Hundreds Take Part in 252-Mile Walk on the Child Side in Wisconsin

Organized by the Price County Citizens Who CARE (Committee for Alternative Revenues for Education) and the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools (WAES), Walk on the Child Side began June 7 in Butternut and concluded on June 24 with a rally at the State Capitol in Madison. Parents, students, teachers, support staff, superintendents, school board members, and others participated in the walk

As reported by the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), the June March was designed to create an awareness of the negative effects of revenue caps on the state's children and their public schools. Advocates say the caps have forced schools around the state to cut teachers and programs, reduce support staff, eliminate guidance counselors, reduce maintenance, raise student fees, eliminate principals, and eliminate extra-curricular programs. The walk also put the inadequacies of the state's school funding scheme in the spotlight.

WAES, one of the organizers of this ambitious walk, has proposed the "Wisconsin Adequacy Plan" so that all children in the state can be educated. The Plan is based on four core principles that are similar to proposals in other states:

More resources, adequate for current needs and allowed to grow to meet future needs
A funding system based on a statewide per-pupil foundation level, adjusted for students in special education, poverty, or learning English
State tax reform with additional revenue coming from some form of state taxes-not local property taxes, and
Maintenance of local school district control over how additional funding would be utilized and holding districts accountable for improved student performance.

As reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on June 23rd, Governor Jim Doyle's Task Force on Educational Excellence released its recommendations for reforming Wisconsin's school funding system. The 29-member task force was appointed to examine how the state's funding system related to: student and school achievement, personnel issues (including teacher recruitment and retention), special education, and pre-school education. Among other things, the task force recommended raising the state's sales tax to 6% and called for at least $90 million in new spending on schools for such things as the state's class-size reduction program, 4-year-old kindergarten, teacher mentoring and recruitment, special education, school busing and bilingual education.

While WAES says that the task force recommendations fall short of the coalition's goals, release of the findings moves the debate in the right direction towards adequate funding for public education. WAES also supports the task force's call for a costing-out study to determine the actual cost of educating students to the state's standards.

Prepared by Melissa Mangino, July 7, 2004