Joint Finance Approves Funding for TEACH 2.0, Deletes Funding for Wisconsin Media Lab

The Joint Finance Committee voted 16-0 today to approve a motion authored by Representative Mary Czaja (R-Irma) to provide additional technology resources to schools.

Representative Czaja's motion would provide the following funding:

• $3 million for a new appropriation to fund the digital learning collaborative established for the statewide web academy and for delivery of digital content and collaborative instruction.  
• Reduce Universal Services Funding for Telecommunications Access to School Districts by $3 million. 
• Expand permitted uses of the remaining Universal Services Fund funding for telecommunications access for school districts and permit the Department of Administration to provide educational technology grants as follows:

1. Information Technology Infrastructure Grants: Create a competitive block grant that the Department of Administration (DOA) could provide to school districts for information technology infrastructure. These grants would only be available to school districts that have 13 or fewer students per square mile. It is estimated that 259 school districts would meet this requirement. 
2. Teacher Training Grants for Educational Technology: Allow DOA to provide grants to consortia of three or more schools districts for the cost of training teachers on the use of educational technology. The following funding would be available: $7,500 for districts with fewer than 750 students; $10 per student for districts with between 750 and 1,500 students; $15,000 for district with more than 1,500 students. Schools must also meet the 13 or fewer students per square mile requirement as described above. 

Wisconsin Media Lab:

On Tuesday, the Joint Finance Committee voted to delete all state funding for the Wisconsin Media Lab and remove “development and dissemination of instructional materials” from the Educational Communications Board’s duties.

The Committee did also vote to reinstate some funding for the ECB’s general program operations, field engineering and administration budget.