(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Assembly Republicans are planning a series of education bills that include assistance for consolidating school districts, addressing racial achievement gaps in the state, create a teacher bill of rights and promote dual enrollment classes in the state’s high schools.
Wisconsin currently has 53,000 less K-12 students than it did a decade ago as the state’s population decline due to fertility rate has begun to show up in schools.
The state was estimated to have a population of 5.96 million in late 2024 that is expected to drop to 5.71 million by 2050.
Wisconsin currently has 421 school districts and an ever-increasing number of districts going to referendum to fund infrastructure and operations as they continue to serve less students each year.
“That number is going to have to drop if we are going to have to fulfil those obligations,” said Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie.
Full details of a proposal were not released at a news conference on Tuesday but Nedweski said the plan is to give school districts the tools to study and enact both consolidations and shared services between districts.
The bill would also put in place a plan to address the consolidation of districts with different property tax rates, including some “backfill” with state funds to equalize rates between districts.
“Our goal is to provide support, give tools and provide incentives for voluntary consolidation,” Nedweski said.
The Assembly Republicans also plan to start four new task forces to address rulemaking, elder services, government efficiency and protecting kids.
The rulemaking task force will look to address a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that stripped the Legislature of much of its rulemaking and enforcement power related to how Wisconsin agencies enact laws.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has called the current process of avoiding rulemaking “outside of the law” and that was reiterated on Tuesday as the supreme court ruling was called “a 180” from how Wisconsin government has operated in the past.
Vos said that the Wisconsin Senate is in a “deliberative process” but he is confident that bills can be passed before the session adjourns in February.
“We are the ones who work a little faster in the Assembly,” Vos said.
The dual enrollment bill will aim to streamline regulations, align deadlines and improve credit transferability.
