Gov. Tony Evers’ proposed $91 billion state budget includes a $1.6 billion boost in funding for preK-12 education.
In a previous post, we examined some of the preK-12 funding highlights in the governor’s two-year spending plan.
In this post, we detail some of the other elements of that plan not covered in that earlier post.
The state Senate Committee on Education, chaired by Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, February 23 at 10:30 am in room 411 South of the State Capitol. The committee will consider several appointments and receive public testimony on the following bills:
Senate Bill 39 (Sen. Stroebel) The bill allows a pupil who attends a virtual charter school to participate in interscholastic athletics and extracurricular activities in the pupil’s resident school district. (more…)
Governor Tony Evers’ state budget was introduced last evening (2/16) in a budget address to lawmakers and contains a strong public school funding component, including significant investments in top WASB funding priorities. Find more budget details in the following documents, beginning at the page noted in parentheses: Budget in Brief (p. 13); Full Document (p. 485).
Below we look at our budget priorities, as laid out in our WASB Legislative Agenda, and how the governor’s proposal addresses each priority. (more…)
Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) Executive Director John Ashley issued the following statement in reaction to Gov. Evers’ 2021-23 state budget proposal:
The WASB commends Gov. Tony Evers for proposing a state budget that includes a significant boost in state funding for our preK-12 public schools.
These state dollars are critical to ensuring that our state’s 421 school districts can serve our students as schools navigate the challenges of returning to in-person instruction with COVID-19 mitigation procedures and protocols.
These resources are also critical as we continue to strive for educational equity and closing our state’s significant achievement gaps and addressing the disruption in learning caused by the pandemic.
We thank Gov. Evers for the school funding increases in his state budget proposal and pledge to work with him and the state Legislature to secure support for a state budget that provides the crucial state investments our school districts need.
Today (2/16/21) the state Senate approved Senate Bill 55 on a bipartisan vote. The bill would modernize the publication of minutes (proceedings) of meetings held by school boards and other governmental bodies. The WASB supports this bill based on our member-approved resolutions and commends Sen. Dan Feyen (R-Fond du Lac) and Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt (R-Fond du Lac) for authoring the bill.
For more on the bill and the WASB’s position see this previous post.
Action now moves to the Assembly where the companion bill (Assembly Bill 60) has been referred to the Assembly Committee on Local Government, chaired by Rep. Todd Novak (R-Dodgeville). No notices for a public hearing have been released as of this writing. The bill must still pass the Assembly and be signed by Gov. Evers to become law.