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Evers Calls Special Session on Education Funding, Property Tax Relief
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | February 6, 2020
Governor Tony Evers this morning called on the Legislature to meet in special session and act on LRB-5625, legislation that would use $250 million dollars of Wisconsin’s anticipated budget surplus to recommit Wisconsin to two-thirds state funding for K-12 education, boost funding for special education and school-based mental health, and provide $130 million in property tax relief through equalization aid.
Evers call comes as GOP legislative leaders are leaning toward cutting taxes with the $452 million in anticipated budget surplus. When asked about the Evers education package earlier today, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) indicated he didn’t believe legislative Republicans were interested in going in that direction.
The Governor’s package includes the following:
- Provides $79.1 million GPR in fiscal year 2021 to increase the estimated reimbursement rate for school district special education costs from 30 percent to 34 percent;
- Increases the funding for high cost special education aid by an amount necessary to reimburse school districts for 100 percent of certain costs over $30,000 incurred to support a student with disabilities;
- Converts the relevant high cost special education aid appropriation from a sum certain to a sum sufficient appropriation;
- Increases funding for special education transition readiness grants by 100 percent, or $1.5 million GPR;
- Provides $19 million GPR in additional school-based mental health services;
- Expands the types of costs that are eligible for aid under the program to include school counselors, psychologists, or nurses;
- Provides an additional $3.75 million for the School-Based Mental Health Collaborations grant program;
- Provides $10.1 million to invest more in sparsity aid payments, including establishing a second tier of sparsity aid for school districts that would otherwise be eligible but have an enrollment of more than 745 pupils;
- Provides an additional $3.6 million for the expansion of summer school programming in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Kenosha, and Racine as eligible districts;
- Permits school districts to hire newly retired employees within 30 days rather than the current 75 days;
- Provides an additional $130 million in equalization aid.
An estimated district by district breakdown of the additional $79.1 million for special education funding can be found here.
An estimated district by district breakdown of the 83 eligible districts for the Tier Two of Sparsity Aid can be found here.
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