The Wisconsin 2015-17 proposed budget bill includes a $300 million cut to the UW

System, and the Mequon-Thiensville School District will feel its effects. Although
these budget cuts are not final, the UW System and other K-12 districts statewide
may be faced with challenges if the proposed budget passes.
As the Wisconsin constitution states, the budget of Wisconsin must be balanced.
The state legislature, with strong input from the governor, creates Wisconsins
biennial budget, including the amount the state will spend within two years. The bill
must be approved and passed by the full state assembly and the full state senate
before it is put into action.
According to the Wisconsin Budget Project website, the starting budget process
begins when state agencies submit their budget requests to the governor. The
governor then uses the requests and drafts the budget proposal around the month of
February. The budget is finalized in June.
Because an increasing number of high schools have been looking for opportunities
that can allow students to expand their academic horizons, Wisconsin passed the
Youth Options Law. This law allows high school students to take courses on a
university campus if the high school does not offer that class.
Lets say a student wanted to take Italian. Homestead does not offer Italian but
Concordia does. Homestead, by law, has to allow a student to take that course at
Concordia, Mr. Brett Bowers, principal, said. This law has been around for a really
long time and very few students take advantage of Youth Options because
Homestead has a pretty robust curriculum as it is.
In addition to the Youth Options law, Wisconsin passed the Course Options law as of
last year. Course Options governs dual credit courses for high school students,
allowing students to take a course at the high school and receive college and high
school credit. Because of this law, the budget cuts cannot impact these opportunities
to receive college credit. The only way to completely abolish dual credit would be for
the state government to pass a counteracting law against Course Options. I think
there is a little misunderstanding. The dual credit option is not related to the budget,
Mr. Bowers s.
When creating Course Options, Wisconsin declared that schools and school districts
would pay for dual credit courses, not the individual students or the universities.
When the bill was approved, the schools and districts freaked out because that is
potentially a lot of money, Mr. Bowers said.
To the advantage of schools and and school districts, the UW System stepped in and
paid for the tuition of the dual credits this past year. The UW System experienced a
surprise surplus, allowing it to cover the dual credit expenses. The UW system
stated that they cannot pay for the dual credit again, and this was before the budget
cuts were announced. That was a one year fix. The free dual credits were a one time
deal, Mr. Bowers said.
The $643 million surplus, known as slush funds, raised serious concerns in the
Wisconsin government. When the mysterious money was discovered, in-state tuition

was already up 73 percent from 2004, according to Matt Crumb in his article titled
UW Slush Fund Controversy: We Can Account For Every Dollar Says Ray Cross.
Promptly after the surplus and tuition increase was discovered, Governor Scott
Walker initiated a two-year tuition freeze, which he plans to continue in this
upcoming budget.
The unpredicted surplus raises the question of whether or not the cuts will
significantly hurt all 26 schools within the UW system. However, according to Dr.
Demond Means, MTSD superintendent, Whenever there is a budget cut to
education, it should raise some concern.
Free dual credits proved to be a financial relief for Homestead. As the once-in-alifetime free-credit deal comes to a close, however, the question of how Homestead
will pay for these credits arises.
Currently, Homestead offers 13 dual credit courses including Accounting 1, multiple
PLTW courses, CPR-AED-First Aid, Introduction to Business, Personal Finance,
Advanced Mass Media and Communications, Advanced Creative Writing, Latin 4
and Advanced Programming.
Each dual credit class is offered by a UW school, except Latin 4, which the
University of Minnesota offers.
As stated in a May 6 email from Mr. Bowers, UW-Oshkosh charges $30 per credit
and UW-Whitewater charges $90 per credit. Based on these costs, our current
enrollments in all UW-supported dual credit offerings and the district budget to
support dual credit, we will be able to move forward with offering [the] respective
courses for both Homestead and UW credit next year, Mr. Bowers said in the email.
During a district meeting with Senator Alberta Darling, Rep. Jim Ott and Rep. Dan
Knodl, all three politicians clearly stated that K-12 education was their first priority
regarding the state budget. Additionally, Rep. Knodl stated that the UW budget
comes right next to the priority of K-12. The Governor proposed a $300 million cut to
the system. We (the senate and the assembly) would like to see that cut reduced so
the impact is not as significant, Rep. Knodl said.
On the contrary, according to a letter addressed to the Mequon-Thiensville taxpayers
from Dr. Means, the current budget proposal will include the elimination of $150 per
student, which would create a $520,000 budget shortfall in our district budget next
school year. The letter continues to discuss that Governor Walker has failed to
propose an increase in the revenue cap the mechanism that allows public
schools to generate revenue for ongoing operational costs.
Moreover, the governor's budget recommendations include phasing out the states
first parental choice program, Chapter 220. Chapter 220 allows minority students
from Milwaukee to apply to a suburban school which consists of predominantly nonminority students. The program aims to integrate minority students into suburban
schools. Regarding Chapter 220, Homestead recently accepted approximately 23
applications from minority students across Milwaukee. If the phasing out of this

program occurs, the Homestead-hopeful students acceptances could possibly be

revoked in future years.
Currently, 99 students within the district participate in the Chapter 220 program. Next
years numbers are not confirmed, but the district expects that they will be higher
than this years.
In the letter previously mentioned, Dr. Means asked students and parents to
advocate for the school district. He states how important it is to let the elected
officials know that an investment in public education strengthens Wisconsins
economic future. He asks the people of Mequon to please join [him] in standing up
for our children.
Even though the effects of this proposed budget seem costly, it is important to keep
in mind that the budget bill will not be finalized until June 2015.