You well know the struggles with keeping students safe and the unexpected costs that COVID has created, alongside the federal EANS funds dangling like a carrot before a starved rabbit. That’s why WCRIS is appealing to the state legislature for help in addressing this morass.
Please e-mail your school’s COVID story to the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee at the e-mail below. The JFC is taking comments about the impending state budget and how to deploy federal funds flooding the state. Your message should:
1. Tell your school’s story about EANS — Explain what you need and why you can’t get it, despite the (insert dollar amount) in EANS money allotted to your school.
2. Note that Federal Emergency Aid to Nonpublic Schools (EANS) provides $77.4 million that is largely useless to solve real problems because of restrictions set by Congress, the courts, and US Department of Education.
3. Ask state legislators to fix the problem by replacing the federal funds with state tax dollars that are less restrictive. Just like they did in 2017 with the school safety grants that provided doors, locks and alarms. It was a model program that received high marks from the Legislative Audit Bureau.
4. Make it clear: Nonpublic schools are NOT asking for more money. We are just asking the state to substitute EANS funds for state tax dollars that are more useable. We are seeking equity for the 10 percent of students who attend our schools, many of whom hail from low-income, minority communities whose vouchers enabled them to get in-person education during the pandemic.
5. Inform the JFC that if EANS is unused, it reverts to the Governor for public schools who are already getting hundreds of millions of dollars. It also means unused EANS money will be available to offset the state’s tax dollars in the state’s finances if they do as we ask.
Send your e-mail to this JFC-dedicated email address for input only:
budget.comments@legis.wisconsin.gov.
