The Legislature’s budget-writing Joint Finance Committee will take up the Department of Public Instruction portion of the state budget next Thursday, May 27. The action on the DPI budget comes after the JFC removed hundreds of items from the governor’s Badger Bounceback proposal, including provisions to allow educators to negotiate with our employers.

Use this opportunity to tell the JFC to reconsider the governor's full Badger Bounceback Budget, which:

• Establishes collective bargaining rights for state and local government frontline workers and their bargaining units to provide workers with the opportunity to negotiate together and require employers to meet regularly on policies affecting wages, hours and working conditions.
• Makes substantial state investments in our K-12 schools by restoring the two-thirds funding commitment and increases the special education aid to achieve reimbursement rates of 45 percent in the first year with an increase to 50 percent in the second. It also directs $54 million to programs for student mental health, English Language Learners and rural schools.
• Addresses the deteriorating quality of educator health benefits by studying the state’s own employee health insurance program as a potential solution to save districts’ resources and ensure the financial well-being of educators.