APPLETON, Wis. (WFRV) – The Fox Cities Advocates for Public Education held a rally to call on the state legislature to provide more funding for public schools.

We are calling on the legislature to not pay attention to the Joint Finance Committee recommendation.

The Advocates for Public Education said the legislature is using coronavirus release funds to account for inflation when those dollars were to close any gaps due to the pandemic.

“We’ve gotten federal money to help us recover from COVID-19 but we need that money to help our kids graduate and recover from any deficiencies they have in their education because of the virus.”

Advocates are also concerned about the lack of reimbursement coming from the state for special education.

“We currently get reimbursed for about 26% of the money we are required to spend for disabled kids, so we’re spending all the money that we need to help disabled kids learn but we’re not getting reimbursed for it. So to make up the deficit we’re transferring a lot of money from other kid’s education.”

These education advocates are calling on the legislature to act and increase funding for schools while the state still has a $4.4 billion budget surplus.