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Thanks to the bipartisan leadership of Sen. Brian Burke and Rep. John Gard, the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee voted unanimously Wednesday (May 30, 2001) to fully restore state funding to the highly successful SAGE class-size reduction program.
Full funding of SAGE (Student Achievement Guarantee in Education) is one of WEAC's top legislative priorities.
Governor McCallum's budget, as introduced, would have cut SAGE by about $37 million and only allowed schools with poverty rates above 50% to expand SAGE to 2nd and 3rd grades. Aid to 370 schools with poverty rates below 50% would have been capped so that SAGE would only reach children in kindergarten and the 1st grade.
The committee's action reverses the cuts proposed by the governor. The budget that will be presented to the Legislature in June will include full SAGE funding.
The unanimous bipartisan vote in Joint Finance gives full SAGE funding a powerful boost, but the Legislature could always reverse the committee's action. In fact, the day after the Joint Finance committee's vote, two Republican legislators publicly attacked it and issued a plea to former Governor Tommy Thompson to return to Wisconsin "and rein in Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee."
The statement by Reps. Glenn Grothman of West Bend and Frank Lasee of Bellevue accused the committee of engaging in "irresponsible spending." [The Grothman-Lasee news release]
WEAC President Terry Craney, however, said the committee's vote was " huge victory for the children of Wisconsin."
"SAGE helps teachers teach and children learn," he said. "It not only helps schools become great schools, it benefits everyone in the community."
Resource page on SAGE
and class size reduction
Resource page on the 2001-2003 state budget
Posted May 30, 2001; Updated June 1, 2001