Wisconsin Examiner

After many delays, the Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee met Thursday evening to approve its plan for K-12 education spending that included a 5% increase to special education funding for schools and its $1.3 billion tax plan that targets retirees and middle-income earners. Lawmakers on the powerful budget-writing committee went back and forth for nearly three hours about the plans, with Republicans saying they made significant investments in education and would help Wisconsinites, while Democrats argued the state should do more for schools. The committee approved a total of about $336 million total in new general purpose revenue for Wisconsin’s K-12 schools, only about 10% of Gov. Tony Evers’ proposed $3.1 billion in new spending. Special education costs will receive the majority of the allocation, with an additional $220 million that to be split between the general special education reimbursement and a subset of high-cost special education services.