Whoanellie - I am a product of private schools and am very pleased with how I turned out. However, it was great parenting and wonderful
TEACHERS that helped me become a successful member of society. There are many amazing teachers in public schools. The world is made up of all kinds of people. If your goal was to shelter your children away from the "social issues" of life than shame on you.

Ah...yep, lets close all the public schools and send our kids to private schools...that will work. While we are at it, save more taxpayer money and shut down DPI.

Wait...who would teach the kids whose families are below the proverty level and can't afford private ed...hmmm...who would teach the Sp Ed kids...hmmm...who would ensure we continue to receive Federal funds to educate elementary, secondary, and special ed kids....hmmmm

Happy2BAlive - You're right on the 40%. The 60% stat I had includes the UW system along with K-12.

I agree with officer friendly, I think we should privatize. It would put a bug under the butt of the public schools to compete with private education. The private schools do a much better job educating our children, I know my kids were in both! They teach the stuff they need and don't mess with all the social issues the public schools seem to be tied to. I also hoomeschooled as well and my kids were so far ahead of the public school that when they did go in, they were bored silly! That's why I chose private school, they could educate them right where they were. Then when they went to college, after graduating valedictorian of their class, they were able to test out of alot of the 101 classes and move up with their education. It pays to teach the basics!!!

lovemycountry "School spending accounts for 60% of all spending in WI". What's your source for this? Last I checked, education accounted for 40%. Not looking for a big debate here but want to keep the public accurately informed.

StaceyU2: School spending accounts for 60% of all spending in WI. If we are going to cut spending in WI, this biggest chunk of the pie has to be reduced. The voters want to cut spending, even when it's painful. The state teacher's union has built up teacher benefits in WI to be among the richest in the country. Now it's time to give a little back, in the form of a little higher copay or contribution.

Lets end all the spending,, not just the school but hey.. lets go after the police union, fire union, UAW, Postal workers, Service workers, Nurses Union, All the unions we work with,,, and then we can "HAIL TO THE MOTHER LAND,, bring in dictators, and all that goes with them,, I'm sure that then we will all stop complaining.... (Yeah ,,,,sure we will..) if it breathes, bleeds and walks, you will find something wrong with it....

The teachers union is not the problem; you never hear of the firemen or policemen, county workers, demonized like the teachers for god sake they teach our children, they have 4 years of collage and many of them have a masters as well; if you take that education into the privit sector they would be making 6 figures.

Officerfriendly, I'm with you. Unfortunately, WEAC has plans to raise our taxes to pay for MORE funding for schools. Watch out for a group called Wisconsin Way (backed by WEAC) which is leading this "tax switch" plan which will result in a higher WI sales tax.

If the DPI did not exist we would not even have this problem. We need to go back to letting each community run there own school district. I wonder just how much mony is wasted in positions at the DPI.

While it's easy to slam school boards and church councils - I thank the school board presidents for agreeing to have a discussion about consolidating at any level. I don't think we're talking about a County School District...but there are 13 districts in Rock County and many are suffering. Seems to me that it won't be the egos of the volunteers who dedicate themselves to improving education who will have a hard time joining hands. My bet is on the territorial boundaries people place on their communities that will be the barrier to break in this conversation.
Good Luck!

CESA does play a role in coordinating state assistance, but it's really just a layer between districts and services that are provided by the DPI.
http://www.cesa2.k12.wi.us/about/
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This is more about consolidation of "retail" educational services on a voluntary basis. I use the word "consolidation" deliberately, as this is the formal merger of school systems. I think there could be interesting outcomes from this discussion and I wonder if it could lead to changes in legislation that could be implemented statewide using the existing CESA structure of the DPI.
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One immediate concern is that this is a greater risk for the larger, urban school districts. It would have to be handled carefully so that these taxing districts are not simply subsidizing the smaller districts.

it would be nice if we can work together and pull something to make it work but it will take a miracle for that to happen.

I thought this is what the CESA, (Cooperative Educational Service Agencies) were supposed to be doing.

oops! excuse my fat fingers, "egos". Sorry.

Good luck getting the "eges" to work together.