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Legislative Alert: Assembly Bill 110
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | March 12, 2012
Yes I know we have already issued three alerts on this bill. If I didn’t need to I wouldn’t be doing this. This is our last chance to fight off the proponents of privatizing public education this legislative session.
Last Thursday, Assembly Republicans adopted a number of amendments to Assembly Bill 110 (Special Education Vouchers), presumably to fight off the strong concerns leveled against the bill by the DPI, SAA and other organizations. The amendments however, did little to make the legislation less objectionable. The final vote on AB 110 was delayed until Tuesday, March 13 because of a procedural move by Assembly Democrats. As you know, the SAA strongly opposes this legislation.
In spite of what many of you have heard from your local Assembly Republicans, we expect AB 110, as amended, to pass the Assembly on Tuesday. And, although we believe the measure will ultimately die in the Senate, we just got word that the Senate sponsor is again pushing her colleagues hard to take up the bill.
With the regular legislative session ending on Thursday, we need to fight off any last-minute shenanigans and bury this bill. Please use the information below and contact your legislators one last time in opposition to AB 110. Ask your legislators to oppose AB 110 on the basis of the following SAA concerns.
- AB 110 would provide a maximum voucher amount of $13,593 per student in a sum sufficient appropriation. This amount is almost double the current choice program voucher amount of $6,442. And it is almost three times the amount the state currently provides in general aids per public school student, $4,842.
- Currently, the only schools in Wisconsin with sum sufficient appropriations are private school voucher and independent charter schools. The general school aid appropriation, from which the AB 110 appropriation would come, is sum certain. Special education is sum certain. School day milk is sum certain. School breakfast is sum certain. The SAA believes this proposed sum sufficient appropriation is not justified.
- Also, AB 110, with its proposed 5% statewide cap, is a potential $80 million reduction in general aid for public school districts. And districts will be unable to recoup any of the lost aid on their school levy. Because there is no district cap proposed, some districts could lose far more than 5% of their students and suffer heavy losses in general aid. This is particularly concerning because this bill proposes to reduce per pupil funding for collectively used services (such as teachers, aides and therapists) and leave fewer resources for services needed by the disabled students remaining in the public schools. Also, Amendment 11 adopted by the Assembly last Thursday clarifies that school districts will be unable to recoup any lost equalization aid on the levy. Therefore, the program constitutes a full aid reduction for sending school districts.
- Assembly amendments do not solve any of the equitable participation problems posed by the bill as state law cannot exceptions to federal law. As a result, the resident school district or the district where the private school is located may also be responsible for expending IDEA funds on these students. A resident school district might end up paying twice for some services a child receives – once for the voucher aid reduction and once again for equitable services.
- Assembly amendments also do not resolve the maintenance of effort (MOE) problems posed by the bill. By paying the special needs vouchers for any students that leave under the bill, the resident district will increase its MOE and must continue to meet that commitment in future years. Any increasing costs will likely be covered with regular education dollars.
- Finally, and perhaps most egregiously, this bill does not require a private school accepting a voucher to even offer any of the services identified in the student’s IEP, nor to have special education or related services personnel on staff. And the bill does not allow the state to recoup any funds from a private school for services not provided to a student.
For your convenience, I have provided the link to contact information for the Assembly and the Senate. You can identify your legislators by accessing Who Are My Legislators.
Thanks for listening. And, as always, thanks for all you do on behalf of Wisconsin school children.
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