ONE TAKE ON THE QEO AND REVENUE CAPS

The QEO, Revenue Caps, and the Funding Formula

By Kelly L. Herda - School Board Vice President - Nicolet Union High School

For over 15 years Wisconsin’s school districts have struggled to maintain our schools under a flawed funding formula. The Qualified Economic Offer (QEO), which is the pay increase a district can offer to the teachers during contract negotiations without going to arbitration, and the Revenue Caps, the limit imposed by the state as to how much a school district can levy their taxpayers, were meant to be a check and balance so that teachers would receive a fair pay raise and district property owners would not be overburdened by their property tax.
It is a good plan. However, those who figured the percentages got their math wrong. Unfortunately, until now, nobody had taken on the task of correcting the math so that the system could survive. The School Finance Network (SFN) has developed a comprehensive plan to overhaul the funding formula so that all school districts get fair funding from the state, while maintaining the important checks and balances of the QEO and Revenue Caps (to learn more visit www.sfnwisconsin.org). This will alleviate the burden on our property owners, properly fund our schools, and guarantee competitive salaries for Wisconsin’s outstanding educators.

The SFN is an impressive collaboration among the School Administrators Alliance (SAA), the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB), and the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC). Their efforts to correct our funding formula should be receiving sincere consideration from our Legislators and our Governor. Instead, in this biennial budget they are recommending the repeal of the QEO and changing the rules of arbitration. Both moves are politically motivated and will not address the problems with the funding formula nor will they alleviate the burden on tax payers – in fact they will only exacerbate the problem.

Repealing the QEO is not the answer. It would send most, if not all, negotiations into arbitration, a costly and morale destroying process for both parties that defies the intended purpose of the QEO, which was to give school boards an “out” when negotiations hit a stalemate while still providing educators with a cost of living pay increase. In most cases, districts have been able to negotiate with the unions without going to arbitration because of the QEO. Without this measure, teachers would have no guarantee of a pay raise and negotiations would not be settled without an arbitrator.

This leads to the Governor’s next proposal which is to change the rules of arbitration. With the repeal of the QEO, the rules will change in arbitration to the point where the district, and thereby the taxpayers, will be afforded no protection. These changes will prohibit arbitrators from considering the impact of revenue limits and local economic conditions when deciding cases involving school district employees. School districts will most certainly lose in arbitration since the sole basis of our offer in negotiations is based on economic conditions – we simply can’t pay out what we don’t have.

The measures that the Governor has proposed do not address the real problem with how our schools are funded and only creates another problem for our School Boards, teachers and communities to struggle with. I, for one, am getting tired of having to struggle with poorly written policies and ineffective legislation. I urge you to contact your Representative and Senator - let them know that you support the School Finance Network’s school funding reform proposal and that you oppose Governor Doyle’s’ plan to repeal the QEO and his proposed changes to the rules of arbitration.