SAVE Commission's findings - La Follette School of Public Affairs ...

10.4
10.5
Consider county or multi-county educational
administration units. To achieve administrative
and oversight efficiency while emphasizing
school site based management and identity,
use incentives and other approaches to
consolidate 427 school districts into countywide
units or levels of community integrity.
The units would be grouped in logical clusters
around common interests.
Direct the state CESA system to achieve
greater local cooperation between K-12 districts
and technical colleges. To bring about
administrative efficiency by combining similar
administrative and educational programming
functions, the state Cooperative Educational
Service Agencies should aggressively
work to save money through increased cooperation.
Also, direct the technical college districts
to combine like administrative functions
with other districts or units of government,
where feasible, including, but not limited to,
worker’s compensation, personnel, legal, procurement
and data processing.
GOAL #11: COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTERS
11.1
Transform schools into community learning
centers. To more fully use school buildings that
are now used 21 percent of the time, communities
should consider the long term goal of
having the facilities include multi-purpose uses
during all hours of the day. Possible uses include:
community education, health care, day
care, recreation, public library, senior programs
and nutrition.
11.2
Manage school buildings as a system with local
control. To make about 2,250 K-12 school
and library buildings safe and accessible, manage
them as a quality-assured, locally controlled
system, assessing improvement and
repair needs and establishing a statewide system
of high-tech sites for school, community,
business and government.
GOAL #12: INFORMATION AGE UTILITY
12.1
Create a Public Information Utility. To efficiently
meet the need for a dynamic, non-bureaucratic
technological distribution system,
abolish the Educational Communications
Board and create a Public Information Utility
providing hardware, software and support to
serve, educate, inform and interact through
12.2
television, data delivery and free networks.
Serve all levels and branches of government.
Transform libraries into distance learning
partners. To bring library services into the
high-tech age and serve all taxpayers, incorporate
library functions in the Department for
Education and the University into the Public
Information Utility. Use the utility’s flexibility
to provide service to citizens, communities,
public and private schools, businesses and agriculture.
GOAL #13: OUR UNIVERSITY
13.1
Increase system management flexibility. To
refocus oversight on results, give the UW more
flexibility in personnel, procurement, budgeting,
program generated revenue (except tuition),
and purchasing categories. De-couple
salaries for academic staff and faculty and allow
the University to work with state government
to reduce paperwork and reporting.
13.2
Increase building construction flexibility while
meeting system needs. To give the UW flexibility,
grant authority to renovate, remodel and
maintain buildings without enumeration, sensitive
to inflation. However, the buildings are
part of state’s infrastructure and should be considered
as such, meeting standards relating to
cooperation and cost effectiveness. Exempt
projects funded 100 percent by gifts, grants
and program revenue from review but exercise
caution because new projects contain long
term staffing, program and maintenance costs.
13.3
Delegate and manage efficiently. To achieve
equity, efficiency and accountability throughout
the state system and to demonstrate responsible
management, by 1997, Regents
should specifically delegate management authority.
Regents also should identify potential
areas for evaluation of duplicative programming,
staffing and funding, which may include,
but not be limited to: the School of Education,
UW Hospital and Clinics, Veterinary
School, business programs, liberal arts programs,
two year campuses and UW Extension,
and central Administration budget and
staffing.
13.4
Establish UW-Milwaukee as Wisconsin’s land
grant mission-driven urban university. To give
stature and attention to the teaching, research
and outreach needed to meet Wisconsin’s ur-
64 CITIZEN • COMMUNITY • GOVERNMENT — WISCONSIN: THE 21 ST CENTURY