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Wisconsin lawmakers advanced a bill that would change the way school voucher programs are funded, so that funding for all of Wisconsin’s private school choice programs comes directly from state general purpose revenue. The same group of lawmakers also advanced a package of bills Wednesday meant to address truancy.
The Assembly Education Committee approved AB 900 , the choice program funding bill, in a 8-3 vote with Reps. Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay), Kristina Shelton (D-Green Bay) and Dave Considine (D-Baraboo) voting against. Gov. Tony Evers has also expressed opposition to the bill.
According to a Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo, students who participate in the Racine, statewide and special needs scholarship programs are currently funded via two different mechanisms. Students who started on of the programs in 2014-15 or prior are fully funded from the state general fund.
The funding set-up is different for students who started in one of the two programs in the 2015-16 school year or later. For those students, the per-pupil amount paid to private voucher schools is funded by a reduction in state aid from the public school district that the student would otherwise attend. To make up for the reduction, school districts are able to count the students participating in the choice program and receive a nonrecurring revenue limit adjustment for each student, allowing school districts to increase local taxes by the exact amount lost in aid.