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SB 713 Scheduled for Hearing Tomorrow
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | January 30, 2018
A public hearing has been scheduled by the chair of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, Technology and Consumer Protection, Senator Duey Stroebel (R- Saukville) on Senate Bill 713 for this Wednesday, January 31 starting at 9:30 a.m. in room 201 Southeast of the State Capitol. In addition to chairing this committee, Senator Stroebel is the lead author of SB 713, along with the Vice-chair of the committee, Senator David Craig (R-Big Bend).
The SAA has registered in opposition to the bill. In addition to the talking points and other information that appears below, we are also providing a fact sheet on the bill and a memo from the Wisconsin League of Municipalities and the Wisconsin Towns Association. We would like to thank our colleagues at WEMTA for this in formation.
Senate Bill 713:
- Eliminates the requirement that schools spend Common School Fund disbursements on instructional materials, library books or school library computers/software. Schools would be able to spend CSF funds on any items they would like and those items would not need to be housed in the school library.
- Eliminates BCPL’s authority to make loans. The interest on these loans currently goes into the Common School Fund.
- Under current law, the BCPL can delegate some investment authority to the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), but SWIB can only invest in fixed income accounts. The bill would remove this restriction and allow SWIB to invest state trust fund dollars using their typical investment strategy.
Here are some talking points you can use with your legislators:
- Common School Fund stakeholders were not consulted in the development of this legislation, and we do not support these changes. We want to maintain the current structure that has been working well since the founding of our State in 1848.
- Over the past 10 years, the BCPL State Trust Fund Loan program has invested over $1 billion in communities throughout Wisconsin. Loans have helped communities repair roads and buy ambulances and fire trucks. The loan program has also helped school districts to make repairs, buy textbooks and school buses and invest in technology. Earnings from these loans are deposited into the Common School Fund. Ending the BCPL loan program would eliminate this important funding for our communities and eliminate a major source of revenue for the Common School Fund. To see a full list of BCPL loans issued since 2000 click here.
- With school districts across the state facing increased budget constraints, distributions from the Common School Fund are often the only dollars available for school libraries to purchase informational materials including books, newspapers and periodicals, web-based resources, and computer hardware and software. This bill would remove the requirement that the Common School Fund be used for libraries, putting school library funding in jeopardy.
- The bill also gives the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) more authority to invest BCPL trust fund dollars. According to the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, if SWIB had been managing the Common School Fund dollars during the financial crash of 2008, it would have suffered a devastating loss of between $195 million and $290 million. No funding would have been available for school libraries for several years following a loss of that magnitude.
For your convenience in contacting your legislators, we have provided links to the Assembly Directory, the Senate Directory and Who Are My Legislators.
Topics: Legislative Action, SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »
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