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Bill would allow parents to opt kids out of sexual orientation curriculum

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At the Capitol on Thursday, a hearing on legislation that would allow parents to remove their K-12 students from any program “related to sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or gender expression.”

State Representative Donna Rozar (R-Marshfield) is a co-sponsor of the bill (AB-562).

“When you have belief systems being subtly introduced to young, developing minds that are in direct opposition to what a belief system is in the home that is detrimental, parents need to know that that is happening,” Rozar told the Assembly Education Committee.

Rozar insisted the Republican measure is not intended to “erase or alienate” LGTBQ youth, but LGBTQ Legislative Caucus chair, Representative Lee Snodgrass said it will run the risk of doing that if it becomes law.

“When children and young people are informed, they’re able to be more tolerant, more inclusive and have a better understanding. And without that you run the risk of their being things that they don’t understand,” Snodgrass said. “And frankly you run the risk of them bullying them this group of already marginalized individuals that they don’t fully understand some of the things that they might be dealing with.”

Snodgrass noted that Governor Tony Evers would be unlikely to sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

Study: alcohol use declines, cannabis use increases among college students

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A new study shows college students reported record high marijuana use, and record low drinking in 2020.
According to the 2020 Monitoring the Future study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, alcohol use among college students dipped from 62 percent in 2019 to 56 percent.

The percentages reporting being drunk in the past month and reporting binge-drinking also declined. Also according to the report, 44 percent of college students reported using marijuana in 2020, an increase from 38 percent in 2015.

Researchers are unsure whether the pandemic may have driven the record in cannabis consumption.

Eighteen states have legalized recreational marijuana, 37 states have legalized it for medical purposes. Wisconsin allows neither.

Keep an eye on your kid’s mental health as in-person classes resume

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As many kids head back to school for in-person classes, it’s important for parents and teachers to keep an eye on them to see how they’re adjusting.

UW-Health child psychologist Dr. Jason Horowitz says in most cases kids are going to be better off being with their peers, but in some cases that’s not true. 

“Kids who may be prone to anxiety particularly in social situations may have difficulty making the transition from what may be more comfortable for them, doing school at home or doing school virtually.”

Parents should be on the lookout for their kids acting out more or being more withdrawn than usual. Those sorts of behavioral changes could be signs their kid is having a tough time transitioning to school. 

“Teachers are really good at looking for those kinds of warning signs and I’m sure that they will be doing that as school kicks off again!”

Horowitz says it’s up to parents and teachers to help their kids make the adjustments they need to flourish with their peers. 

Drive safely around school zones

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With students back at school in-person around Wisconsin, drivers are urged to remain aware of pedestrians in and around schools. Shawn Koval is schools coordinator with UW Health’s Healthy Kids Collaborative.

“The volume of traffic, and the volume of students and staff on those streets in front of schools and by schools is going to be much increased this year,” Koval said. “It’s especially imperative that those drivers stay off their devices, that they keep their head on a swivel and are aware in these school zones.”

Koval said it’s also imperative to pay attention to crossing guards signs, especially if you’re dropping kids off. “It’s really, really important to pay attention not only to the busses and things like that, but to the crossing guards, and to anybody that’s in yellow and orange, to follow their directions and follow the signage right around school buildings.”

Koval added that drivers and pedestrians alike should stay off their phones in school zones, so they can give full attention to their surroundings.

Tommy Thompson rejects Republican oversight of UW System COVID-19 protocols

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Interim UW System President Tommy Thompson

Interim University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson says he won’t back down, in the face of demands by Republican lawmakers who want to weigh in on any campus COVID-19 protocols.

“I’m not abdicating my responsibility, and I will contest it aggressively,” Thompson said during a call with reporters on Tuesday.

“Even though I don’t want to pick a fight with the legislature, I am going to stand my ground to make sure that we maintain our colleges and make sure that our students are able to get the best education possible, in as safe and a healthy way as possible.”

Majority Republicans on the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules have directed the UW System to submit its pandemic protocols for approval. Thompson said that’s not going to happen, and predicted the UW will win if the issue ends up in court.

“We will contest it,” Thompson said. “I don’t want to fight with the legislature, but we will contest it aggressively, whether it be in the circuit court, court of appeals or the Supreme Court.”

Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules co-chair, state Senator Steve Nass (R-Whitewater), said he’ll ask legislative leaders to begin legal action against the UW System following a September 2nd deadline to submit those pandemic plans to the committee.

