by Dan Rossmiller | Jun 29, 2023 | Legislative Update Blog, State Issue
On a bipartisan 25-7 vote, the Wisconsin Senate today (6/28) gave final approval to a bill (Assembly Bill 321) revamping early literacy instruction in Wisconsin. The bill, which, has been significantly amended since it was introduced, now heads to Governor Evers’ desk.
Among other things, the bill requires public schools and independent charter schools to administer an array of universal screening and diagnostic assessments to pupils in grades 5K-3 and create personal reading plans for pupils deemed at risk. It also provides $50 million for grants to schools to cover up to 50 percent of the cost of purchasing new curriculum and instructional materials that include all of the components of “science-based early reading instruction” as defined in the bill. DPI must prorate payments if there are insufficient funds to cover all eligible grant awards.
The state Assembly passed the bill last week (on 6/21) on a bipartisan 67-27 vote, after the bill was altered significantly in response to criticism from the DPI. The version passed today by the Senate incorporates those changes.
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by Dan Rossmiller | Jun 23, 2023 | Legislative Update Blog, State Budget, State Issue
On Tuesday (June 20), Gov. Evers signed two bills with significant effects on K-12 schools into law as 2023 Wisconsin Acts 11 and 12. These new laws on education funding and shared revenue are part of a deal Gov. Evers reached with Republican legislative leaders.
An earlier blog post described changes made by the first new act (Act 11) dealing primarily with public school funding and voucher school funding. The changes made by the second new act (Act 12) are described below.
Wisconsin Act 12 is focused primarily on: (1) modifying the state’s approach to shared revenue for counties and municipalities; (2) repealing Wisconsin’s personal property tax; and (3) authorizing the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County to impose sales and use taxes, primarily to address unfunded pension system liabilities. This new law also makes other changes including some new provisions specific to the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) and Milwaukee County and other provisions that apply to schools throughout the state. (more…)
by Dan Rossmiller | Jun 22, 2023 | Legislative Update Blog, State Budget, State Issue
At a signing ceremony in Wausau on Tuesday (June 20), Gov. Evers signed two bills with significant effects on K-12 schools into law as 2023 Wisconsin Acts 11 and 12. These new laws on education funding and shared revenue are part of a deal Gov. Evers reached with Republican legislative leaders and are described below. That deal has been touted as pumping an additional $1 billion into K-12 public education in the next two years, while also boosting per pupil payments to private schools participating in the state’s voucher programs.
This blog post describes changes made by the first of these new acts. The changes made by the second new law will be covered in a separate blog post.
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by Dan Rossmiller | Jun 12, 2023 | Legislative Update Blog, State Budget, State Issue
To assist the Joint Finance Committee as it works its way through the state budget, the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau prepares a set of budget papers for each state agency’s budget. These budget papers provide detailed background information and a set of options for members of the Joint Finance Committee to consider along with an estimate of the fiscal effect of each option.
As we noted in a previous post, the Joint Finance Committee is schedule to take up the Department of Public Instruction budget along with school funding on Tuesday, June 13.
For those of you who may be interested, here are links to the complete set of budget papers for the :
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by Dan Rossmiller | Jun 9, 2023 | Legislative Update Blog, State Budget
The Legislature’s budget-writing Joint Finance Committee will meet in Executive Session Tuesday afternoon to vote on the Department of Public Instruction’s budget and K-12 education funding. The meeting will take place on Tuesday, June 13 at 1:00 PM in Room 412 East, State Capitol. (View executive session notice here.)
We encourage school leaders to please reach out to your legislators to remind them of the needs of your district. It is expected the JFC will be voting on the K-12 funding package agreed upon by the governor and GOP leaders that we described in an earlier blog post.
Immediately prior to that meeting, the Joint Finance Committee will meet in Executive Session (view executive session notice here) to vote on two bills: the Shared Revenue bill (Assembly Bill 245) and Senate Bill 330, a newly introduced bill that does three things: (more…)
