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Legislative Alert: Contact Your Legislators on the Budget
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | February 22, 2013
This Legislative Alert is a follow-up to the video alert I issued on Tuesday, February 19th.
Well, Governor Walker has now formally introduced his 2013-15 State Budget proposal and it is clear that we have an all out attack on public education in Wisconsin. And, the lion’s share of the attack is all about revenue cap and the expansion of private school vouchers.
There is a lot of detail in this budget which impacts public education. It will take the Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) three weeks or more to complete their analysis of this budget. DPI may have something late next week. For now, SAA members need to focus on the revenue cap and on voucher expansion. Consider the following:
- Simply put, lawmakers cannot justify freezing revenue caps for public schools while proposing to increase funding for private school vouchers by $600 per K-8 student and $1,400 per high school student.
- Public schools make up more than 40 percent of the state budget. Lawmakers have more than $1.7 billion in available revenues for new spending. Surely, public school children deserve a greater commitment from the state than a revenue cap freeze.
- The defunding of public education continues in Wisconsin. In the 2011-13 budget, lawmakers cut the revenue cap by an average of $550 per student and cut more than $800 million in state school aid. On the heels of these enormous cuts, surely public school children deserve more than a revenue cap freeze.
- The Governor’s private school voucher expansion proposal, in addition to increasing the per pupil voucher payment, would open private school vouchers to at least nine new school districts and to special needs students statewide. And we know the following about vouchers: 1) Vouchers Do Not Improve Student Achievement; 2) Vouchers Eliminate Public Accountability; and 3) Vouchers Take Resources Away From Public School Students and Raise Local Property Taxes. (See SAA Voucher Memo for more information).
The battle lines have been clearly drawn and there is no denying that the threat to public education is very real in this budget process. I need each school district administrative team to collaborate on a message to your lawmakers and then coordinate the delivery of that message (by every member of that administrative team) to your lawmakers. This budget will harm your school district and the children you serve. Never has it been more important for you to reach out to your legislators. In your communication, please cover the following:
- Invite your legislators to your school(s). Use the opportunity to show them some of the great educational opportunities that kids in your district are afforded.
- Highlight the budgetary and human impact that the Governor’s budget proposal will have on your school district. Emphasize the lost educational opportunities for your students. Encourage your legislators to support a $200 per pupil increase on the revenue cap as well as the general school aid to fund the cap increase.
- Implore your legislators to keep private school voucher expansion proposals out of the state budget. Share with them that such a fundamental change in education policy really must stand as separate legislation — away from the budget — to allow the public’s voice to be heard. These proposals need the public scrutiny that only a separate public hearing before the standing education committees of the legislature can provide.
- Tell your district’s story. They need to hear it.
- Encourage your legislators to stand up for Wisconsin school children.
- Thank them for listening and for working for the citizens of Wisconsin.
Please send a letter (phone calls work too) using the information discussed above to your legislators as soon as possible. If you have already contacted your legislators, I thank you. I also ask that you contact them again. For your convenience, I have provided links to the Senate Directory, the Assembly Directory and Who Are My Legislators. Please copy your letter to the SAA.
It is vital that we begin working on our legislators now. The pro-voucher groups issued a major legislative alert to their supporters right after the Governor introduced his budget plan. We must match their intensity, not only today but tomorrow as well. This is a long fight and we must sustain our intensity for the next 4-5 months of the budget process. A lot of lawmakers believe they can simply wait us out and we won’t be able to sustain our intensity.
We need to prove them wrong. This is for all the marbles. Let’s fight for everything that is good in public education, let’s fight for all the reasons we made education our life’s work, and most importantly, let’s fight for our children’s future.
Thanks for listening, and thanks for all your efforts on behalf of Wisconsin school children.
Topics: Legislative Action, SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »
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