Pablo Picasso. A Woman in Tears. 1937. Oil on canvas.
Bobby “Blue” Bland, “Cry, Cry, Cry” (click to listen or download)
Busy days, but I wanted to post the Legislative Fiscal Bureau long-awaited analysis of the Joint Finance Committee’s budget (education section here) It is as bad you might have anticipated.
The Assembly will take up the budget on Wednesday, June 10. [Update: The vote has been moved to Thursday, the Democrats are meeting in yet another closed Caucus today.]
Local Rep, Kelda Roys has offered an amendment providing for four-year-old kindergarten start up costs. This would be a huge help for MMSD. Let your elected officials know you support this amendment and funding investments in education in general.
The link in the previous paragraph has information to contact elected officials and newspapers; another fine way to send a message is to participate in the June 16 Walk on the Child’s Side (the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools has a great updated web page on the event).
On a related matter, the Wisconsin State Journal recently reported “Study: Stimulus infusions won’t cover loss in state aid for most school districts.” AMPS has been saying that for a long time (here and here…)
More later.
Thomas J. Mertz
AMPS 