The Joint Finance Committee voted
along party lines at 1:30 a.m. today to adopt a major omnibus motion related to
the Department of Public Instruction's 2015-17 budget.
Included
in the motion was a restoration of the $150 per pupil aid in the 2015-16 school
year and an increase in per pupil aid in the second year of the biennium where
payments will be set at $250 per pupil. This represents an increase of $196
million in state funding compared to the Governor's proposal.
The Committee took no action on the Common School Fund or BadgerLink, so the proposals in the Governor's budget related to these two items remain unchanged. Common
School Fund funding remains unchanged. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau projects
CSF distributions to be $36 million in the first year of the budget and $38
million in the second year of the budget, however, these are just estimates.
BadgerLink receives a slight increase in funding to maintain current contracts.
The
Committee also approved an expansion of the private school choice program and
created a new special needs voucher program that allows students with
disabilities to receive state funding to attend private schools. An extra $48
million in state funding is provided in the budget to pay for the school choice
program.
In a
controversial move, the Committee approved a new Opportunity Schools and
Partnership Program which would allow a Commissioner to manage and control
"failing" Milwaukee Public Schools. The Milwaukee County Executive
would be charged with supervising the Commissioner. The Commissioner
would seek bids from individuals or groups operating independent "2r"
charter schools, governing boards of private schools participating in the
school choice program and individuals or groups not currently operating a
school to take over the operations of a failing MPS school. In the motion
adopted by the Committee, this new program could apply to other schools in the
future that meet certain criteria. Two school districts (Madison and Racine)
currently meet two of the three criteria.
The motion was 28 pages long, but here are some highlights:
Alternative
Teacher License: Delete
the current provisions of the bill as proposed by Governor Walker. Require DPI
to grant an initial teaching license to teach a technical education subject,
including technology education and any technology related occupation, to an
individual who scores at least 100 points based on a point system, with at
least 25 points based on the individual’s experience in a technical field and
at least 25 points based on a pedagogical experience, and agrees to complete a
curriculum determined by the school board of the district in which the
individual would teach. Specify that an individual granted a teaching license
under this provision would not be required to possess a bachelor’s
degree. A license granted under this provision would be good for three
years.
Virtual
Marketplace Textbooks: Provide
$10,000 to fund a contract with a vendor or vendors to develop and add content
to a digital textbook marketplace and resource center. The marketplace would
allow authorized personnel from public school districts, charter schools and
private schools, as well as home school educators, to purchase digital
educational resources.
Microsoft
IT Academy:
Require DPI to designate one individual to serve as a coordinator for the
Microsoft IT Academy.
CESAs: State funding for CESAs is
eliminated and school districts would be allowed to withdraw from their CESA.
The motion adopted by the Committee would also delete statutory language
requiring each CESA's Board of Control to determine each school district's
proportional share of the cost of the maintenance and operation of the Office
of the Board of Control and CESA Administrator. It also removes statutory
language requiring the CESA to match any federal funds received for vocational
administration.
Common
Core: The
Committee approved the Governor's recommendation to prohibit the State
Superintendent from giving any effect to, or requiring a school board to give
effect to, the Common Core State Standards. According to the Legislative Fiscal
Bureau, it is unclear what the exact effect of this provision is; however, they
note that the word "repeal" is not mentioned.
Smarter
Balanced Assessment: The
Smarter Balanced Assessment will no longer be offered in Wisconsin. Instead,
the State Superintendent will have to select a new statewide assessment. However, the
motion adopted by the Committee requires DPI to receive approval from the
federal Department of Education to allow the state to approve between three and
five alternative assessments that schools could choose to offer instead of the statewide assessment.
School
Accountability Report: New
school accountability criteria is put into place. The Committee also adopted a
new ranking system which would rate schools using a new "star"
system, which would assign between one and five stars to a school.
Virtual
Charters: Prohibit
DPI from including data from virtual charter schools when measuring a school
district’s improvement under the school district accountability report if at
least 50% of the pupils in the virtual charter school are attending through the
open enrollment program.
Allow
Districts to Select Assessment of Reading Readiness: require each school
district or independent 2r Charter school operator to administer a reading
assessment selected by the district or charter school operator to assess the
reading readiness or grade-level reading achievement of pupils enrolled in
four-year-old kindergarten through second grade, beginning in the 2016-17
school year. Specify that school boards or charter school operators could
administer computer adaptive assessment.
Civics
Assessment Requirement for High School Graduation: Specify that a school
board, independent 2r charter school operator, and private choice school may
not grant a high school diploma and the state superintendent may not grant a
declaration of equivalency of high school graduation to an individual unless he
or she has successfully completed a civics assessment beginning in the 2016-17
school year.
Teacher
and Administrator Contract Renewals: Modify the date by which a school board must give a teacher
or administrator written notice of renewal or refusal to renew the teach or
administrator's contract to be 15 days after the passage of the state budget in
odd-numbered years, and May 15th in even-numbered years.
Requirements
to Renew a Teaching Licenses:Require DPI to accept credits earned at any institution of
higher education, as defined in federal law, if credits from an institution of
higher education are required to renew a license to teach.
Charter
Schools: The
operator of a "2r" Charter School can now open additional schools if
all of the schools they currently operate have received one of the top two
ratings on the most recent school accountability reports.
