Wisconsin Public Television

Transcript: In Wisconsin

Original Air Date: October 19, 2006

Patty Loew:

Hello, and welcome to "In Wisconsin." I'm Patty Loew. This week, it's all about choices.

Man:

What's most important to people? Are lighthouses more important than fisheries? Are docks more important than campsites?

Loew:

Tough budget times mean tough choices ahead for those running our state's only national park.

Man:

Right now there isn't enough money to run the national park system. This is reality, folks. What do you want your national park to be? And the funding may or may not be there to do it.

Loew:

Park officials from the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore are crafting a plan to lay out how the park should be managed and how to pay for it. It's a plan that will have to give priority to some services over others, something sure to create heated reaction, but it's also a plan that we, the public, will have a chance to weigh in on.

Man:

We need the thoughtful input from people, and it can make a huge difference.

Loew:

We'll bring you that full report and tell you about some other tough choices that will affect the way children are educated and jobs are created, "In Wisconsin."

Loew:

When it comes to funding schools, there's no easy answer. The current funding formula leaves almost everyone, from superintendents to taxpayers, unhappy. As we get ready to choose a governor on election day, Art Hackett found that two different groups are working to present the next elected governor with some different choices on how to best educate our children and pay for it.

Art Hackett:

In the fall of 2005, the Florence County school district on Wisconsin's northern border was one referendum away from dissolving and sending the children elsewhere. The district blamed the State's school aid formula. This year's poster children for fixing the formula attend the Markesan schools in Green Lake county. Like Florence, Markesan is penalized by the formula. The district's declining enrollment and high value lakefront property reduced state aid. State-imposed spending caps limited how much Markesan can raise from the local property tax.

Susan Alexander:

We have enough money to finish this school and to run one more school year, which is the 2007-2008 school year. After that, then the district will have to dissolve.

If the purpose of revenue limit is to reduce the number of districts, please share this, and then help us to understand why.

Hackett:

Susan Alexander of Markesan was one of many superintendents that took their complaints about the aid formula to a legislative council task force. The group is set up to determine whether the state's school aid formula is in need of a fix. Even districts with rising enrollments, such as Kimberly, had complaints.

Mel Lightner:

We have unique budget challenges due to the fact that we are a very low spending school district.

Hackett:

Kimberly's superintendent, Mel Lightner, told the task force the spending caps are based on what his district spent in 1993. That was the year the spending caps took effect. The legislature has been trying to hold increases to that base below the rate of inflation.

Lightner:

That is insane and asinine. If anyone of the legislators thinks that our children are not worth the price of inflation, I think they need to get out of Madison and go and earn another living.

Jerry Trochinski:

In terms of a long-term solution, the school aid formula we currently have probably isn't tweakable, fixable. It needs to be revisited, redone, recreated.

Sen. Luther Olsen:

A lot of people say we need to blow it up, but blow it up for what?

Hackett:

Senator Luther Olsen chairs the task force. He admits it's difficult for many districts to pass referenda to exceed state spending limits.

Olsen:

A number of communities have a lot of people in there who don't want to spend anymore money on their children of that community, because they're not engaged. They don't have kids. They've got expensive properties, and they're done paying.

Hackett:

But after hearing the testimony, Olsen was concerned some districts blamed the aid formula when they hadn't even tried to sell the local voters on passing a referendum.

Olsen:

A lot of people look at it and say blow the whole thing up, send us the cash, and don't ask questions, and we'll be fine. Well, that's not the world we're living in today.

Hackett:

The legislative council study group isn't the only game in town. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison there's another task force that's been at work for a year and a half. They're asking not just how much money do we want to spend, but also what do we want to get in return for the money that we do spend? That group is headed by UW educational finance researcher Allan Odden. It's supposed to be an independent, bipartisan effort to develop an alternative to the current approach to school funding.

Allan Odden:

There's a never-end willing process here. Referendums get passed, districts spend more, the state tab is more, and every year it escalates going up.

Hackett:

Instead, Odden's group focuses on a concept called adequacy.

Odden:

So we need to take a good education system, like the Wisconsin school system is good, and we need to make it a great education system by doubling performance. And what we did is we then said what are the kind of turn around school improvement strategies? And what are the programs and strategies that we know work in schools, that's what we costed out.

Hackett:

Among the changes, reducing school sizes to no more than 500 students, improved curriculum focused on core subjects instead of electives. Some uncertified aides would be replaced by certified teachers dedicated to one-on-one tutoring of struggling students. Odden says the most important change is adding instructional coaches. These are people who deliver professional development to the teacher in the classroom. Some districts, such as Appleton, already have them.