Republicans vote to block UW System COVID-19 fall protocols

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University of Wisconsin System leaders will have to run future COVID-19 rules past state lawmakers. On a 6-4 party line vote, the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules declared Tuesday that the UW System must issue an emergency order to enact pandemic protocols like mandatory testing and masks.

“No public hearing. No opportunity even for the legislators on the committee to discuss the issue at hand,” said Representative Lisa Subeck (D-Madison) a committee member.

The committee voted by ballot on Tuesday. The action comes amid a steady increase in new COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin and across the U.S.

“I think they understand and know that they’re on the wrong side of this one, as they have been throughout this entire pandemic,” said Senator Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee), another committee member.

“The path forward in addressing Covid-19 is not through excessive government mandates, but in the restoration of Americans being able to make voluntary informed decisions based on their individual health circumstances,” said Senator Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) the committee co-chair who introduced the resolution last week.

“If the university proceeds with putting these measures in place, as I think they need to – it’s imperative – I would not be surprised to see the Republicans sue,” Subeck said. “We have seen Robin Vos and Devin LeMahieu perfectly willing to spend loads of taxpayer money on ridiculous lawsuits.”

Republican state Senator wants to block UW System COVID-19 protocols

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Senator Steve Nass

A Republican state legislator is seeking to block the University of Wisconsin System’s COVID-19 plans for the fall.

State Senator Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) wants the UW System to get legislative approval for any virus-related regulations. Nass co-chairs the legislature’s administrative rules committee. Nass explained his decision in media release on Wednesday.   

Unfortunately, some chancellors in the UW System consider themselves mini-Andrea Palms not beholden to following state law and moving quickly to take advantage of the Delta-variant hysteria to enact excessive Covid-19 mandates.  The legislature should not drag its feet in utilizing the powers we have to prevent state agencies from abusing the statutory and constitutional rights of citizens as was done in 2020.

 

Interim UW System President Tommy Thompson

Senator Kelda Roys (D-Madison) serves on the rules committee, and her district includes the Madison campus. “It’s just hard to see how any rational person could think that prohibiting any COVID precautions is a good idea. I mean unless you really think that unmitigated spread of COVID is a good thing,” said Roys.

Interim UW System President Tommy Thompson did not directly address Nass’ proposal, but expressed his concerns in a statement released on Thursday.

Given my experience as a former United States Health and Human Services Secretary, I know the biggest threat to in-person classes this fall would be actions that strip the UW System of the tools it has so successfully used to date to address outbreaks and reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Nass plans to hold a paper ballot vote Tuesday in the committee, in which Republicans hold a 6-to-4 majority. His effort to restrict the UW System’s efforts come with Wisconsin the midst of an increase in new COVID-19 infections.

Assembly Republicans pass bill to ban trans women from high school and college women’s sports

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Republicans in the state Assembly have passed a pair of bills that restrict how trans women can take part in high school and college sports.

The bill’s author, Republican Barb Dietrich, says the bill would create a separate but equal co-ed branch of youth sports that trans women would be allowed to participate in.

“If a biological female is perfectly comfortable competing against a biological male, this legislation provides a way to do so!”

Democrat Lee Snodgrass says the move is a cynical way to attack trans athletes. “If we really truly care about women’s sports issues, we should be working on closing the pay gap in women’s sports. We should be making investments in sports and promoting equal economically opportunities for these girls and women.”

Snodgrass says trans women already have it tough competing. “They suffer from higher rates of bullying, anxiety, depression, all of which – news flash – make it more difficult to train and be competitive.”

Dietrich says that children who are trans need mental help rather than help competing in sports. “Let’s get them the care that they need on the mental health level, rather than allowing them to displace women who have worked so hard to reach this achievement level.”

Governor Evers says he’ll be vetoing the bill if it makes it to his desk.

State agencies defend budget priorities at Republican controlled Joint Finance Committee

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Tuesday was the start of the Legislature’s review of Governor Evers’ proposed state budget.

Joint Finance Committee Co-Chair Howard Marklein says that Wisconsin will be receiving a massive influx of aid from the federal government, and that Republicans are keeping an eye on things. 

“The total amount that a federal money that’s come into the state is huge and, in terms of us doing the budget for the next two years, that is something that we’re going to have to consider.” 

