This is the billion dollar budget challenge that has turned into the opportunity of a lifetime for Wisconsin ...
The opportunity to put money back where it belongs, back in the pockets of Wisconsin taxpayers ...
The opportunity to build a better education system for our children ...
And the opportunity to build a better state government for the future ... A new government for a new century.
Technology
Our partner in this new government is going to be technology ... Which is why we are creating a new $40 million information technology fund.
New technology will revolutionize state government.
It will also help revolutionize our schools:
· We are going to use the technology fund to subsidize state loans to school districts for distance learning projects.
· We are setting up a $4 million competitive grant program called pioneering partners to buy new technology for schools.
· And we are investing $400,000 of the new technology fund in the uw system to expand interactive video capabilities between campuses ... Saving money and opening untold opportunities for all the citizens of this state.
Education
Creating opportunities instead of standing in the way. That's the role state government should play ... And this is especially true when it comes to education.
My approach to this budget was very simple: our schools and our property taxpayers come first. Whatever is left goes to the rest of state and local government.
And from here on out, all state budgets will be developed the same way: our first priority is funding the future ... Our schools. Everything else comes after that.
And this funding is going to be fair ... It is going to be equitable.
We are developing a new distribution formula that will make sure students -- no matter where they live in the state -- have equal opportunities for a quality education.
Every school district in the state will receive more state aid ... And our poorest school districts will receive additional state aid plus new flexibility to bring their per pupil spending closer to the state average.
The taxpayer investment in education in this state is huge.
It is the single largest item in the state budget ... In this budget alone, education moves from being 29% to 40% of the total budget.
And education is quite simply the key to Wisconsin's success in the future.
What we do in education affects every single person in this state.
And we are going to make education accountable to the people of this state.
That is why I am proposing a new Department of Education.
You know, this proposal is being called a power grab.
Well, that's partly right.
What we are doing is giving power back to the parents ... The teachers ... And the taxpayers of Wisconsin.
We are changing the mission of the State Education Department.
This new Department will be a new voice of leadership committed to education reform, committed to meeting the demands of the 21st century.
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This new Department will be a voice for the parents and teachers and taxpayers of this state ... Not a voice for the education establishment.
We are investing an additional $1.2 billion in the future of our schools ... In the future of our children.
We cannot invest that $1.2 billion in an establishment that is mired in the past.
We are changing education in this state. We are changing to meet the needs of the future.
Our school-to-work and youth apprenticeship program is a perfect example of this.
Working with private business -- the people who will be hiring our students in the future -- Wisconsin formed a partnership that is heralded as a model for the rest of the nation.
We didn't need a bunch of bureaucrats in Madison to tell us this was the right thing to do. We saw a need ... We reached out to the private sector ... And we created something that will prepare our children for good jobs and solid futures.
This is the kind of new thinking we need for education in this state ... And this is why we need a new Department of Education.
We need a Department that will lead the charge for new ideas ...
· Ideas such as expanding the Milwaukee school choice program so poor parents have the same opportunity to choose that other parents do.
· Ideas like expanding public school choice statewide. Parents should decide where their children go to school ... Not bureaucrats.
· We are expanding charter schools statewide ... Giving every school in the state the opportunity to innovate and be the very best.
· And we are allowing private contracting statewide ... Giving every school in the state the freedom to hire the very best ... The best teachers, the best administrators, the best principals.
We are also taking steps to make sure our schools are safe and secure places to learn:
· We are setting up violence-free school zones. If you commit a felony near a school or at a school event, you will pay the price.
· We are also giving school boards the authority to discipline, suspend or expel violent students -- to rid our classrooms of fear.
Good kids have rights too.
What we are doing -- quite simply -- is re-defining what public education is in this state ... A new public education for a new century.
Public education will no longer mean government-run education.
Public education will mean education that is serving the public.
It's that simple.
We are not dismantling education in this state.
We are dismantling old ideas.
We are dismantling the old way of doing things.
We are dismantling a bureaucracy that is no longer relevant to most classrooms.
But we are building an education system that will be second-to-none as Wisconsin moves into the next century ... An education system that is accountable to the people it serves ... An education system that will prepare our children to compete with the world ... And win.
University system
Our great university system is already second-to-none. And moving K-12 education to the forefront in state priorities will not mean the UW is going to lose any ground.
We are going to insist on common sense, however.
We did not balance this budget on the backs of UW students.
As a parent paying UW tuition myself I know how important it is to keep tuitions low. I insisted that we keep tuition levels to under 33% of instructional costs ... And we did.
Raising tuition more could have solved a lot of budget problems for us. We did not do that.
UW tuition will remain the second-lowest in the Big 10 ... And among the lowest in the nation.
But while I am fighting to maintain funding to keep the university affordable, I expect the university administration to be doing the same.
That's why I am proposing to freeze for the next two years the salaries of UW administrators who are making more than $100,000.
The salary cap is a small, common sense price to pay for the long-term security of one of the best public systems in the country.
University hospital
The goal of this budget is to make changes to meet the needs of the future.
Take a look at the University Hospital.
I observed firsthand the exceptional care and quality staff at this hospital when my wife Sue Ann was there for cancer surgery.
This is one of the best research hospitals in the country. But the truth of the matter is that University Hospital is going to have problems surviving as it is now. It simply cannot survive as another department of the UW.
We are unshackling our education system to compete in a new world. We need to do the same for the University Hospital.
We are proposing to make the University Hospital a public-private partnership, creating a University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics Authority effective July 1, 1996.
This will continue state partnership with the hospital, but also allow it the freedom and flexibility to expand and compete in an increasingly competitive health care market.
Changing to meet the needs of the future.
Reorganizing state government
Meeting the pressures of this budget -- and doing so without raising taxes -- forced us to take a whole new look at state government in Wisconsin.
We are making changes ... Changes rooted in common sense.
A new century will bring new priorities and new pressures with it. This new state government will be prepared to meet them.
Over the past eight years, Wisconsin has made changes recognizing the changing needs of people on welfare. Because of our foresight, we are no longer reforming welfare ... We are replacing it.
This spring I will present a bill to you that replaces welfare in the state of Wisconsin by 1997. I am asking you to work with me on that legislation.
Welfare is going to be a jobs program in Wisconsin. It will no longer be an entitlement. It will be the connection between looking for help and looking for a job.
So it only makes sense to move the current Welfare Division out of our Social Services Department and over to a new Department of Industry, Labor and Job Development.
Recognizing the demands of the future ... And making changes to meet them.
That's a new government for a new century.
Juvenile justice
Juvenile delinquents used to be troubled kids causing some trouble in society.
Today, too many juvenile offenders are violent criminals who need to be removed from society.
That's why we are moving our two most secure juvenile detention facilities from the Division of Youth Services at our Social Services Department ... Over to our Department of Corrections.
