GS Community Sessions are next step

The next activity in the Great Schools Statewide Action Plan will bring state legislators face-to-face with WEAC members.

The plan calls for locals to hold sessions with their state legislators to discuss critical issues like school funding, state-imposed revenue controls and the Qualified Economic Offer law.

WEAC members and staff are planning Great Schools Community Sessions, which will occur later this winter.

"Locals will gather by legislative district and invite their legislators to discuss their positions on these issues," WEAC President Stan Johnson said. "WEAC members and the public deserve to know how their elected representatives will vote on these critical matters as we work to create great schools for every kid in Wisconsin. This is one step in a long-term process."

UniServ staff are helping coordinate the community sessions throughout the state. Resources will be available online in the near future.

The WEAC Winter Conference features sessions on the Action Plan, which are designed to help members prepare and run the events.

The evidence is in: TABOR won't work

The only people who believe tax freeze gimmicks will work are a handful of individuals actively advocating for them, according to WEAC President Stan Johnson.

"There is a growing body of research showing that the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights or property tax freeze will devastate our schools and communities," Johnson said. "The latest is from a conference in Madison last week, where speaker after speaker detailed what these gimmicks would do to Wisconsin."

The head of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance told the UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs conference that a Colorado-style TABOR "has been dead for six months in Wisconsin."

According to a story from Partners for Wisconsin, a coalition fighting TABOR, WTA President Todd Berry said the proposal lacks majority support in either house of the Legislature.

TABOR would be even more restrictive than the state-imposed revenue controls that are already strangling school districts, other speakers said.

If TABOR had been in place in 2003, school spending statewide would have been more than $2 billion lower than it actually was, UW-Madison professor Andrew Reschovsky said.

Voucher cap repeal advances

The cap on the number of students participating in the Milwaukee private school voucher program would be lifted for a year under a proposal up for a vote in the Assembly this week.

The Joint Finance Committee and the Assembly Education Reform Committee last week approved a bill repealing the 15,000-student enrollment cap for one year.

"This proposal continues a program that is unaccountable to the public and taxpayers," WEAC President Stan Johnson said. "Instead of validating a costly and unproven experiment, the Legislature should look for ways to help all children attend a great school - in Milwaukee and throughout Wisconsin."

Ballots sent out for superintendent race

WEAC members who participate in the Political Action Committee will soon be receiving ballots for the purpose of recommending a candidate for state superintendent. The ballots were mailed Friday, January 21.