Odden:

My metaphor is sailing. If we thought we could learn how to sail by going to a classroom and being taught everything about wind currents and air currents and the water, and then we were given a sail boat and sent out on the water, we'd probably capsize.

Hackett:

Most Wisconsin school districts don't offer this elaborate of a program. Appleton's teachers are funded by a federal grant. It pays veteran teacher Pat Marinac to work with new teachers for their three years on the job.

Pat Marinac:

The new teacher has to first get their feet on the ground. They're not really thinking about their teaching. They're thinking about the next day and thinking about surviving, probably until Friday. And then, you know, starting over on Monday.

HAckett:

According to the cost analysis Odden's study group developed, the high-performance school system could operate for about 5% to 10% more than what we spend now. In 2005, districts spent on average about $11,000 per pupil. That means the high performance plan could be funded for about $500 to $1,000 year more.

Odden:

Many people thought the price tag was going to be $15,000, $20,000 a pupil, and we had a lot of people in the room squirming at the price tag. For every recommendation we have evidence that it works.

Hackett:

Some districts spend much more than other districts. Odden's plan calls for equalizing spending between districts. Senator Olsen has been briefed on Odden's proposal and says it may have merit.

Olsen:

The State of Wisconsin will have to kick in some more money, but if it's an investment and better outcomes, that's a lot easier to swallow than just saying we're going to pay more for the same, because nobody's really interested in doing that.

Hackett:

Olsen also questions how districts would react to the UW task force's calls on the way schools are staffed, that would mean a loss of local control. If that's the alternative, would districts want the aid formula blown up?

Lightner:

I would caution people to really think about what's important.

Hackett:

Kimberly superintendent Mel Lightner would be happy with some minor tweaks.

Lightner:

I would be real cautious about any funding model that's avant-garde or new and improved, because you know, we've done a pretty good job over the years in Wisconsin.

Loew:

School funding issues will be front and center tomorrow night when the democratic and republican candidates for governor engage in a live "We the People" sponsored debate. You can watch the debate here on Wisconsin Public Television Friday night at 7:00.

In the meantime, you can read a draft of the funding reforms proposed by the UW task force by going to our Web site at wpt.org/inwisconsin.

Loew:

We move from how to best pay for schools to choices that will determine the future of our state's only national park. Due to financial stress on the national park system, access to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore cannot continue at the same level. JoAnne Garrett lays out the complicated path ahead.

JoAnne Garrett:

It's an amazing place. Hard to grasp in just one picture. It's the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, our northern-most treasure, our state's only national park. Bob Krummermacher is the superintendent of the Apostles. He sat down with us in the Madison studios to give us a better picture of the Apostles and what the place faces.

Bob Krummermacher:

There's 21 islands and a 12-mile strip of the mainland Bayfield peninsula, and a then quarter mile zone of Lake Superior around every island. If you were to draw a polygon around the area that includes the national park, it's almost 300,000 acres, the size of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. In some ways it's one of the biggest national parks.

Garrett:

The Apostles is a park in and around water. In fact, this national lakeshore is only 2/3 land, the rest is water, and water is a big part of what makes it so wonderful.

Krummermacher:

It's this little gem in the national park system, and it's probably the best place for sailing or fresh water sea kayaking anywhere in the United States. It's an area that protects some the most scenic and most significant natural areas in the state, bald eagles, black bears, the highest density of black bears anywhere in North America on one island, Stockton island. Also the great sand beaches and red cliffs. We've got the biggest collection of lighthouses, anywhere in the north America right now.

Garrett:

Okay, it's big and it's wonderful. So what's up in? Well, they're in the midst of creating a new management plan for the Apostles, an action plan for the next 15 to 20 years, at a time when money is tight and getting tighter.

Krummermacher:

Budgets have been flat for the last five or six years. We can't predict the future, but certainly what I can see doesn't look very favorable. National parks are publically funded. Your taxes and mine go to pay for them. And the American people have time and time again, said these are incredibly important things to us. But right now there isn't enough money to run the national park system, and the Apostle Islands isn't necessarily any different or any worse off than any other park. We have had to reduce staff almost by 1/3 over the last five years. Our operating budget has been almost completely flattened if you adjust for inflation, it's actually going down.

Garrett:

What makes the park special is part of the problem. All that water.

Krummermacher:

When we are trying to provide visitor services, or just the mundane things of garbage pickup, in most parts, you drive on road. In our park, the road is Lake Superior. Of course, the cost of fuel is going way up. And so our operating expenses simply to operate a campground, to collect trash, to pump human waste from toilets are skyrocketed compared to the average national park, because we have to do it by water. We're trying to reduce the number of hours we put on the boats, but that's only possible to a limited degree. In order to do the job you've got to go out there.

Garrett:

And that's not always possible.

Krummermacher:

Lake Superior has a mind of its own. It creates a very short season for us. Every single day where we go out to do anything in the park, the staff has a plan A., a plan B., and a plan C., because the lake may or may not allow us to do that. We may want to work on Devil's Island today. Well, if the waves are coming from a particular direction, you can't land at the Devil's Island dock.

Garrett:

What makes the Apostles special can cost. Consider the lighthouses. This is the Raspberry Island lighthouse. It's in the middle of a huge renovation, the first in decades, and it was deteriorating terribly. But the money for this renovation came about through a special appropriation by Congress. It's a one-time deal, and it's unlikely to happen again anytime soon. And consider, there are five other lighthouses in need of work.

Krummermacher:

The Raspberry Island lighthouse renovation is $1.5 million project. My annual spending is $2.5 million. These places need attention, and love and care, and stewardship, but there's absolutely no change in our operating budget for staffing or for maintenance. The real fear is maintenance. We are raising it up to the standard that it should be at, but that means that if we want to keep it at that standard, we're going to have to really be watching the paint and the windows and the drainage, and we can't let it degrade, which is what's unfortunately happened to every one of the lights, and it happened to Raspberry, itself. People have high expectations of their national parks, and we want to achieve those expectations as much as we can. We don't know if we can. So this plan is hard nose look and it says this is reality, folks. What do you want your national park to be? The funding may or may not be there to do it.

Loew:

Park officials tell us they hope to release a management plan for the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in early 2008. It will be a draft plan that allows the public to choose from several plausible futures for the park.

Loew:

The next elected governor will have tough choices to make, one of which is how to best create jobs in southeastern Wisconsin, the area that drives the entire state's economy. Frederica Freyberg finds out what the candidates have in mind in this week's "What's the Plan?" report. But first, Frederica Freyberg examined how one manufacturing company took matters into its own hands and found a way to create more jobs.

Frederica Freyberg:

Experts agree, the health of the state economy depends on the economic health of its largest city, Milwaukee. And it's manufacturing that remains the bedrock of our economic health. Manufacturing, making things, like the cookware and automotive parts manufactured at this Milwaukee plant. But even for 100-year-old companies, it's a whole new world.

Steven Pankowski:

There's one more robotic welder we just installed that's going to be started up in full production by the third quarter of next year.

Freyberg:

RES Manufacturing company manager, Steven Pankowski, gives a tour of his metal production plant, including its robots that speed up the welding process.

Pankowski:

The recipe, we call it, gets uploaded from our main frame to this P.C.

Freyberg:

And it's computerized system that has replaced the need for workers to manually calibrate. They don't turn knobs and use protractors anymore. Instead, they're proficient on computers and are required to understand the inner workings of each giant press so they can trouble shoot.

Pankowski:

The people we have on the plant floor allow us to turn very quickly, be flexible with our operations, be flexible with our processes. As the market started to change, as the customer base started to change, the industry started to change, we had to do different training, different type of processes, different type of operations out in the plant.

Freyberg:

For example, the plant is set up so this worker performs multiple tasks instead of just one. That reduces the number of employees needed and the cost of doing business.

Eartha Penlton:

Normally I would just do one step of the assembly. Over here I do three steps. So it's a little bit different.

Freyberg:

But perhaps the biggest switch for this company, the move to value-added product. Here that means combining metal parts to make a more expensive piece. Buyers will pay more for one-stop shopping.

Pankowski:

Once the assembly is finished, we put it into our checking fixture.

Freyberg:

The manager says it's that kind of value-added attention to quality that allows this company to compete with places like China, and not just hold on, but boost profits and grow. RES Manufacturing is adding a third shift of workers. Out front on the plant, a banner says it all, "now hiring." But even with wages between $10 and $24 an hour, it's hard for this company to find applicants, applicants that can pass reading, writing, and math tests, who can multitask and change gears quickly.

Pankowski:

It's extremely hard. It's extremely hard. It's difficult in the interviewing and recruiting process to find the right people out there to come in and fill that pool.

Freyberg:

And according to a new survey of manufacturers in southeast Wisconsin, it's the same all over, a lack of quality workers. RES manager, Steve Pankowski, says his company has traditionally worked with technical colleges, but now are working with high schools hoping that working directly with teachers to develop curriculum will deliver a new generation of skilled tool and die employees. RES offers a snapshot of the changing needs of manufacturers in Wisconsin, a need for skilled workers, new training, and methods, new technologies. Experts say old style manufacturers in Milwaukee are destined to buckle under the weight of global competition. They say just enough have modernized to provide job growth, but more manufacturers must climb on board. With that back drop, we asked the candidates for governor, "What's the Plan?" for growing manufacturing jobs in southeast Wisconsin? Democratic incumbent governor, Jim Doyle.

Jim Doyle:

We've really committed to modernizing and improving manufacturing in this state, a full commitment to lean manufacturing, and much of the work we do at the state level, our commitment to manufacturing extension partnership of helping to modernize and improve manufacturing, our commitment to worker training to really help workers get the skills they need for the new kind of manufacturing jobs.

Freyberg:

Republican gubernatorial candidate, Mark Green, proposes another approach to grow jobs.

Mark Green:

I'm going to replace the Department of Commerce with a public/private Wisconsin economic development corporation, one that will operate like and move at the speed of business. The WEDC will be led by a nonpartisan 12-member board of directors. I, myself, will serve as chairman of the board, and I'll appoint a cabinet level C.E.O. to run this corporation.

Freyberg:

Green says for any company looking to create new jobs, he would also install a job line that rings directly to the governor's office. And green party candidate for governor, Nelson Eisman.

Nelson Eisman:

If we elected a leader who wasn't, you know, influenced by corporate contributions and was free to serve the people of Wisconsin, that leader, that governor, would advocate for universal healthcare. If we took universal healthcare off the backs of the business people, trying to do start-up business, they would be able to be much more innovative.

Freyberg:

One thing the candidates agree on is the need for better education. Jim Doyle says that's why he's called for requirements of three years of math and science for high school graduation. Mark Green says to better prepare the future work force he would attack K-12 schools in Milwaukee. And Nelson Eisman says he wants the state to fully fund education, including college tuition. Additionally, Jim Doyle touts tax law changes during his tenure that help manufacturers. Mark Green says he would give employers tax credits for creating good-paying jobs and for employers who cover tuition for their workers. Nelson Eisman would start a statewide volunteer jobs program for college graduates to lend their skills to employers in return for their state-funded tuition.

We took the candidates' plans to a Wisconsin expert on job growth, Professor Sammis White is director of the Center for Workforce Development at UW-Milwaukee. White listened to what the candidates had to say. White says Doyle's efforts are on target, but flawed by lack of funding.

Sammis White:

We have a Grow Wisconsin initiative, we have a work force initiative in southeast Wisconsin. Half a million dollars isn't going to go very far. So what we need is to develop new resources, a stronger state economy so that there are more resources to direct toward these issues.

Freyberg:

White says Green's plan of becoming, quote, Czar of an Economic Development Corporation, seemed vague.

White:

That implies that what we need to do is attract a lot of new businesses to the state. It sounds good. We have been terrible at doing that. What I see is our future depends on the expansion of existing businesses and the growing of new businesses, because we're much more likely to succeed with who is here than with who it is we might bring in.

Freyberg:

As for Eisman's plan for universal healthcare, we are increasingly interested. He says there are examples where full-out social spending makes a mark on job creation.

White:

Who are the most entrepreneurial economies at the moment? Finland. High tax rate, free education, a lot of free services, but a 50% tax in income tax. What have they done? They have provided opportunities for people to get educated and to create. It's tough to get there.

Freyberg:

For his part, the expert on these matters believes the best plan for growing jobs and workers to fill them lies in urban education, and not just tech schools, colleges, or K-12, but in giving Wisconsin citizens a leg up on the competition by starting public education in preschool.

Loew:

You've heard what the gubernatorial candidates say they'd do to create jobs. Find out next week how some of the candidates' proposals to fight rising fuel costs are connected to this cow.

Man:

It's just a matter of time that you're going to see the American farmer as the producer of the energy, as well as the food for the American public.

Loew:

We'll also tell you how the bustling world of an underground mine came to be a welcome home to one of the state's largest populations of this little winged creature. That's next week. For "In Wisconsin," I'm Patty Loew. Thanks for joining us.

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