Current law prohibits a governmental unit from issuing a sanitary permit for the installation of a small sewage system if the department of commerce finds that the governmental unit has not adopted a small sewage system ordinance, as required by law, or if the governmental unit fails to carry out its regulatory duties concerning small sewage systems. This bill provides instead that the department may order the governmental unit to remedy its failure to adopt a small sewage system ordinance or to carry out its regulatory duties.
Under current law, the department of commerce administers a grant program for the replacement or rehabilitation of certain types of failing small sewage systems. Generally, a covered system is one that discharges sewage into surface water, groundwater or bedrock or to drain tile or the surface of the ground. Under the program, the department awards grants to eligible local governmental units which, in turn, award grants to eligible individuals and businesses. A person is generally eligible for a grant to replace or rehabilitate a failing sewage system if, among other things, he or she owns a principal residence that was constructed and inhabited before July 1, 1978, and that is served by a covered system and if the person's annual Wisconsin adjusted income does not exceed $45,000. If there is insufficient funding for all eligible individuals and businesses, the grants are prorated.
Under this bill, in a year in which the department of commerce must prorate funds under the program, a local governmental unit that received a prorated grant may apply for a no-interest loan to increase the prorated grants provided to eligible individuals and businesses. To obtain a loan, a local governmental unit must enter into a financial assistance agreement with the department of administration and the department of commerce. In addition, the bill provides that a person is eligible for a grant if the system serving the principal residence was installed before July 1, 1978, the person's federal adjusted gross income does not exceed $45,000 and the person meets the other eligibility requirements.
Current law requires small sewage systems to be inspected every three years by, among others, persons licensed by DNR to service septic tanks (pumpers). This bill eliminates pumpers as a class of approved inspectors for small sewage systems and adds small sewage system inspectors certified by the department of commerce. The bill also eliminates the three-year inspection requirement and requires instead that the department of commerce establish a schedule for the inspection or pumping of systems.
Current law requires cities and metropolitan sewerage districts to report to the department of commerce each failure of a state licensed plumber to qualify as a journeyman or master plumber and each wilful violation of any plumbing regulation. This bill eliminates this reporting requirement.
Correctional system
Adult correctional system
This bill provides that the department of corrections (DOC) may not enter into any contract or other agreement if, in the performance of the contract or agreement, a prisoner would perform data entry or telemarketing services and have access to any information that may serve to identify a minor or have access to an individual's financial transaction card numbers, checking or savings account numbers or social security number. Under the bill, a financial transaction card means an instrument or device issued to the cardholder for obtaining anything on credit, for certifying or guaranteeing the availability of funds sufficient to honor a draft or check or for gaining access to an account.
Under current law, DOC may, until July 1, 1999, operate the juvenile secured correctional facility at Prairie du Chien as a state prison for nonviolent offenders who are not more than 21 years of age. This bill extends that authority to July 1, 2001.
This bill requires DOC to establish a probation and parole holding and alcohol and other drug abuse treatment facility in Milwaukee, a medium security correctional institution in Redgranite and a medium security correctional facility in New Lisbon.
Juvenile correctional system
Under current law relating to community youth and family aids (generally referred to as "youth aids"), various state and federal funds are allocated to counties to pay for state-provided juvenile correctional services and local delinquency-related and juvenile justice services. DOC charges counties for the costs of services provided by DOC. This bill provides new per person daily cost assessments upon counties for juvenile placements during the 1999-2001 fiscal biennium as follows:
Under current law, DOC may operate or contract for the operation of secured correctional facilities for holding in secure custody juveniles who have been adjudicated delinquent and placed in a secured correctional facility under the supervision of DOC by the court assigned to exercise jurisdiction under the juvenile justice code (juvenile court). Current law also permits DOC to license child welfare agencies to operate secured child caring institutions (secured CCI's) for holding in secure custody juveniles who have been adjudicated delinquent and referred to the child welfare agency by the juvenile court or by DOC. A juvenile court may place a juvenile in a secured correctional facility or a secured CCI only if the juvenile has been adjudicated delinquent for committing an act that would be punishable by a sentence of six months or more if committed by an adult and has been found to be a danger to the public and in need of restrictive custodial treatment.
