As New Wisconsin Budget Expands Voucher Program and Charter Schools, a Governor鈥檚 Race Forms Around Key Education Issues
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Wisconsin governor Scott Walker exercised a hallowed gubernatorial prerogative on Sept. 26 by proclaiming his own holiday: Youth Apprenticeship Day, which he marked to vocational programs at Amery High School and Milwaukee鈥檚 Bradley Tech High School.
The commemoration of apprentices was just one of an array of educational items on Walker鈥檚 schedule last month as he makes what some local observers regard as a pre-campaign push. The previous Friday, he Sheboygan South High School for the second time this year. His appearances at middle schools in and , both in September, drew notice as well. And to drive the point home, Walker signed the state鈥檚 2017-19 budget last month at Tullar Elementary School in Neenah. The from his office highlights the education budget items as top priorities.
This summer was a consequential one for Wisconsin schools 鈥� perhaps uniquely so, depending on the outcome of the gubernatorial election next November. In a budget battle that dragged on for months after the June 30 deadline, the Republican-led legislature and green-lit the first major increase in education funding of Walker鈥檚 tenure. The state鈥檚 鈥渃harter school czar,鈥� previously restricted to authorizing new schools in Milwaukee and Madison, . The state鈥檚 school improvement plan under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act was reviewed and submitted to Washington for approval, though not before earning on its way out the door. And the head of the agency that drafted that plan, thrice-elected state superintendent Tony Evers, Walker鈥檚 re-election in 2018.
Through it all, the governor smiled and shook hands with students, usually in classrooms.
鈥淗e just loves going to schools suddenly,鈥� laughed longtime Milwaukee education commentator Alan Borsuk, a senior fellow at Marquette University Law School. 鈥淗e perceives this as playing to the middle. It鈥檚 good politics.鈥�
Walker, a GOP eminence who is as a possible presidential candidate in 2020, may find his electoral gifts tested in a campaign centered on schools. His state鈥檚 education politics occasionally confound both partisan allegiance and logical comprehension.
Stuck in the session
Intramural squabbles among Republican majorities in both the state Assembly and Senate helped prolong the lengthy budget dispute, many of them arising from disagreements on school choice and finance. An expansion of the statewide voucher program, which allows low- and middle-income families to attend private schools at public expense, was always on the table. But on whether the income threshold for eligibility 鈥� currently capped at 185 percent of the federal poverty level 鈥� should be lifted to 220 percent or a much more generous 300 percent (around $74,000 annually for a family of four).
Although Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and a few other true believers held out for the higher cutoff, against subsidizing tuition for better-off families and ultimately carried the day. Eligibility for a separate voucher scheme for special needs students . Projections show that the program鈥檚 size will more than double over the coming year.
The true prize, however, and the headline that Walker hopes will follow him into next year鈥檚 election, is the budget鈥檚 in state aid for schools. That oft-touted windfall could help turn the page from on K-12 education in 2011, which were when they were enacted. A version of Scott Walker who proposes 鈥溾�� budgets could be the perfect candidate to win a third term in a year for Republican incumbents.
Yet tension arose on school financing as well. After months of maneuvering, Wisconsin鈥檚 arcane school funding system finally looked open for revision, but a last-minute intervention from the governor scuppered the plans of Assembly Republicans.
In 1993, concerns about rising education costs and the property tax hikes necessary to sustain them led the legislature to mandate revenue caps for all of Wisconsin鈥檚 464 school districts. Each year, the districts were limited in the amount of money they could raise from both state aid and property taxes. This, lawmakers hoped, would keep costs down and taxes low.
The problem is that the straps were fastened variably for each district, based on their expenditures when the revenue limits were put into place. Districts that spent less per student 24 years ago . And while the caps were generally raised by about $250 per student annually, districts were still vulnerable to external shocks (such as massive cuts in state aid or plummeting property tax collections, both of which followed the Great Recession); a few . , while the average revenue limit statewide was around $10,400 in 2016鈥�17, nearly 1 out of 4 Wisconsin districts faced caps of less than $9,800.
These districts, , are represented by Republicans as well as Democrats, and their shrinking resources are the concern of many of the governor鈥檚 allies.
A , co-chair of the legislature鈥檚 Joint Finance Committee, would have allowed districts spending less than the state average to levy property taxes to gradually make up the difference with their better-funded neighbors. His colleagues in the Assembly warmed to it, eventually passing it in their budget.
But Walker, empowered with a line-item veto, . Slicing property taxes was to give up.
Nygren didn鈥檛 pull punches with his fellow Republican.
鈥淚 am severely disappointed in Gov. Walker鈥檚 decision to reject an opportunity to correct a long-term inequity in our K-12 funding system,鈥� Nygren wrote in a statement. 鈥淭he veto will continue this funding imbalance and have lasting impacts on the quality of education available to some of our children.鈥�
Evers to the left
Tony Evers, Walker鈥檚 most viable Democratic challenger, wasted no time in and encouraging Assembly Republicans to override the governor鈥檚 veto. On the same day Walker finally signed the completed budget, Evers blasted state leadership in .
鈥淥n school funding, we must face the reality that for too many budget cycles public school funding has not been the priority for those in control,鈥� he said at the time.
The state superintendent is no stranger to the art of political thrust and parry. Even while maintaining a cordial relationship with Walker, Evers at past Republican budgets, forcefully when the political winds turned against them, and seldom missed a chance to blast Milwaukee鈥檚 voucher system 鈥� he once called it 鈥溾�� in a memo. He鈥檚 also proved to be an effective campaigner, winning a third term in office this spring with .
His first confrontation with the man he hopes to unseat was precipitated by Wisconsin鈥檚 ESSA draft. The plan, of narrowing achievement gaps between racial groups and lifting high school graduation rates, has been billed by the Department of Public Instruction as an effort to . But Walker refused to sign off on the document (the governor鈥檚 blessing is not required) before it was sent to the U.S. Department of Education.
鈥淵our bureaucratic proposal does little to challenge the status quo for the benefit of Wisconsin鈥檚 students,鈥� Walker to Evers. 鈥淚 hope you will agree that adding layers of bureaucratic paperwork does little to help low-performing schools.鈥�
Evers matched him barb for barb, writing in his own statement, 鈥淓very single time Scott Walker has had to choose between doing what鈥檚 best for Wisconsin and his own political aspirations, he chooses himself. What鈥檚 particularly sad is that now he put his re-election campaign before Wisconsin鈥檚 kids, and if there鈥檚 one thing we should be able to agree on, it鈥檚 putting our kids first.鈥�
It鈥檚 an open question whether the schools chief will be able to withstand the attrition of an ultra-partisan campaign. The vitriol has already begun to flow: The day after reports surfaced that Evers would announce a bid for office, Wisconsin Republicans accusing him of permitting a teacher to spread pornographic materials at school. But Borsuk thinks that this may be only a taste of what鈥檚 to come.
鈥淪even hundred thousand people voted in April of this year,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut the last several gubernatorial elections have had, I believe, . It鈥檚 like going from playing Class C Minor League Baseball to playing in the major leagues 鈥� the fundraising, the demands of public attention, the advertising, the viciousness of the attacks.鈥�
Regardless of the outcome, a Walker-Evers race would impart to Wisconsin鈥檚 schools a prominence they rarely enjoy in statewide politics.
鈥淚f Tony鈥檚 the final opponent, education will inevitably [become a major issue],鈥� Borsuk predicted. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 his central position, that the education system in Wisconsin has been impaired by what鈥檚 happened in the last bunch of years.鈥�
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