Are the teachers making the same contributions to their pensions and healthcare as are most other districts in the state?

Talia, The state, the counties and your local municipality all have to have a balanced budget, unlike the federal government. Nowhere in your point do I see your opinion of Unified's out of control tax rate. You do realize that under Doyle it was a bigger percentage then under Walker. Did you criticize Doyle last year at this time?

Talia, you are obviously entitled to your opinions regarding the source of this failure, but let me ask this. Public schools were founded on the principle of delivering what was needed locally, and having the services paid for by the "locals." Why did Wisconsin, or any state, or even the Federal government for that matter, ever take that principle away and start funding "local" schools with tax money paid to the state of Federal government? I have real concerns about a school district "expecting" the state and Feds to provide for a portion of their budget, though I understand why it became an expectation (once started it is very difficult to stop). Shouldn't the funding of all local school districts, regardless of location, be based solely upon what that district entity can collect from local taxes? That would eliminate a very large portion of the taxes currently paid to the states and Feds, which would in turn allow the school districts to increase their taxes accordingly. I'll continue this into the next posting.

Assuming a combined income of $80,000, and a $250K assessed home, a household currently pays $2.5K to RUSD, another $3K in local property taxes, and then all the various sales taxes (estimate another $2.5K conservatively), and another $10K in Fed income tax, $4K in WI income tax, wouldn't it make a lot more sense to keep the taxes as much at the local level as possible (total amount is $22K)? So instead, wouldn't the same tax amounts make more sense as $7.5K to RUSD, $3K to local, $2.5K sales tax (with $1.5 going to the schools), $8.5K Fed and $2K WI income tax (also totals $22K)? I fully expect the Feds to hold up their end and tax us as much as possible, but the only Constitutional requirement is for National protection (and not just against overseas entities, but that, too, is another story). Why should RUSD expect a "rebate" of taxes from the Feds and the state? Can anybody provide a cogent answer to that?

The main purpose for getting the state and/or federal governments involved in funding local schools is the disparity that exists between relatively poor inner city districts and the wealthier suburban districts. It makes sense that the funding formula for state aid would favor districts that don't have high enough property values and corresponding tax levies to support their schools.