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Chvala proposes education task force

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala unveiled his plans for an investigative education task force Tuesday. The proposed task force, comprised of bipartisan legislative representation and members of the public, business and education community, will be voted on by the state Senate.

The special task force is designed to conduct a thorough examination of the state?s current system of financing K-12 public education and form recommendations for improvement. The recommendations will be included as part of the next biennial state budget.

“Our public schools are facing a funding crisis, yet our economy demands a well-trained workforce and homeowners’ property taxes continue to rise,” Chvala said, “We must take action to reform the education finance system so Wisconsin continues to deliver top-quality public education to our children.”

So far, no legislators have voiced opposition to Chvala’s proposal.

In 1993, Wisconsin changed its school financing system in hopes of keeping property taxes in line and equalizing spending among districts. However, many districts claim the reform did not work.

The reform caps the amount of money school districts can raise annually on a per-student basis. Due to the caps, the state agreed to pay two-thirds of the public schools’ costs.

“The idea originally was to provide property-tax relief, but it has created many problems in a lot of schools,? said Mike Browne, a spokesperson for Chvala.

Browne emphasized the conflict that arises with such caps. He said mandated programs such as special education are put in competition with general education students.

Browne also said schools with declining enrollment are losing aid because funding is granted based on the number of pupils, creating more problems.

“Even though schools may have a few less students each year, the loss of funding is difficult to deal with,” Browne said. “They are expected to provide the same basic infrastructure with the same amount of dollars.”

Sen. Russ Decker, D-Weston, will co-chair the task force along with Rep. Luther Olsen, R-Berlin, chair of the Assembly Education Committee.