Republican-led Assembly Guts Local Control and Public Education

MADISON – Tonight, the Wisconsin State Assembly passed two bills, AB-245 and AB-305, a shared revenue agreement and an increase in per pupil funding to the school choice system. AB-245 undermines local control and will harm our community. AB-305 is a handout to private education and could increase regressive property taxes by up to $647 million.

Representative Clancy (D-19) issued the following statement:

“I was hopeful that the disastrous shared revenue plan would come back from the Senate with improvements. I was clearly wrong. It’s come back to us worse and carrying an attack on public education.

I worked at a Milwaukee Public School for years, so I know first-hand why AB-305 will be detrimental for public education. Per pupil funding for each school building is determined by the attendance on the third Friday of the year. Every single year, after the third Friday count, my public school received students, often with unmet needs, who had been “counseled” out or expelled from the School Choice program. Their dollars did not follow them. The influx of students disrupted the student-led classroom dynamic I had worked hard to create and harmed the students that needed the most support.

These are historic bills. This is an historic attack on local control. This is an historic attack on education. It is a historic handout to privatizers of one of the most fundamental aspects of our democracy, our public education system. The existence of any one of these terrible policies on the bargaining table should have been grounds to walk away from it. That every one of them remains today is a betrayal by anyone who claims to be an advocate for public education or for Milwaukee.”

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.