Legislative Update
Redistricting 2024: state Assembly districts
With new state legislative maps getting signed into law and the end of the 2023-24 legislative floor session, lawmakers across the state are turning their eyes to the coming election season. New maps bring many changes, including possible changes to longstanding relationships you might have built with your state representatives. The WASB wants to ensure that school leaders have the resources they need to stay up to date on the changes coming to the Wisconsin State Legislature, and how your advocacy efforts could be affected.
Below we look at the districts up for reelection in Nov. 2024 and track what legislators have made announcements about whether they intend to seek reelection, retire, move to run in a different district or for another office, etc. This Fall will see the election of all 99 state Assembly districts. Assembly district maps 2022 and 2024 can be found and compared HERE. read more…
The state legislators not coming back next session (so far)
From The Wheeler Report: “The following individuals have publicly announced they will either not seek re-election, or are running for a different office:
- SD-2: Rob Cowles – Not seeking re-election
- SD-16: Melissa Agard – Running for Dane County Executive
- AD-09: Marisabel Cabrera – Running for Circuit Court Judge
- AD-11: Dora Drake – Running for SD-4
- AD-12: Lakeshia Myers – Running for SD-4
- AD-18: Evan Goyke – Running for Milwaukee County Attorney
- AD-28: Gae Magnafici- Not seeking re-election
- AD-42: Jon Plumer- Not seeking re-election
- AD-44: Sue Conley – Not seeking re-election
- AD-46: Melissa Ratcliff – Running for Senate
- AD-47: Jimmy Anderson – Running for Senate
- AD-48: Samba Baldeh- Running for Senate
- AD-65: Tod Ohnstad- Not seeking re-election
- AD-71: Katrina Shankland – Running for Congress
- AD-73: Angie Sapik – Not seeking re-election
- AD-81: Dave Considine – Not seeking re-election
- AD-83: Nik Rettinger – Not seeking re-election
- AD-87: James Edming- Not seeking re-election.
- AD-88: John Macco – Not seeking re-election
- AD-90: Kristina Shelton – Not seeking re-election
Please note, this list does not include any individuals who may have been paired in a district under the new maps. This list only contains those individuals who have publicly stated they are not seeking re-election, or who have announced they are running for a different office. Filings of Non-Candidacy are due to the Wisconsin Elections Commission by 5 pm on May 24, 2024.”
The WASB is sharing this list to ensure members are aware of potential impacts to their relationships with their current legislators. We will continue to update this list as more announcements are made.
Redistricting 2024: state Senate districts
With new state legislative maps getting signed into law and the end of the 2023-24 legislative floor session, lawmakers across the state are turning their eyes to the coming election season. New maps bring many changes, including possible changes to longstanding relationships you might have built with your state Senators. The WASB wants to ensure that school leaders have the resources they need to stay up to date on the changes coming to the Wisconsin State Legislature, and how your advocacy efforts could be affected.
Below we look at the districts up for reelection in Nov. 2024 and track what legislators have made announcements about whether they intend to seek reelection, retire, move to run in a different district or for another office, etc. This Fall will see the election of half (even-numbered) of the 33 state Senate districts. Senate district maps for 2022 and 2024 can be found and compared HERE. read more…
Governor vetoes several education-related bills including competitive bidding mandate
Gov. Evers issued vetoes on a large number of bills today (3/29). Included on that list were several pieces of legislation that the WASB was tracking (veto messages linked below):
SB 335/AB 342 Relating to: allowing school boards to employ a school district administrator who is not licensed by the department of public instruction.
SB 489/AB 510 Relating to: rights reserved to a parent or guardian of a child.
SB 608/AB 640 Relating to: a license to teach based on working as a paraprofessional in a school district.
SB 688/AB 723 Relating to: local government competitive bidding thresholds and requiring school districts to utilize competitive bidding.
Governor signs bill allowing for continued funding of OSS through the next budget cycle
Today, Governor Tony Evers signed AB 1050 into law as 2023 Wisconsin Act 240. The bill will allow the Office of School Safety to use funds raised through concealed carry permit fees to continue funding their operations. This stopgap measure authored by Sen. Quinn and Rep. Novak, only allows for these measures to stay in effect through the next budget cycle. Both Quinn and Novak attempted to get OSS funding in the 2023-25 budget cycle but were unsuccessful in their attempts. Legislators will have to appropriate more money to the office in the next budget cycle, or OSS will risk closure or a significant reduction in services.Governor Evers signs 11 education related bills into law, issues veto on another
Governor Evers signed 11 bills that would impact school districts into law this week. These bills range in topic from raising safety standards, broadening a tech-ed grant program, educator licensing, changes to certain aspects of Act 20 training and screener requirements, and numerous stocking medication bills. He also issued a veto on SB 549, which would have required schools to admit certain federally charted youth organizations once a year for recruiting purposes. Read below to view the actions taken by the governor this week. read more…
Over 25 education related bills that are dead for this session
Last week, the Legislature adjourned for the session (barring extraordinary circumstances), with the Senate voting on the last bills for the year on March 12th. The following bills were passed by one chamber but not the other. While they didn’t make it across the finish line this session, they will likely be back next session or in the future. See below to view the education related bills that failed to reach the governor’s desk in 2023-24. read more…
WASBO/WSPRA: Video resource explaining public school funding is available for use by districts
Our public education partners at WASBO (Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials) and WSPRA (Wisconsin School Public Relations Association) have provided districts with the following message as the spring and fall election dates draw closer.You can find information about both options at this link.
Please feel free to share this widely with anyone you think might benefit from it. We will be disseminating it to WASBO members and other partners and will make it available on our website.”
Senate meets today for last legislative action of 2023-24 session
The Wisconsin State Senate meets today (3/12) at 11am in floor session to take up a large calendar full of appointments, legislation and constitutional amendments. This is expected to be the last legislative action of the 2023-24 state legislative session. After today, any bills that have not passed through both houses of the legislature (in identical form) are not becoming law this session. This includes the following legislation related to K-12 education the WASB has been tracking (SB=Senate Bill/AB=Assembly Bill): read more…
JFC approves the 4 early literacy curricula recommended by council
The state Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance (JFC) has voted along party lines to select the early literacy curricula that will comprise the recommended list of curricula under 2023 Wisconsin Act 20, the law that revamped early reading requirements. See our previous blog post for more background. Democrats on the committee moved to approve the 11 curricula proposed by the DPI but were voted down. The GOP-supported motion approves only the four curricula selected by the Council on Early Literacy Curricula: Core Knowledge Language Arts K-3, Our EL Education Language Arts, Wit and Wisdom with Pk-3 Reading Curriculum, and Bookworms Reading and Writing K-3. As we stated previously, schools are not required to use one of these four recommendations, but there is an opportunity to have some of the cost reimbursed by the state if a school decides to choose one from the list. read more…
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