Milwaukee Public Schools laid off 519 employees after losing about $80 million in the state's new two-year budget - which dramatically reduces education spending statewide - but most other Wisconsin districts have avoided layoffs and massive cuts to programs.
School districts' ability under Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair legislation to obtain greater contributions from employees toward health care and retirement costs, and to work outside of collective bargaining agreements, appears to have generated the necessary savings to balance most budgets.
Some districts are even hiring new teachers for the 2011-'12 academic year.
Critics say that a good financial picture now for schools will be short-lived, and that most districts will nose-dive next year because the recently acquired savings are a one-time fix.
Several school superintendents say that the cuts to education spending could not be completely recouped through greater employee benefit contributions, and that they made the numbers work this year by dipping into reserve funds or leftover stimulus money.
"You can save a heck of a lot of money by asking teachers to contribute more to their health care and pensions," said Tom Beebe, executive director of the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools. "But for a lot of districts, what they're doing is using federal jobs money they held over, as well as other one-time savings, to be OK in 2012. But what about 2013?"
Source: jsonline.com
