3-4-15 state superintendent-state budget

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s schools superintendent is warning the Legislature’s budget committee that Gov. Scott Walker’s K-12 education budget plan continues an unsustainable downward trend in funding.  Walker’s two-year spending plan calls for holding public schools’ money essentially flat. It also would do away with a $150-per-student payment schools in the first year of the budget and wipe out a cap on private voucher school enrollment.  Superintendent Tony Evers told the Joint Finance Committee on Tuesday that the 2011-13 budget featured cuts and the 2013-15 budget froze school revenue. He noted that school districts have asked voters for money through 230 referenda since 2010.  He says schools have reached a tipping point.  He also reiterated his opposition to Walker’s plan to give schools letter grades, saying the analogy to student grades doesn’t work.