PESHTIGO, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – At a stop in Peshtigo Tuesday, Governor Scott Walker said his proposed K-12 budget is a top priority.
The Governor is looking to set aside hundreds of millions of dollars.
However, some lawmakers say it’s too soon to know exactly how much money will make it through the Legislature.
Shaking hands with educators, and talking about his proposed $649 million investment in education, Governor Walker spoke to WLUK and stressed the importance of support from lawmakers.
“I’m less worried about the process and more focused on the ultimate policy. And the policy is, we need to put more in our schools to help build our workforce”
On Monday, the Wisconsin Association of School Boards sent out a tweet saying, “ALERT: Aid increases for Schools Under Threat From Plan to Scrap Gov’s Budget.”
“The Governor has been very generous to public education, he has given us an increase that allows spendable resources for schools to keep pace with inflation, about $200 a student this year, and about $204 a student the next year. That is about a two percent increase for a typical school district,” said Dan Rossmiller with the WASB.
Rossmiller said he is worried that lawmakers will put other issues ahead of education.
“That they (lawmakers) believe the overall spending is too high, or they want to significantly reallocate the Governor’s proposals to different purposes”
However, Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steinke says it’s too early in the process to say how much money would be put toward K-12 education.
“It would be irresponsible at this point to lock ourselves into any particular number given the uncertainty of what our outlook is going to be”
Steinke explained the state should receive new revenue estimates next month which could change how much money is put toward education.
“The revenue estimates could go up and we could be in better shape than we thought going in, or they could go down, so we’ll just have to see where those numbers fall before making an ultimate decision”
The Joint Finance Committee will start holding public hearings on the proposed budget next week.
One public hearing will be held Friday, April 7th at Berlin High School, and another hearing will be held Friday, April 21th at Marinette High School.
