Gov. Walker: School Districts Will Have Budget Reforms
Whether in the state budget or through budget repair bill, Wisconsin governor says he believes the collective bargaining provisions will remain.
Gov. Scott Walker told reporters Monday afternoon he is confident that the state’s budget will be approved by June 30.
The budget is tied with a controversial legislation that limits the majority of collective bargaining for public employee unions to wages. It also requires that the employees contribute 5.8 percent of their wages toward the Wisconsin Retirement System.
But, with that legislation in limbo before the state Supreme Court, school districts and municipalities putting together budgets are waiting for the final budget numbers. Some school districts, such as the Waukesha School District, also need to enter into contract negotiations.
It’s been estimated by Waukesha School District administrators that if the budget repair mandates are struck down in court, Waukesha schools will need to find an additional $4 million to slice from the 2011-12 budget and again in the 2012-13 budget.
Walker said Monday he has spoken with Waukesha Superintendent Todd Gray, who Walker described as “concerned” about the budget situation.
“He wants to have the kind of relief we brought forward in the budget repair bill,” Walker said before catching a flight to Washington, D.C. “To Waukesha, to any other school district out there, I think it is either in the next week and a half, it will happen in the Supreme Court or ultimately by the time the budget is passed, the reforms will be in place there. One way or another school districts like Waukesha and others across the state will get the reforms they need to balance the budget without massive layoffs.”
Terry
4:15 pm on Tuesday, June 7, 2011
someone PLEASE reprint this and pass it pass it out to all the absolute disgusting morons in Madison right now. And read it out loud for 30 minutes before sunrise., using a bull horn. For God sake this is perverse behavior.These people are like dog poop.
Jennifer
6:17 pm on Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Regardless of the budget outcome, these financial issues have been brewing for some time and the Waukesha school district did this to itself. When the district negotiated teacher contracts, they agreed to pay future benefits without knowing how it would pay for those benefits. Then the time came for the district to be accountable for setting aside enough money to pay those benefits and it came up short because of its own mismanagement. So now Waukesha is suing to get the money back it was supposed to be managing, a suit that both wastes taxpayer's money and compounds the district's loss.
Michael Wade
6:34 pm on Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Walkers budget reform is job cuts, layoffs, push jobs out of state, and degrade workers rights. The biggest cause of job loss in the state is the governor's policies. His tea party puppet reform is bankrupting the state.
Kurt OBryan
9:47 pm on Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Jennifer
You are clueless. The district settles a contract that save millions of dollars in expenses. Both now and in the future.
Michael Wade
10:46 pm on Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Waker has a favorite school that gets funded. He's a crook, so what.
Phil_Eng_Amer
1:19 pm on Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Hopefully, for the state of Wisconsin, Walker is right, and everything included in the Budget Repair Bill is passed into law. There’s certainly a lot at stake here. As Walker has said, it’s all about creating a system in which the school systems can create a responsible budget that avoids the massive layoffs that would happen should spending not be kept under control.
When you look at education in the public sector you come across some troubling numbers. Teachers make up the Largest group is public school teachers who make up more than 3 million teachers. They make on average $14,000 a year more than private school teachers. Gap gets larger when you add benefits (http://usat.ly/9nmMAA).
Schools must look at this legislation as really an opportunity to grow and get better, without facing layoffs. There is often the call for more money to be put into public schools, but it’s not that simple. An Organisation [sic] for Economic Co-operation and Development study found that most European countries spend between 55 percent and 70 percent of what the United States does per student, yet produce better educational outcomes (http://bit.ly/lX2xI2).
Schools need to figure out a better way to improve the way in which children are educated and ensure that funding is being used in the right ways.