State agencies submitted their 2015-17 budget requests to
the Department of Administration on Monday, September 15. The governor will use
these requests to craft his or her 2015-17 state budget, which will be
introduced in February or March of 2015.
State Superintendent Tony Evers will be submitting his
budget
request in two parts. The first, which he submitted on Monday, September
15, focuses on school safety and technology. The second part, which will focus
on overall school funding, will be released in November.
“To address a growing digital divide, my proposals related
to technology and libraries would ensure that all students and teachers-no
matter where they live in the state—would have equitable access to high quality
digital learning tools and content,” writes Superintendent Evers in his
request.
Major funding items that may be of interest, include:
WISElearn/Digital Learning Portal and E-Publication
Grants: DPI is requesting an additional $2,060,000 in the first year of the
biennium and $2,945,000 in the second year of the biennium to continue its
development of the WISElearn, which includes the Digital Learning Portal,
professional learning platform, learning management system, content repository,
collaboration tools, and curricular content; as well as to provide funding for
regional technical support centers. This funding will also support a matching
grant program to provide e-publications to both school and public libraries as
part of WISElearn. DPI believes that one-to-one matching grants to consortia
purchasing e-publications would incentivize libraries to participate in
consortia, which are designed to provide a lower cost method for purchasing
these resources through volume purchasing and economies of scale. Consortia
also facilitate sharing these resources across any participating public library
or school district.
It is important to note that when discussing the ongoing
development of the digital learning portal, DPI says that “the Department
intends to take advantage of the existing skill base in digital learning of
school library media specialists and school librarians to collaborate with instructional
technology educators, classroom educators, and administrators to build a solid
basis of support for this development.” To see the detailed WISElearn plan,
please review pages 155-164 of
this
document.
Public Library System Aid: DPI is requesting an
increase of $13,879,500 in the first year of the biennium and $14,168,400 in
the second year of the biennium for state aid to the public library system.
This would bring overall funding for the public library system to $28,892,600
in the first year of the biennium and $29,181,500 in the second year.
Badgerlink: DPI is requesting an increase of $486,400
in the first year of the biennium and $546,800 in the second year of the
biennium to fund BadgerLink and the College and Career Ready Digital Modules
and maintain the current level of services. This brings the total funding of
BadgerLink to roughly $3 million in each year of the budget.
School Library Aids: DPI estimates that base level
funding for school library aids will be $34 million in each year of the budget.
Wisconsin School Safety Center: DPI is requesting
$700,000 in each year of the budget to establish the Wisconsin School Safety
Center (WSSC) to provide guidance to schools on school violence and emergency
preparedness issues. Emergency preparedness would be addressed by supporting
schools in developing emergency plans and conducting emergency drills to
prepare schools in the event that there is a weather or mass casualty situation
at a school district. Violence prevention would be addressed by providing needs
assessments and professional training to school districts on how to reduce incidents
of student-on-student violence including fighting/assault, weapon carrying and
use, and bullying and harassment.
School Violence Prevention Programs: DPI requests $2
million to help improve school safety by providing funding directly to school
districts to support programs and activities that prevent school violence and
protect students.
DPI-identified Goals for Aids to Libraries, Individuals
and Organizations
Goal: Ensure all citizens have equal access to comprehensive
public library resources and services.
Objective/Activity: All libraries make effective use of
technology and the Internet in order to provide access to information and
knowledge resources to the state's residents.
Goal: Build a solid foundation for learning for all
children.
Objective/Activity: Provide early intervention services at
the middle school level via the Wisconsin educational opportunity, precollege
and early identification programs to reinforce a solid foundation for learning
and academic performance.
