Freezing School Choice? Limiting the K-12 Tuition Tax Deduction?
WCRIS’ visits to Legislators have begun, and now they’re all talking about the Governor’s newly introduced budget. It calls for several initiatives for Wisconsin’s public schools and freezing school choice, among many other things.
Gov. Evers said last night that his state budget would invest over $2.6 billion in K-12 education to address: the student literacy crisis; the educator shortage; mental health resources; special education programs and more. His budget calls for freezing the school choice programs next year at current levels and effectively eliminating the K-12 tuition tax deduction as it is now used. It requires choice schools to have licensed teachers and has many other provisions the Legislature won’t approve.
Despite those non-starter ideas for a Republican-controlled legislature, he surprisingly dared to appeal for cooperation saying, “So, as we shoulder the weight of posterity, let’s not allow our work together to be hindered by partisanship.”
The roughly $80 billion state budget finances state government for two years. It has to be passed by June 30 or the state begins its new fiscal year July 1 with current funding levels. There is general agreement across the aisles that the numbers do need some adjusting for record inflation.
But the Legislature has vowed to ignore the Governor’s budget and generate its own. Legislators are instead calling his proposed budget a “list of ideas” to consider. Legislative leaders have said they agree on the identification of problems, but they disagree on the solutions. Thankfully.
Before he theoretically freezes vouchers, Evers’s budget also calls for a statutorily required increase in choice spending – a per pupil voucher increase of $374 in 2023-24 and an increase of $695 in 2024-25. The freeze will be rejected by the Legislature. But an increase in voucher amounts are in the crosshairs for the Republicans.
The state’s historic budget surplus of $7.1 billion is on everyone’s radar. Over half of that comes from one-time funding. The chairman of the Joint Committee on Finance said it’s already been spent many times over by all the people streaming through his office. It’s true. Every lawmaker and lobbyist is chomping at the bit in hopes to aim it towards their pet project.
But the budget hawks are asking how those plans will be funded after the one-time money is gone. Others are cautioning frugality because a recession may be coming, and we’ll need a budget surplus as a defense. Others jokingly counter that 12 of the last three recessions have been predicted. Meaning, if you say something often enough, it will eventually come true. After all, they say, even a broken clock is right twice a day.
And so it will go like this until mid April. Gov. Evers has hit the road with his cabinet secretaries to tour the state with the Democrats’ message. He even got President Biden to visit Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Republicans are touting their priorities.
Beware: Both sides are using the budget debate to ignite voter turnout for the non-partisan April 4 state Supreme Court race, where the winner gets a 10-year term and determines which side controls the court. And remember: If you do not hear WCRIS talking about something, then you do not need to worry about it. There will be a lot of fantastical headlines in the coming weeks.
Amid all the fighting and mixed messages, WCRIS is proposing a non-partisan plan to Legislators that the Governor actually might be willing to sign. The WCRIS proposal calls for an innovative and equitable approach to funding special initiatives for education.
WCRIS is arguing that since private schools constitute ten percent of Wisconsin’s K-12 school population, they should get ten percent of education-related funding to use for school health and safety grants. This proposal is based on all that WCRIS schools have learned from receiving access to recent federal pandemic aid and the 2017 state safety grants.
Legislative leaders like that it is innovative, and it only needs one-time spending, which enhances its prospects. While WCRIS knows that nothing is better than recurring funding, we are realistic about what might beat a gubernatorial veto. We want to actually get something from this budget, as opposed to just talking points.
We’re telling Legislators that both public and private schools have had trouble accessing the federal pandemic relief money. Congress hastily wrote a law that makes it difficult for schools to get the things they actually need to help children now. But both used the state safety grants well in 2017-19 for security improvements such as hard core doors, classroom locks, main door intercoms and cameras.
Like the public schools, private K-12 schools need grants to finance initiatives that address learning loss, access to clean air and water, broadband connectivity, unfinished school hardening and mental health treatment. All things Gov. Evers addresses in his budget.
We are requesting funding with state money so our schools are free from the federal regulations and bureaucracy tied to federal dollars. We’ll be asking our schools in late April to contact their Legislators and ask for their support. We’ll make it easy to do that. Stay tuned to Current Events for instructions.
