Pinocchio Watch

A few days I talked about a new recurring feature that would look at what legislators are saying in their newsletters and calling them on misstatements.  I very nearly named it Johnson Watch in honor of Senator Johnson who inspired this feature.  But given the ahem...double meaning of the word...I decided to search for a new name.  This now will be known as the Pinocchio Watch!  Up at bat this week is Wisconsin State Representative Nygren.

Budget Repair Bill Yields Lower Class Sizes for School Districts

It has only been a month since Governor Walker has signed the new state budget, yet we are already seeing positive results from reforms that we have put in place.

We are seeing the media report across the state that local governments and school districts have already saved more than $220 million in operating costs with millions more likely savings yet to be reported.

The Kaukauna School District, who reported major savings due to changes in the budget repair bill, is now reporting they will have the ability to hire additional teachers.  This will reduce the projected class sizes from 26 to 23 students at their elementary schools and an astounding 31 to 25 students at the high school level.

Offering smaller classroom sizes will give teachers the ability to have more one on one time with their students.  The school district is also reporting they will have money to set aside for merit bonuses for good teachers.

This is, yet again, another case in which Madison special interests continued to spread lies to the public to save their six-figure union salaries.  The head of the teachers’ union Mary Bell, who each year makes $173,466 (2009 WEAC 990 Form) (IRS.gov) from taxpayer funded union dues, said that class sizes would be threatened under the budget repair bill.      

These claims were flat out lies, yet Madison special interests were more than willing to preach them like the Gospel.  For once, the majority party in Madison has put this state’s taxpayers before the liberal special interests in Madison.

Indeed, the whole conservative movement seems to be flogging the Kaukana example online, as if it was-how did Rep. Nygen put it?-Gospel. 

First...don't you love how he conflates "local governments and school districts" to show the $220 million in savings but headlines it as school districts alone?  The fact is, I'm only able to find ONE school district that had a surplus-the school district he named, Kaukana, and not all of the credit goes to the budget repair bill.  Greg Sargent of the Washington Post noted that teachers already offered concessions that would've produced similar savings-if not more.

In April, the school board rejected a proposal from the Kaukauna Education Association to extend the union’s contract and incorporate pension and healthcare concessions along with a wage freeze, a move the union projected could save the district about $1.8 million next year.

Rep. Nygren pretends that Kaukana is representative of all school districts, but the truth is, Kaukana is an outlier.  The Journal-Seninel notes that 410 of 424 school districts will receive less public aid.  Because of caps to property tax levy also passed in the budget repair billl, many communities do not have much flexibility to attempt to balance out the cuts with other funding.

Kaukana and Pewaukee, the two communities mentioned in the article, are both communities with household income above the average.  In the meantime, school districts like Milwaukee and Racine, both cities with lower household income, are  two school districts that get hit with a double whammy-state budget cuts AND school voucher program requirement which takes money away from their schools.