Tax burden shift is hurting our schools

By Art Rainwater

The education of the children of Wisconsin belongs to all of its citizens. Schools belong not to the parents, students and teachers, but to all of us.

Over the past several years, the tax burden in Wisconsin has shifted from a balance of tax revenues between businesses and individuals to a more significant share of the taxation being placed on individuals. There is no question in my mind that the increasing level of residential property tax that our homeowners pay is not supportable long term.

Statewide, the expectation that public education will continue to be the same with less financial support just isn't real. We have managed well for the past 11 years, becoming more efficient and effective each year. But the systemic changes that can make us more efficient have now been exhausted.

School systems across the state have already or soon will reach the point that the services they are able to offer children are reduced to where it makes dramatic changes in our ability to produce the educated work force that is critical to our business community.

I fully understand the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce contention that lower taxes for businesses means more jobs, but the Wisconsin that we all value so greatly has to include both a healthy and growing business community and a population that can afford to own a home and have a good quality of life.

I also know that the long-term fiscal health of those same businesses requires access to an educated work force.

Wisconsin's highly educated work force and quality of life have been at least equal attractions to businesses that locate here. Wisconsin's great public school systems, both K-12 and the university, are the major contributors to that educated work force.

The great education system that has created our educated work force is being gradually dismantled, and the current school finance system is responsible.

However, the school finance law is only one part of the problem. Our tax structure is also critically important and needs to be addressed. That should include not only the balance of taxes between individuals and businesses, but also the types of taxes that are used to support education.

My primary concern is that it has not been made clear to our local communities what the state's funding decisions mean in terms of the kinds of services they will be able to offer their children.

If the citizens of the state choose to provide fewer services for children than are currently provided and pay fewer taxes, then that is the right decision. I fully support that decision if it is made with a complete understanding of what is gained and lost for our state's future.

Education, at all levels, is critical to our state's future. Opportunities for our children should not be about politics as usual but should spark a truly bipartisan public policy debate about the future of our state's educational system. 

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