Marklein says he’s unhappy with the size of Evers’ budget, and that it will dip into the state’s rainy day general fund balance. 

“That’s unacceptable to me. We cannot reverse the strong trajectory that we had in the past.”

Two days of hearings brought four different agencies to the floor for questions and presentations to the committee.

Republicans grilled State superintendent of schools Caroline Stanford Taylor over whether or not schools would be open this fall, and Stanford Taylor says that’s up to the local school districts. She also said this was not a lost year. 

“But the one thing that I want to make clear to everyone is that there was a continuation of learning, no matter how. Whether it was virtual hybrid or in-person, the learning never stopped.” 

Stanford Taylor says that they do hope that students are back in school this fall, but says that the pandemic has to be under control before many districts will feel safe to make that switch.  “In person is the best avenue for our students because there are some things that you just can’t replicate in terms of relationships and those things, but number one is to make sure that kids are safe.”

The state will be receiving over 2 billion dollars in federal aid for schools in the upcoming budget cycle, and much of that will go to large districts serving underprivileged kids. 

The Department of Workforce Development got the second hearing on Tuesday, and Republicans grilled Secretary Amy Pechacek over the failures of the Unemployment System during the height of the pandemic last year. Pechacek says they’re looking to expand their programming on job training and education to ensure that people will be able to find jobs in a post-pandemic world. 

“In order to keep growing our economy and really invest long term, we want to make sure we’ve got programs in place that are going to help these jobseekers transition so that our employers can also continue to grow.”

Chairman Howard Marklein says business people are competing with unemployment to find workers, and Secretary Pechacek says that’s unlikely. 

“So to think that folks could sustain on $370 [a week], without Healthcare, without benefits… I don’t really think that that’s reality.”

The next hearing came on Wednesday with Department of Natural Resources Secretary Preston Cole.

Cole says the agency is planning to expand funding to remediate and remove an emerging contaminant from Wisconsin’s ecosystem. “These forever chemicals are a public health concern, that build up and move through our soil, seep into our groundwater and carry through the air. PFOS are known to build in our bodies and our fish tissue, and wildlife tissue.”

Republicans, alongside the state’s business lobby, say that the DNR doesn’t have a mandate to regulate PFOS under state law. The DNR is currently in the process of codifying those rules. 

Cole says the state is working to keep up with fish stocking demands, while also keeping Wisconsin’s waters clean.  “It ain’t about the numbers it’s about the habitat they go into. So for us, to make sure that what we put in can survive, the healthier the habitat, the better off we are.”

That question came in response to Republican concerns that more people have been getting fishing licenses during the pandemic as a means to do something safe outdoors. 

The state’s effort to increase broadband connections to rural Wisconsin got a focus on Wednesday at Joint Finance’s budget hearings. Public Service Commission Chairperson Rebecca Cameron Valcq says the Commission doesn’t have the power to regulate how and where broadband lines are installed. 

“They’ve been deregulated now for more than 10 years so we don’t have the ability to say if you’re going down County Highway O you must provide service on both sides of the highway.”

Valcq says one fix to the issue would be to allow for municipalities to apply for those broadband grants themselves, provided they can prove that no other provider is willing to install lines in their area. “It’s not a matter of pushing Private Industry out. It’s a matter of recognizing that there are areas of the state where Private Industry is refusing to go.”

The Budget hearings are now set to go on the road, with several in person hearings and one virtual hearing before the whole budget comes to the legislature for debates and votes.

Senate approves bill that would require schools to teach about Holocaust and other genocides

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The Wisconsin Senate has passed legislation that would require schools to teach about the Holocaust and other genocides.

Milwaukee Democrat Lena Taylor proposed an amendment that would have added the African slave trade to the bill.

“Two million Black people are estimated to have died. Ten to fourteen million were forcibly transported,” Taylor said.

Taylor’s effort failed, on a day Senate Republicans also refused to consider a Black History Month resolution, but did approve one honoring the late Rush Limbaugh. Under the bill, schools would have to instruct on the Holocaust and other genocides at least once in grades 5-8 and once in grades 9-12.

“It is funded by a foundation specifically to fund a model academic curriculum, for this particular issues and all other genocides,” said the bill’s author, River Hills Republican Alberta Darling. “So there is room to talk about, and it should spark the conversation about what’s happening in our world today. Because that’s the point of studying the Holocaust. What happened, and why it should never happen again.”