Vos/GOP plan to use COVID to hurt public schools. Especially if they try to keep kids and teachers safe

I wanted to follow up on another aspect of the garbage bill that Robbin' Vos and the Assembly GOP brought out yesterday. The bill allegedly was to combat COVID and respond to Governor Evers' bill from a couple of weeks ago, but it's really a power grab by the ALEC Crew, with one of the main targets being public education.

Tamarine Cornelius of the Wisconsin Budget Project caught the anti-public ed aspects of Vos's "COVID" plans, and gives a good explanation of just how damaging these provisions would be. Cornelius begins by noting that the Assembly GOP bill would push teachers back into the classroom, would threaten to take money away from districts if they didn't shove kids back into the buildings along with their teachers, and tries to pre-empt other local governments from passing COVID-related safety restrictions.

Schools that provide online instruction would be punished by having their budgets cut. Madison would get a cut of around $10M, Milwaukee about $29M. How is cutting school budgets during a pandemic a helpful response?

— Tamarine Cornelius (@Tamarine608) December 2, 2020

Now local officials. The bill would prohibit local health orders that tailor capacity restrictions for higher-risk types of businesses. Local safety restrictions on religious gatherings would seem to be prohibited altogether.

— Tamarine Cornelius (@Tamarine608) December 2, 2020

What's even more remarkable is that the cut to local schools would be on top of another cost to schools that choose to have their students stay home and learn virutally.

Require that, if a school board provides virtual instruction to a pupil in lieu of in-personinstruction during the 2020-21 school year, the board shall pay $371 to the parent or guardian of the pupil. Specify that this provision would also apply to schools that have virtual instruction for 50% of the semester.

Note that this provision is retroactive to the start of the school year, and applies on a semester basis. Which means that the $371-per-student payment to parents is already baked into the bill as it is written. Remember, the schools are limited by state law in how much money they can bring in for services as they currently exist, and now Vos and Company want to add this unfunded mandate, which would require cuts at those districts. Disgusting.

Also, check out this part that is included in the Moscow Mitch-like liability protections in Vos's bill. In addition to pushing those teachers back into the classroom, if those teachers do get COVID, too bad, so sad!

In addition, create a civil liability exemption for the death of, or injury to, an individual related to the exposure or possible exposure to COVID-19 while on school grounds, attending a school event/activity, or during transport to or from school grounds or a school event/activity for school districts, the authorizer, operator, or governing board of a charter school, the governing body of a private school, and any officer, official, employee, or agent of these entities. Specify that the immunity would be applicable until the end of the 2020-21 school year, and would be in addition to and not in lieu of any immunity currently available to school districts and officers, officials, agents, or employees of school districts. Further, extend the immunity to independent charter and private schools and their officers, officials, employees, and agents with respect to COVID-19 claims.

Under current law, school districts have immunity from intentional acts of its officers, officials, agents, and employees for acts done in the exercise of legislative, quasi-legislative, judicial, or quasi-judicial functions, with certain exceptions.

Nobody in their right mind would sign onto this piece of crap, at least if they gave anything resembling a damn for the constituents that pay their salaries. But all Vos and the rest of WisGOP World care about is trying to have Evers be blamed for "gridlock" in fighting this killer pandemic (82 more deaths in Wisconsin today), which is the real reason this bill exists.