Dear Friends,
This week, you may hear me on one of your local radio stations. I had the honor of delivering the Republican radio address and talking about our plan to empower parents with a series of education reforms. You can listen to my address here.
I'm happy to report that our Empowering Parents Agenda is making progress in the Legislature. All of the bills were approved by the Assembly Committee on Education. I am planning on holding a hearing on the bills in the Senate Education Committee next week. You can read more about that below.
As always, if you have any concerns or ideas on how to improve our great state, please do not hesitate to contact me by phone at 608-266-5830 or by email at Sen.Darling@legis.wisconsin.gov.
On, Wisconsin!
|
|
Assembly Committee Approves Education Reforms |
|
This week, the final proposals of our Empowering Parents Agenda were approved by the Assembly Education Committee. I plan to hold a hearing on the bills in the State Senate next week.
Our agenda puts parents and kids first. We are going to increase transparency and accountability while giving parents real options for their children's education.
Three important parts of the package were approved on Thursday including:
-
Assembly Bill 966 Milwaukee Public School Reform – Establishes that by 2024, MPS will be divided into smaller community districts that are more manageable and accountable to parents and their communities. The new community district boundaries will be developed by a commission made up of elected officials with a vested interest in the community, the Mayor of Milwaukee, the Governor, and the State Superintendent. (Approved 7-6)
-
Assembly Bill 967 and Assembly Bill 968 High-Performing Charter Replication and Creation of Statewide Charter Board – Charter schools are public schools that operate with less red tape. This bill will streamline replication for the highest performing charter schools in our state and will increase opportunities for more students and families statewide. (Both bills were approved by a vote of 7-5)
Another important bill that I co-authored with Senator Roger Roth was also approved.
-
Assembly Bill 970 School Choice Expansion - Opens school choice to all Wisconsin families by removing state enrollment caps, family income limits, and grade entry points – marking the beginning of true school choice for all students and families. (Approved 7-6)
The committee also passed unanimously a bill I authored with Representative Bob Wittke of Racine that will help end our state's substitute teacher shortage.
-
Assembly Bill 975 Substitute Teacher Shortage - Like most states, Wisconsin is facing a shortage of substitute teachers. Unlike most states, it's very difficult to become a teacher of any kind in our state. AB 975 will help get more undergraduate students to get real teaching experience and make sure classes are staffed by professionals. (Approved 12-0)
I am excited our bills are making strong progress. The time is now to put children and families first because we can no longer afford to lose another generation of students. We are going to do what is right for kids, parents, and the future of Wisconsin.
|
|
MPS Officials Continue to Block Reform |
|
When I introduced these bills, I wasn't surprised by the opposition. MPS officials spoke against the bill this week in committee without bothering to read them.
This was most clear when past President of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Union and current Milwaukee School Board President, Bob Petersen, testified in opposition to the bill in the public hearing despite clearly not having read the legislation. Despite their lack of solutions, Representative Bob Wittke of Racine and I heard them out during the public hearing.
In the last budget, the state sent over $770 million to MPS. The federal government kicked in another $770 million in federal COVID funds. That's on top of $87 million from a recently passed referendum. All this spending has resulted in 7.3% proficiency in English language arts and 4.2% proficiency in math. That's not good enough.
Real reformers get it. They are reading the bills and offering their support. This week, much of the package received the endorsement from the Institute on Reforming Government. You can read their endorsement here.
|
|
On Tuesday, Governor Evers delivered the 2022 State of the State Address. I was disappointed that he tried to take credit for so many things the Legislature passed.
If Governor Evers didn’t steal Republican ideas, he wouldn’t have much of a speech at all. The governor is trying to rewrite history and take credit for Republican successes including a budget that delivered the largest tax cut in state history. He doesn’t want you to remember that his plan raised taxes by more than $1 billion during a pandemic, eliminated key reforms, and borrowed too much.
The truth is, Governor Evers’ record isn’t good. He failed Wisconsin workers when they were laid off after the Governor shut down businesses. The Governor made families wait for months for their unemployment checks. A non-partisan audit showed the Governor’s agency couldn’t even be bothered to answer 93% of the calls from desperate workers.
The most disappointing part of his speech was that the Governor failed parents and school children in our state. He offered no plan to reform our education system. More than 50% of kids in our state are failing in math and English language arts. That should alarm the ‘education governor.’
If the Governor needs some more ideas to take credit for, my colleagues and I released a series of common-sense education reforms that put parents and children first. I hope he signs them into law.
|
|
Investing in Mental Health |
|
I'm very proud of my work in improving mental health care in our state. I helped create and fund mental health programs in the budget and we doubled our investment in the most recent budget.
In 2013, I helped take steps to counteract the psychiatrist shortage by providing funds for the Child Psychiatry Consultation Program (CPCP). This innovative program connects primary care providers with child psychiatrists.
Operated by the Medical College of Wisconsin, the program allows providers to receive consultations on youth mental health cases and also provides educational seminars on mental health for providers.
This week, I testified with Representative Jim Steineke of Kaukauna on our bill to expand the program and create a comprehensive Mental Health Consultation Program (MHCP) for Wisconsin. The MHCP would be a resource for primary care providers throughout the state for services related to perinatal, child, adult, geriatric, pain, veteran, and general mental health consultation services. The MHCP would provide education, consultative support, and community resource referrals for primary care physicians.
Our bill is an innovative solution to serve more constituents’ mental health needs and better prepare our primary care providers to face the emerging mental health concerns in our communities.
|
|
As a former teacher, I am extremely concerned about the significant drop in reading and English scores.
As I told the MacIver Institute, our state is facing an educational crisis. We have a reading and learning crisis and the only solution coming from Governor Evers and DPI is to study it more. I’m sick of studies. The shelves at DPI are stacked with studies. It’s time for action.
Sadly, every bold initiative we have proposed over the last couple of years has been met with strong opposition to protect the status quo. In fact, Governor Evers already vetoed one bill to improve reading scores. Our kids deserve better and I’m not giving up on them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
