Friday, August 18, 2006

Sharp difference on school funding

JS Politics Watch:
Issue of the day: Education funding
Note: Candidates were asked if they would commit to the two-thirds funding level for public schools in the state and, if so, how they would do it.

Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle: "Education is my top priority. That's why I restored the state's commitment to pay two-thirds of the cost of our schools in the last budget. Doing so allows schools a modest 3% increase to keep up with inflation. And because the state is paying more, it helps take the burden off property taxpayers. I'll fund two-thirds in my next budget as well."
You could not ask for a more direct answer. That's a yes.
Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Green: "Education will always be my top spending priority and I will certainly increase funding for our schools. However, given the massive budget deficit Jim Doyle has left us with, until we get a better picture of our financial situation, I think it would be irresponsible to commit to just how big of an increase the taxpayers can afford. "
And that's a no. If Mark Green is governor, stand by for hundreds of millions of cuts in school aid, thousands of teacher and staff layoffs, program cuts -- and, despite all that, a big increase in property taxes.

2 Comments:

At 10:17 AM, Blogger krshorewood said...

I just heard Green say this morning at a breakfast meeting that he "is for hold the line on all levels of government."

Does he realize that we have a federal government?

 
At 12:48 AM, Blogger XOut said...

Ummm. Can I jump in here KR?

Do I really need to? - Oh, what the hell... Green has (as part of his job) actually flown from Green Bay to Washington DC (you know, not the state)... I think he kinda understands that.

In the meantime, we can all pretend to be astonished that he may or may not be willing to use transportation funds to pay for education.

We can also pretend that Wisconsin doesn't have a massive structural deficit and that our borrowing (because we have been stealing money from other funds for so long) is between 1 and 3 as a percentage of our state's budget.

Please, don't get me wrong - I thought your comment was cute - but also stupid.

I presume you wish to contine Wisconsin's fine tradidition of making today's students pay for their elementary education when they are in their 30's.

 

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