Could Draw Educators to Rural WCRIS Schools Last Thursday, Governor Walker signed legislation for the public and private school teacher loan forgiveness program to include state-wide, rural school districts alongside the current Milwaukee program. The teacher loan program is administered by The Higher Education Aids Board (HEAB). The HEAB awards loans to eligible students up [...]
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Private Schools Save Money With Surplus Property Program
April 20, 2016
Private schools are eligible to obtain surplus federal property for pennies on the dollar, through a long-standing program that will be run by the Wisconsin Department of Administration beginning in July. Federal surplus property is made available to local governments, schools, and other eligible nonprofit organizations, including 501(c)(3) groups such as nonpublic schools. Available items [...]
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WCRIS Outlines Questions for Title I Consultations
April 14, 2016
The 2016-17 school year is a transition period for the new laws affecting Title programs, known as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The purpose of this coming year is for you, with the help of WCRIS, CAPE, the Office of Non-Public Education, and fellow private school advocates, to hold the districts accountable for the [...]
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WCRIS Schools Spared From Zany School Lunch Program Proposal
April 07, 2016
Thanks to advocacy efforts by members of the Council for American Private Education (CAPE), final regulations issued March 31 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) concerning hot lunch services offered by religious providers will not include a proposal that would have empowered students to leave school for another hot lunch site. WCRIS is the state affiliate of CAPE, which [...]
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WCRIS Students Surprised by Generous Increase in Kohl Scholarships
April 03, 2016
At the first of five award banquets hosted by the Kohl Foundation, Senator Kohl surprised attendees by announcing a $2,000 increase for each student scholarship award, making each worth $5,000. “This vigorous increase in the scholarship amount is amazing, especially since it was just increased from $1,000 to $3,000 last year. Now, by going up [...]
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Gov Signs Laws Impacting Private Schools As Legislative Session Ends
March 31, 2016
The 2015-16 state legislative session is drawing to an end. As state lawmakers return to their districts to begin campaigning for re-election in November, they look back on a legislative session featuring the introduction of 1,006 Assembly bills and 795 Senate bills. Just 341 of them were signed into law by the Governor so far. [...]
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WI Supreme Court Election Critical for Private Schools
March 30, 2016
The seven-member Wisconsin Supreme Court has one vacancy, which is up for election Tuesday, April 5. Justices serve for a 10-year term. The Court has the responsibility for deciding any legal challenge to laws passed by the State Legislature and Governor. In 1998, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of religious schools being able [...]
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Keep Busing Services by Meeting Looming Deadlines
March 28, 2016
The annual busing deadlines for private schools outlined in state law are fast approaching. While state law has NOT changed in regards to busing services for private school children, WCRIS schools across the state are seeing attempts to change their students’ busing privileges because public school districts are under tremendous financial pressure to control costs. [...]
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Overtime Pay Quagmire? No Need to Worry
March 21, 2016
Teachers Exempt from Looming Rules WCRIS principals have been inundating our office with questions about looming federal rules on paying overtime to employees who work more than 40 hours per week and make less than $50,000 annually. The U.S. Department of Labor was expected to release new overtime pay rules in July (see page 103 [...]
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Last Gasp of Legislative Work as Senate Convenes
March 14, 2016
The State Senate meets one last time tomorrow, March 15, before it adjourns for the current legislative session. The Assembly adjourned for the year on Friday, Feb. 19. Among many other things, the Senate is expected to debate a “clean up” bill to remedy some glitches in the new Special Needs Scholarship Program. In addition, [...]
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