Madison- On the last scheduled session floor date of the State Assembly, four bills authored by Rep. Mary Felzkowski (R-Irma) passed with overwhelming support.
One of these would increase school expenditure transparency. Under the bill, the Department of Public Instruction would create an easy-to-access online school expenditure portal. Any member of the public, parent, school board member, or teacher can look up their school district and see exactly what funding their school is receiving and where the money is going.
Rep. Felzkowski stated, “We allocated over $12 billion for our K-12 schools in this last budget. This funding is the largest part of the state budget, and I believe that you, as the taxpayer, deserve to know how that money is being spent. My bill will allow for everyone to be more informed and work together to make sure these funds are serving our students in the best possible way.”
Another piece of legislation would allow for complementary health care practitioners, such as homeopaths, herbalists, nutritional consultants, and many more to provide their services in Wisconsin legally and without fear of being shut down. Our statutes are currently written so broadly that these practitioners can be criminally charged for ‘practice of medicine or other medical occupation’ without a license, even though the services they offer are not medical.
“Wisconsinites are like people all over the United States. They see an enormous value in having access to more holistic and natural types of health care,” said Rep. Felzkowski. “This bill gives practitioners clear parameters for what they can and cannot do to continue operating, both protecting consumers and giving them the right to make their own health care choices.”
Both bills now head to the Senate for legislative action. If successful, they will go to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law.
