The Wisconsin budget bill is moving toward a vote in the state senate this afternoon, having passed in a party-line vote in that body’s budget committee late last night.

University of Wisconsin officials are pledging to keep the system’s campuses open today in the face of a planned walkout by faculty and students. Here’s an editorial from the University of Wisconsin Badger Herald supporting the walkout.

Public schools in Madison, Wisconsin’s capital, are closed for the second straight day today as teachers stage an ongoing sick-out. The closure has spread to more than a dozen districts in the capital region since yesterday.

A number of small changes were made to the bill yesterday, but none touched the core complaints that demonstrators have. Republican leaders say they have the votes in hand to pass the legislation in both houses today.

More to come…

Update | Organizers claim thirty thousand people joined yesterday’s protests.