Brother, can you spare a penny?

In 1953 school children in the Minocqua area wanted to see what 1 million of something looked like. Encouraged by their teacher, they collected 1 million pennies ($10,000) to help build a hospital in their community.

Fast forward to 2010 and we are being asked to spare a penny for the education of our children. “Pennies for Kids,” sponsored by the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools, seeks to add a one-cent increase to the sales tax, to close the gap that exists between the promised level of state funding for schools and what was actually provided to districts across the state.

WAES Outreach Specialist Tom Beebe describes the state of school funding to that of a patient waiting for a heart transplant. The heart transplant is the gap between what has been promised for schools and what is actually received by them.

“Pennies for Kids” is a stop gap to make up for a cut in the already inadequate state aid that occurred in 2009-10 and will continue.

“Wisconsin schools are on life support and the “Pennies for Kids” campaign is simply a shot of penicillin to keep schools alive until the Legislature finds the overall cure,” Beebe said.

The problem began 17 years ago, when the legislature promised to fund 2/3 of school costs throughout Wisconsin. However, that promise hasn’t been a reality for many districts, since school aid is distributed on the basis of property values. The higher the property values, the lower the state aid — with no regard to a school district’s specific needs. In addition, the state has imposed spending limits on school districts as a way to hold property taxes down.

For years Beebe and WAES battled in obscurity, since the districts immediately affected by the funding formula were small, northern schools in Phillips, Park Falls and Florence. Those districts, while they have high property values mainly due to lakeside vacation homes, are populated by a small number of residents who typically make less than half the of the state’s average income. On top of that, many of these districts are geographically large, incurring high transportation costs and small enrollments.

Dan Brereton, former superintendent of the Florence School District, pointed to the inequities between district valuations during testimony before the Legislature in 2007.

“Florence is labeled as a ‘rich district’ in this system, our aid from the state is 29 percent,” Brereton said. “In comparison the Howard-Suamico (outside of Green Bay) district is aided at 67 percent. I ask you to drive through Howard- Suamico and look at the houses in which their year-around residents live, then drive through Florence and look at the houses in which our year around residents live, I think you will notice a difference.”

It wasn’t until the funding formula began to take state aid away from districts in Howard-Suamico, Brookfield, Maple-Dale and Mequon did parents and taxpayers take notice.

We have seen the effects of spending caps on schools right here in Southeastern Wisconsin. While costs continue to rise – health insurance, energy, maintenance – the money from the state doesn’t keep up. And instead of raising the ire of an already overburdened public, school boards have cut programming and teachers, including more than 700 at MPS in June.

“While ‘Pennies for Kids’ doesn’t solve the overall school funding problem, it buys the legislature and next governor some time to solve it,” Beebe said.

Raising a tax isn’t politically popular and it has been hard for Beebe to find legislative support, but he is hoping for a public groundswell to move politicians to go ahead with the idea. But even that groundswell doesn’t guarantee passage, citing the taxpayer-approved transit and park tax in Milwaukee County which was rejected by Gov. Jim Doyle.

Analysis of the “Pennies” program shows it could raise approximately $850 million annually. Bebee understands that a sales tax is regressive, but the plan sets aside 20 percent of the collections for a tax credit to low income residents, similar to the Homestead Credit Program.

Thirty percent would be distributed to school districts based on the equalization formula; another thirty percent would be used as aid targeted to students in poverty; 8 percent would be used for special education funding and the remainder divided between rural districts, ESL students, transportation aid and declining enrollment districts.

Our pennies won’t solve everything, and Bebee has been lobbying with an overall reform plan since 2000.  The“Wisconsin Adequacy Plan” would be the proverbial heart transplant for our fiscally challenged school and includes:

• Basing funding levels on the actual cost of providing an education, instead of arbitrary per pupil spending levels;
• Providing sufficient state resources to meet state and federal mandates and to prepare all children, regardless of circumstances, for post-secondary education, employment or military service;
• Providing additional resources and flexibility to meet special circumstances, including English as a second language students, low-income households and districts with specific geographic and demographic situations; and
• Providing combination of state funds and reduced levels of property taxes derived from a system that treats all taxpayers equally, regardless of local property wealth and income.

Bebee sees some progress, since much of the Adequacy plan has been adopted by State Superintendent Tony Evers for overall funding reform, but he knows there is only one way all our schools will receive the needed support to educate all students.

“We need to elect adults to the legislature.”

If you want to sign the “Pennies for Kids” petition or support WAES, click here.