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Meeting Date:
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9/26/2019 - 6:30 PM
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Category:
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Reports and Communications from the Board Clerk/Chief Officer, Office of Board Governance
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Type:
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Info
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Subject:
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1. Monthly Report, with Possible Action, on Legislative Activities Affecting MPS
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Strategic Plan Compatibility Statement:
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Goal 1 Academic Achievement Goal 2 Student, Family and Community Engagement Goal 3 Effective and Efficient Operations
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Attachments
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File Attachment:
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Background:
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Assembly Bill 67, which currently is working its way through the legislative process, while a well-intentioned piece of legislation promoted by a well-intentioned group of educators, perhaps unintentionally reflects the core of what is wrong with the state's fiscal relationship with its education system--Namely, most people involved can identify the solutions needed to improve educational performance, but the funding necessary to power those solutions is too often left out of the discussion.
AB 67 requires the Department of Public Instruction to include in the annual school-district report cards the percentage of pupils participating in music, dance, drama, and visual arts. Under the bill, DPI must include this information for each high school and school district and must also include the statewide percentage of pupils participating in each subject. The bill specifies that this information may not be used to evaluate a school's performance or a school district's improvement.
The reality is that school districts will be judged through the use of this new metric. The reality is that every educator in the state knows that the arts are crucial to a student's overall development. The tough reality is that districts across the state have had to make the difficult decision to cut or limit these very programs because state-allowed funding has failed to even keep pace with the rate of inflation.
There is nothing in the bill that provides funding for the state's new standard. If school districts are to perform well under this new report-card standard, they will be compelled to secure funds from some other source.
Unfortunately, as recently observed by reporter and columnist Alan Borsuk, there is a pattern at work here. While reflecting on the most recent set of state test data, Mr. Borsuk, who was reminded of the many possible solutions found within the report of the Speaker's Blue Ribbon Task Force on K-12 Education, wrote the following (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, September 13, 2019, “Borsuk: What the latest batch of standardized test scores tell us about educational progress in Wisconsin”):
"Assembly Speaker Robin Vos questioned how schools are spending money, given the new results.
“But I can’t avoid thinking of the broad-based task force created by Vos that made a substantial set of recommendations in 2018 on what could be done in school funding to address big issues. Hardly anything resulted when it came to action on the state budget in 2019.
“There is ample history of the status quo prevailing on education issues, amid lots of politicking and not much probing and less-partisan discussion. Thoughtful, bold change? Not so common around here.
“What would make this time any different? Maybe that’s a question for a test for Wisconsin adults rather than for school children."
The goal of AB 67 is laudable--those supporting it want to make sure that all students have access to the arts. Parents and educators across the state want the same for the children in their classrooms. It is also clear that resources will be needed for the goal to be met and that there are no new state resources married to the bill to ensure that the goal can be achieved.
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Fiscal Impact Statement:
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This item does not authorize expenditures.
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Implementation and Assessment Plan
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The district will continue to pursue appropriate support for students as part of the MPS Legislative Agenda.
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Recommendation:
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Approvals:
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Recommended By:
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Signed By:
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Chris Thiel - Legislative Policy Specialist
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Signed By:
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Jacqueline M. Mann, Ph.D. - Board Clerk/Chief Officer
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