DESPERATE
TIMES ARE COMING:
"Where have all the children gone" may well be a lament heard echoing through the breeze in Tenney Park on future sunny days. School budget cuts threaten the foundation of our neighborhood. When Lapham School reopened, it was a flower in our garden and our neighborhood has been in bloom ever since. Look on our streets, on Baldwin St. and Elizabeth and Sidney and Jean St. and see the kids at play. Good schools and good neighborhoods and communities are inseparable.
Without the
confidence we have in our schools how many bicycles, tricycles, scooters and
slides would be laying about? How
many footballs, basketballs, and frisbees, and kids with backpacks boarding a
bus would we see on our streetscapes?
Kids and their toys are emblems of American community. Of course, they are not the only
valuable part. Our seniors,
singles, professionals, families without kids, are all important. But, it's children that make a
community triumphant in spirit. We
have such a community. Without
good schools, things could change.
State revenue caps are forcing the Madison School District to decimate
itself. Under the present funding
formula it's only a matter of time, and not much of that, before our schools
self-destruct.
Since 1993
revenue controls have forced the school district to cut over $17.5 million in
funds, and next year, according to recent estimates, the district will be
required to cut another $7.5 million.
Growing special education, and other federal and state mandated programs
that are only partially funded will further and substantially deplete the
resources available for regular education students. What has already happened to Madison School District
resources is bad enough. What is
worse is the increasing revenue shortfall in coming years, and, moreover, the
failure to consider any solutions.
Art Rainwater, our school superintendent has urged "a comprehensive
review of school funding in Wisconsin in preparation for the 2003-05 biennial
budget." He adds, "It's
critically important that we not further reduce funding to K-12 schools",
and calls the present funding process, "a never ending move toward
bankruptcy."
Art
Rainwater is warning us about the worsening school district revenue
crises. In the din caused by the
state budget crisis, will the warning be heard at all? Not if his is the only voice speaking
out. One has to wonder where are
the voices of our leadership? Our
schools are being slowly debilitated. Where is the voice of Ray Allen, a prospective
candidate for mayor?
Does he want to be mayor of a city with bankrupt and failing
schools? Why is his voice
not heard screaming out to save our schools? What about Juan Jose Lopez? Where is he other than using his pen to sign off on budget
cuts? It may not be fair to single
out individuals because we are all to blame, but they are prominent citizens
with a first obligation and duty to protect our schools. The mechanism for
funding schools in Wisconsin is untenable. Yet, there is no effort under way to change it and not much
of a complaint from those we put our trust in.
Gone are
the good old days of contested school board elections and a contentious school
board honestly debating the merits of every dollar of expenditure
proposed. Where are Nancy Mistele
and Mary Jan Rosenak? Thompson's
revenue control plan made them unnecessary. How surprised I am to pine for their presence. Each year now the budget is cut without
debate and without being able to consider the consequences. And the funniest part about it is
that the process of destroying our schools began in the boom times when there
were countless millions of dollars for everything else.
Returning
taxing authority to local school boards that must defend their spending
proposals to the voting public is the only democratic, constitutional, and sensible way to
finance public education. No
imperative is greater for a community, and at no time greater than it is now,
than the education of its children.
We must insist on a return to local control of our schools. We must try to save our
schools. What's more important?
Good schools and good neighborhoods are inseparable.
-Joe
Brogan