WisGOPs decide to take from their own school districts to force kids/teachers back into the buildings

I've mentioned before that the State of Wisconsin got a large amount of aid from Washington DC in the bill that passed Congress and was signed by President Trump at the end of 2020, even if that aid was for specific purposes.

However, there's a catch with the $686 million+ that was sent to the state's K-12 schools. And that's because of a state law that says if the state's Federal money for K-12 goes up or down by 5%, it forces the state's Department of Public Instruction to send a plan to the Joint Finance Committee. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau laid out the decision that Joint Finance had before it.

The Committee has two options available to it in addressing the plan submitted by the Department [of Public Instruction]. First, it could approve the plan as submitted. Second, the Committee could adjust the amounts in the plan related to the state agency set-aside ($68.6 million) which, under the plan, would be allocated for: (a) a minimum grant of $100,000 for local education agencies ($2.4 million); (b) a minimum per pupil grant of $395 ($65.0 million); and (c) administrative costs ($1.2 million). Under the federal act, the state must allocate $617.5 million according to the formula used for the 2019-20 distribution of Title I Part A funds.

So the Republican-dominated JFC could have signed off on DPI’s plan, and it would go in as written. But they decided they wanted to put their own stamp on how some of the Federal money went out.

So here’s what the GOPs did.

Under the GOP motion that was approved 11-4, DPI’s administrative costs were cut to $700,000. The remaining $65.5 million will be divided up based on a formula that accounts for the hours of in-person instruction in the 2020-21 school year. The amount of the grants wouldn’t be known until the end of the school year, when in-person instructional hours are reported.

In it's paper on the subject. the LFB listed every district in Wisconsin and what it would get out of the extra federal money, as well as whether their extra funds were entirely based on the district’s Federal Title I allocation, or if DPI had to move funds around in order to give them the $395 minimum. The districts that had DPI add money to get to $395 are the ones who stand to lose from this plan, since that money is now going to be spread out among many more districts.

State Rep. Evan Goyke noted that many Wisconsin districts would lose out in this change, and here is a list of the districts that stand to lose the most as a result of this move.

Districts that were to get most reobligated aid under DPI plan
Elmbrook $2,473,848
McFarland $2,225,943
Middleton-Cross Plains $2,196,035
Kimberly $1,696,418
Hudson $1,665,340
(Sussex) Hamilton $1,617,889
Mukwonago $1,580,075
Muskego-Norway $1,468,273
Waunakee $1,452,224
Wauwatosa $1,419,225

All suburbs/exurbs of bigger cities, with high property tax bases (and therefore heavily reliant on property taxes versus state aids). Most are represented by Republicans, and it was GOPs that voted to take away funds from those districts.

Interesting choice, GOPs. Pushing kids and teachers back into the schools during a pandemic, and taking funds away from districts that you “represent.” Also worth mentioning, because this went through the Joint Finance Committee under a review process, any attempt by Governor Evers to redirect the money back to the districts under the original plan can be overridden by the 12-4 makeup of JFC in this gerrymandered Legislature.

So we're basically stuck with this scheme to shove kids and teachers back into the classroom. Because....well, I don't know why. Because I don't live in a Bubble World of RW BS.