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Committee to Vote Tomorrow on Voucher Revenue Cap Issue
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | February 9, 2016
The Assembly Education Committee has officially noticed an executive session (vote) on a new amendment to Assembly Bill 751 tomorrow afternoon at 1:30pm.
This new amendment from Speaker Vos is similar to Assembly Amendment 2 (AA 2) to Assembly Bill (AB) 751 in that it would change the revenue limit calculation for new voucher pupils, beginning in 2016-17, to no longer provide an adjustment that counts a new voucher pupil as a full 1.0 pupil for revenue limit purposes.
Under both AA 2 and the new amendment, new voucher pupils who reside within a district would be counted in a manner similar to the way open enrollment pupils are counted for revenue limit purposes (i.e., ramping the count up by 1/3 pupil each year to a full pupil over 3 years).
The new amendment differs from AA 2 in that it attempts to address negative consequences to declining enrollment districts that would occur as a result of the switch to a new calculation method. It tries to accomplish this by excluding new voucher pupils from membership (enrollment) for purposes of calculating declining enrollment adjustments for three years.
The SAA remains opposed to either amendment. Here is the bottom line: if your district has resident students in the statewide or Racine voucher programs, under either amendment, you will lose revenue limit authority and you will likely have to pay for your voucher students by reducing educational opportunities for the children that remain in your district. We strongly oppose these efforts and urge you to keep the pressure on state lawmakers.
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) has been asked to prepare a memo detailing the fiscal impact of this new amendment on each of the affected districts. We hope this memo will be available soon. Of course, we will forward it to you as soon as it is available.
The SAA will keep you informed of any additional analysis or new developments on this important legislation.
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