Dear WH&LA Lodging, CVB, and Chamber Members:
First, the good news: The new handy WH&LA 2017-18 Legislative Directory is available as a WH&LA Member-service for your reference as we land at full speed in the new Legislative Sessions. You may find it helpful to keep it handy where you can refer to it during the current 2-year legislative cycle. We will provide updates in the member section of our website to keep you current.
Now for the other news. Today State Senator Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) and State Representative Al Ott(R-Mequon) have routed draft legislation to other state legislators asking them to sign on as co-sponsors of a new bill that will completely eliminate the current no earlier than September 1 School Start Date requirement for K-12 public schools.
The time to act is this week.
If you oppose removing the School Start Date requirement, you will need to reach out right away to your state Senator and State Assembly Representative to let them know that this will hurt tourism in Wisconsin and in their own District, and to ask them to not only NOT sign on to this bill, but to oppose it. School Districts already have sufficient flexibility, especially with the legislature's recent removal of a required number of school days, to schedule their school year to get out at the end of May or the first week in June, all depending on the number of days they wish to be off throughout the school year. In other words they do already have plenty of local control with their calendars.
The WH&LA has prepared an Issue Brief on the School Start Date issue that brings up numerous points that you can utilize in your message - just pick what resonates best with your thoughts.
LRB-1378/1
is the draft bill reference number and it is described as "relating to the commencement of fall classes in public schools".
If you do not know your state legislator, go to
http://legis.wisconsin.gov/
to enter in your home address in the upper right side of the page and it will give you a link to your legislators.
If the School Start Date is important to you, your legislators need to hear about it from you. Rest assured that the WH&LA is working on this issue as well, but as we have shared many times, legislators always watch what their constituents say when they determine their positions and how strong they weigh in on bills.
Thank you for your fast action in opposing this bill.
