From Diana Vance

Monroe

To the Editor:

Lawmakers in Madison recently are making disastrous financial decisions about how to spend $6.6 billion dollars from the federal government sent for COVID relief. And on top of that amount they have set aside $1.7 billion dollars in a Rainy Day Fund.

They refuse to listen to educators and businessmen who wrote a letter appealing them to take $700 million dollars from the $6.6 billion fund and put it towards public schools in the state. Instead they intend to send private schools $349.6 million on school vouchers this school year which is up from $302 million given in 2018-19. Put the two amounts together and it almost the same amount that businessmen want for public schools.

Launching the Wisconsin voucher schools was done with total lack of planning to determine if the state can afford a new overexpanding education system on top of the old one. Yes, what they are doing is to create two School Systems in our state. For an unknown reason they are constantly cutting money for public schools and increasing funds for the private schools. The rich receive more and the public receives less. What kind of logic is going on with those decisions?

The Wisconsin per pupil spending ranked 12th in the nation in 2002. But by 2019 per pupil spending ranked only 25th in the nation. This drop demonstrates an indefensible policy toward public schools that should not be accepted by taxpayers in this state. At the very least the voters of Wisconsin deserve the opportunity to vote for or against having two School Systems in Wisconsin to support.

And it is time for lawmakers to end their high handed way of dealing with what has become a serious problem regarding school funding. When Governor Evers asked for a special session to consider increasing school funding the Republicans who hold the majority in the Assembly thumbed their noses by gaveling in and out of the special session thus ending any discussion about why an increase in funds was necessary. And then they went home. Such rudeness is unacceptable from so-called adults.

The last state budget did not provide a per pupil increase for Wisconsin K-12 schools. If spending had been kept pace with inflation every student in Wisconsin would have been allocated another $342.82 this year and what they received was zero.

Republicans call what they are doing prudent fiscal decisions based on what?