Keeping Our Schools Safe

This week, the State Assembly came back into session to take up a School Safety Plan focused on providing our schools with the necessary resources and tools to keep our students and school faculty safe. This plan includes a number of common-sense measures that help to ensure safe school environments for schools across our great state. Some of these measures include: creation of an Office of School Safety within the Department of Justice which will be charged with establishing model practices for school safety as well as providing school safety training for school staff. The legislation also allocates $100 Million in funding for school safety grants. Grants can be used to help schools cover costs of safety related expenditures, such as safety upgrades to buildings and equipment as well as safety training. Additionally, in the 2017-19 state budget, the Legislature approved of providing additional resources to schools for mental health services and programs, as well as funding for new anti-bullying curriculum.  I am very proud to have supported this important package of bills, which gives schools the necessary tools and resources to help keep our kids safe. You can check out my full press release regarding passage of the School Safety Plan here.

Bill to Help Families of Fallen Law Enforcement Heads to Governor's Desk

This week the Senate took up and unanimously passed Assembly Bill 381, which will attach a fundraising mechanism to the existing Law Enforcement Memorial License plate. I introduced this bill earlier this session, after learning that this specialty plate was unable to collect funds for this deserving organization because of how the plate was originally created. With the help of Wisconsin residents and members of law enforcement, this bill was crafted to add a $25 donation component to this license plate which will provide direct financial assistance to the Wisconsin and National Law Enforcement Memorial Funds, with all revenue collected being used in Wisconsin. These organizations provide financial assistance to families of law enforcement immediately following a line-of-duty death. In addition, the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Memorial Fund maintains our capitol's memorial honoring our fallen heroes. I cannot think of a more worthy organization and am very proud to see this legislation moving forward. I look forward to seeing this bill signed into law in the upcoming weeks. You can read my full press release regarding the Senate's passage of this bill, here.

Community Update

This week I had the opportunity to speak at the Allouez Business Association's (ABA) monthly meeting. It was a pleasure meeting with local business leaders to provide an update on legislation of interest that I've been busy working on this session.  A big thanks to the members of ABA for inviting me to drop by!

Spring is Here!

It may not feel like it, but spring is officially here! I'm looking forward to the warmer weather...hopefully sooner rather than later. Wishing you all a happy and healthy spring!