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State Budget Video Alert II: Please Respond Today!

By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | May 18, 2015

SAA members please watch this important 3 minute video alert on late breaking state budget developments. Portions of the video alert, including legislator contact information, appear below in text form.

This alert is a follow-up to the SAA Legislative Alert that went out on Friday, May 15th.

In the last three days, the SAA has been quoted extensively in two major news articles:

We still expect that the Joint Finance Committee will take up K-12 education issues tomorrow, Tuesday, May 19th.  We hear that committee members are planning on tomorrow’s session going very late.

We understand JFC members will be meeting off and on all day today in negotiations on the K-12 education package.  That’s why it is so vitally important that SAA members contact Joint Finance Committee members and your own legislators today.

I am getting a steady stream of emails from SAA members who have copied me on their communications to legislators.  I want to thank all of you that have already made those contacts and implore those of you that haven’t to do so; and to do it soon.

For your convenience we have provided the contact information for the JFC members. Here are the links to the Senate Directory, Assembly Directory as well as Who Are My Legislators.

Here are your talking points:

Vouchers

  1. LFB estimates the voucher expansion plan could cost school districts $48 million in aid deductions over the biennium for new voucher students.

-Voucher expansion will siphon resources away from public school students.

-Voucher expansion = diminishing educational opportunities for Wisconsin public school children.

  1. With lawmakers likely to remove voucher enrollment caps in the budget, the next logical step for voucher proponents is to remove income requirements and bring the remaining 90,000+ private school students into the voucher program at an ultimate taxpayer cost of approximately $700 million.

-Wisconsin taxpayers cannot afford this growing voucher entitlement.

  1. Wisconsin currently spends an estimated $212 million on private school vouchers. Yet, numerous studies have shown that voucher students perform no better than students in public schools.

Charters

  1. Independent charter school expansion will siphon additional resources away from public school students and will likely raise property taxes.
  1. Per pupil payments to independent charter schools are funded as a draw on general school aids. Therefore, no matter where a new independent charter school is located, public school students will feel an aid reduction.
  1. Charter school expansion will likely result in property tax increases.

School Funding

  1. With the expected per pupil revenue freeze, this budget will drive Wisconsin below the national average in per pupil spending. Voucher and charter expansion will only exacerbate this trend.
  1. Still encourage legislators to restore the $127 million cut to the per pupil categorical aid.
  1. Emphasize that restoring that cut still only gets public schools back to a freeze in allowable revenues. We need an inflationary increase in per pupil revenues to meet the needs of students.
  1. Share with legislators the cuts in educational opportunities for children you will be required to make if they stick with the per pupil revenue freeze for public schools.

I know you are all so very busy, but Joint Finance will act tomorrow and I need you to make these contacts as soon as possible.

Let’s get it done everyone!  Thank you.

 

Topics: Legislative Action, SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »

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