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Legislative Alert: Urge Lawmakers to Reinvest in Public Education

By John Forester(Don't Use) | May 13, 2011

The SAA is very glad new state revenue projections show that $636 million in additional revenue is now available to restore some of the massive cuts to public schools proposed in Governor Walker’s biennial budget plan.

However, Governor Walker and the Co-Chairs of the powerful Joint Finance Committee have announced that they are not interested in softening the cuts to schools.  Rather, they would like to use the money to pay down state debt.

I urge all SAA members to call or email your legislators and the members of the Joint Finance Committee as soon as possible to encourage them to restore some resources to K-12 public education.

Encourage lawmakers to:

1.      Soften the huge reductions in allowable school revenues proposed in the Governor’s budget.

2.      Restore part of the massive $840 million cut in total state school aid over the biennium.  Make sure you highlight the budgetary and human impact the Governor’s budget plan will have on your district.  Emphasize the budget gap that remains after applying the WRS and health insurance savings.  Also, highlight the impact in the 2nd year of the biennium.

3.      Oppose the expansion of private school vouchers and independent charter schools in the budget.  The Governor’s school privatization proposals are funded by siphoning public resources away from public school children and transferring those resources to private entities.

Time is of the essence friends.  We anticipate that the K-12 public education portion of the budget will be taken up by the Joint Finance Committee the week of May 23rd.  It is vital that we act now.

If you have not yet contacted legislators on the budget, do it now.  If you have contacted your legislators already, do it again.  Our level of success on the budget will be determined by the quality of your response in the next few days.

Please send your letter using the information discussed above to the members of the Joint Finance Committee as soon as possible. You can email the JFC members easily using the Key Committees section on our website. Just below that, in the Elected Officials section, I have also provided links to the Senate Directory, the Assembly Directory and Who Are My Legislators.  I also encourage you to copy your letter to your legislators and to the SAA.

For your information and convenience, I have provided a link to the SAA Budget Priorities.

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