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Capitol Update February 5, 2024

By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | February 5, 2024

Tomorrow, February 6th the Senate Education Committee will be holding a public hearing. The Senate Education hearing notice is linked here.

The items to be heard include SB 973 which attempts to address a challenge some early child care providers face – negotiating a contract with local districts – by legislating a funding scheme and removing several requirements of school districts.  Further this bill mandates that districts must contract with every child care provider.

Most critically, this bill does not increase state spending, meaning the result of this proposal is a redistribution of resources across the state, as well as a property tax increase to support private 4K businesses.  There is no in-depth fiscal analysis available to project the redistributive effects this bill will have on school district finances.  

There are many unanswered questions created by this proposal surrounding special education obligations, transportations, and potential impacts to the Wisconsin Shares Program.

This bill circumvents many requirements of recent efforts to advance early reading by exempting educators from licensing and the requirement to pass the FORT test or the training specifically required by Act 20z. Furthermore, if a district elects to use high-quality instructional materials, this proposal allows the community child care providers to select a different set of materials. The bill also does not address how early interventions would be handled for a learner identified by the 4K screener provided to all public school students.

If you need to verify who your legislator is or obtain their contact information – please click here.  Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or receive feedback from your legislators. 

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