6-18-19 democratic state senator says budget “shortchanges” public education

The ranking Democratic member of the Senate Education committee says a budget approved by the Jt. Finance committee ignores the will of the people when it comes to public  education.  Democratic state senator Chris Larson of Madison says the GOP budget shortchanges public schools, by cutting governor Evers proposed $1.4 billion increase.  “What Republicans did is they slashed that by over $900 million.  They slashed off 80 percent of special education funds.  It just does not get us to the point where we need to be in education,”  Larson told AM 1170 WFDL’s Between the Lines program.  “It doesn’t make up for that opportunity gap we’re still trying to get over from the historic cuts to K-12 education over the past decade.”    Larson says public school educators will be marching to Madison this month in support of public education.    “Starting from Palmyra, so this is not just a Milwaukee issue, Palmyra is a school district that is having to shut down because they don’t have the funds.  They’re going to be marching to Madison when the budget is going to be taken up to make the point that students, parents and teachers are demanding that we start funding our public education system the way we used to.”  Larson says governor Evers’ proposal  was the budget people saw when they voted for him for governor.