequacy model for each of Wisconsin's 426 school districts. (111 pp.)
Online Versions:
» Full Report (PDF)
» Summary (PDF)
National Forum on School Funding
Adequacy: Review of Current Efforts and Participating
Organizations
Author: Institute for Wisconsin's
Future
Date: March 2000
IWF, in partnership with the National School Boards Association, coordinates a national school funding network. This publication profiles 30 organizations working towards the Adequacy method of funding schools across the country. It includes contact information and a description of each organization's efforts. (34 pp.)
Order Print Copies (unavailable online)
Defining a Thorough Education
Infrastructure: The Wisconsin Educator Survey on
Necessary School Resource Standards
Authors: Thomas Moore, Ph.D. (IWF) & Public Policy Forum (conducted survey)
Date: October 1999
This report provides the groundwork for establishing adequate funding in Wisconsin's public schools. It presents an analysis of a comprehensive educator survey used to determine the resources—staff, materials, facilities—schools need to provide all students a quality education and an opportunity to meet state standards. (29 pp.)
Order Print Copies (unavailable online)
Unequal and in Jeopardy
Producer: Institute for Wisconsin's Future
Date: 1998
This video offers a telling view of the many ways funding shortages negatively affect Wisconsin public schools. Through interviews with school administrators, parents, teachers, and students, two major problems plaguing schools are explored: Wisconsin schools are unequal due to differences in property wealth, and all Wisconsin schools are in jeopardy due to state revenue caps. (TRT: 14:12)
WAES School Funding Briefs
IWF serves as the research and staffing partner of the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools (WAES), a diverse, statewide coalition whose goal is comprehensive school funding reform. WAES offers a series of double-sided, one-page school-funding reform briefs, which explain the Adequacy model of school-finance reform and how it affects our schools and children. Briefs can be used as handouts for community presentations and those who have minimal knowledge of school-finance.
School Funding Brief #3:
Adequacy Makes Sense for Wisconsin's School Funding
System
Author: Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools
Date: Fall 2003
What is Adequacy and why does Wisconsin need it? This brief answers these questions and more. In an easy-to-read format, it provides an overview of the school-funding model and what it means for Wisconsin's children. (2 pp.)
Online Versions:
» Full Brief (HTML)
» Full Brief (PDF)
School Funding Brief #2:
Early Childhood Education Meets the Needs of All
Children
Author: Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools
Date: Fall 2003
Early childhood education is critical to future learning, yet in 60% of Wisconsin's school districts, it is inaccessible, underfunded, or unavailable. This brief shows why early childhood education is an essential resource of a quality education. (2 pp.)
Online Versions:
» Full Brief (HTML)
» Full Brief (PDF)
School Funding Brief #1:
Federal "No Child Left Behind" Act Needs
Adequate Funding to Succeed
Author: Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools
Date: Fall 2003
This brief demonstrates how the federal government's "No Child Left Behind Act" calls for all the things we want for our children, but falls far, far short of funding these new mandates—putting even more pressure on Wisconsin's failing school-finance system. (2 pp.)
Online Versions:
» Full Brief (HTML)
» Full Brief (PDF)
Revenue Limits
Are School Revenue Limits Limiting
Learning?
Authors: Institute for Wisconsin's
Future, with help from Appleton PTA Council, Big
8 Summit on Spending Caps, Janesville Joint Legislative
Committee, Price County Citizens Who CARE, Stevens
Point Area PTA, Superior School District, West
Allis/West Milwaukee PTA Council, Wisconsin Federation
of Teachers, Wisconsin PTA
Date: January 2001
This report shows that all of Wisconsin's schools are seriously struggling due to the revenue limits law, which freezes school spending levels based on the 1992-1993 school year and allows for insufficient increases that don't keep pace with rising education costs. Drawing from statewide forums before the Senate Education Committee and the testimony of students, teachers, administrators, business professionals, and citizens, the report illustrates the alarming effects revenue limits have on schools. (66 pp.)
