Power Elite Set Their Sights on the Vast Wealth of the States' Public School Systems

Wisconsin Governor Releases District-by-district School Cuts

A UN study has concluded that South Korea and Japan have the most effective education systems. The U.S. ranked 18th. Each year the amount spent on U.S. public education continues to increase without yielding any improvement. In 2009-2010, the federal, state, and local revenue contributions for public education totaled almost $600 billion.

March 18, 2011

World Socialist Web Site - In a press conference Wednesday in the Wisconsin state capitol of Madison, Governor Scott Walker proposed a massive budget reduction in state funding for public schools.

According to Walker’s budget office analysis, school districts would see a decrease of 5.5 percent—or a $465 million—in revenue for 2011-2012. District revenue is a combination of state aid as well as local property taxes.

By prohibiting increases in local taxes to make up the loss in state aid, Walker is seeking to gut public education, while he promotes vouchers for private schools and the expansion of privately run charter schools. His budget will force districts to slash programs, increase class sizes, close schools, and accelerate the attack on the living standards and working conditions of teachers and other school employees.

Editor's Note: On February 14, 2011, Obama sent to Congress his budget for 2012. In it he asks for a 38.5 percent increase in funding for education (total discretionary spending of $77.4 billion) even as he calls for a five-year freeze on domestic spending. Obama wants $900 million for a new round of funds for the Race to the Top initiative that the administration says has spurred critical school reforms. The competitive education grant program will be geared toward school districts, as opposed to awarding money to states as was done last year.

In order to calculate the impact of the new budget, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau drew up a hypothetical financial plan for the current year based on the proposed aid changes. The loss would have been a statewide average of a staggering 8.7 percent, with many districts seeing a 10 percent cut or more.

During Walker’s speech, he claimed the loss in state funding would easily be covered by redirecting 10 percent of employees’ salaries toward pension and health insurance costs. This net loss of salary would be devastating to teachers and other school employees who are currently struggling with the rising cost of living and stagnating or already decreased wages.

Editor's Note: The Washington Examiner went to the Wisconsin's Department of Public Instruction to get the salary data for some of the noisiest teachers, and found that they were making salaries of $67,000, $68,000, $58,000, and $59,000, with benefit packages of $18,000, $20,000, $12,000, and $29,000, respectively. Depending on the school district and the teacher's education level, Wisconsin teachers can expect to make that kind of money and enjoy such benefits after several years of experience. This seems more than reasonable for a job that only runs nine months out of the year. The strikers are doing so much better than most of Wisconsin's private sector workers that their complaints evince a gross disrespect for taxpayers, who on average make much less. The average single-income family in the state brings in $40,500, and the average worker pays 20 percent of his employee health plan.

Even after increasing employee health insurance premiums to 12.6 percent and raising pension payments to 5.8 percent of their annual salary, there would still be a shortfall in many of the school districts. Based on the Fiscal Bureau’s figures, 94 of the 423 Wisconsin school districts would have to make additional cuts in order to balance their budgets. These school districts would be faced with large numbers of layoffs, capping any salary increases at inflation, changing health insurance providers to the lowest possible bidder, and possibly carrying out even more draconian cuts to employee benefits.

Michelle Hancock, superintendent of Kenosha Unified School District, was quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel praising Milwaukee Public Schools for considering a four-day school week. While no official announcements have been made, other states have cut one day out of the school week in order to reduce costs of busing, utilities and salaries. It is difficult to imagine the increased pressures this would place on school employees, students, and parents who would be forced to find other arrangements for their children on the fifth day.

Walker also failed to mention escalating costs due to fuel prices, facility maintenance, electricity and other costs included in a school budget. Most schools assume a 2 percent increase in revenues each year in order to cover the continual costs of running a school district, according to an article in the Wisconsin State Journal.

“It’s reasonable anywhere in society that we’re not basing it on a projected increase; we’re basing it on a zero sum,” said Walker of the budget in the same article.

