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Charter School Bill On Fast Track
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | October 7, 2013
Last Thursday, October 3rd, while the SAA was hosting a press conference on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and carrying the fight against scrapping the CCSS at the state’s first public hearing on the Common Core, the Senate Committee on Education held a public hearing on a substantially revised Senate Bill 76 (charter schools) with far-reaching implications for local control and school funding.
Sadly, the revised version (Senate Substitute Amendment 1 to SB 76) became public less than 48 hours before the hearing leaving the SAA and other K12 advocates to fashion a position on the bill without the benefit of a Legislative Reference Bureau bill analysis much less a summary by the Legislative Council (the Legislative Council summary became available later on Thursday).
SS A1 to SB76 does the following:
- Greatly expands the number of entities permitted to authorize independent (non-school-board-authorized) charter schools to include all UW campuses, Wisconsin Technical College Boards and CESA boards of control.
- Reduces general school aids to all school districts and raises property taxes. Those additional authorizers will surely increase the number of independent charter schools authorized. Given that the per pupil payments to independent charter schools (currently $7,925 per pupil) are funded as a draw on the general school aids that would otherwise be payable to every school district in the state, this bill will result in a growing aid reduction to public schools. In 2012-13, the reduction in general school aid attributable to independent charters was 1.4 percent statewide on average. And because local school districts are allowed to levy property taxes to cover the reduction in state aid, this will likely result in an increase in local property taxes.
- Removes the right of school boards and newly proposed authorizers to determine if they wish to authorize additional charter schools. This could force school boards and other authorizers to replicate additional charter schools if the charter school operators are deemed to have a proven track record of success. Nowhere in state history has the legislature required a school board to create another school and stripped locally-elected officials of their authority to make such a decision on their own.
- Makes it easier for a school district to convert all its public schools to charter schools.
- Allows pupils to attend any independent charter school, even those outside their own school district.
- Perpetuates the flaw in Wisconsin’s school finance system that does not allow school districts to count independent charter school students for state general aid or revenue limit purposes.
The SAA expressed its opposition to the bill by issuing a brief statement to the Senate Education Committee.
More information to follow.
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