This bill permits the county board of supervisors of not more than one county to establish, and DOC to license, a secured group home for holding in secure custody juveniles who have been adjudicated delinquent for committing an act that would be punishable by a sentence of six months or more if committed by an adult, who have been found to be a danger to the public and in need of restrictive custodial treatment and who have been placed under the supervision of DOC by the juvenile court.
Under current law, various laws apply to juveniles who are placed in a secured correctional facility or a secured CCI. Those laws relate to such subjects as sex offender registration, the commitment of sexually violent persons, a deoxyribonucleic acid data bank of sex offenders, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing when certain persons have been significantly exposed to HIV, adult jurisdiction and criminal penalties for certain persons who commit assault, transfers to a state treatment facility, aftercare planning, escape, notification of victims and witnesses when a juvenile is released or escapes from correctional custody, taking runaways into custody, strip searches and an exception to the open records law when disclosing a record would endanger the security of an institution. This bill applies those laws to juveniles who are placed in a secured group home in the same manner as those laws apply to juveniles who are placed in a secured correctional facility or a secured CCI.
Under current law, DOC provides a corrective sanctions program for juveniles who have been placed under the supervision of DOC. Under the corrective sanctions program, DOC must place a participant in the community, provide intensive surveillance of the participant and provide an average of $5,000 per year per slot to purchase community-based treatment services for participants. This bill reduces the amount that DOC must provide to purchase community-based treatment services for corrective sanctions program participants to $3,000 per year per slot.
courts and procedure
Circuit courts
Current law provides for limited payment of attorney fees by the unsuccessful litigant to the successful litigant in all civil actions. In a civil action concerning money damages or property, the successful litigant is entitled to attorney fees based on the following schedule:
This bill changes the amount of attorney fees allowed in these cases as follows:
The bill also increases the amount of attorney fees recoverable in civil cases that do not involve money damages or property from a maximum of $100 to a maximum of $500.
Under current law, in civil cases certain disbursements, such as those made for the costs of certified copies of public papers or records, postage and depositions, are recoverable by the successful litigant, but are limited to $50 for each item. This bill expands the list of disbursements that are recoverable to include such items as overnight delivery and facsimile transmissions and increases the limit to $100 for each item. The bill also increases the amount that a successful litigant may recover for the cost of each expert witness testifying on behalf of the successful litigant from $100 to $300 and for filing a motion from $50 to $300.
Under current law, when the clerk of circuit court collects a fee from a person commencing a civil action, including garnishment, small claims and forfeiture actions, the clerk is also required to collect a $7 justice information system fee. Four-sevenths of the $7 fee is used to pay the costs incurred by the department of administration to develop and operate the automated justice information system. Two-sevenths of the $7 fee is used to pay the costs incurred by the director of state courts for the operation of the circuit court, court of appeals and supreme court automated information systems and for the payment of interpreter fees. The remaining $1 of the fee does not have a specified purpose.
This bill raises the justice information system fee from $7 to $9 and uses the additional $2 of each fee to pay the costs incurred by the director of state courts for the operation of the circuit court, court of appeals and supreme court automated information systems and for the payment of interpreter fees.
Public defender
Under current law, the state public defender (SPD) provides legal representation to indigent persons in criminal, delinquency and certain related cases. The SPD assigns cases either to staff attorneys in the agency's trial division or local private attorneys. A staff attorney working in the trial division is expected to meet an annual caseload standard. This bill provides that, beginning on July 1, 2000, the SPD may exempt up to ten staff attorneys in the trial division from the annual caseload standards based on the need of those attorneys to perform other assigned duties.
