February 10, 2022
To: Assembly Committee on Education
Re: Statement Opposing Assembly Bill 963
Thank you for this opportunity to provide input on Assembly Bill 963. After extended study, the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin believes educational bills should promote equal educational opportunity for every child through an equitable state aid formula while retaining substantial program and personnel responsibilities in the local district. Based on this position, the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin opposes A.B. 963.
The bill prohibits the state from infringing on the fundamental right of parents
to direct the upbringing, education, health care, and mental health of their children
without demonstrating that the infringement is required by a compelling
governmental interest of the highest order as applied to the child, is narrowly
tailored, and is not otherwise served by a less restrictive means.
1. The right to determine the religion of the child.
2. The right to determine the type of school or educational setting the child
attends.
3. The right to determine medical care for the child, unless specified otherwise in law or court order.
4. The right to review all medical records related to the child, unless specified otherwise in law or court order.
5. The right to determine the names and pronouns used for the child while at school.
6. The right to review instructional materials and outlines used by the child's school.
7. The right to access any education-related information regarding the child.
8. The right to advanced notice of any polls or surveys instituted by the child's classroom.
9. The right to request notice of when certain subjects will be taught or
discussed in the child's classroom.
10. The right to opt out of a class or instructional materials for reasons based on either religion or personal conviction.
11. The right to visit the child at school during school hours, consistent with school policy, unless otherwise specified in law or court order.
12. The right to engage with locally elected school board members of the school district in which the child is a student, including participating at regularly scheduled school board meetings.
13. The right to be notified of the creation of or updates to a security or
surveillance system at the child's school.
14. The right to be informed of any disciplinary action taken against or
threatened against the child.
15. The right to be timely informed of any acts of violence or crimes occurring on grounds of the child's school.
The bill provides that this list does not comprehensively prescribe all inalienable parental rights, and that a child's guardian may have rights that are more comprehensive than those listed.
The Wisconsin League of Women Voters supports “equal educational opportunity for each child … while retaining substantial program and personnel responsibilities in the local district.” This proposed bill does nothing to further that interest.
The Wisconsin Constitution protects students’ rights to an adequate education. This bill does nothing to further that interest.
The administration and control of Wisconsin’s public schools has been delegated to duly elected local boards. This bill would take administration away from local boards and officials. In that sense it does not further the interests of our democratic principles.
This bill does little to support or improve education in the state of Wisconsin. During a time when the needs of children are not being met due to consistent underfunding by the state in spite of the fact that the state has a record budget surplus, we believe the state should be focusing on meeting the needs of our children.
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February 10, 2022
To: Assembly Committee on Education
Re: Statement Opposing Assembly Bills 964 and 969
The League of Women voters has long championed an educational system that provides “equal educational opportunity for each child through an equitable state aids formula while retaining substantial program and personnel responsibilities in the local district.” In other words, a system that lives up to our constitutional ideals while preserving local control.
We oppose AB 964 because it fails this standard. The bill proposes to provide tax credits to individuals in response to decisions made about educational delivery by locally elected school boards. It makes no mention of how these credits will be funded, nor does it provide any rationale for why a district’s decision on mode of delivery during a pandemic should have any bearing on property taxes assessed and collected. Local school officials are in the best position to understand local conditions and the effects of the pandemic on both their students and staff and their decisions on mode of delivery deserve deference and not an after-the-fact response in the form of tax credits.
Likewise, we oppose AB 969 because it too fails to address the real needs of schools and school districts – adequate and equitable resources to meet the needs of students as they grow, develop, and learn. Instead, this bill requires the expenditure of funds for the purpose of armed school resource officers. Once again, local school officials are in the best position to know whether and when such a resource is needed. To require the use of funds based on a formula that includes crime data unrelated to school activities, students, and school personnel, is both misguided and fiscally irresponsible as the proposed “solution” of a school resource officer may bear no relation to data that required the expenditure in the first place. Moreover, the bill would require DPI use funds received under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 for this purpose, in direct violation of the permissible use of those federal funds. The provision of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 that affects schools is called the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief or ESSER. As ESSER makes explicit, the funds may only be permissibly used to address the educational impacts of COVID-19. This use proposed by this AB969 is unrelated to this purpose and would therefore place in jeopardy all funds received by the state under its approved ESSER plan.
