MADISON, WI – The Wisconsin State Assembly convened Wednesday to vote on dozens of Republican-authored bills, including a package of bills incentivizing public school districts to consolidate and close. State Representative Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire), a former special education paraprofessional and member of the Assembly Committee on Education, forcefully opposed these bills.
Rep. Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire) released the following statement:
“Republicans have introduced their master plan to fix the problems facing our public schools – problems they’ve caused while controlling the legislature for 15 years. Their big idea is a state-funded ‘incentive’ to close public schools in rural Wisconsin and throughout the state.
They have defunded our public schools by thousands of dollars per student, siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars per year to private vouchers, and left districts to rely more and more on property tax referendums. We’ve endured nearly 20 years of systematically defunding public education – and now legislative Republicans think communities will accept a proposal to board up their windows and lock their doors.
Western Wisconsin is not fooled. We’ve seen the hollowing out of our rural communities for decades. We’ve felt the pinch of raised property taxes, the division of referendum votes, and even the pain of school closures.
The real solutions are not hypothetical: they are on the table. Nonpartisan coalitions of parents, students, educators, district administrators, and funding experts have recommended simple steps our legislature could take to support rural communities and public schools. I stand firmly in favor of those recommendations: tying state funds to inflation, creating supports for students in poverty, fully funding special education, and more. And I will never stand by legislation focused on closing schools instead.
Encouraging rural schools to close – rather than giving them the resources they’ve asked for – is undemocratic, irresponsible, and divisive. I opposed these bills in the Education Committee, I opposed them on the Assembly floor today, and I will stand firm until the state reinvests in our public schools.”
