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Wisconsin Assembly Advances Education Proposals

By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | February 20, 2025

The legislative session is off to a fast start.  The first six proposals all targeted K-12 education policy.  While the proposals moved rapidly through the Assembly, their fate in the session is in question.  Although it is thought that AB 1 has the most support in the Senate.

Below is a list of these bills with brief descriptions and links to the proposals.

AB 1: Relating to changes to the educational assessment program and the school and school district accountability report.

From LRB Analysis: Under current law, the Department of Public Instruction is required to annually publish a school and school district accountability report, commonly known as school and school district report cards, for the previous school year. To measure school performance and school district improvement for purposes of the report cards, particularly measures related to pupil achievement in reading and math, DPI uses data derived from pupil performance on assessments administered in the previous school year, including assessments commonly referred to as the Wisconsin Student Assessment System, which includes the Wisconsin Forward Exam, PreACT, the ACT with Writing, and Dynamic Learning Maps.

Under the bill, beginning with report cards published for the school year in which the bill becomes law, for the index system to identify school and school district performance and improvement, also known as the accountability rating categories, DPI must use the same cut scores, score ranges, and corresponding qualitative descriptions that DPI used for report cards published in the 2019-20 school year. In addition, beginning with the WSAS administered in the school year in which the bill becomes law, DPI must do the following:

1. For the Wisconsin Forward exam in English Language Arts and Mathematics, align cut scores, score ranges, and pupil performance categories to the cut scores, score ranges, and pupil performance categories set by the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

2. For the PreACT and ACT with Writing in English, Reading, and Mathematics, use the same cut scores, score ranges, and pupil performance categories that DPI used for the same assessments administered in the 2021-22 school year. The bill specifically requires DPI to use the terms “below basic,” “basic,” “proficient,” and “advanced” for pupil performance categories on these assessments.

AB 2: Relating to requiring school boards to adopt policies to prohibit the use of wireless communication devices during instructional time.

Requiring school boards to have a cellphone policy and includes certain provisions which much be included and prohibits certain flexibilities that were originally included in the bill.  The legislation was further amended to require school boards to annually submit their policy to the Office of School Safety.  Legislative Council has prepared a memo explaining the bill.

AB 3: Relating to incorporating cursive writing into the state model English language arts standards and requiring cursive writing in elementary grades.

From LRB Analysis: This bill requires the state superintendent of public instruction to incorporate cursive writing into the model academic standards for English language arts. The bill also requires all school boards, independent charter schools, and private schools participating in a parental choice program to include cursive writing in its respective curriculum for the elementary grades. Specifically, each elementary school curriculum must include the objective that pupils be able to write legibly in cursive by the end of fifth grade.

AB 4: Relating to required instruction in civics in the elementary and high school grades, high school graduation requirements, and private school educational program criteria.

From LRB Analysis: Beginning in the 2027-28 school year, this bill requires school boards, independent charter schools, and private schools participating in a parental choice program to include in their respective curricula instruction in civics that includes the following topics and pupil development goals:

1. An understanding of pupils’ shared rights and responsibilities as residents of this state and the United States and of the founding principles of the United States.

2. A sense of civic pride and desire to participate regularly with government at the local, state, and federal levels.

3. An understanding of the process for effectively advocating before governmental bodies and officials.

4. An understanding of the civic-minded expectations of an upright and desirable citizenry that recognizes and accepts responsibility for preserving and defending the benefits of liberty inherited from previous generations and secured by the U.S. Constitution.

5. Knowledge of other nations’ governing philosophies, including communism, socialism, and totalitarianism, and an understanding of how those philosophies compare with the philosophy and principles of freedom and representative democracy essential to the founding principles of the United States.

The bill also requires school boards, independent charter schools, and private schools participating in a parental choice program to annually report to the Department of Public Instruction regarding how they are meeting the civics instruction requirement created under the bill. DPI must then compile the information and submit it to the legislature.

Finally, under current law, a school board may grant a high school diploma to a pupil only if the pupil meets specific statutory requirements, including earning a certain number of credits in various subjects in the high school grades and passing a civics test comprised of questions that are identical to those that are asked as part of the process of applying for U.S. citizenship. Currently, a pupil must earn at least three credits of social studies, including state and local government. The bill specifies that the social studies credits also must include one-half credit of civics instruction. This graduation requirement first applies to pupils who graduate in the 2030-31 school year.

AB 5: Relating to requiring school boards to make textbooks, curricula, and instructional materials available for inspection by school district residents.

From LRB Analysis: This bill requires a school board to comply with a school district resident’s written request to inspect a textbook, curriculum, or instructional material within 14 days.

Under the bill, a school board must comply with a school district resident’s written request to inspect curricula or instructional materials used in a school in the school district by no later than 14 days after the school board receives the written request. The bill also requires each school board to adopt procedures under which the school board is able to produce for inspection any curriculum or instructional material used in a school in the school district in fewer than 14 days. The bill defines “curriculum” as a curriculum plan adopted by a school board to comply with state law and defines “instructional material” as any course content or resource included in a curriculum.

Similarly, the bill requires a school board to comply with a school district resident’s written request to inspect a textbook on the school board’s list of adopted textbooks by no later than 14 days after the school board receives the written request. Under the bill, a school board must also adopt procedures under which the school board is capable of producing for inspection any textbook included on the school board’s list of adopted textbooks in no more than 14 days. Current law requires each school board to adopt all textbooks necessary for use in schools in the school district and file a list of adopted textbooks with the school district clerk. Under the bill, each school board must also post the list of adopted textbooks on the school board’s website.

Finally, the bill specifies that nothing in the bill may be construed to require a school board to take an action that would violate federal copyright law and that the bill does not limit any rights a school district resident has to inspect or copy records under open records law.

AB 6: Relating to requiring a school board to spend at least 70 percent of its operating expenditures on direct classroom expenditures and annual pay increases for school administrators.

From LRB Analysis: The bill requires each school board to spend at least 70 percent of its operating expenditures in each school year on direct classroom expenditures. Under the bill, “direct classroom expenditures” are expenditures for salaries and benefits of teachers and teacher aides, instructional supplies, tuition, athletic programs, and cocurricular activities.

Under the bill, if a school board fails to meet the 70 percent threshold in any school year, the school board must increase the amount spent on direct classroom expenditures by at least 2 percent in each succeeding school year until the 70 percent level is reached. In addition, in the school year following a school year in which a school board fails to meet the 70 percent threshold, the bill directs the Department of Public Instruction to reduce the school district’s state aid payments by the difference between what the school board spent on direct classroom expenditures and the minimum that it should have spent on direct classroom expenditures and prohibits the school board from levying additional property taxes to compensate for the reduction. Finally, if the total reduction in state aid and other state payments does not cover a school board’s excess expenditures, DPI must order the school board to reduce the property tax obligations of its taxpayers, including providing refunds to taxpayers who have already paid their annual taxes, by an amount that represents the amount of excess expenditures that have not been recovered through the state aid reductions.

Limitation on annual compensation increases for school administrators.

The bill limits the amount a school board may increase the total compensation paid to a school district administrator, business manager, or school principal, or an assistant to any of those positions (collectively, school administrators), to the average annual percentage increase in total compensation that the school board provided to teachers in the school district.

Under current law, the term of a school administrator contract is limited to no more than two years but may provide for additional one year extensions. The pay increase limitation created in the bill first applies to contracts entered into, renewed, or modified on the date the bill becomes law.

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