School finance
A pay freeze or maybe just small raises for teachers? Other public employees are taking temporary reductions, partial furloughs and layoffs. Fewer teachers are retiring; and there appears to be an oversupply of teachers in many areas.
State aid has been reduced in scores of school districts. Unemployment in Wisconsin hovers around 9 percent. Major increases in school property taxes would trigger angry reaction in these hard times.
School furloughs and layoffs seem remote – state law sets the number of days children must be in school. School boards and teachers are examining ways to attract more federal aid, but that is unlikely to occur before property tax rates are set this fall.
The supply of good teachers is good although some rural districts may have difficulty finding many in specialized areas. Consider what happened in Madison.
More than 1,700 licensed teachers applied for this year’s 130 openings (including part-time positions) in the Madison public school system. There were 700 applicants for 20 elementary school slots. Another 120 applied for the 15 special education openings.
Many principals report being “extremely impressed” with the five finalists they interviewed, according to Joe Quick, a school system spokesman. The only need late in the summer was for bilingual math teachers, he said.
Meanwhile, other public employees are getting furloughed or taking temporary pay cuts and pay freezes. State workers, the biggest employment group in Madison, are being required to take a total of 16 days of unpaid days off in the next two years. That amounts to about a 3 percent reduction in pay.
Dane County employee unions have agreed to take a 5 percent pay reduction for the last six months of 2009. Pay freezes and cutbacks are not uncommon among public workers.
School boards across the state howled this year when the Legislature eliminated the qualified economic offer (QEO) language from labor law. Under QEO a school board could avoid binding arbitration if they offered an economic package providing a 3.8 percent annual boost in pay and fringes.
The QEO excuse is gone for school boards. All sorts of alternatives are available. There is the option of a freeze. Or they can propose higher pay for groups like science, math, and bilingual teachers. Or they can begin moving to rewarding teachers whose pupils score well on standardized tests. That idea has been floated both in the state Capitol and in Washington.
Some school board members – especially in districts facing major reductions in state aid – still harbor hope the Legislature will reverse course when it returns. That may be wishing on a star.
Gov. Jim Doyle, now a political lame duck, suggests he wants the Legislature to end the revenue ceilings on school property taxes. That would allow school boards to do as they wish.
Major school property taxes, to finance teacher compensation increases, would certainly echo through school board and legislative elections in 2010. Families who have lost jobs or reduced work weeks may be especially upset.
