redistricting.  He planned to use state fiscal resources to aid districts offering occupational preparation programs.

Redistricting legislation came from outside the vocational-technical system.  David Martin, a Republican Assemblyman from Neenah-Menasha, was the legislator responsible for it.  Martin was interested because his father had been a general science teacher at the Appleton Vocational School.  Martin asked for and received permission from Governor Knowles to develop a plan of action for vocational education.

Martin asked Greiber to prepare a mandatory redistricting bill which was to be confidential at first.  Seven drafts later, Greiber explained proposed Assembly Bill 501 to the Directors’ Association.  There was no open opposition and all agreed that 1970 was a reasonable implementation date.  The provisions for redistricting were quite general – a district could be formed from any contiguous combination of counties, municipalities, or school districts operating high schools.”3

“Lobbying against mandatory redistricting continued.  Local school superintendents were against it.  They feared that taxation up to the full 2 mill levy would erode the tax base.  (Few districts actually ever reached the 2 mill limit.)  The Wisconsin Association of School Boards wanted local school boards to have the prerogative of appointing the vocational boards, as WASB explained, to keep up a working dialogue.

July 22, 1965, saw frantic activity in the Assembly around 501A.  By the time it was passed, it included two amendments.  Amendment 10A was a so-called anti community college amendment – that no collegiate transfer program could be offered in a vocational-technical or adult school in any town, city, or village where there was an existing institution of higher learning unless the city had a population of 150,000 or more.  The other Amendment 12A was that local boards would charge resident tuition at 20% of the instructional cost for state-wide full-time collegiate transfer courses approved by the Board.

The Senate added Amendment 4S to the redistricting bill that stipulated that compulsory students, ages 16-18, could be referred to vocational schools if one existed in the city of residence.

On September 10, 1965, Governor Knowles signed the bill as amended and it became Chapter 292, Laws of 1965.  By 1970, everyone in Wisconsin would have to be in a Vocational, Technical and Adult Education District.”4