Now that Republicans are in charge of the state legislature, public schools around the state will likely have to brace for some changes.
“It definitely opens up some possibilities for us to bring school costs in-line with available revenues for schools,” reasons Dan Rossmiller, Director of Government Relations for the Wisconsin Association of School Boards.
Basically, Rossmiller says Republicans will likely be much more “school board-friendly,” as opposed to “union-friendly.”
“(There could be) some changes to contract bargaining law, some changes to insurance issues that we’ve been seeking for a long time, something like the QEO limits on compensation increases,” Rossmiller says, “All kinds of issues that the last legislature reversed direction on.”
In fact, the budget approved by the Democrat-controlled legislature in 2009 both repealed the Qualified Economic Offer for teachers AND prevented arbitrators from considering local economic conditions when deciding teachers’ contracts.
But many experts think Republicans will be more likely to continue to back away from 2/3s funding for public schools, and that could lead to higher property taxes.