Wisconsin Independent Charter School Advocates Hires Executive Director

The Wisconsin Independent Charter School Advocates (WICSA) has named Jim Bender Executive Director. Jim has consulted with WICSA for the past year, and has led the newly formed organization through the state budget process and Supreme Court challenge. WICSA selected Mr. Bender to continue to lead the organization along this path of achievement.
 
A small business owner, former legislative staffer, former president of a statewide school choice organization and current President of Bender Consulting, Jim has a long track record of impacting education policy in Wisconsin. As a member of the Design Team for the Statewide Report Card, a member of the Education Committee for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) and a member of the Selection Committee for the UW System’s Office of Educational Opportunity, Jim’s working knowledge of the education landscape is ideal for this position.
 
In particular, Mr. Bender’s fluency in state education funding was a critical part of the legal strategy in pushing back against a constitutional legal challenge. Additionally, his relationships with state legislators during the recent budget negotiations were vital to securing the largest funding increase for Independent Charter schools in their history.
 
WICSA is a statewide membership organization that advocates on behalf of Independent Charter schools. For more information, feel free to reach out to Dr. Kristi Cole, Board Chairperson, kristi.cole@tlabeloit.com or visit WICSA.org.

Update: Right to Read Act

The legislature has approved the final curriculum list for Act 20 – the Right to Read Act. By action in the Joint Committee on Finance, they approved the four vendors approved by Wisconsin Early Literacy Curriculum Council (WELCC).
 
Although there was much debate about the review process and the threat of lawsuits from vendors, in the end, the votes followed the lead of those that dedicated their time on the Council over the concerns of DPI. The list will be updated on an annual basis by the WELCC.
 
Here is the approved list:

• EL Education K-3 Language Arts by Open Up Resources, 2017

• Bookworms Reading & Writing K-3 by Open Up Resources, 2022

• Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) K-3 by Amplify Education, 2022

• Wit and Wisdom by Great Minds, 2020 w/PK-3 Reading Curriculum by Really Great Reading.

As a reminder, you are not required to use one of the products from these vendors. However, if you want to apply for a state-funded grant to reimburse a portion of the cost, you would need to choose from the above list.

The following link on DPI's website has additional information about the process:  https://dpi.wi.gov/wi-reads/act-20-faq
 

WICSA Files Amicus Brief in Opposition to Effort to Declare Independent Charter Schools Unconstitutional

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 14, 2023
Contact: Alesha Guenther - aaguenther@michaelbeststrategies.com

The Wisconsin Independent Charter School Advocates (WICSA), a non-profit, membership organization along with several charter schools, filed an Amicus Brief with the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday. This brief was filed in opposition to a petition for original action at the Wisconsin Supreme Court claiming Independent Charter Schools in Wisconsin were unconstitutional.

“Wisconsin’s Independent Charter Schools are public schools and serve thousands of students to prepare them for a successful life.” said Dr. Kristi Cole, Chair of the WICSA Board and the CEO of The Lincoln Academy Charter School in Beloit. “The Wisconsin Independent Charter School Advocates will continue to protect the schools and families from those attempting to close our doors.”

  “The petition seeking a declaration that the school choice and charter school programs are unconstitutional is deeply flawed and includes numerous factual errors,” said Joe Olson, Counsel for WICSA. “Petitioners are seeking to by-pass the normal fact-finding process conducted every day by Wisconsin circuit courts.  Such a request and the conclusions Petitioners are asking the Supreme Court to draw are both inappropriate.”  

WICSA submitted the Amicus Brief on behalf of the 11,590 Wisconsin pupils its members educate in 35 public schools within the Independent Charter Schools Program. The brief lays out the petitioner’s flawed reasoning and constitutional conclusions, how the petition isn’t narrowly tailored, and how the petitioner fails to state any viable constitutional claims. 

  Any media inquiries for the legal team or WICSA, please contact Alesha Guenther at aaguenther@michaelbeststrategies.com.  

WICSA Retains Legal Counsel

School Leaders,
The WICSA Board voted to retain a law firm this morning regarding the constitutional challenge brought against Independent Charters last week. This is the first step in the process with many more to come. We are first working on becoming direct intervenors in the Court case.

As the legal strategy gets developed, we will relay as much information as possible.  There will be ongoing discussions about individual schools also joining the lawsuit underneath the WICSA umbrella.  We should have more information on that path in a few days.

Also, we are named in the suit alongside private schools in the voucher programs.  They have already retained the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty. 

The majority of the legal basis for this case will address both private schools and charter schools the same way.  In those instances, our goal is to work with private schools and their legal team to advance our cause.  There are a few differences, however, in the legal definitions of private schools and charter schools.  In those instances, our legal strategy may be slightly offset to that of private schools.  

It is in this light that it was necessary for WICSA to hire its own law firm.  Our firm, in the end, will have 100% focus on protecting charter schools.  The goal is not to be oppositional to any of the private school positions, however, we felt it necessary to have legal clarity.

The firm we have retained is Michael Best and Friedrich.  They have a history of working with Independent Charter Schools in Wisconsin and a successful track record in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.  We will give you a heads up if the firm needs to contact you directly.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Dr. Kristi Cole
WICSA Board Chair

Jim Bender
WICSA Consultant   

Constitutional Challenge to the WI Choice & Charter Program

School Leaders,
As some of you have seen in the media, the owner of the Minocqua Brewing Company and Julie Underwood, UW Madison’s anti-voucher champion, filed an Original Action with the Wisconsin Supreme Court (SCOWIS) yesterday. The suit challenges the constitutionality of the voucher programs and the Independent Charter Program – both 2x and 2r. In other words, all Independent Charters are included.
  
The normal course of a challenge is to file the case at Circuit Court and then progress up the Appeals and Court and finally Supreme Court, if needed. Original Actions must typically meet a high legal bar for the Court to even accept the case. It is uncertain if the Court will accept the challenge.
  
The case itself has four distinct challenges. Some of them are stronger than others. 
 

1) Public Purpose Requirement. The public purpose doctrine, which dictates that there can be no expenditure of public funds to satisfy a private rather than a public purpose has been used before to challenge the voucher program. It failed. A legal precedent was set as the court basically said that the legislature had the ability to create alternate ways to apply public education as long as the legislature met its constitutional requirement to fund traditional public schools. It is unclear to me why charters are included in this provision as they are public schools albeit non-traditional public schools.

2) WI Uniform Taxation Clause. This challenge is the one that directly impacts 2x charters and the decoupling draft WICSA will move has so much importance. By intermixing with local school district finances, the argument here is that the funds get comingled and local property taxes, which are required to remain with the local district, are sent to other entities outside the district. This legal challenge is why WICSA was pushing for decoupling during the budget negotiations and have a separate piece of legislation drafted and near ready for introduction.

3) WI Constitution Supervisory Clause.  This is a challenge that says DPI doesn’t have enough control over private schools.  While charters are listed in this section, they do not make a good case for this provision to be applied to charters. It is mostly focused on private schools.

4) Revenue Limits violate Uniform Taxation Clause.  This is not a challenge that appears to include either voucher or charter programs.  There is a long-held belief for some public-school advocates that forcing school districts to ask the voters for permission to raise property taxes is bad. This is an attempt to eliminate revenue limits.

The timeline is unknown at this point. The court could move quickly to accept or deny the submission or ask for legal briefs prior to making the decision on the Original Action. We will keep you updated as this case progresses forward.
 
The WICSA board will be meeting on Monday to discuss next steps on the best way to protect Independent Charter Schools.
 
Please let us know if you have any questions. 
 

Kristi Cole
Board Chair