Online Versions:
» Full Report (PDF)
» Summary (PDF)
Related: Press Release
Wisconsin's School Funding Crisis:
A Threat to Our Children's Future
Producer: Institute for Wisconsin's
Future
Date: March 2001
This video offers an inside look at the devastating effects revenue limits have on schools and what citizens can do about it. It features statewide forums, where hundreds of students, teachers, administrators, business professionals, and others testified before the Senate Education Committee. The video is a useful companion to the report, Are School Revenue Limits Limiting Learning? (above). (TRT: 10:00)
A School District in Crisis:
An Analysis of the Impact of Budget Cuts on Schools
in the Racine School District
Author: Institute for Wisconsin's
Future
Date: February 1999
This report outlines the significant cuts in Racine school programs resulting from a $4.8 million budget cut in 1998-99 made due to revenue limits and declining enrollment. (12 pp.)
Online Version:
» Full Report (PDF)
Order Print Copies (Summary also available)
School District Survey Report:
The Impact of Revenue Limits on Metro Milwaukee
Area Schools Districts
Author: Institute for Wisconsin's
Future
Date: December 1998
This survey of 25 school districts in the greater Milwaukee area shows that all districts, including more affluent suburban districts, are facing serious financial problems due to revenue limits. (6 pp.)
Assessing the Impact of Fiscal
Constraints and Revenue Caps on Wisconsin Public
Schools
Authors: Stephen
L. Percy, Donald P. Haider-Markel, Theodore W.
McDonald, & Peter
Maier (Center for Urban Initiatives and Research/University
of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
Date: February 1998
The findings of this study suggest that financial shortfalls in school budgets across the state are largely the result of spending caps, which pose a significant threat to the quality of education in Wisconsin’s public schools. (50 pp.)
Online Version:
» Summary (PDF)
Order Print Copies (Full Report also available)
Related: Press Release
Other School Finance and Education Areas
Other School Finance and Education Areas
Death by a Thousand
Cuts: How Wisconsin’s Revenue Limits Erode
the Budgets of Public Schools
Author: Jack Norman, Ph.D. (IWF)
Date: November 2005
The typical district in Wisconsin has to deal with a built-in annual deficit of 1.7%, a gap that forces cuts in staffing, programs, maintenance, and/or purchasing, according to this survey of district superintendents by the Institute for Wisconsin's Future. (4 pp.)
» Full Report (PDF)
Related: Press Release
Milwaukee Public Schools’ Funding
Over the Last Decade Falls Behind Other Milwaukee
County Districts
Authors: Michael Rosen (Economics
Department/Milwaukee Area Technical College), with
research assistance from Michael Grover (IWF)
Date: 1998
This study reveals that in real dollars, adjusted for inflation, per pupil spending rose for Milwaukee Public Schools by just $240, a 4.5 percent increase between 1987-88 and 1996-97. This is less than all other Milwaukee County school districts. (4 pp.)
Tax Funding for Private School
Alternatives: The Financial Impact on Milwaukee
Public Schools and Taxpayers
Author: Thomas Moore, Ph.D. (IWF)
Date: October 1998
This report finds that the Milwaukee Public Schools lose over $22 million in state aid under the current funding system for voucher and charter school programs. (14 pp.)
Order Print Copies (unavailable online)
Windfall for the Wealthy: The
Impact of 1995 Property Tax Relief Legislation
on Wisconsin Households
Author: Bambi L. Statz (College
of Business and Economics/School Business Management
Program/University of Wisconsin-Whitewater)
Date: January 1997
This study examines 1995 school finance and property tax relief legislation on a district-by-district basis. The author finds that there is minimal tax relief for taxpayers in moderate or property-poor school districts and increased inequality in the state school financing structure, which benefits residents of wealthy school districts. (47 pp.)
Order Print Copies (Full Report available)
Are Teachers’ Unions
Hurting American Education? A State-by-State
Analysis of the Impact of Collective Bargaining
Among Teachers on Student Performance
Authors: F.
Howard Nelson (Educational Research Consultant) & Michael
Rosen (Economics Department/Milwaukee Area Technical
College), with consulting assistance from Brian
Powell (Department of Sociology/Indiana University)
Date: October 1996
This study demonstrates that collective bargaining is not responsible for poor student performance. In fact, in states with high levels of teacher unionization, student scores on standardized tests are higher than in states with low levels of teacher participation in collective bargaining or meet-and-confer activities. (24 pp.)
Online Version:
» Full Report (PDF)