*** Racine Taxpayers Association ***

On September 19 you presented the 1^st draft of PROFILE OF DESIRED SUPERINTENDENT. You rated a number of attributes with "0" being least important and "4" being most important.

Only 2 items were rated as 4, with one being "Demonstrated success in closing achievement gaps in urban districts with similar demographics to RUSD." If this is your number one criteria, the candidates you find will have new ideas they have promoted, tried or written about and will naturally want to bring them to Racine.

This school district cannot afford one more dollar or one more minute on another 3-year, new superintendent implementation program. With state and federal aid reductions, loss of students to school choice and the continuing loss of students to open enrollment (866 this year), this district faces significant financial challenges for the next few years.

It is doubtful that one person, alone can be the solution to RUSD’S future. But the individual at the top sets the priorities, philosophy and goals of the organization. If that person does not make a 5-year, financial business plan, an integral part of the educational programs and the performance results of those programs, that person will fail this community.

It is disappointing to see that your PROFILE does not look for this type of individual as indicated by the following values you have assigned:

• "0" Knowledge of both business and academic side
• "0" Demonstrated success at setting priorities and driving them throughout the system
• "1" Decisive leadership, make hard decisions
• "2" Experience in moving forward in an environment of shrinking resources
• "2" Demonstrates strong leadership that inspires others
• "2" Demonstrates the value of accountability

All of these should be rated as most important attributes for the next RUSD leader.

So how do we budget with an eye to the future? Here’s an example of something that the practices of the State government in previous years taught us not to do: we are not drawing on one-time funding to cover recurring costs.

Take, for instance, the roughly $306,675 that we’ll receive as a result of the dissolution of the Southeast Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority (SERTA). Just as homeowners use one-time money to pay down their home mortgages, we will use the funds to pay off bonds early. This will enable the County to avoid interest payments of approximately $154,000, for a total savings to taxpayers of $460,000 over the remaining life of the bonds.

Here’s another example of budgeting for the future: as part of the 2009 stimulus funding, we have received from the Federal government a one-time payment of $704,365, to help us cover retiree health care costs. Rather than simply using that money to reduce our 2012 retiree health care premiums, we’ve placed it in our retiree health care reserve. By doing so, we can smooth out cost fluctuations over time and, as a result, save money for taxpayers and retirees alike.

Unified Numbers Still Sagging

Interim superintendent Dr. Ann Laing said, "reforms are happening but it’s rough going in part because the number of minority and low income students in the district has grown….Educating those students has been complicated by the turnover of several superintendents who each came with a different vision and educational plan."

It seems that Dr. Laing might agree with Racine Taxpayers Association position that the financial stability of a business manager may be preferable to another educational bureaucrat.

Pete Knotek, president of the Racine Education Association teachers’ union said, "Then there have been …millions cut in state aid and the elimination of collective bargaining for unions, both things that further set Unified back."

This was the unions explanation for lagging performance in test scores. However, the scores are from the last school year, prior to any of the changes mentioned.

The Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) latest compilation of higher education expenditures is for 2007. They report expenditures per student as follows:
(#1) U.S. $27.010
(#2) Switzerland $20,883
(#3) Canada $20,278
(#4) Sweden $18,361
(#5) Norway $17,140
Germany, France, England and Japan averaged $14,065.

The University of Wisconsin system has 26 campuses and a budget that spends over $31,000 for each full time equivalent student (FTE). About ½ of the funds are state and federal aid.

Readily available cheap credit in the form of government-subsidized student loans has created a vicious circle. With the U.S. Department of Education willing to hand out the means for students to help finance higher education, schools have raised tuition knowing it will be paid for up front. This credit bubble will burst when belief in the payoff of getting a college degree no longer is seen worth the investment.

Americans hold more than $1 trillion in outstanding student loan debt, which is higher than their credit card debt. Loans in defaults are on the rise, but more than $100 billion in student loans were taken out in 2010. Add to that a job market strained by the Great Recession and more pressure builds in the bubble.

What happens when the bubble attached to undergrad education bursts is anyone’s guess. Will it lead to fewer people attending college? Will it lead to cheaper tuition down the line? One thing few argue is how it could lead to taxpayers ultimately picking up the tab for billions in unpaid student loans.

Medicaid enrollment nearly tripled from 1998 through 2010 and rose more than 35% since 2007. In 2010, about one in five state residents participated in a Medicaid program, compared to about one in 12 in 1998.

Rising enrollment together with healthcare inflation increased spending 20.4% in 2009 and 12.3% in 2010. These increases were covered by an influx of $1.75 billion in federal money. With much of this federal funding no longer available, lawmakers had to find ways to replace these dollars in the 20011-13 budget.

This is another example of how one-time stimulis funds at the federal level increase spending and inflation and leave the state and local municipalities with the price tag for years to come