In addition to meeting with legislators about our Health and Safety Grants, WCRIS’ 2.25 lobbyists have been busy at the Capitol this spring.
Aside from the usual scrimmages about school choice, some issues in play include: regulating water quality in private schools; mandating specific reading education; the impact on children and schools of legalizing marijuana; exemptions for private school teachers from obscenity laws; mandatory posting of the child abuse reporting hotline number; changes caused by gender re-identification; and WCRIS appointees to state committees.
No other state advocacy organization for private K-12 schools works to protect religious and independent schools from being over-regulated on the wide range of issues proposed by lawmakers, however well-intentioned their ideas may be.
Just this week, WCRIS submitted testimony for three proposed bills:
- Assembly Bill 99, would make professionals who work in an education-related capacity at the DPI eligible for a lifetime teacher license. WCRIS testified asking the committee to include state-based private school jurisdictional offices like dioceses and synods. A draft amendment is currently in the works.
- Senate Bill 206 would require all schools to stock opioid antagonists (naxolone/Narcan). WCRIS testified it will ultimately always support student and school safety, but raised important questions about the implementation of the law, including training, funding and liability, among others.
- Senate Bill 301, although aimed at shared revenue for municipalities, it includes an easily unnoticed provision in its over 100 pages that choice high schools would be required to collect statistics on instances of crime on its grounds on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. A report would then be included on schools’ annual DPI report cards. WCRIS again registered “for information only,” as school safety is paramount, but urged the Legislature to consider the logistics of this requirement.
The bill has since been amended to address some of WCRIS’ concerns. See pages 8-9 here.
Read WCRIS’ testimony from March on AB-53, proposing crime reporting for voucher schools, that informed some of those changes to SB 301.
WCRIS is monitoring these issues, as well as several others, as they snake their way through the Legislature.
If you have questions about the above proposed bills or any other legislation, please contact the WCRIS office. We’re here to serve!
