Private school principals testify before the Assembly Education Committee.
School Safety Drill Warnings
Thanks to WCRIS advocacy, the Assembly Education Committee passed a bill (AB 54) on April 18. The bill will allow school administrators to give advance warning of fire, tornado and safety drills. Currently, the law requires the drills to be done without warning. The bill moves on to the Senate for review.
Governor’s Proposed Budget
Several WCRIS principals attended and testified at the four hearings held around the state by the legislature’s Committee on Joint Finance this past month. Their attendance and comments were recorded and went a long way towards balancing rhetoric from pro-public school advocates who oppose tuition tax deductions for K-12 private school parents and oppose parental choice in education. Gov. Evers budget seeks to eliminate the tuition tax deduction and freeze the choice program.
Legislative leaders have said they will not pass Gov. Evers budget as it is written. WCRIS Schools’ show of support for existing programs will help legislators protect current law in whatever budget version they develop for Gubernatorial consideration. The budget is supposed to be passed by June 30.
Legislators Visit WCRIS Schools
Legislators from both sides of the aisle have been visiting WCRIS schools since February and it is making quite an impression. Many legislators have never been inside a private K-12 school and have been remarking to WCRIS Executive Director Sharon Schmeling how enjoyable and edifying the visits have been.
“Hosting legislators in our schools will go a long way towards advancing WCRIS’s efforts to protect private school autonomy and seek equitable treatment for state funding of existing mandates,” Schmeling said, urging schools that have not already invited their legislators to extend them an invitation.
One innovative approach to Legislators’ visits was taken by The Prairie School in Racine, which invited two Assembly reps — one Democrat and one Republican — to discuss with the students the purpose of government. Rep. Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) is a Prairie School alum. Samantha Kerkman (R-Kenosha) is the longest-serving Republican in the State Assembly.
Armed with poster boards outlining Wisconsin’s three branches of government, the Legislators spoke to the Prairie School’s fifth grade students, who were curious about how the two could work together even though they are from different parties. The discussion veered into the topic of civility and the important role it plays in having discussions about complicated issues and potential solutions to problems that affect our society.
As the two opposing lawmakers talked calmly and politely about the differences in their parties, the students saw civility in action.
So, whether you invite legislators to tour your school or to talk to students about the role of government, the important thing is to develop a relationship with them. This will help educate the lawmakers about what your school does for the community and will provide them with a contact person they can call when they have questions about how a proposed bill might affect private schools.
Go here for a primer on how to conduct a legislative visit.
WCRIS Collaborates with DPI on Fixing Messy Choice Data Reporting Memo
A recent routine Choice Administrator memo to all private schools participating in a Choice program included some misleading information and created some confusion for principals.
The March e-mail contained several pieces of misleading and incorrect information about the collection of student demographic data including directions about collection of student’s socioeconomic status.
Several concerned principals contacted WCRIS for clarification and when we reviewed the email, we found even more errors. WCRIS immediately contacted the DPI’s Choice team to make them aware of the issues and to seek a clarifying response for our principals.
Working with WCRIS, the DPI rewrote the memo to accurately reflect the specific requirements for Choice schools on collecting student demographic information and explained why the information is collected and how it is used.
The original memo was vague and cursory with very little useful information. The new April email memo, written in collaboration with WCRIS, has a thorough explanation about data reporting for the Choice programs, and how schools can comply and how the information will be used.
Click here to review the updated memo.
Virtual Learning on Snow Days
Five WCRIS principals testified before the Assembly Education Committee April 18 to advocate for the recognition of virtual learning for snow days and other emergencies at Choice schools (AB 129). The principals did a masterful job of answering legislators questions about Choice schools and generally helping them understand the role of technology in private K-12 education today.
You can read WCRIS’ official testimony by Executive Director Schmeling here.
The Committee is expected to pass the bill and send it to the Assembly later this year. Non-choice schools are free to use virtual instruction and would not be affected by this proposed law.
