Wisconsin lawmakers are still hard at work this month. In many previous legislative sessions, legislators would be returning to their districts to meet with constituents or prepare for re-election around this time. But, both sides of the aisle are showing no signs of slowing down soon, which means WCRIS isn’t slowing down either.
Just this week, WCRIS submitted testimony on two proposed Assembly bills:
Assembly Bill 898: Civics Instruction
The proposed bill sets parameters for the DPI to create a model civics curriculum and instructional materials for grades K-12. Public, charter and choice schools would then be required to include those same parameters in their own civics instruction and to annually report to the DPI how they are meeting the instruction requirements.
Though WCRIS supports civics education, we object to curriculum mandates to protect the autonomy of our member schools. Further, high-schoolers at choice schools are already required to pass an exam modeled after the U.S. citizenship test. Schools should be free to teach their students as they see fit in preparation for that exam. Read WCRIS’ testimony here.
Assembly Bill 937: Cursive Instruction
This bill intends to require public, charter and choice schools to teach cursive writing in the elementary grades and to adopt an objective that students must be able to legibly write in cursive by the end of fifth grade.
Again, the decision to teach cursive should be up to the school, and many of our schools already teach cursive. Read our testimony here.
These are in addition to several other proposed bills WCRIS is monitoring that affect both choice and non-choice private schools. Please don’t hesitate to contact WCRIS if you have any public policy questions.