Other courts and procedure
Under current law, the department of agriculture, trade and consumer protection (DATCP) administers and enforces certain consumer protection and trade practices laws. These laws include laws prohibiting or regulating methods of competition, fraudulent representations, fraudulent drug advertising, prize notices, mail-order sales, purchases of vegetables and dairy products from farmers and advertising of telecommunication services. They also include laws relating to weights and measures. A person found to have violated one of these laws is subject to a forfeiture or a fine.
This bill requires a court to impose an assessment equal to 15% of the fine or forfeiture if the court imposes a fine or forfeiture for a violation of any of these laws or local ordinances enacted pursuant to these laws. The assessments that are collected are appropriated to the department of agriculture, trade and consumer protection to pay for providing consumers with information and education.
Currently, the state is immune from most lawsuits. Although state authorities, local governments and state and local governmental officers, employes and agents may be sued, statutory and common law limitations severely limit the types of lawsuits that may be brought against, and the amounts and types of damages that may be recovered from, these entities. Currently, these entities may also limit their liability by contract.
This bill prohibits lawsuits, to the extent that they are now permitted, against these entities for the alleged failure to deal with the failure of a computer system to handle any date, or the inability of a computer system to interpret, produce, calculate, generate, utilize, manipulate, represent or account for any date, if the entities make a good faith effort to address the alleged failure. The immunity provided by the bill may not be waived.
The bill also eliminates current requirements for the state and local governments to pay interest to vendors on late payments arising from date-related failures described above.
Under current law, the governmental unit that provides certain public assistance benefits as a result of an injury, sickness or death that creates a claim or cause of action on the part of a public assistance recipient or beneficiary or his or her estate against a third party must be joined by the plaintiff as a party to the claim or action. The governmental unit has the right to recover from the third party the amount provided in public assistance benefits. This is known as subrogation. The governmental unit may make a claim or maintain an action or intervene in a claim or action by the recipient, beneficiary or estate against the third party. A party that is joined in a cause of action based on subrogation may, among other things, agree to have his or her interests represented by the party who caused the joinder. If this option is selected the subrogated party must sign a written waiver of the right to participate in the action.
Under this bill, if the department of health and family services (DHFS) is joined based on subrogation because of the provision of medical assistance (MA) benefits, DHFS need not take any affirmative action in order to have its interests represented by the party causing the joinder.
Currently, an attorney retained to represent a current or former recipient of public assistance benefits, or the recipient's estate, in asserting a claim that is subrogated, must provide notice of the claim, and of any award or settlement, to the governmental unit that provided the benefits. If an attorney is not representing the current or former recipient of public assistance in asserting a claim that is subrogated, the current or former recipient or his or her guardian most provide the notice. If the recipient is deceased, the personal representative of the recipient's estate must provide the notice if an attorney is not representing the estate.
This bill requires a person against whom a subrogated claim is made, or that person's attorney or insurance company, to provide notice of the claim, and of any award or settlement, to DHFS if that person, or that person's attorney or insurer, knows or should know that the claim is subrogated because of the provision of MA benefits. Additionally, under this bill, if DHFS or a county is a subrogated party because of the provision of MA benefits, the subrogation creates a lien on the claimant's recovery, equal to the amount of the MA paid as a result of the injury, sickness or death that gave rise to the claim.
Under current law, DHFS must file a claim against the estate of a recipient of certain health aids for the amount of aid paid to the recipient. If the recipient's spouse or minor or disabled child survives the recipient, and the recipient's estate includes an interest in a home, the probate court must, in the final judgment, assign the interest in the home subject to a lien in favor of DHFS for the amount of DHFS's claim. Currently, small estates may be settled or assigned summarily, in which case a final judgment is not entered. Instead, a summary order is entered. This bill states that the lien requirement extends to cases in which assignment of the home is made by summary order.
education
Primary and secondary education
Current law allows up to 15% of the enrollment of the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) to attend, at no charge, any private school located in the city of Milwaukee under certain circumstances. The state pays the parent or guardian of the pupil an amount equal to the amount of per pupil aid that MPS receives from the state or an amount equal to the private school's educational cost per pupil, whichever is less. The parent or guardian must endorse the check for the use of the private school. The state reduces the MPS school aid entitlement, for each pupil participating in the program, by the amount of per pupil aid that MPS would otherwise receive.
