Save the TEACH Grants: Contact your State Senator and State Representative TODAY

The Joint Finance Committee votes TOMORROW on on Governor Evers' proposal to:

1) Eliminate the TEACH Educational Technology Training and Curriculum Grants 

2) Transfer $24 million in federal e-rate funding meant for schools and libraries to the Broadband Expansion Grant Program. 

3) Continue TEACH Infrastructure grants until 2021 but reduce funding from $7.5 million to $3 million per year 

Contact your state senator and state representative before Tuesday at 9 a.m. and ask them to reject the Governor's proposals to cut critical ed-tech grant funding!

Ask your legislator to support Alternatives B1, B4, D2 and E2  in Legislative Fiscal Bureau Paper #102

Talking Points:

• Oppose the elimination of the TEACH  Educational Technology Training and Curriculum Grants. These grants provide $1.5 million in yearly funding to  rural school districts to provide training to teachers and librarians on the use of educational technology. During 2018, 201 rural school districts received funding from this grant program, enabling hundreds of Wisconsin teachers to receive educational technology training. It’s critical that educators receive the professional learning opportunities they need to choose and integrate quality online resources and tools into the classroom

• Oppose the transfer of $24 million in federal e-rate funds, which are meant to support telecommunications services for schools and libraries, to the Broadband Expansion Grant program. E-rate funds should continue to support schools and libraries. Currently, schools and libraries are not expressly listed as eligible applicants for the Broadband Expansion grants and state statute requires political subdivisions to partner with a telecommunications company or private organization in order to apply.

• Support the continuation of the TEACH Infrastructure Grants and maintain full funding of $7.5 million per year. These grants provide technology infrastructure to improve the capacity of rural school districts to utilize technology for students. In 2017-18, approximately 250 school districts received TEACH Infrastructure grants. 

How to Contact Your Legislators:

The first step in contacting your legislator is knowing who your legislator is. The easiest way to do this is the tool found on the Legislature’s home page, at http://legis.wisconsin.gov. In the right-hand side of that page is a link that says Find My Legislators! Type your address in the box below that link to get the names of your state representative and senator.

· Phone. You may leave a message for your legislator’s Capitol office or indicate your position on legislation through the toll free Legislative Hotline, at 1-800-362-9472.

· E-mail. The e-mail addresses of members of the Wisconsin Legislature all have the same format. For members of the Assembly, the form is Rep.Jones@legis.wisconsin.gov; for members of the Senate, the form is Sen.Adams@legis.wisconsin.gov.