The Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance announced a report last week stating that school spending is increasing while school enrollment is down. The Alliance tabulated the numbers and is willing to sell the data for $29.95, plus tax.
WISTAX News Release: Spending per student rose 4.8%, slightly faster than the total because enrollments in the state’s public schools fell 0.3% in 2004-05 to 869,961. In 2004-05, Wisconsin school districts budgeted to spend $10,367 per student, or $477 more than the year before.On face value, more money for the schools should be a good thing, but apparently it is not because the Teachers Union reacted like they had been poked by a really sharp stick. WEAC President Stan Johnson wasted little time announcing the suffering.
WEAC News Release: A report this week by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance indicating that statewide school spending rose 4.6% last year is incomplete and misleading, WEAC President Stan Johnson said Wednesday (October 12, 2005). "This report leaves the impression that school spending is high when nothing could be further from the truth," Johnson said.It’s like one neighbor making a comment that the temperature is 68 degrees, and another neighbor all of sudden breaking down and crying because it is still to cold and the lack of heat makes the joints ache. We all know the type. Good enough is never good enough, and the grass is always greener somewhere.
At a time when some of our great schools are struggling just to survive, we need to have complete, honest discussions about the needs of children, the benefits of quality education, the level of funding for our schools and the fairness of our tax system."