Under current law, the city of Milwaukee, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Milwaukee Area Technical College may establish and operate a charter school or may initiate a contract with an individual or group to operate a school as a charter school. For each pupil attending the charter school, the state pays the charter school an amount equal to the shared cost per pupil (the portion of a school district's costs that are aided by the state divided by the school district's enrollment) of MPS and reduces the MPS school aid entitlement by an identical amount.
Current law also generally limits the increase in the total amount of revenue per pupil that a school district may receive from general school aids and property taxes in a school year to $208.88 per pupil in the 1998-99 school year and, in subsequent school years, to the amount of revenue increase allowed per pupil in the previous school year increased by the percentage change in the consumer price index. To determine the total allowable revenue increase for a school district under the revenue limit, the department of public instruction (DPI) uses a three-year rolling average pupil enrollment, which includes, for MPS, some of the pupils enrolled in the choice program and the charter schools described above. DPI may adjust a school district's revenue limit upwards or downwards for a number of contingencies, including transfers of service responsibilities between a school district and another governmental unit and changes in a school district's boundaries. Any school district that received less in revenue per pupil in the previous school year than a revenue ceiling of $6,100 (low-revenue district) may increase its revenues up to the revenue ceiling. A low-revenue district is not subject to a revenue limit and its concomitant adjustments.
Beginning in the 1999-2000 school year, this bill replaces the per pupil inflation adjustment with a fixed revenue limit of $208.88 per pupil. The bill also provides that, beginning with aid paid in the 1999-2000 school year, pupils participating in the choice program or attending one of the charter schools described above are not counted in the enrollment of MPS for state aid purposes and are not counted in the three-year rolling average for revenue limit purposes. The MPS school aid entitlement is not directly reduced as a result of such participation or attendance. In addition, the bill directs DPI to adjust the revenue ceiling of a low-revenue school district as if it constituted a revenue limit.
Currently, if a school district's three-year rolling average for the 1998-99 school year is less than the average of the number of pupils enrolled in the school district in the three previous school years, the school district's revenue limit is increased for the 1998-99 school year by the additional amount that would have been calculated had the decline in the three-year rolling average enrollment been 25% of what it was. This bill extends this one-year revenue limit increase for declining enrollment to subsequent school years.
Current law generally provides that the enrollment of a school district in the previous school year must be used to calculate general school aid for the current school year. The enrollment of MPS, however, includes pupils in the choice program in the current school year who were enrolled in grades kindergarten to three in a private school located in Milwaukee in the previous school year and who did not participate in the choice program. This bill eliminates these additional choice pupils from MPS enrollment for calculating general state aid.
Current law provides two special state aid adjustments for any school district that would otherwise receive in any school year less than 85% of the aid that it received in the previous school year. If a school district is eligible for both of these special state aid adjustments, the school district's state aid is increased to an amount equal to 85% of the state aid that the school district received in the previous school year. A school district is entitled to receive a special state aid adjustment only if the additional aid does not result in a state aid payment greater than the school district's shared cost. This bill provides that, if a school district is eligible for both special state aid adjustments, the school district receives the greater adjustment if the additional aid does not result in a state aid payment greater than the school district's shared cost.
Under current law, if a school district exceeds its revenue limit without referendum approval, DPI must reduce the school district's state equalization aid payment by the excess revenue amount. If a school district's equalization aid is less than the penalty amount, DPI must reduce the school district's other state aid payments until the remaining excess revenue is covered. If the aid reduction is still insufficient to cover the excess revenues, DPI must order the school board to reduce the property tax levy by an amount equal to the remainder of the excess amount or refund the amount with interest, if taxes have already been collected. DPI does not include the excess revenue in the school district's base. This bill imposes these same penalties on low-revenue school districts that exceed their revenue ceilings.
Current law requires each school board to adopt either its own academic standards or the academic standards contained in the governor's executive order issued January 13, 1998, and to administer fourth and eighth grade promotional examinations to fourth and eighth grade pupils enrolled in the school district, including pupils enrolled in charter schools located in the school district. Beginning in the 2000-01 school year, each school board must also administer a high school graduation examination that is designed to measure whether pupils have met the academic standards adopted by the school board. A school board may either adopt examinations developed by DPI or develop its own examinations. A school board must notify DPI if it adopts its own high school graduation examination instead of the high school graduation examination developed by DPI, and it must determine the high school grades in which the examination is administered each school year.
This bill provides that a school board must administer the high school graduation examination to all pupils enrolled in a charter school located in the school district other than a Milwaukee charter school described above. The bill also provides that the operator of a Milwaukee charter school must adopt academic standards and administer fourth, eighth and high school graduation examinations to pupils enrolled in the charter school. The operator may either adopt DPI's examinations or develop its own. In addition, the bill requires a school board or the operator of a Milwaukee charter school to notify DPI annually by October 1 if it intends to administer its own high school graduation examination in the following school year and provides that, beginning in the 2001-02 school year, the high school graduation examination may be administered only to 11th and 12th graders.
Current law requires each school board and operator of a Milwaukee charter school to administer the tenth grade examination developed by DPI to all tenth graders enrolled in the school district or the charter school. This requirement does not apply after the 2000-01 school year. This bill eliminates the expiration of the tenth grade examination requirement.
Under current law, beginning September 1, 2002, a school board may not grant a high school diploma to a pupil unless he or she passes the high school graduation examination. Beginning July 1, 2002, a pupil may not be promoted from the fourth to the fifth grade or from the eighth to the ninth grade unless the pupil passes the fourth and eighth grade promotional examinations. A pupil's parent or guardian, however, may excuse a pupil from taking any of these examinations. A pupil who is excused must satisfy alternative criteria for promotion or graduation.
This bill imposes upon operators of Milwaukee charter schools the same prohibitions against promotion that are imposed upon school boards. Finally, the bill eliminates the authority of a pupil's parent or guardian to excuse the pupil from taking the high school graduation examination.
Under current law, a school board, board of control of a cooperative educational service agency (CESA) or a county children with disabilities education board is eligible for special education aid if the state superintendent of public instruction is satisfied that the special education program has been maintained according to law. This aid is equal to a percentage of the amount expended on special education costs in the preceding school year.
This bill eliminates the reimbursement rates for handicapped education costs and school age parents program costs and directs that aidable costs be fully reimbursed, subject to the availability of funds. The bill also provides that the operator of a Milwaukee charter school described above is eligible for special education aid, on a current school year basis, if the operator operates a special education program and the state superintendent is satisfied that the operator has complied with the federal Individuals With Disabilities In Education Act as though the operator were a school board.
Under current law, a charter school may be established by, among other things, petitioning the school board of the school district in which the charter school will be located to enter into a contract with a person to establish and operate a charter school. Within 30 days after receiving a charter school petition, the school board must hold a public hearing on the petition. The MPS board must grant or deny a petition to establish a charter school within 30 days after the public hearing. If the MPS board denies the petition, the person seeking to establish a charter school may, within 30 days of the denial, appeal the denial to the state superintendent of public instruction, who must decide the appeal within 30 days after receiving it.
This bill requires all school boards to grant or deny a charter school petition within 30 days after the public hearing and permits the person seeking to establish a charter school to appeal a denial of a charter school petition to the state superintendent.
Under current law, the Milwaukee charter schools described above are not instrumentalities of MPS, and the MPS board may not employ any personnel for these charter schools. If, however, the city of Milwaukee contracts with an individual or group operating for profit to operate a charter school, the charter school is an instrumentality of MPS and the MPS board must employ all personnel for the charter school.
This bill provides that if the city of Milwaukee contracts with an individual or group operating for profit to operate a charter school, the charter school is not an instrumentality of MPS, and the MPS board may not employ any personnel for the charter school.
Current law authorizes the MPS board to contract with any nonsectarian private school located in the city to provide educational programs for pupils enrolled in the school district. The MPS board may also close any school that it determines is low in performance. If the MPS board closes a school or reopens a school that has been closed, the superintendent of schools may reassign the school's staff without regard to seniority in service. In addition, the MPS board is prohibited from bargaining collectively with respect to: 1) the board's decision to contract with a private nonsectarian school or private nonsectarian agency in the city to provide educational programs to pupils, or the impact of any such decision on the wages, hours or conditions of employment of the employes who perform those services; or 2) the reassignment of employes who perform services for the board, with or without regard to seniority, as the result of a decision of the board to close or reopen a school or to contract with a person to operate a charter school or convert a school to a charter school, or the impact of any such reassignment on the wages, hours or conditions of employment of the employes who perform those services. This bill extends the above provisions to cover all school boards.
This bill provides that, beginning in 2001, no public school may commence its school term until September 1. The bill specifies that the prohibition does not prevent a school board from holding athletic contests or practices before that date, scheduling in-service days or work days before that date or holding school year-round.
In the 1996-97 and 1998-99 school years, a school board having a school with an enrollment that was at least 50% low-income in the previous school year was permitted to enter into a five-year achievement guarantee contract with DPI on behalf of one school in the school district (and up to ten schools in MPS) if, among other things, in the previous school year that school had an enrollment that was at least 30% low-income. Under these contracts the school district must reduce class size and improve academic achievement in grades kindergarten to three in the school or schools covered by the contract in exchange for receiving state aid.
This bill permits a school board to enter into a five-year achievement guarantee contract beginning in the 2000-01 school year on behalf of one or more schools if, among other things, in the previous school year a school in the school district had an enrollment that was at least 50% low-income and each school on whose behalf the school board contracts had an enrollment that was at least 62% low-income (80% low-income for MPS).
Under current law, a school board may request DPI to waive school board or school district requirements except those pertaining to, among other things, teacher licensing. This bill permits a school board to request a waiver of the teacher licensing requirement.
This bill prohibits the state superintendent of public instruction from renewing a teaching license unless the person seeking renewal has received training in educational technology.
Current law directs DPI to award a $2,000 grant in the 1999-2000 school year to any person who is certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) before July 1, 2000, and who satisfies several additional conditions. In the 2000-01 school year, DPI must award a $2,500 grant to each person who received a $2,000 grant, maintains his or certification by the NBPTS and satisfies several additional conditions.
This bill eliminates all of the above dates. Under the bill, a person who becomes certified by the NBPTS receives the initial $2,000 grant in the school year in which he or she becomes certified. The bill also directs DPI to award the person a $2,500 grant in each of the succeeding nine years.
Under current law, referenda are required or authorized to be held by school districts to incur debt or exceed state revenue limits, or to exceed the levy rate limit for a school construction fund that is applicable only to MPS. Currently, these referenda are required or authorized to be held at special elections when no offices appear on the ballot.
This bill provides that such referenda must be held concurrently with the spring election (held in each year) or the general election (held in each even-numbered year), or on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in an odd-numbered year.
Current law directs DPI, the department of administration (DOA) and the legislative fiscal bureau to estimate jointly the amount necessary to appropriate as general school aid to ensure that the total amount of state aid received by all school districts equals two-thirds of total school district revenues from state aid and property taxes.
This bill provides that the amounts received by school districts to compensate them for the reduction in their tax bases due to the property tax exemption for computers is included in the calculation of school district revenues.
Under current law, the state superintendent of public instruction administers four alcohol and other drug abuse prevention and intervention grant programs for school districts. Current law also limits the amount the state superintendent may award under each grant program.
This bill consolidates the alcohol and other drug abuse prevention and intervention programs into one grant program administered by the state superintendent and allows a school board to apply for a grant to fund any kind of alcohol and other drug abuse prevention and intervention program. In addition, the bill eliminates the limit on the amount of each grant that the state superintendent may award.
This bill directs the state superintendent to award grants to school districts, CESAs and other persons for staff development.
This bill directs the state superintendent to consult with the technology for educational achievement in Wisconsin (TEACH) board before awarding school technology resource grants. School technology resource grants are funded with federal moneys and are awarded to school districts for various educational technology purposes.
Current law authorizes the state superintendent to award a grant to a nonprofit corporation to fund partially the costs of planning, developing and operating a youth village program. A youth village program is a residential program that provides an alternative education for pupils whose life outside school seriously interferes with their educational progress and who are functioning below their grade level in basic academic skills, are behind in academic credits or have a record of poor grades or attendance problems. This bill eliminates the youth village grant program.
This bill directs DPI to award grants to school districts for smoking prevention programs in grades kindergarten to eight. A grant may not exceed $10,000.
Under current law, DPI distributes general purpose revenue to head start agencies, which provide comprehensive health, educational, nutritional, social and other services to economically disadvantaged children and their families. This bill changes the source of the funding for the head start program and a variety of other early childhood education programs from general purpose revenue to moneys from the federal temporary assistance for needy families block grant.
Under current law, an alternative school for American Indians may voluntarily establish an American Indian language and culture education program. If the alternative school meets certain management and accounting criteria, it is eligible to receive $185 from DPI for each pupil who completes the fall semester in the program of instruction. This bill increases the aid for which the alternative school is eligible to $200 per pupil and provides that this aid is paid from moneys derived from Indian gaming receipts.
Under current law, a pupil who transfers from one school district to another to reduce racial imbalance under the interdistrict special transfer program (commonly known as chapter 220) is counted as one pupil for state aid and revenue limit purposes by the school district in which the pupil resides. A school district that participates in the intradistrict special transfer program receives additional state aid.
This bill provides that each interdistrict transfer pupil is counted by the school district in which he or she resides as one-half pupil for state aid and revenue limit purposes. The bill also requires MPS to use at least 10% of the intradistrict aid that it receives in each school year to build or lease neighborhood schools.
Higher education
Current law prohibits the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority (UWHCA) from issuing bonds or incurring additional indebtedness if the aggregate amount of the UWHCA outstanding bonds, together with all other indebtedness of UWHCA, exceeds $50,000,000. This bill increases this amount to $90,000,000. In addition, the bill prohibits UWHCA from issuing any new bonds for the purpose of purchasing a clinic or a hospital.
Under current law, DOA administers the college tuition prepayment program, which allows an individual, a trust or a legal guardian to purchase tuition units from DOA that may be redeemed in the future to pay tuition at any accredited institution of higher education in the United States.
This bill transfers administration of the college tuition prepayment program from DOA to the state treasurer. The bill also makes two modifications to the program. Under current law, if a contract is terminated, under certain circumstances DOA may not issue a refund for one year and may not issue a refund of more than 100 tuition units in any year. This bill eliminates these restrictions and clarifies that tuition units may be used to pay mandatory student fees.
Under current law, the board of regents of the University of Wisconsin (UW) System may exempt up to 200 students at the UW-Parkside campus and up to 150 students at the UW-Superior campus from nonresident tuition in programs identified as having surplus capacity. This tuition award program (TAP) terminates at the end of the 1998-99 academic year. This bill extends the termination date of TAP until the end of the 2000-01 academic year.
Under current law, all academic student fees received by the board of regents of the UW System are credited to an appropriation account that funds degree credit instruction for the UW System. However, the board may, with some exceptions, spend only the amounts in the appropriation schedule for degree credit instruction. This bill, with some exceptions, authorizes the board to spend all academic student fee revenue it receives for degree credit instruction.