How is this reasonable in Wisconsin, or any other state for that matter? With rising commodity prices, an 11.1 percent unemployment rate in Wisconsin, falling wages, a fragile economy and continual inflation, this is a ludicrous statement. There is a need for increased social spending in all social programs—education being one of the most important.

In the 2010 US Census, figures showed that there are now 10 counties in Wisconsin with a higher than 15 percent poverty rate—with the majority of counties having an over 10 percent increase over the last decade. In the 2000 census, only two counties were above 15 percent. The highest poverty rates are among children, the elderly and minorities.

Katherine Curtis is a demographic specialist and author of a report by UW-Madison Extension on the 2010 census data for Wisconsin. In an article from the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal last December she had the following to say about the increasing poverty rates in Wisconsin:

“An increasing proportion of Wisconsin residents are facing economic hardship. These numbers suggest that economic development, including living wages, health benefits, food security, and housing affordability should be front and center in policy discussions.”

Walker’s proposed budget—not to mention his tax cuts already given to corporations—is focused on quite the opposite. The plan being enacted is one that will bankrupt school districts, forcing huge cuts, numerous layoffs, privatization and incredible financial burdens for school employees.

In this highly polarized state the money needed for social programs should come from a sharp increase in taxes on the wealthy. Instead, Walker is eliminating capital gains taxes and providing other windfalls for the wealthy. According to a report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the state lost $151 million in revenue due to preferential treatment of capital gains.

Editor's Note: This is the typical Socialist solution to all problems: tax the "wealthy."

For their part, the unions have been scurrying as quickly as possible to sign contract extensions with school districts before Walker’s new law gutting collective bargaining rights goes into effect. While the living standards of teachers and other school employees are under attack, the unions have been allowed to continue to collect union dues—a measure that is prohibited by Walker’s new law, but only when the current contracts expire in two or three years.

Editor's Note: The existence of public sector collective bargaining makes public employees "super citizens" and relegates the rest of the public to second class status. The collective bargaining laws have given enormous political power to the public sector unions. No matter what the real intent of these laws, by any objective standard they are not in the public interest. They represent an expression of the selfish self-interest of public sector union organizers and, indirectly, the interest of the politicians who enact them in order to curry favor with the union's political operatives.

These contracts are being rammed through with the same concessions—and sometimes more austere—than Walker’s original budget repair bill. Union executives are fearful that their own lucrative positions will be deemed unnecessary in carrying out the cuts aimed against workers and are eagerly working to convince the administration of their usefulness.

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Barack H. Obama Elementary to Close Due to Low Enrollment

I never understood the concept of politicians (or their loyal followers) naming public places after themselves - and they're not even dead yet... This is the kind of adulation of power that you see in Authoritarian regimes - like the old Soviet Union, for example. It is basically a 'salute' to POWER. Not power of the people, power OVER the people... - The Sinick

March 18, 2011

The Ticket - The Barack H. Obama Elementary School in Asbury Park, N.J. will be shuttered this summer, largely due to low enrollment, the Asbury Park Press reports.

Bruce N. Rodman, the official who oversees the district's finances, determined that it was necessary for one of the district's elementary schools to close and the Obama school's enrollment had dropped 35 percent in the past 10 years, the newspaper reports.

The Bangs Avenue School elected in 2010 to change its name to Barack H. Obama Elementary.

At the time that the school acquired its new name, administrators took a lot of flak for ostensibly focusing on the name change instead of the plight of its students. But the city resident behind the movement, Myra Campbell, believed it would "send a subliminal message" to the students.

"Every time they walk through the school doors, there's going to be a certain amount of pride in where they go to school," Campbell told the Star-Ledger in 2009. "We now move forward in trying what we can to improve the academic skills of the students and also the social skills."

At the time, another New Jersey school had already been renamed after the president.

About 1,000 students will be reassigned to local schools in the fall.

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