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Priority Legislative Alert: Your Response Needed
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | February 8, 2016
This Is A Priority Legislative Alert!
The Assembly Education Committee has scheduled a hearing and an executive (voting) session on Wednesday, Feb. 10 at 1:00 PM. The committee is likely to take up Assembly Amendment 2 to Assembly Bill 751 again or a modified version of the amendment. We will update you tomorrow when an official meeting notice is expected.
We are also hearing that the committee will take up both Assembly Bill 481, relating to restricting when school district referendums may be held and Assembly Bill 469, relating to changing rooms (The SAA opposes both bills). Amendments are expected to both bills and we will update you when those are available.
Whether Assembly Amendment 2 to AB 751 is modified or not, here is the bottom line: if your district has resident students in the statewide or Racine voucher programs, under this amendment, you will lose revenue limit authority and you will likely have to pay for your voucher students by reducing educational opportunities for the children that remain in your district. We strongly oppose these efforts and urge you to keep the pressure on state lawmakers.
As we reported earlier, late on Friday the Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) issued a memo detailing the fiscal impact of Assembly Amendment 2 to AB 751 on the 142 school districts impacted by the Racine and Wisconsin Parental Choice Programs. As we expected, the LFB estimates the loss under the amendment to be $22.7 million spread across the 142 districts.
And this penalty is being imposed at a time when school revenue limits have been frozen for both years of the current budget cycle and when 57% of the respondents to the Marquette University Law School Poll say local schools are receiving too little funding from the state!
Once again, I am providing you the names and phone numbers of the members of the Assembly Education Committee. Please contact the leadership of the Committee (Chairman Thiesfeldt, Vice-Chairman Kitchens and the ranking Democrat Representative Sondy Pope) in opposition to this amendment. Also, feel free to contact any of the other committee members as well. Finally, make sure you also contact your Assembly Representative and your State Senator. For your convenience in doing so, we have provided links to the Assembly Directory, the Senate Directory and to Who Are My Legislators.
Remember, the Committee’s Executive Session is scheduled for 1:00 Wednesday afternoon, so we have no time to waste. Let’s keep the pressure on.
I get the sense that some legislators are trying to mislead taxpayers into believing you can add thousands of private school students to a publicly-funded system (with vouchers) without having to pay for them. There are only three ways you can pay for the additional voucher students: 1) additional state resources; 2) local tax increases; or 3) cuts to educational opportunities for public school students. Clearly, the latter is the preferred option for some in the Legislature.
These Committee members need to feel very uncomfortable over this vote. Let’s get to it!
Here are the members of the Assembly Education Committee:
Representative Thiesfeldt (Chair) (R-Fond du Lac) (888) 529-0052
Representative Kitchens (Vice-Chair) (R-Sturgeon Bay) (888) 482-0001
Representative Jagler (R-Watertown) (888) 534-0037
Representative Knudson (R-Hudson) (888) 529-0030
Representative Rodriguez (R-Franklin) (888) 534-0021
Representative R. Brooks (R-Saukville) (888) 534-0060
Representative Horlacher (R-Mukwonago) (888) 529-0033
Representative Murphy (R-Greenville) (888) 534-0056
Representative Quinn (R-Rice Lake) (888) 534-0075
Representative Hutton (R-Brookfield) (888) 534-0013
Representative Duchow (R-Town of Delafield) (888) 534-0099
Representative Pope (D-Cross Plains) (888) 534-0080
Representative Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) (888) 534-0020
Representative Genrich (D-Green Bay) (888) 534-0090
Representative Barnes (D-Milwaukee) (888) 534-0011
Representative Considine (D-Baraboo) (888) 534-0081
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