MADISON – Today, Representative Joers (D-Waunakee) voted against several education-related bills on the Assembly Floor. He released the following statement:
“I voted against these bills because they are unfunded mandates. Unfunded mandates restrict our schools by forcing school districts to adopt additional curriculum, instructional requirements, and reporting requirements under their already tight budgets.
“School districts continuously have to go to referendum in order to meet their current expenses; unfunded mandates continue to restrict our schools by requiring their already insufficient funding be spent in additional areas.
“Most of the achievement goals mentioned on the floor and in these bills today are already being met and exceeded in our schools; to impose additional reporting requirements is burdensome to our school districts and their educators.
“While I understand the issues that my GOP colleagues tried to address with these bills, unfunded mandates are not a feasible solution. Our schools and educators deserve proper support and investment, not additional reporting requirements and empty political rhetoric.”
