| The Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) has been in a revenue squeeze since 1993 when state spending caps were first imposed. Due to its unique circumstances and the nature of the spending caps, MMSD's share of local property taxes has declined, while overall property taxes have risen. In fact, its actual revenues from property taxes declined by $2.5 million from FY2005 to FY2006 and rose by only $1.6 million in FY2007 -- the current fiscal year --or only by 8/10 of one percent. In contrast, the inflation rate was approximately 2.5 percent for 2006. As the current president of the MMSD board of education, Johnny Winston Jr. has had to deal with the budgetary crisis on almost a daily basis. And in an era of flat revenues and rising prices and an environment of special educational interests without a clear district-wide vision and strategy for dealing with the continued budget crunch, Winston faces an increasing contentious process. "Our challenge this year is the $10.5 million budget deficit we are facing and budget deficits are going to happen forever as long as we don't change the system," Winston observed during an interview with The Capital City Hues. "I'm hoping that might happen, but according to the governor, it doesn't look like it for the time being. Right now, you can't continue to erode the public school system and then have high expectations of it on a national level in terms of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). It's just impossible. Somehow, someway, the leadership of this state has to tell the federal government that we need to change the rules on NCLB, but we also need a new system of school financing where everyone, in essence, can play on the same level playing field." As MMSD has expanded the district's boundaries in order to preserve its tax base, this has also created additional budgetary pressures. "We have to have schools in places where there are a lot of children or where there is going to be growth in the number of children," Winston emphasized. "And that is happening on the periphery of the district and those are the areas where we will be looking to build schools in the future. Now what that means to the schools on the interior of the district and areas where there are a lot of schools and not enough children, I don't know right now. But it is something that we will be looking at." And in an era of deficits, groups of district constituents are pitted against each other as "special interests" while a clear consensus does not exist in terms of creating overall solutions for the district's budgetary crunch. "People will say things like 'Cut administration. Cut the fat,' things like that except when it comes to their kids," Winston said. "Then with programs like sports and extra-curricular programs like strings programs, they want to keep the administrators for those programs. Unfortunately, those are probably the people who are most susceptible to the budget cuts. We're in a tough position. One person's fat is another person's muscle." But it is precisely the muscle that Winston predicts will be cut into in the upcoming budget, particularly at the elementary school level. "When you talk about class sizes, SAGE funds are supposed to go to reduce class size," Winston emphasized. "Reduced class sizes help every child in that building or in that class. There are people who will say it just affects children in poverty. Well, no, when you look at the statistics, it affects African American students the most and students of poverty because it reduces that ratio. But that is the kind of program we need to be keeping. And it needs to be throughout the whole school district. However, the bottom line is that we can't afford to do it anymore if we don';t receive the help from the state or federal government. We're going to be reduced to what we are doing right now, looking at increasing class sizes on the elementary level. We might have class sizes as large as 22 children to one teacher in the first and second grades. There are some models that look at keeping k-1 class sizes the same and then increasing the 2-3 grade class sizes. For the first time, I am really concerned. I'm concerned about all of the kids in this school district, certainly the ones that are struggling and who need the most help." Winston doesn't see any "community will" to pass a referendum on exceeding the revenue caps this year, so the district will more than likely have to implement cuts in its core educational services in the 2007-2008 budget. The board will begin its budget deliberations April 9. Next issue: Minority student achievement |
| An interview with Johnny Winston Jr. Budgets and other issues Part 1 of 2 By Jonathan Gramling |
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| Johnny Winston Jr. is the president of the Madison Metropolitan School District Board |
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