AB 1079

This bill makes various changes to laws related to general school aids and

various categorical aid programs; provides additional funding for general school

aids, various categorical aid programs, and the University of Wisconsin System; and

makes changes to, and creates additional, programs administered by the

Department of Public Instruction, including all of the following:

1. The bill directs DPI, the Department of Administration, and the Legislative

Fiscal Bureau to annually jointly certify to the Joint Committee on Finance an

estimate of the amount necessary to appropriate in the following school year to

ensure that general school aids equal two-thirds of partial school revenues (in

general, the sum of state school aids and school property taxes). Under the bill, JCF

determines the amount appropriated as general school aids in each odd-numbered

fiscal year, and the amount is set by law in each even-numbered fiscal year. General

equalization aids under the bill are estimated to total $5,200,000,000 in the 2021-22

school year and $5,295,000,000 in the 2022-23 school year.

2. The bill changes the rate at which the state reimburses school boards,

operators of independent charter schools, cooperative educational service agencies,

and county children with disabilities education boards for costs incurred to provide

special education and related services to children with disabilities and for school age

parents programs (eligible costs). Specifically, the bill changes the appropriation to

a sum sufficient and provides that, after reimbursing the full cost of special

education for children in hospitals and convalescent homes for orthopedically

disabled children, the remaining eligible costs are reimbursed at the following rates:

a) in the 2021-22 school year, 45 percent of eligible costs; and b) in the 2022-23 school

year and in each school year thereafter, 50 percent of eligible costs. Aids for special

education under the bill are estimated to total $746,970,800 in the 2021-22 school

year and $863,166,300 in the 2022-23 school year.

3. The bill increases per pupil aid paid to school districts by increasing the per

pupil amount to $750 in the 2021-22 school year and each year thereafter. The bill

also requires DPI, beginning in the 2021-22 school year, to pay a second amount of

per pupil aid to school districts that is based on the number of economically

disadvantaged pupils enrolled in each school district, specifically, $75 per each

economically disadvantaged pupil.

4. In addition to the amounts described in items 1 to 3. above, the bill increases

funding for various new and existing categorical aid and other programs

administered by DPI, some of which are described in items 10 to 20, below, by a total

of more than $940,000,000 in the 2021-22 school year and $935,000,000 in the

2022-23 school year.

5. Under the bill, in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years, a school district is

guaranteed an amount of general equalization aid that is equal to at least 90 percent,

rather than 85 percent, of the amount the school district received in the 2020-21