WALKER CLAIM: Making Educational Opportunities Accessible: “Every child should have access to a great education. We continue to expand the number of choices for families in Wisconsin—be it a traditional, a charter, a voucher, a virtual, or a home school environment. Moving forward, we want to continue to dramatically improve existing schools and give parents the opportunity to choose legitimate alternatives to failing schools.”
FACT: Scott Walker and his Republican Party undermined education and our economy by slashing $1.6 billion in K-12 education funding claiming it was necessary for the budget – yet at the same time they increased funding to an unprecedented $300 million for unaccountable, taxpayer-funded, private voucher schools.
This was the largest cut to public education in Wisconsin history.
Analysis by the Department of Public Instruction shows that Scott Walker’s budget reduces the revenue limit per pupil by 5.5% in FY12, eliminates several revenue limit exemptions such as school nursing, pupil transportation, safety equipment, and funds for school security officers data and reduces nearly all categorical aids by 10%, in addition to eliminating some programs outright.
A survey of the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators indicates that seven out of ten students attend a school district that has fewer teachers and more than 60% of our school districts say they see more drastic cuts coming.
And at the same time cutting funding to K-12 education, Walker slashed more than 30% to vocational and technical schools that provide critical jobs training programs to help close the “skills gap” and put Wisconsin back to work.
