Update on Pinocchio Watch & Nygren (Part II)

In a recent post, I conceded that Representative Nygren's claims about the effect of the budget repair bill on school districts seemed to be bearing out, no matter how I disagree with how it was done.

However, Representative Mason shared an article by Susan Troller for Capital Times that seems to explain what actions schools were forced to take in order to make ends meet.

Anecdotal evidence, backed up by a recent survey The Capital Times sent to school superintendents across the state, shows that a majority of those who responded, from districts large and small, are now operating with considerably fewer teachers and other staff. Only a small percentage have increased staff, reduced class size —shown to improve student achievement — or added programs.

Many responding districts report that savings from newly imposed employee benefit contributions — 12.6 percent of health insurance premium payments and a 5.8 percent salary contribution toward their pensions — have not been sufficient to get district school budgets to balance, and have required cuts elsewhere to offset the losses in state aid. In any case, the savings of these “tools” only provides a big boost once.

Go read the article.  It's quite depressing.