The state budget and the taxes that help finance it have a huge impact on children and families. The budget provides most of the funding for vital government services, such as education, health care, transportation, child welfare and other safety net programs.
For more detailed analysis, visit the Wisconsin Budget Project website.
The 2011-13 state budget expands the school choice program, which provides state-funded tuition vouchers for students in selected districts to attend private schools. The state will spend $27.4 million to support this expansion over the biennium, and reduce support to public schools by $10.5 million to account for these lost students,...
The state budget includes $93 million in tax cuts, virtually all of which go to corporations and high-income individuals. These tax cuts are part of the same budget that jeopardizes the state’s ability to create jobs because it relies so heavily on cutting vital services that help build a strong economy. Here’s how that $93 million in...
I stumbled across a very interesting blog post Monday on the subject of redistricting in Wisconsin. Written by Peter Wagner of the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI), it examines the consequences of counting prisoners in the communities where they are incarcerated, rather than the communities that they come from. One potential effect that...
One of the surprising changes to the budget bill was an amendment loosening Wisconsin’s child labor laws. Without any hearing or opportunity for public debate on the issue, the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) approved an amendment significantly reducing the constraints on hours that may be worked by children. The JFC amendment, which is...
The 2011-13 biennial budget withdraws more than $45 million in state support for specific programs in Wisconsin school districts programs that help prepare our students to become the leaders of future generations.This budget withdraws all support for a number of programs in school districts, including Advanced Placement courses. The...
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