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Legislative Alert: Budget Floor Action
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 12, 2013
Legislative Alert: Budget Floor Action
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos anticipates that the Assembly will take up the Joint Finance Committee version of Assembly Bill 40 (State Budget Bill) on Tuesday June 18th and pass it perhaps as early as Wednesday June 19th. If so, the Senate will likely take the bill up on Thursday, June 20th.
For now, it appears that the deal struck last week on the K-12 education portion of the budget bill is holding. However, we remain watchful because voucher advocates have been working the halls of the Capitol and conservative talk radio, trying to make the deal worse for all Wisconsin school children.
I want to thank you all for all your advocacy efforts in support of the children you serve during this budget session. Your efforts had tremendous impact on the budget adopted by the Joint Finance Committee last week including removal of the special needs vouchers and charter school proposals, as well as ensuring a $150 increase in per pupil resources (even though the challenges facing school districts and the state’s improving revenue picture warrants a larger per pupil increase for schools).
In fact, I believe the SAA has done some of it’s best work ever as a political organization in this session. But of course, that all pales in comparison to the prospect of statewide voucher expansion, no matter how small the enrollment caps are in this budget plan.
The bottom line is expanding private school vouchers statewide is the wrong way to go for Wisconsin.
- It is bad for communities, bad for taxpayers and bad for the children we serve.
- It is the nose of the camel under the tent…
- It is the beginning of a runaway taxpayer-funded entitlement.
- It is ideologically driven, fiscally irresponsible and academically unproven.
- It is the worst threat to public education in Wisconsin history.
Once again, I ask you to act on behalf of the children you serve. Please contact your legislators before the Assembly takes up the budget bill next Tuesday.
For your convenience in contacting your legislators, I have provided links to the Senate Directory, the Assembly Directory as well as Who Are My Legislators.
Your message is simply this:
- Support removing the statewide private school voucher expansion proposal from the budget.
- Support a per pupil increase of at least $200 in each year of the biennium. The JFC budget bill increases the voucher amount by as much as $1,400 per pupil. While we appreciate the $150 increase in per pupil resources for public schools, the fiscal challenges facing school districts and the state’s much improved revenue picture warrant a larger per pupil increase for schools.
I’m so proud of all of you for all your efforts in support of Wisconsin school children. Thank you.
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