Representative Bob Kulp's Listening Session in Neillsville, Part 2
Monday, April 4th, 2016 -- 1:20 PM
-Representative Bob Kulp appeared in Neillsville for a listening session on Thursday along with his guest Senator Terry Moulton.The two appeared at the American Legion. There were only a few people in attendance, but they covered several topics. The next topic was about different aspects of education.
Terry: "We did increase funding to K-12 in the second year of this biennium. The Governor has pledged, in his State of the State address, that any extra monies that we can find, coming up, will be directed towards public education. So, I'm hopeful that does happen because I have a number of school districts in the district that I represent that are going to referendums."
Bob: "Ultimately, whenever you talk taxes, whether it's education or transportation or any other thing, ultimately it comes from the people. My idea, and I don't know that the Senator necessarily even agrees with this, but I'll just tell you what I think. I think that revenue caps are an outmoded thing. Every school has X amount they can spend per student and that goes up and, as you all know, it was originally instituted in the 90s, long before either one of us was there, because school districts were running without any restraint. If you were to eliminate revenue caps, one of the things that would happen is you'd have a lot more participation at school board meetings. You'd have people that would be engaged. You'd have potential competition between and among school districts. If a school district was very frugal and was able to manage in whatever fashion better, they would not need to collect as much in taxes. You would have the ability then to make choices. So, you'd have civic participation. You'd have competition. But, in my way of thinking, most importantly, you'd have more local control."
Some other suggestions that the Representative and Senator made in regards to education included having some districts consider consolidation. An example they gave was in the Eau Claire area where several school districts exist in a small area. They also suggested local district’s like Neillsville and Granton, Greenwood and Loyal and Abbotsford and Colby look into potentially consolidating. They also suggested that district’s share more resources. For example, if there are three school districts in a small area, they hire one Administrator, one HR person, etc., to handle all the schools.
Coming up on Tuesday, we’ll hear Bob and Terry’s thought on broadband coverage for rural areas.
In Case You Missed It:
Part 1: http://cwbradio.com/news/?fn_mode=fullnews&fn_id=16385
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