Republican leaders in the Wisconsin legislature reached a deal with Democratic governor Tony Evers on a shared-revenue bill that will make a historic investment in the state’s school-choice program.
The deal includes $50 million in funding for reading programs, $30 million for mental-health programs in schools, and more funding for special-education programs. It will increase annual voucher payments for K–8 students who attend private schools to $9,000 per student — a $1,000 increase — and will increase voucher payments for high-school students to $12,000 per student — a $3,000 increase.
The two sides reached an agreement after state assembly Republicans agreed to drop their demands that any increase in sales taxes in Milwaukee should be approved by voters in a referendum. Under the deal, Milwaukee County will be allowed to raise its sales tax to 0.875 percent with a two-thirds vote of the county board. The city of Milwaukee will be able to create a new 2 percent sales tax if approved by a two-thirds vote of the city council.
“Republicans won the argument, and the bill guarantees that new state revenue may only be used for police, fire, and EMS services and for the thousands of parents in the School Choice program who are worried about the ability of their child to continue receiving a fair education, we’re proud to say the program will grow, thrive and prosper,” said assembly speaker Robin Vos.
“I think there is some heartburn in our caucus about getting rid of the referendum, but I think at the end of the day, when you balance the entire deal with the historic investment in school choice, making sure that we don’t have any kind of deal being funded around the state, I think there are enough conservative wins that while I would have preferred the referendum to be in there, I think it’s a reasonable tradeoff and I think we’ll end up getting the votes,” Vos said.
Evers called the agreement “critical to ensure our local partners have the resources they need to meet basic and unique needs alike.”
“After working through much of last night, I have reached a tentative agreement with both Majority Leader LeMahieu and Speaker Vos on major provisions of a compromise on shared revenue that will mean historic increases in support for our local communities across Wisconsin,” Evers said in a statement. “This compromise will be transformative for our communities and our state, and coming to an agreement in principle on major parts of this proposal is a significant milestone in my negotiations with Republican leaders over the past few months.”