Money meant to improve reading in schools is frozen amid a political fight. Now, districts have to take out loans.

 

GREENDALE, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Maggy Olson is clearly jazzed when she discusses the new reading curriculum Greendale Schools has adopted. Olson, the district's equity and instruction director, said she welcomes a new state literacy law that's now in effect this school year.

"I wanna be really clear about this," Olson said in an interview on Thursday, Sept. 12. "We have a crisis in Wisconsin around reading."

Olson said the new curriculum, Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA), is a more complete program; there's an emphasis on both teaching students the meaning of words but also a return to phonics-based instruction.

"When we're talking about things and we're listening to things, that goes to reading," she said. "And then that goes to writing, how those all come together."

CKLA is one of four state-approved reading curricula under the new reading law. Districts that adopt those programs are eligible for state funding to help cover the costs of buying a new curriculum and training staff on how to teach it. The bill, which passed with bipartisan support, includes a pot of $50 million to reimburse school districts.

However, that money is frozen as the Republican-held Legislature challenges Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' decision to veto other parts of the bill pertaining to the process for distributing the money. 

Superintendent Kim Amidzich said Greendale Schools expected to receive aid by now to offset the new curriculum costs. Instead, she said the district has had to borrow about $300,000. 

"The district has had to take a loan to pay for those materials, and while the state is figuring out when and how to disperse those funds, the Greendale property owners are paying interest on those loans," Amidzich said.

State Sen. Duey Stroebel (R-Cedarburg), one of the bill's co-authors and a member of the Joint Finance Committee, which oversees how state agencies spend money, said lawmakers had to push back on Evers because they believe the governor does not have the power to partially veto this type of bill.

"If it holds that he can start line-item vetoing non-appropriations bills, that just changes the total complexion of government in the state of Wisconsin," Stroebel said in an interview last week.

In Wisconsin, the governor has the power to partially veto appropriations bills. The most commonly known use of the line-item veto is on the state budget.

Last year, Evers used his power to remove specific words and numbers from the budget to guarantee the state would increase K-12 funding for the next 400 years. Conservatives filed a different lawsuit challenging that use of the partial veto.

Two weeks ago, a Dane County judge ruled Evers had properly used the partial veto on the literacy bill. Republicans are appealing that ruling. The court denied the Department of Public Instruction's (DPI) request to immediately release the $50 million, instead finding the money must go through the Joint Finance Committee.

Stroebel said he was hopeful the Legislature would release the literacy funding while the legal battle continues.

"We're looking at all options and hoping that might be one of them," Stroebel said. "But right now, the attorneys are reviewing that, and I'm hoping they come up with some type of answer where that's a possibility, but we'll see."

In Greendale, school leaders are frustrated with the delay. Amidzich said the district implemented its new curriculum last year and is already seeing results.

"While the [state testing] results are embargoed, our internal benchmarks are telling us that our students have made significant gains," she said.

Amidzich said the sooner the reimbursement money is released, the less interest taxpayers will have to take on. Olson said she felt like children were getting caught in the crossfire of a political fight.

"I believe that we need to make sure that kids are at the center," she said. "And I think, sometimes, we focus on the adult problems."