I don’t agree with Bud Selig on most issues. In fact, one of the pleasant surprises of my freshman year was discovering just how hated he was in his home state. However, I am a big enough man to come clean and admit when he is right. In this case, however, we would all do well to follow his lead. Beginning in 2003, Major League Baseball instituted a luxury tax on teams with payrolls exceeding a certain threshold. Beginning in 2009, the state of Wisconsin should do the same for its schools.

Our public school system is in need of repair. Over 50 percent of economically disadvantaged 10th graders in 2005 lacked proficiency in math. For the rest of the population, only about 20 percent tested at or below the basic level. Social dynamics certainly play a role in this trend, but Jim Doyle and Steve Nass can’t exactly go around making sure kids do their homework and go to bed on time — that is the job of parents. However, the government can do something to close the educational spending gap of over $10,000 per student that exists between the richest and poorest districts in the state.

Schools are funded in three ways. First, they receive some money from the federal government. Second, the state distributes money to school districts — Wisconsin uses an allocation formula to determine how much money to give each district. Third, schools are funded locally by property taxes.

Due to the nature of property taxes, some districts take in more money than others because either the tax rate or property value is higher in that district. If you look at the districts with the highest and lowest per student spending, it becomes apparent that average property value is a much more important factor than tax rate. The bottom eight school districts by educational spending have an average property value around $375,000 while the top eight have an average value over $1.2 million. If you throw out the two schools in the top eight that receive a majority of their funding from the state, the average property value balloons to over $2 million. In short, these are the New York Yankees of the Wisconsin education system.

In order to give the Florida Marlins and Minnesota Twins of this state a chance, a fair solution is necessary. The state should establish a spending threshold on expenditures that are relatively constant across the state. Then, for every dollar spent beyond the threshold, a 10 percent (or 7 or 5 or 20 percent) luxury tax could be imposed and that money redistributed to the needy schools at the other end of the spectrum. Expenses like transportation, which would take up a larger part of the budget in rural districts, and building costs, which would be high in growing suburbs, would be exempt. Aid money received from the state and federal governments would also not count towards the limit.

Besides working to close the disparity that exists between the richest and poorest of our schools, the impact of this system on the rest of the state would be minimal. A change in federal policy or tweaking the state allocation formula would be highly political and have a huge impact on every district in the state. For example, suppose the state decides to set the spending limit at $12,417 per student and redistribute the money to schools spending less than $8,538 (based on the average and standard deviation of the data from every district in the state). Only about 10 percent of districts would be affected.

Furthermore, the effect felt by the richer districts would be minimal and not severely handicap their ability to educate their students. For example, using the spending limit above and assuming a 10 percent luxury tax, Lac du Flambeau — the district with the highest per student educational spending in the state — would pay a total of about $529 per student in luxury tax, or just under 3 percent of their educational spending. Hardly devastating.

Since Major League Baseball adopted a luxury tax system, teams such as the Minnesota Twins, Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Rays have been able to take steps to build competitive clubs. At the same time, teams like the Yankees have been free to spend as they wish. It is a simple solution, effective and apolitical. However, some may think that comparing our state’s school system to baseball is absurd. After all, education is not a game, which is exactly why we need to act now.

Joey Labuz([email protected]) is a junior majoring in biomedical engineering.