GOP lawmakers reach deal on Walker’s school safety bill

MADISON - Republicans who control state government agreed Tuesday to spend $100 million to improve school safety after days of dispute that threatened to tank the legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) told reporters his house would take up the package Tuesday and make minor modifications to it. The Assembly plans to take it up on Thursday, he said.

Kit Beyer, a spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), said “progress has been made” on the issue but did not confirm a final deal had been struck.

The development was a victory for GOP Gov. Scott Walker, who unveiled the package last week. The proposal

and other marquee pieces of legislation were in danger of stalling because of internal fights among Republicans who control both houses of the Legislature.

State senators are taking up school safety just hours after a gunman in Maryland opened fire Tuesday at a school, injuring two and exchanging shots with a police officer. The gunman was killed, according to the local sheriff.

The planned vote also comes five weeks after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Former student Nikolas Cruz, 19, is charged with using an AR-15-style rifle to commit murder.

Walker released his plan Thursday, a day after students in Wisconsin and around the country skipped class to demand universal background checks and tighter limits on firearms. Students and Democrats have said Walker’s plan falls short because it does not change any gun laws.

Republicans in the Legislature immediately embraced Walker’s plan but had minor disagreements that raised the prospect of not getting the proposal to Walker’s desk.

Walker’s plan would provide $100 million in one-time funds to make security improvements to school buildings, train staff and put police officers in schools.

As the Senate prepared to debate the bill, an Assembly committee held a hearing on it that drew questions from Democrats.

They wanted to know whether it was appropriate to have the state Department of Justice award the grants, given that it is headed by GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel, who has voiced support for arming teachers, a back-door way to promote that agenda.

“I find that disconcerting,” said Rep. Sondy Pope (D-Mt. Horeb) “So, we’re going to give $100 million to DOJ, and they’re going to determine the parameters for that money.”

Republicans who sponsored the bills defended the DOJ’s role, saying the measures in question are primarily about public safety, not education, and that the DOJ would collaborate with the state Department of Public Instruction where appropriate.

“I’m assuming there will be cooperation between the agencies,” said Rep. Jim Ott (R-Mequon), whose sponsored a provision that would require school districts to file their safety plans with DOJ.

“I don’t believe DOJ would have authority to … come in and say your plan is insufficient because teachers aren’t armed,” he said.

In the Senate, a version of Walker’s plan is being attached to an unrelated piece of legislation, Assembly Bill 843, that eliminates a requirement that schools produce reports about a law that can no longer be enforced because of a court ruling.

The Senate version drops a requirement Walker supported that would have required parents to be notified about incidents of bullying within 48 hours. Current law requires schools to notify parents of bullying, but does not give a specific time frame for doing so.

The Senate version of the school safety package does not include an overt reference to providing funding for police officers in schools, as Walker’s plan does.

Other provisions remain in place, such as ones that would create an Office of School Safety in GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel’s office; require reporting of threats at schools; and improve school safety plans.

The new Office of School Safety would help schools and law enforcement develop school safety plans and provide training. It would be staffed by one person under the Senate version of the bill — down from four under Walker’s plan.

Under the legislation, teachers, counselors and other professionals would be required to report threats of school violence, just as they are required now to report suspected child abuse.

Walker had called lawmakers into special session, but Fitzgerald is taking up the bill in regular session. The Assembly is taking up the measure in extraordinary session, which is called by lawmakers rather than governor and effectively an extension of regular session, Fitzgerald said.

Walker’s package includes Special Session Assembly Bills 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.