The Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators and the Wisconsin Education Association Council are hoping a recent study conducted by the two organizations convinces the Wisconsin state Legislature to reconsider revenue caps placed on schools 15 years ago.

“Revenue controls are broken; we need a more effective system of school funding,” Jeff Leverich, senior researcher at WEAC, said. “We hope this info helps inform legislators about the need for reform.”

According to Miles Turner, executive director of WASDA, 315 of the 426 Wisconsin public schools responded to an annual survey conducted over a 15-year period.

The survey asked questions regarding the various schools that have dealt with a 2 percent revenue cap instated 15 years ago.

The survey revealed 70 percent of Wisconsin schools increased the size of their classes over the past year, while 65 percent of the schools decreased the number of offered courses.

Similarly, nearly 59 percent of the schools reduced programs for gifted and talented students and 54 percent decreased programs for at-risk students.

“More and more school districts … were showing more cuts that are under effect,” Leverich said. “It’s worse today more than it has ever been.”

The results were based on a list of 27 key questions tracked for the past 15 years.?

The survey questioned the schools about cuts they have made to academic courses, staff layoffs and other cuts to specific sectors of the school.

A second survey questioned school districts on business efficiency.

“We asked questions such as, ‘What kind of business practices are you using?’, and we found the overwhelming majority have been trying to improve business efficiencies and are all doing everything they can to reduce energy costs,” Leverich said.

The need to increase enrollment and cut back on courses resulted from the mandatory 4 percent in employee salaries each school must fund, Turner said.

“The survey that went out said we’re laying off teachers, reducing book loads, increasing class sizes and doing everything we can to try to make up for 2 percent increase and 4 percent expenditure,” Turner said,?

Turner recommended the state reimburse school districts at a level of 5 percent personal income growth.

“If you take five years and average that out, it’s the amount of money school districts are receiving and that would be the cap,” Turner said.

Turner encouraged teachers to seek a change in the state funding formula and work toward closing the gap between revenues and required expenditures

Turner said he hopes to maintain the high-quality public school system by lobbying the Legislature for change.

“The study is extremely important,” Turner said. “It demonstrates to policymakers and the Capitol the cuts and erosion of support for public education in Wisconsin, which in the long-term is a very negative factor for economic growth. We always had some of the best public schools in the nation and that’s kept us very viable economically, and we can’t turn into a Mississippi or an Arkansas that doesn’t fund their schools.”