Concurrent Enrollment Fix to Receive Senate Hearing
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | February 2, 2018
Senate Bill 677, the Senate companion to Assembly Bill 805, will receive a public hearing before the Senate Education Committee at 9:00am on Tuesday February 6th in Room 300 Southeast, State Capitol.
As you know, the Early College Credit Program (ECCP) adopted in the 2017-19 State Budget significantly altered the funding model for concurrent enrollment programs at UW System campuses and private colleges. The old system was a shared funding model with K12 school districts absorbing the staffing costs and the post-secondary institutions providing the accreditation and accountability. Parents then received access to college credits at reduced cost.
However, the new ECCP program requires school districts to pick up 75% of the costs, with the state picking up 25%. The new funding burden for school districts will likely end this effective program.
SB 677/AB 805 would exempt concurrent enrollment programs at UW System schools and private colleges from the new ECCP requirements. The SAA is supporting this legislation, as is the Southeastern Wisconsin Schools Alliance (SWSA), the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance (WiRSA) and the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB). The bill has bipartisan support in the legislature.
The SAA will keep you informed of this important effort.
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AB 835 Clears Assembly Committee 14-1
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | February 2, 2018
From WisPolitics.com …
The Assembly Education Committee overwhelmingly approved a bill that would increase sparsity aid and low-revenue ceilings for school districts, while leaving the door open to amending the bill in Joint Finance.
The committee voted 14-1 to pass the bill, authored by Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, and championed by Gov. Scott Walker, that would gradually lift the low revenue cap and pump $6.4 million into sparsity aid. Only Rep. Gary Hebl, D-Sun Prairie, voted against it.
The bill is a near replica of an Assembly GOP plan that Walker vetoed out of the budget. But it contains one important change: Nine school districts where voters have rejected a referendum raising revenue limits in the previous three years would not be eligible for the increase.
But Rep. Jeff Mursau, R-Crivitz, today said he was working on an amendment to address that.
“I and a number of people working through these bills are … working with an amendment that the governor would agree with to help those 9 school districts out,” Mursau said. “It’s pretty important to all of us to get that done, but also to get something that the governor would sign.”
He said he would not introduce the amendment until he’s sure Walker would sign off on it, although he said he’s spoken to both JFC co-chairs, who have expressed openness to it. Mursau told WisPolitics he has not yet spoken with Walker.
Other Republicans on the committee, such as Rep. Joel Kitchens, R-Sturgeon Bay, contended that it’s most important the bill be able to pass.
Walker spokeswoman Amy Hasenberg declined to discuss any amendment, but said that Walker supports the bill.
Meanwhile, Republicans on the committee rejected two Dem amendments, including one from Rep. Sondy Pope, D-Mt. Horeb, that sought to address those nine districts by eliminating the provision in the bill that would temporarily bar nine districts from raising their low-revenue caps.
“It punishes districts for doing the right thing and yet not knowing that the unintended consequences … was going to be harmful. I think we’re kind of cheating by doing this,” she said.
The second, offered by Rep. David Bowen, D-Milwaukee, would have altered the sparsity aid formula to allow 52 more school districts to become eligible. Currently, schools are eligible for sparsity aid if they have fewer than 745 students and their enrollment divided by the school district’s total square miles is less than 10. Bowen’s amendment would have eliminated the latter provision.
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SAA Opposes AB 803 At Hearing
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | February 1, 2018
The SAA testified in opposition to Assembly Bill 803 today at a public hearing before the Assembly Committee on Education. The bill relates to excluding costs funded by referenda from shared costs for the purpose of determining general equalization aids for school districts.
Superintendents Phil Ertl (Wauwatosa) and Ed Brzinski (Waterford Graded J1) and Business Manager John Mack (Wauwatosa) testified in support of the bill. The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) testified in opposition to AB 803.
For the reasons behind the SAA’s opposition to the bill, please see SAA Testimony and DPI Testimony.
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Nearly 400 Private Schools Register for Voucher Programs
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | February 1, 2018
From WisPolitics.com …
Nearly 400 private schools have registered for the state’s three voucher programs next school year.
That includes 26 schools for the Racine voucher program; 133 schools for the Milwaukee program; and 222 for the statewide program, according to three separate releases from the state’s Department of Public Instruction yesterday.
Each figure marks an increase over the 2017-18 school year. For Racine, the list includes six new schools, two of which currently participate in one or both of the other voucher programs. For Milwaukee, there are eight new schools. And for the statewide program, there are 48 new schools, in addition to 21 others that previously participated in one or both of the other programs.
See the Racine program release here.
Milwaukee
Statewide
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SB 713 Scheduled for Hearing Tomorrow
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | January 30, 2018
A public hearing has been scheduled by the chair of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, Technology and Consumer Protection, Senator Duey Stroebel (R- Saukville) on Senate Bill 713 for this Wednesday, January 31 starting at 9:30 a.m. in room 201 Southeast of the State Capitol. In addition to chairing this committee, Senator Stroebel is the lead author of SB 713, along with the Vice-chair of the committee, Senator David Craig (R-Big Bend).
The SAA has registered in opposition to the bill. In addition to the talking points and other information that appears below, we are also providing a fact sheet on the bill and a memo from the Wisconsin League of Municipalities and the Wisconsin Towns Association. We would like to thank our colleagues at WEMTA for this in formation.
Senate Bill 713:
- Eliminates the requirement that schools spend Common School Fund disbursements on instructional materials, library books or school library computers/software. Schools would be able to spend CSF funds on any items they would like and those items would not need to be housed in the school library.
- Eliminates BCPL’s authority to make loans. The interest on these loans currently goes into the Common School Fund.
- Under current law, the BCPL can delegate some investment authority to the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), but SWIB can only invest in fixed income accounts. The bill would remove this restriction and allow SWIB to invest state trust fund dollars using their typical investment strategy.
Here are some talking points you can use with your legislators:
- Common School Fund stakeholders were not consulted in the development of this legislation, and we do not support these changes. We want to maintain the current structure that has been working well since the founding of our State in 1848.
- Over the past 10 years, the BCPL State Trust Fund Loan program has invested over $1 billion in communities throughout Wisconsin. Loans have helped communities repair roads and buy ambulances and fire trucks. The loan program has also helped school districts to make repairs, buy textbooks and school buses and invest in technology. Earnings from these loans are deposited into the Common School Fund. Ending the BCPL loan program would eliminate this important funding for our communities and eliminate a major source of revenue for the Common School Fund. To see a full list of BCPL loans issued since 2000 click here.
- With school districts across the state facing increased budget constraints, distributions from the Common School Fund are often the only dollars available for school libraries to purchase informational materials including books, newspapers and periodicals, web-based resources, and computer hardware and software. This bill would remove the requirement that the Common School Fund be used for libraries, putting school library funding in jeopardy.
- The bill also gives the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) more authority to invest BCPL trust fund dollars. According to the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, if SWIB had been managing the Common School Fund dollars during the financial crash of 2008, it would have suffered a devastating loss of between $195 million and $290 million. No funding would have been available for school libraries for several years following a loss of that magnitude.
For your convenience in contacting your legislators, we have provided links to the Assembly Directory, the Senate Directory and Who Are My Legislators.
Topics: Legislative Action, SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »