 students are safe or stop taxpayer money from being wasted. This week, Democrats in the Assembly and the Senate announced a bill that would provide those basic protections for all students and taxpayers. That includes requiring background checks for teachers and other school employees, rights for student expulsions, strengthening oversight, and improving academic standards. It is more important than ever that we take serious steps to address this issue. Currently, private voucher schools are not required to hire licensed teachers, meet state graduation standards, or even be located in Wisconsin. And Wisconsin taxpayers have been forced to spend $139 million over the past decade on private schools that ended up being barred from the voucher program for reasons, including threats to student safety, and improperly claiming students' repayment. Governor Walker's voucher program is failing our kids. We can't continue to waste millions of tax dollars on this underperforming program instead of strengthening our local neighborhood schools. Now is the time to act to make sure that every school that receives taxpayer funding.