share madison - gov. scott walker's proposal to increase funding for voucher and public charter schools as well as his plan to create a new stream of funding to allow special-needs children to attend private schools drew immediate criticism sunday from the state's largest teacher union, public school advocates and a major disability rights group. according to funding proposals unveiled by the governor's office sunday, walker is making money available that could be used as incentive payments for teachers and schools based on how well schools perform on state report cards. walker will propose a modest increase - roughly 1% - in funding for wisconsin public schools in his budget to the legislature on wednesday, two years after his steep cuts and all but elimination of collective bargaining for teachers sparked the unsuccessful movement to recall walker from office. tom beebe, project director for opportunity to learn wisconsin, a liberal-leaning group and former executive director of the wisconsin alliance for excellent schools, has been critical of walker's cuts to education. he said the amount of general aid increase proposed for this next biennial budget - $129.2 million over two years - only amounts to about $161 for each of wisconsin's 800,000 public-school students. "if the revenue cap does not go up, then there is no new money going to schools no matter how much aid increases," beebe said. "the increase in school funding simply goes to property-tax payers, not into the classroom." mary bell, president of the wisconsin education association council, the state's largest teacher union, said the modest increase was really just keeping overall revenue for schools flat. "the stagnant revenue on top of the largest cuts to education funding in wisconsin history in the last budget is another clear indication that this governor has no intention of supporting neighborhood schools," bell said in a statement. "(walker's) real focus is privatizing public education with another infusion of resources to the unaccountable taxpayer-funded private school voucher program while leaving our neighborhood public schools on life support," she added. the republican-controlled legislature will review walker's budget over the next four months and make changes before voting on it sometime in june. the two-year spending plan takes effect in july. state rep. sondy pope, ranking democrat on the assembly's education committee, said walker's proposal isn't enough. at the rate of state aid funding for public schools, it would take 12 years to replace the money lost in the last budget, she said. walker contends schools have been able to save money because the collective bargaining law also required teachers to contribute more toward their pension and health care benefits. the nonpartisan wisconsin taxpayers alliance reported in november that those cuts in benefits and limiting union-negotiated raises to the rate of inflation offset about two-thirds of the reductions in school revenue in the 2011-'12 academic year. pope said the increase in aid walker is proposing won't be enough to help schools struggling to make ends meet. "these people are trying to starve wisconsin public schools," she said. republican sen. luther olsen, chairman of the senate's education committee, said he was glad to see walker putting more money into public education. "it's a lot better than having to cut like we did in the last budget," he said. "it's not as much as i wanted, but we're glad it's not negative or zero." walker's funding for schools includes $73 million more for voucher schools, $23 million for charter schools, and $21 million in grants for special-needs students to receive a voucher to attend private schools. a proposal for those special-needs vouchers passed the assembly last session, despite broad opposition from the state department of public instruction, disabilities rights groups, and the state school boards association. it did not pass the senate. lisa pugh, public policy coordinator for disability rights wisconsin, expressed concern that special-needs vouchers were now being proposed as part of the budget, because it would be a significant policy change in the way students with special needs are served. and that should be debated in education legislative committees, she said. also, the $21 million for special-needs children could have been applied to help public schools across the state, not just for the minority of children who could use that taxpayer subsidy to attend a private school, she said. walker's plans for expanding the more well-known voucher system encompassing milwaukee's long-standing program and racine's new program are highly anticipated, but he did not immediately provide those details. funding for the uw system would go up $181 million under the budget, two years after it was cut by $315 million. technical college aid would increase $5 million. uw spokesman david giroux said the increased funding, coupled with the university being exempted from so-called lapses that could have resulted in $66 million in cuts, was "very positive." "we want to create a stronger workforce for wisconsin, and new taxpayer investments are essential to that effort," giroux said. "it looks like we will have enough funding to preserve today's levels of college access and quality, along with new investments in uw programs focused on job creation. that's a smart investment." walker is making $64 million available in incentive payments for k-12 schools, tied to their grades on statewide report cards. of that, $24 million would go to schools with an a or b grade, $30 million would go to schools that show a certain level of improvement on the report cards and $10 million would be available to the lowest-performing districts for a one-time grant if they provide an acceptable improvement plan. brian pleva, lobbyist for the american federation for children wisconsin, a conservative group, praised walker's increase for voucher- and charter-school funding because it would give low-income and middle-class parents more educational choices. he also said that special-needs scholarships would help a minority of families for which local public schools aren't meeting their children's needs. walker said in a statement sunday that the budget proposals will reward successes and provide incentives to schools to drive achievement and accountability. in this next biennial budget, total k-12 funding would go up $276 million, according to the ap. but walker will not lift the lid on revenue limits, saying he was concerned about moves that might cause property taxes to increase. the proposed increase in aid to schools comes after walker cut general school aid by $834 million two years ago, a more than 8% drop from the previous funding period. to restrict school boards from raising property taxes to replace the drop in school aid, the governor proposed reducing districts' revenue limit authority - the combined amount they're able to raise in local property taxes and state general school aid - by 5.5%. as a result, the average school per-pupil revenue limit dropped about $555 in 2011-'12, from $10,100 in 2010-'11. about this story scott bauer, reporting for the associated press in madison, and erin richards of the journal sentinel staff, reporting in milwaukee, compiled this report.
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