Trump budget cuts teacher training grants; Wisconsin would lose $35 million

Sara Kornowski has taught third grade at College Park Elementary School in the Greendale School District for 25 years. That is 25 years of teaching third-grade-level core subjects, such as math.

"You kind of figure, 'I can do third-grade math,' " she said.

But through a professional development opportunity last August, Kornowski and other kindergarten through eighth-grade math teachers participated in a weeklong institute to build common language about math concepts across grade levels in the district. Through the program, Kornowski said she learned more about how to help her students be successful when they are at different levels of development.

"It dramatically transformed how I teach math," Kornowski said.

The math institute and other training opportunities for teachers and principals throughout the state are made possible through funding from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction via the U.S. Department of Education. The federal grant program, known as Title II, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, is one of the programs set to be eliminated under President Donald Trump's budget proposal.

In Wisconsin, that could mean eliminating almost $35 million designated for public, private and charter schools across the state used for professional development, class size reduction and recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers and principals, with the goal of increasing student achievement.

"If we don't invest in our teachers, students will suffer. Quite simply, cutting Title IIA funding will make it harder to recruit, train, support, and compensate good teachers and leaders for our students," said Ruth Maegli, chief innovation and information officer for Milwaukee Public Schools. MPS received almost $9 million from Title II, Part A in 2016, which it shared with private schools in the district's boundaries.

The president's budget proposal released last month calls for eliminating the $2.4 billion "Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants" program. The budget document says the program "is poorly targeted and spread thinly across thousands of districts with scant evidence of impact."

Nationally, Title II, Part A has helped increase the percentage of highly qualified teachers in elementary and secondary schools, although it has not met the program's target of 100%, according to a 2013 U.S. Department of Education performance report. According to most recent data, between 2003 and 2013 the percentage of core classes taught by highly qualified teachers increased from 85% to nearly 98% in elementary schools and from 80% to nearly 96% in secondary schools throughout the United States.

Of the $35 million Wisconsin receives from the program, nearly all of it — $34 million — is shared between public and private schools and more than $300,000 went to independent charter schools during the 2016 fiscal year. Funding is distributed to schools based on poverty rates and student enrollment.

The Waukesha School District received more than $320,000 from Title II, Part A in 2016, part of which it shared with local private schools.

Sarah Behrendt, Waukesha's director of educator development, said the funding was not the district's entire budget for professional development, but that Waukesha heavily relies on that money for training opportunities.

Behrendt said the funds are used to support every teacher in the district, from helping advanced placement instructors with the fees, conferences and training that is required for their courses, to a school planning process in June for teachers and principals that will set goals to improve student achievement in the district.

Through Title II, Part A funds, Waukesha also has done intensive literacy training for teachers that work with struggling elementary-age students.

"Without teachers having that specialized training to support those students, it would be a service that would be missing," Behrendt said.

In Greendale, the district receives just over $52,000 from Title II, Part A, which it shares with private St. Alphonsus School and Martin Luther High School. Greendale focuses its professional development on areas such as reading, math and advanced placement courses.

"Teachers still need opportunities to learn and improve their practice," said Kim Amidzich, director of instruction at Greendale.

Title II, Part A funds make up 20% of the professional development budget in the district. Amidzich said Greendale would look for efficiencies to keep training opportunities available for teachers if the funding is cut.

St. Anthony School, a private Catholic school in Milwaukee, received about $185,000 that supports sending teachers to national conferences and workshops. This year the school has sent teachers to a national math conference and plans to send teachers to a workshop on classroom behavior and social development.

"We target the national conferences to our school goals," said Chris Joch, vice president of academic affairs at St. Anthony. "It's all instructionally based items that we target."