Thread by @Tamarine608

WI Assembly Republicans released a bill that is theoretically a COVID-19 plan but in reality is a thinly-cloaked attempt to strip power from schools, local officials, and the Governor, and give that power to legislative leaders instead. 🧵

Let's start with schools. Under this bill, it would take a super-majority of the school board to approve online instruction, and even then, the approval would only be good for two weeks, at which point the board would have to re-approve online instruction.

Schools that provide online instruction would be punished by having their budgets cut. Madison would get a cut of around $10M, Milwaukee about $29M. How is cutting school budgets during a pandemic a helpful response?

Teachers that provide virtual instruction would have to do it from an *actual school building* (why?) unless they get a doctor's note, and even that exception goes away 60 days after a vaccine is widely available.

Now local officials. The bill would prohibit local health orders that tailor capacity restrictions for higher-risk types of businesses. Local safety restrictions on religious gatherings would seem to be prohibited altogether.

The bill would require approval by the legislature's budget committee to spend federal money related to COVID-19, and to set a plan for distribution of the vaccine. Right now the Governor has that ability, & does not need the legislature's say-so.

And speaking of the vaccine, this bill would prohibit employers from making getting a vaccine a condition of employment. For example, a nursing home could not require that its employees get the vaccine.

You read that right: the WI GOP Assembly believes that one of the things that would help Wisconsin in this time of crisis is to make it harder for employers to make sure their employees are vaccinated. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If the GOP Assembly wants to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, here are some things they SHOULD do:
* Accept federal money to expand BadgerCare
* Streamline applying for unemployment benefits
* Stop using courts to block public health orders
* Allow local govt's flexibility

Full GOP proposal here: thewheelerreport.com/wheeler_docs/f…