« Walker Pans Drug Testing Students | Home | SAA Submits Questions to State Superintendent Campaigns »
Walker Year-End Interview
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | December 22, 2016
In this interview, Governor Walker makes comments regarding school consolidation, school referenda and his plans for school funding in the state budget. Check it out.
From The Wheeler Report . . .
In an end of the year interview with The Wheeler Report, Governor Walker said his goal for 2017 is jobs. “I want everyone who wants a job to find a job, and this year I would say anyone who wants a career can find a career. This is something I thought a few years back, but I feel even stronger about it now. For the next few years will be driven by what does it do to help our workforce. Workforce development is about economic development and that’s going to be our priority.”
When asked about the Trump administration changing federal dollars to block grants Walker said, “I’m wide open. Block grants are the obvious ones because Paul Ryan has had them in his budget plans. Presumably it is something we can do right off the block. I think education is a great example. It is better to leave our dollars here than to send them to Washington. Same with transportation, it’s better to spend the money on our roads and bridges here. I would go beyond even block grants. For example, if you take a look at the Environmental Protection Agency. I would like to see some of those responsibilities sent back to the states entirely and allow states to do interstate compacts. Often times organizations work with the DNR, then they got to the federal government and it is all new bureaucracy. It doesn’t lead to a better product. I really hope Congress looks at the things the federal government is doing that it shouldn’t be doing and leave it to the states.” Walker said he has talked to the administration and he believes there will be a Day 1 agenda, a 100 Day agenda, and a 200 Day agenda. Walker explained that the Day 1 agenda will be executive orders, the 100 Day agenda will be to repeal and replace ObamaCare, and the 200 Day agenda will include those types of block grant and agency change decisions. Walker said, “The thing we learned about acting quickly is the longer you wait the longer the excuses. It’s too close to the next election. You need to start early and push. Then whatever success you have, put that political capital and reinvesting it. I think the lion’s share of what you accomplish in that first time happens in the first 100 days.” Walker said some changes can be done in the short term by using waivers while the details are being worked out in Congress. Walker said he is open to calling Special Sessions to implement changes if necessary.
Walker was asked about his stance on taxes and revenues in the state budget. Specifically, Walker was asked if eliminating a tax exemption meant a tax increase to him. “If you don’t pay tax on it today and you pay tax on it tomorrow that’s a tax increase.” Walker was clear that the overall tax burden had to be the same, “any time you raise something but don’t offset it, that’s a tax increase. The overall burden for the taxpayers of the state has to be the same, or less.” Walker was clear any changes mean no new revenue by tax.
Walker said he agrees with incentives for school consolidation, but he doesn’t believe there should be any mandates. Walker emphasized that any consolidation needed to be permissive. Walker said he would like to create a disincentive to continually using referendums. Walker said, “We need to figure out some way to say if you want to go to referendum, you can but that district has to pick up that cost.” Walker emphasized that he will be “putting a sizable increase in school funding” in the 2017-19 budget. Walker said that is one of the key priorities for his budget. Walker said, “We will pay the base, and we will increase the base each year, but we don’t want this patchwork system where we are paying more for some who pass referendum and we don’t for others. For those who don’t it’s not fair if they don’t choose referendum, or can’t pass one.” Walker said school consolidation is hard because most schools that could consolidate are rural and the districts are already very large. When asked about the possibility of school districts consolidating their administrations, Walker said, “We have just looked at consolidating districts, but that might be the answer. Smaller districts could benefit from that. In Milwaukee or Madison administration is a fraction of their budget, but in a smaller school district it’s a good chunk of change.” Walker said he may make some “small tweaks” to vouchers, but there wouldn’t be any “major changes.”
When asked for his final thoughts, Walker said, “It’s all about workforce. Everything we do is going to be about how do we make it easier to fill the workforce.”
Topics: SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »
Comments are closed.