In an effort to better serve the business community, a state senator drafted a bill Friday that would alter the makeup of the state’s technical college boards to include more business-oriented positions.

Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, released a draft of a bill that would create six business person positions on the nine member boards. The boards currently consist of two employers, two employees, a school district administrator, an elected official and three additional members.

“Right now people [on the boards] are more likely to be pro-government activists than be concerned about getting people trained for our business environment in the future,” Grothman said.

Grothman has not yet introduced introduced the bill, which would mostly likely undergo minor amendments. Grothman said based on the preliminary feedback, he is going to have to include positions for hospital employees in the bill.

The six business-oriented positions require prospective board members to be involved with for-profit businesses in the vicinity of the colleges. The bill defined a businessperson as an owner, member, operator or employee of a for-profit business.

John Anderson, a lawyer who represents Madison Area Technical College, said under the current language, health care institutions would lose representation on the board since they are not for profit. He said this would hurt many of the state’s 16 technical college districts since many schools provide health care training programs.

Anderson said the position changes would result in a loss of diversity because many of the three additional members are stakeholders in the educational programs the colleges provide.

“What needs to be considered is if there’s even something that’s wrong here that needs to be fixed,” Anderson said.

Grothman said he hopes the bill would provide more common sense with regards to classes and bargaining. He added the most pressing issue for the boards is to ensure future employees receive appropriate training for the state’s business needs.

Anderson said the for-profit business community already has a variety of ways to relay its views to technical colleges around the state, such as serving on advisory committees for specific programs.

“It’s a drastic move to make a change there that isn’t necessary,” Anderson said.

Grothman said after he amends the bill, he will officially introduce it sometime in the next week.