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MADISON — An education plan that Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Green said would free up $295 million to hire more teachers has been lambasted nationally by the PTA and others as being ill-conceived and bad for schools.

Democratic incumbent Gov. Jim Doyle joined the chorus on Monday, saying Green's proposal was a "shotgun blast at Wisconsin schools."

Green's plan is a version of one being touted in several states designed to ensure that more money is spent in the classroom on such things as teacher salaries and textbooks instead of administrative costs and building maintenance.

Nationally, the threshhold being touted for in-classroom spending is 65 percent. Green's proposal puts it at 70 percent.

"Taxpayer dollars should be targeted at children and classrooms — not bureaucrats and buildings," Green said in a news release.

Green chose the higher percentage because he believed Wisconsin should be above average, said his campaign manager Mark Graul.

But even at the lower 65 percent cutoff, the National Education Association and the National PTA have attacked the idea in other states. John Forester, director of government relations for the School Administrators Alliance that represents superintendents, principals and other Wisconsin school administrators, opposed Green's idea.

"I get a little gun-shy when somebody proposes a one-size fits all, silver bullet solution," Forester said.

Supporters of the limit, including Green and the idea's originator, Overstock.com founder and president Patrick Byrne, say it would improve instruction.

But critics argue it is just a gimmick that ties administrators' hands and doesn't guarantee any better results. A Standard & Poor's study released in November found that implementing the spending restriction was not likely to raise student achievement.

In June, former U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige wrote an opinion piece published in The New York Times calling the idea "one of the worst ideas in education." He said the most likely outcome is school officials will use creative accounting to increase the percentage of money that would qualify as classroom expenses.

"More ominously, it will tie school leaders' hands at a time when they need more freedom to innovate," Paige wrote.

Green rejects critics' claims, Graul said, noting that the idea has been embraced by governors across the country.

The 65 percent in-classroom expenditure threshhold is now required in Georgia. It will be soon in Texas and Louisiana school officials are working on a similar requirement. Petition drives and television ad campaigns have led to ballot referendums this November in Colorado and Oklahoma. Efforts for 2008 ballot referenda are under way in Washington, Arizona, Missouri and Kansas.

But Wisconsin schools are already above the 65 percent mark.

In the 2003-2004 school year, schools in the state spent 66.4 percent of $8.1 billion on instruction or related activities, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That was above the national average of 66.1 percent.

Green pointed to the 12.4 percent Wisconsin spends on administrative costs, which placed it eighth nationwide, according to the NCES report, and above the national average of 11 percent.

He said spending 70 percent on classroom expenses would free up $295 million for schools to spend on things like hiring teachers and new computers. Expenses that would not count toward classroom instruction under the Green plan include administrative costs, transportation, food services and student support services.

While his plan would not allocate any additional funding, schools would be required to shuffle how the money is being spent to ensure the 70 percent mark is met, said Green spokesman Luke Punzenberger.

Schools that don't meet the threshold could have funding withheld. The penalty would be equal to the percentage difference between what they are currently spending on classroom expenses and the 70 percent benchmark.

Doyle campaign spokesman Anson Kaye said Green's plan, together with his budget proposal that caps revenues at the previous year's level and uses any surplus for deficit reduction or tax relief, amounts to a "double-barreled shotgun blast at Wisconsin schools."

Kaye said Green's proposals would force hundreds of millions of dollars of cuts in Wisconsin schools, including nurses and transportation costs.

When asked if the governor supports the way schools currently are spending money, Doyle spokesman Dan Leistikow said schools ought to have flexibility to make spending decisions.
 
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