Start Date Bill Clears Senate Education Committee
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | May 5, 2021
Yesterday, the Senate Committee on Education recommended passage of Senate Bill 182, relating to the commencement of fall classes in public schools, on a unanimous 7-0 vote. Beginning with the 2022-23 school term, the bill would eliminate the prohibition against public schools starting fall classes before September 1. The SAA strongly supports this legislation. The Assembly companion measure, Assembly Bill 188, was referred to the Assembly Education Committee on March 23 and has not yet been scheduled for a public hearing. Please contact the SAA with any questions you may have regarding this legislation.
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AB162/SB 177 Receive Unanimous Committee Votes
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | May 5, 2021
In the past couple days, companion bills Assembly Bill 162 and Senate Bill 177, relating to the timing of equalization aid payments to school districts, have received unanimous votes recommending passage by the Assembly State Affairs Committee and the Senate Education Committee, respectively. The SAA strongly supports AB 162/SB 177. We are hopeful that floor action in both houses will be scheduled soon. Special thanks to the authors of the legislation, Rep. Jeremy Theisfeldt (R-Fond du Lac) and Senator Andre Jacque (R-DePere), for bringing the legislation forward. Please contact the SAA with any questions you may have regarding this legislation.
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Underly to Make First School Visits as State Superintendent-Elect
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | May 5, 2021
From WisPolitics.com …
Jill Underly will make her first trip to state schools today as state superintendent-elect, spending time in the Fox Valley.
She will visit a student vocational program at Appleton Area School District, the Kaukauna Public Library, Fox Valley Technical College and UW-Green Bay.
Underly will meet with various staff and students during her tour. Kaukauna Mayor Tony Penterman, UW-Green Bay Chancellor Mike Alexander, Fox Valley Technical College President Susan May and Appleton Area School District Superintendent Judith M. Baseman are among those who will join her on her stops.
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Telling Your Budget Story
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | May 3, 2021
Check out the letters to state legislators in support of our top state budget priorities submitted by Superintendents Rick Parks (Marathon), Rick Waski (Monroe), Mark Hansen (Elmbrook), and Dr. Mark Elworthy (St. Francis).
Hat’s off to these members for their advocacy and their leadership in telling their district’s state budget story. It is critically important for the leadership teams in all 421 school districts to advocate for our shared state budget priorities with their legislators.
Use the information and talking points in the SAA’s State Budget Alert and in the SAA Legislative Agenda to craft your district’s communication to your legislators. All I ask is that you copy your written or video communications to the SAA so we can post them as examples for your colleagues.
COME ON! LET’S TELL THE BUDGET STORY!
2021-23 SAA Legislative Agenda
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JFC Ready to Pull Nearly 300 Items From Evers’ Budget
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | May 1, 2021
From WisPolitics.com . . .
The Joint Finance Committee will take its first votes on the guv’s budget Thursday with a plan to strip out his calls to expand Medicaid, legalize marijuana and allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver licenses and pay in-state tuition at Wisconsin colleges and universities.
Many of the Evers-backed provisions that will be targeted in the first motion would repeal policies Republicans put in place under then-Gov. Scott Walker. That includes the governor’s calls to restore collective bargaining powers for most public employees, bringing back the prevailing wage on public works projects, and repealing proposed changes to unemployment insurance.
The GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee took a similar action with Evers’ first budget two years ago.
The list of items to be pulled this year, though, is longer with more than 280 provisions that Evers had included in the $91 billion budget that he unveiled in mid-February. Two years ago, the GOP motion pulled more than 130 items from the guv’s first budget.
The co-chairs also announced some procedural changes to how they will approach the budget compared to last time. The committee will use the adjusted base for each agency as its starting point. That means it would take a majority vote of the committee, controlled 12-4 by Republicans, to add in any of Evers’ proposals.
Two, the committee plans to approve standard budget adjustments and any sum sufficient appropriations in one step rather than agency by agency. The offices of the co-chairs said that is being done to allow the committee to do a deeper dive on each agency budget and to have a better understanding upfront of how much money the committee has to spend or put toward tax cuts.
Read the overview of Thursday’s exec session and the items to be removed here.
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