From Bruce Church, D.D.:
As a result of the new Wisconsin biennial budget, the
total tab for voucher students will be paid out of state general
the cost for its voucher students. So now all Wisconsin
voucher students at St. Marcus.
students STILL don't factor into the school funding formula
that the state uses. Thus, Milwaukeans have complained for
years that they don't receive as much state per pupil aid as
have to make up for that via property taxes. Thus, voucher
temptation is to leave Milwaukee County
Now no property taxes will pay for voucher students, but it will come out of the state's general revenue:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/state-budget-affects-schools-in-ways-beyond-vouchers-state-budget-affects-schools-in-ways-beyond-vou-210347521.html
The new provision would phase out the property tax portion for each new student entering the program in Wisconsin, until it's eliminated 12 or 13 years from now. Instead, the state would cover the full cost of voucher students from the general program revenue, said Katy Venskus, of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.
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http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/state-budget-affects-schools-in-ways-beyond-vouchers-state-budget-affects-schools-in-ways-beyond-vou-210347521.html
The fix does not address the other part of the school funding flaw in Milwaukee: Because voucher students are not counted as belonging to Milwaukee Public Schools for the purpose of valuing property, the district appears to be more affluent than it really is. That means Milwaukee taxpayers still pay a higher percentage of MPS' per-pupil costs than they otherwise would pay if the voucher students were counted in the formula.
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http://www.milwaukeelabor.org/in_the_news/article.cfm?n_id=00199
Why, under the convoluted equalization aid formula employed by the state, are voucher kids invisible? To make Milwaukee seem wealthier and let other school districts where Republicans rule the legislature get a healthier slice of the state pie. No surprise, then, that the erasing of some 20,000 living, breathing children out of the equalization formula doesn’t publicly dismay the other school districts benefiting.
Even when forced to concede the irrationality, the state has refused to repair the blatant flaw despite the urgent request of such officials as Mayor Tom Barrett. Now the MPS is asking for transparency on the bill so at least the public knows what it’s paying for and what MPS is not getting but is still blamed for.
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| WELS excommunicated Mary Thompson, aka California, for questioning their budget gimmicks. |
From California:
I am forwarding this article which is heavily documented for the understanding of what has happened to government schools and what is planned for private and religious schools. People have only a surface understanding, if any, about how deliberately planned it has been and continues to be.
I was especially reminded when a correspondent, former WELS member, stumbled upon a couple items which brought back memories of the beginnings of the planned change process re: government aid to WELS schools. One is a paper on a site containing WELS essays. It is from a symposium on Lutheran Schools, Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary - Sept. 19,2011, by Professor Mark Braun. It is surprisingly accurate in quoting and describing the position of WELS re: government aid for church schools prior to mid 1960's, when the door was opened for that. I might add that the door opened for a lot of other things carefully orchestrated ever since. The article mentions in passing the episode of the 70's in Brookfield, WI when the so called "Milwaukee Nine" were excommunicated for their objections to the government grant taken by Wisconsin Lutheran High School.
In a footnote there is reference to a paper about that occurrence, and accompanying controversy, Jane and Bill Kerner's names and others. The Seminary student, Dennis J.Valleau wrote a 21 page report of the event. The paper shows the influence of the "newthink" in place at the seminary by 1976, regarding the specific issue, but also the thought process at work which has brought WELS to it's present state of affairs.
The title of the Paper is : THE BROOKFIELD CONTROVERSY by Dennis J. Valleau....Senior Church History, Professor Fredrich, April18, 1976.
Reading that student paper brought back the flood of memories, the correspondence and personal phone conversations with Jane Kerner with whom I agreed, and the frustration at the attitude of synod leaders. According to the student's report on the controversy, her sin was calling government aid to WELS schools a sin when government aid to schools wasn't necessarily a sin. He completely missed the point that the sin was in the deception WELS in essentially stating WELS wouldn't seek any government aid for schools and had such a historically position since the previous century. Jane Kerner was a convert from Catholicism.
I checked and found a reference to Dennis Valleau, as now serving a congregation in Minnesota.
I had trouble referencing the two items above in order to forward them, so I will print them for my own files, make a copy of each to send to you via snail mail . Or most likely you might be able to find them on line where I have trouble navigating the procedures to forward some things.
Mary's new article just posed on www.newswithviews.com
http://www.newswithviews.com/Thompson/mary103.htm
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From Kellogg's - a WELS member:
Ichabod readers should be reminded of this clear
statement of WELS belief and practice from “This We Believe” –
(emphasis added)
VIII. CHURCH AND STATE
8. We reject any attempt
on the part of the church to seek the financial assistance
of the state in carrying out its saving purpose.
Obviously, such “attempts” are wrong and
sinful in WELS.
Successes, however, must be ok.
