Friends and Neighbors,
In this month's Capitol Update, I have included information about the statewide voucher expansion, the Milwaukee
County Board legislation, and Wisconsin's budget.
I hope you find this information helpful, and please let me know if I can be of any assistance to you.
Sandy Pasch
State Representative
10th Assembly District
Statewide Voucher Expansion
Last session, Republicans passed legislation that greatly increased support for Wisconsin’s school choice programs
in Racine and Milwaukee – choosing to use public funds for private voucher schools, without increasing their
accountability to the state. In order to fund the growing program, the bill directed money to come out of the
individual impacted school district for every student who attends a choice school instead of a public school.
This session, Governor Walker has taken his support for unaccountable voucher schools even further,
including provisions in his budget to expand school choice statewide. Still, he has continued to
avoid implementing the necessary transparency and accountability measures to ensure that all
our kids are getting the great education they deserve.
At the same time, Republicans have done nothing to restore the $1.6 billion in cuts that our public
schools endured in the last budget. Because of these misplaced priorities, we have seen increased
class sizes, extreme reductions in teachers and other staff, and the elimination of art and music
classes across the state. Clearly, by defunding public education and then using public school funding
for private, voucher schools that have virtually no accountability to the state, we are doing a great
disservice to our students.
While it seems very likely that the voucher program will be expanded statewide in the 2013-14
biennium budget, I will do everything I can to increase accountability measures and force private
voucher schools to meet the same level of standards that our public schools reach.
Milwaukee County Board Legislation
Assembly Bill 85, which would micromanage the Milwaukee County Board's budget and structure,
was introduced in the Assembly earlier this month. Last week, after hours of debate on the bill,
Assembly Democrats objected to it's passage, which means that there will not be a final vote until next month.
This bill is a blatant attack on local control in Milwaukee, and a clear sign that Republicans have
decided to focus on distracting proposals that disregard and divide our local communities, instead
of working to create jobs in Wisconsin. While I am always open to discussing how to make
government more efficient, effective, and responsive at all levels, this bill has done little to reform
Milwaukee County government.
In response, the current Milwaukee County Board members introduced a package of reforms
that would drastically change the make-up and powers of the board. This local, homegrown
proposal is more in tune with the needs of our community than the Madison-based solution
that legislative Republicans are supporting.
I hope that, moving forward, we will leave Milwaukee County government to the people
that live and work in Milwaukee County, and focus instead on what really matters - creating
family-supporting jobs in Wisconsin.
Democrats Host Budget Public Hearings
The Wisconsin Legislature's Joint Finance Committee holds public hearings throughout the
state to create a discussion about the proposed budget each session. This year, the Joint
Finance Committee chose to hold only four public hearings, the fewest we've had in decades.
Because of this, my Democratic colleagues and I have been hosting public hearings across the
state to hear the priorities and concerns of our constituents. Already, we have heard from
residents in Wausau, Madison, Wisconsin Rapids, and Milwaukee, and we'll continue to
travel around the state to hear from everyone who is affected by our state's budget.
Last Saturday at our Milwaukee hearing, I heard from residents that we need a state budget
that takes a balanced approach in order to help the people who need it most. I heard from
concerned families that we need to provide effective relief for those who are working hard
to make ends meet, while reinvesting in public education, healthcare, and public transportation.
Unfortunately, the current budget proposal further harms our public education system by freezing
spending and denies hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites access to affordable healthcare by
cutting BadgerCare coverage. Here are some of the budget's most unfair attacks on hard-working Wisconsinites:
Spending More for Less - The rejection of federal funds to strengthen BadgerCare and the Governor’s
changes cut nearly 80,000 people off BadgerCare, forcing someone making as little as $12,000 per year
to buy private insurance with unaffordable copays and deductibles.
Public Education Deficit - New per pupil funding: $0 for public school students versus up
to $1,414 for private voucher schools. This budget doubles down on last session’s historic
cuts to education while increasing funding for private voucher schools.
Cementing Our Children’s Debt - The transportation budget borrows nearly $1 billion over
the next two years for state projects, leaving future generations in debt and doing nothing to help
local communities build or repair local roads.
The New Deficit - After dividing our state and claiming he had to do it to balance the budget,
Governor Walker's budget creates a $664 million deficit that forces our children to pay for
tax breaks for big corporations and the extremely wealthy.
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