Gov. Tony Evers took action on 43 bills passed by the Legislature yesterday (4/15).
In all, the governor signed 15 bills and vetoed 28 bills.
His actions included vetoing several key GOP-backed K-12 education-related bills.
Among the bills vetoed were the following:
- Assembly Bill 963— rights reserved to a parent or guardian of a child
This bill—the so-called Parents Bill of Rights bill—would have established a legal standard for state infringement on what the bill deemed fundamental rights of parents and guardians, would have explicitly established several parental and guardian rights relating to a child’s religion, medical care and records, and education, and would have creates a cause of action, including against school districts, for the violation of those rights.
View governor’s veto message for Assembly Bill 963.
- Assembly Bill 966— reorganizing the Milwaukee Public School System into four to eight school districts and creating a Milwaukee Public Schools Redistricting and Implementation Commission.
This bill would have dissolved the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), effective July 1, 2024, and would have created in its place four to eight city of Milwaukee public school districts. Under this bill each new school district would have been required to operate grades kindergarten to twelve. Each new school board would have been required to consist of seven members elected at large for three-year terms. The initial election of school board members would have occurred at the 2024 spring election.
View governor’s veto message for Assembly Bill 966
- Assembly Bill 970— eliminating income limits for parental choice programs; eliminating pupil participation limits for the statewide parental choice program; private school tuition charged to a pupil participating in a parental choice program; and creating an education expense reimbursement program for the 2022-23 school year and the summer of 2023.
This bill would have, among other things, eliminated income limits for the state’s three voucher programs and also would have eliminated the cap on per district enrollment for the statewide voucher program.
(There is no enrollment limit on the Milwaukee or Racine voucher programs. However, tor the statewide program, the total number of pupils residing in a school district who are participating in the program currently cannot exceed 6% of that district’s prior year membership in 2021-22. The limit will increase by one percentage point in each year until it reaches 10% in 2025-26. Beginning in 2026-27, no limit will apply. Thus, the bill would have accelerated the removal of this per district enrollment cap.)
View governor’s veto message for Assembly Bill 970
- Senate Bill 585 — reporting certain crimes and other incidents that occur on school property or school transportation and granting rule-making authority.
This bill would have required public school district high schools, independent charter high schools, and private high schools participating in a parental choice program, to collect and submit to the Department of Public Instruction statistics on violations of municipal disorderly conduct ordinances and certain other crimes. This bill also would have required the department to include the statistics on school and school district accountability reports, but the statistics would not be considered in the calculation of school or school district performance for purposes of the accountability reports.
View governor’s veto message for Senate Bill 585
- Senate Bill 695 — the number of independent charter schools authorized by the College of Menominee Nation or the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College.
This bill would have removed the limit on the total number of charter schools that may be authorized by the College of Menominee Nation and the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe College.
(Under current law, in addition to school boards, certain specified public entities may contract with a person to operate a charter school. A charter school authorized by one of these non-school-board entities is commonly known as an independent charter school. Among the entities that may authorize independent charter schools are the College of Menominee Nation, and the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa College. Current law does not limit the number of charter schools that may be authorized by independent charter school authorizers other than the College of Menominee Nation and the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa College. However, the two tribal colleges may only authorize up to a total of six charter schools between them.)
View governor’s veto message for Senate Bill 695
