Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance - Representing the Interests of Wisconsin Students

DPI Distributes $1.74 Billion to Wisconsin Schools

By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 30, 2021

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction announced today the agency distributed a total of nearly $1.74 billion to schools across the state to support mental health programs in public schools, students with individualized education plans, transportation costs, and other categorical state aids.

For a full news release and for specific amounts by type of aid see here.

Topics: SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »

Assembly Passes Budget; Senate to Vote on Spending Plan Today

By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 30, 2021

From WisPolitics.com …

The Senate is set to begin debate on the budget early this afternoon after it passed the Assembly with four Dems joining all Republicans in backing the $89.2 billion two-year package.

Rep. Steve Doyle, of Onalaska, was joined by fellow Dems Deb Andraca, of Whitefish Bay, Beth Meyers, of Bayfield, and Don Vruwink, of Milton, in voting yes.

Doyle said his vote for the budget wasn’t one of joy, but sadness. Still, he predicted Gov. Tony Evers would rework the plan with his partial veto authority, similar to what he did two years ago.

“I’m not sure it’s harmful. I just don’t think it’s helpful,” Doyle said. “But I have confidence our governor will exercise his veto pen to turn it into a budget that I think will be helpful to our state.”

Two years ago, all Dems and three Republicans voted against the budget in the Assembly before Evers signed the document after using his broad partial veto authority. That put Dems in the awkward spot of unanimously voting against a budget that Evers would later champion after making changes.

Rep. Evan Goyke, D-Milwaukee, knocked the GOP version of the budget, saying it was driven by an anti-Evers hysteria. He jokingly urged his Republican colleagues to get vaccinated against “Evers fever” and demanded to know what the Republican vision was for the state. He pointed to other GOP-run states that have proposed new, innovative programs. Instead, the centerpiece of the Wisconsin Republican plan is a tax cut paid for with a surplus that Goyke said was driven by the latest stimulus package President Biden signed and the successful roll out of the COVID-19 vaccine Evers has overseen.

“What’s the new idea? Where are you taking us? What is your vision? You have defined success by comparing yourself to Tony Evers,” Goyke said.

But Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, countered the ideas from Evers’ February budget amounted to a tired liberal wish list of one government program after another. He said that’s why one of the first moves Republicans took in rewriting the document was to strip out many of the guv’s ideas.

He argued the only answer that Dems seem to have is to turn to the government for answers.

“If I look at the fastest-growing states, they aren’t the ones that have the fastest-growing government,” Vos said.

Vos predicted Evers will sign the budget.

The Senate is expected to convene at 1 p.m. today.

See more on yesterday’s debate here.

Topics: SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »

LFB: State Would Miss $2.2 Billion in K-12 Aid if Full Budget Vetoed

By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 29, 2021

From WisPolitics.com …

Wisconsin wouldn’t qualify for some $2.2 billion in federal K-12 education aid if Gov. Tony Evers vetoed the GOP-authored budget in full and Capitol leaders failed to pass a new one, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau says.

The LFB memo underscores the risk some insiders have raised for Evers if he chose to veto the budget now before the state Legislature. Republicans have already signaled they wouldn’t come back to pass a new budget. Some also have said they could point to the veto and blame Evers for the state failing to qualify for the money under the last two COVID-19 stimulus packages.

Those packages — one signed by President Biden this spring, one by former President Trump in December — include a requirement that states maintain their current spending commitments to K-12 and higher education to qualify for the money.

The Cares Act, which Trump signed, requires that maintenance of effort extend into the 2021-22 fiscal year. Under the American Rescue Plan Act, which Biden signed, the commitment must be met in both 2021-22 and 2022-23.

If the budget is vetoed and no new one is approved, the state would continue with the appropriation levels in place for the 2020-21 fiscal year, which ends tomorrow.

In a memo requested by Sen. Jon Erpenbach, LFB estimated the state wouldn’t meet the maintenance of effort requirements under either package if that happened.

See the memo here.

Topics: SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »

Assembly to Vote on State Budget Today

By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 29, 2021

From WisPolitics.com …

The Assembly plans to convene early this afternoon to take up a calendar that includes the budget and several follow-up bills.

The budget and four other bills, including one to repeal the personal property tax, will be taken up in extraordinary session. That limits procedural moves minority Dems could use to slow down final passage with the Senate scheduled to take up the bills tomorrow.

The chamber also will be in regular session today to vote on AB 380, which would prohibit the Department of Workforce Development from citing COVID-19 as a reason for waiving work search requirements to qualify for unemployment.

The bill follows the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules in May suspending a DWD emergency rule that provided a waiver of the work search requirement.

Topics: SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »