2003 Senate Resolution 32
ENGROSSED RESOLUTION
Relating to: urging the members of the U.S. Congress from this state, Wisconsin state legislature, executive branch, judicial system, county governments, city governments, village governments, town governments, University of Wisconsin System, Wisconsin technical college system, and public school districts to work on securing more federal funds for the residents of Wisconsin and strongly urging the state not to appropriate any state funds for implementing the No Child Left Behind Act which would not otherwise have been expended for public education under existing state education laws.
Whereas, Wisconsin ranks 49th in per capita total federal expenditures per state; and
Whereas, Wisconsin receives $1,388 less per person than the 25th highest state; and
Whereas, Wisconsin ranks 45th in per capita federal procurement expenditures per state, receiving $512 less per capita than the average state; and
Whereas, Wisconsin ranks 48th in all United States department of defense spending, receiving just $298 per capita, compared to the average of $963 per capita; and
Whereas, Wisconsin receives 0.64 percent of $166 billion in federal expenditures on defense; and
Whereas, Wisconsin receives 0.70 percent of $271 billion in total federal procurement expenditures; and
Whereas, Wisconsin workers receive only $1.8 billion of $271 billion for work on federal procurement contracts; and
Whereas, Wisconsin ranks 41st in federal medicare dollars per recipient; and
Whereas, in fiscal year 2003, under the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), Wisconsin received approximately $277 million and used the funds to run many programs that accrued great benefits to low income children; and
Whereas, in January 2002, the federal government enacted a comprehensive revision to ESEA known as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) which expanded federal requirements for primary and secondary school education; and
Whereas, the act increases Wisconsin's system of setting standards and testing students for achievement of the standards to once in each of grades 3 to 8 in language arts and mathematics and to once in each of 3 grades in science causing a major disruption of administrative and curriculum planning as well as a major expense to Wisconsin's education system; and
Whereas, the act imposes serious consequences, which will have fiscal implications to both the state and local school districts, in which the students in any grade or subgroup such as low income students or students with disabilities within a grade do not meet the standards; and
Whereas, NCLB is a "one size fits all" educational policy that will be detrimental to Wisconsin's rural and urban schools where it is already difficult to recruit and retain teachers and where wild fluctuations in testing results can occur due to small class sizes; and
Whereas, while the expanded provisions of NCLB direct many meritorious improvements in the public education system, they have the potential to interfere severely with state and local legislative and education administration prerogatives and to cost the state of Wisconsin considerably more to implement than the amount of federal grants it receives, thereby placing a major burden on the state's strained financial resources; and
Whereas, Public Law 104-4 of 1995 was intended to curb the practice of imposing unfunded federal mandates on states and local government; and
Whereas, more federal dollars secured for this state would help ease the tax burden for residents of Wisconsin and would help create jobs and improve Wisconsin's economy; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the senate, That the members of the senate of the state of Wisconsin request the members of the United States Congress from this state, Wisconsin state legislature, executive branch, judicial system, county governments, city governments, village governments, town governments, University of Wisconsin System, Wisconsin technical college system, and public school districts to work to increase the amount of federal dollars returned to this state; and, be it further
Resolved by the senate, That the senate strongly urges the state not to appropriate any state funds for implementing NCLB which would not otherwise have been expended for public education under existing state education laws; and, be it further
Resolved by the senate, That the senate urges the department of public instruction, before adopting any new rules for the purpose of complying with NCLB, to submit a written proposal describing the rule and the potential costs to local school districts of implementing the rule to the senate committee on education; and, be it further
Resolved by the senate, That the senate urges the superintendent of public instruction to submit to the senate committee on education a statement of expenditures by the state and local school districts made to comply with NCLB; and, be it further
Resolved, That the senate chief clerk shall send a copy of this resolution to the president of the United States, to the U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, to the Superintendent of Public Instruction Elizabeth Burmaster, to the members of the United States Congress from this state, to the members of the Wisconsin state legislature, to the governor and the cabinet secretaries of the executive branch, to the director of state courts for distribution to the judicial system, to the Wisconsin Counties Association for distribution to county governments, to the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities for distribution to city governments, to the League of Wisconsin Municipalities for distribution to village governments, to the Wisconsin Towns Association for distribution to town governments, to the president of the University of Wisconsin System, to the president of the Wisconsin Technical College System, and to the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators for distribution to public school districts.
