Our mission and vision
Every child in every public school deserves an excellent public education. No exceptions.
Thriving public schools provide safe, welcoming environments for all and meet the unique individual needs of all students. Educational equity ensures our public schools have the resources and support they need to provide every student an equally excellent and well-rounded education. Until the shameful disparities currently facing Wisconsin kids are eliminated and all public schools are places of joy where all student thrive, our work is not done.
Safe, joyful, welcoming schools for all.
We share a vision of a Wisconsin where every child in every public school has equal opportunity to thrive and shine in a well-resourced neighborhood public school. Every public educator enjoys the freedom to teach the truth in supportive, respectful environments. Every caregiver and parent feels welcome and included in their child's education and the school community.
The beautiful thing about public schools is that they welcome, serve, and embrace all students, and our vision of ensuring our public schools have the resources they need t thrive is well within our reach.
Educational opportunity: closing the gaps.
Thriving public schools start and end with meeting our moral and constitutional obligation to all of our children.
Wisconsin has some of the widest gaps in the nation for Black and Brown students, students with disabilities, students who are English language learners, and rural students; and a funding system that creates "have" and "have nots" across the state.
Aligning our policy priorities - at the school, district, and state levels - with the priority needs of our children is critical to the success of our students and our public schools. From reducing class sizes to increasing supports and classroom resources to promoting policies that center our kids, we work for change to close the gaps and foster joy and a love of lifelong learning in our public schools.
Funding fairness.
Equitable, adequate, transparent, predictable, spendable, and fair state funding.
This means getting resources into classrooms by increasing spendable state funds by raising revenue limits and adjusting for inflation. General school district revenues per pupil lag inflation by more than $3,380/pupil since 2009.
Priority spending aligned with priority needs by adequately funding: English language learning, mental health support, students in poverty, school nutrition, rural schools and low-revenue limit districts, early childhood/pre-K and higher education, and attracting and retaining educators.
Wisconsin cannot afford any less than delivering the schools our communities need to thrive.
Accountability
We need to hold ourselves, our schools, and our leaders accountable for the conditions our students need for academic success.
This means we need to demand and deliver accountability and democratic control for all public spending, including private voucher and independent (non-district) charter spending. We oppose the use of public dollars on private and privately operated schools that play by their own rules and put students at risk by not being held accountable to the same hard-won protections that are only guaranteed in our public schools.
How to put our shared vision into action.
Local action, statewide impact.
Together, we demand and deliver the conditions for every child in every public school to thrive.
Center our values
It's about the kids.
We believe in the promise of public education, and the urgent need to stand up against attacks on our public schools and remove barriers that stand in the way of success for too many students. We work together, statewide, to improve educational outcomes for all students by advocating for policies that meet the needs of all learners - especially those most underserved by a broken status quo.
Make it local
Our focus is on real change for the kids who are in our schools now.
Change starts with understanding local needs and taking action where we live.
We empower local communities to take an active role in advocating for public education. By supporting grassroots, relationship-based organizing efforts, we ensure all who best understand the challenges facing our students and communities have a voice in shaping the future of their schools.
Focus on relationships
It's going to take a diverse, strategic coalition of statewide partners to reach our goal of educational justice for all. We strive to share leadership where we live and across our silos.
We foster strong partnerships between parents, caregivers, educators, community members, and policymakers to drive systemic changes in public education. Working together, we can be stronger collective voice for the change our students need now.
Put the "fun" in school funding
School funding is complicated and confusing, but we can't fix our system until we understand how it works - and why it's not working.
Our team gets the facts from trusted experts in school finance and provides critical, plain-language resources that get past the jargon. Our free tools, presentations, webinars, and workshops help you tell the story of how the funding crisis impacts local students and advocate for change.
Demand Accountability
We are committed to holding ourselves, our schools, and our decision-makers accountable for meeting the needs of the students and teachers in our public schools.
From school board policy to privatization, we serve as watchdogs for transparency, adequacy, and fairness. We oppose gap-widening policy, attacks on equity and inclusion initiatives, and all barriers to protecting the freedom to learn in safe, welcoming, and joyful public schools.
Get past the politics
We need to be the grown ups our kids are counting on and stop playing games with their public schools.
It's time to put an end to scams and schemes that siphon resources away from our public schools, and call on decision makers to align their priorities with the priority needs of our kids.
Get involved and help us
Events calendar
Check out our event calendar to learn more about and register for our upcoming events. Our nonpartisan advocacy depends on delivering a strong moral message informed by perspectives of advocates statewide.
Join a local team
Check out our map of Network partners in Wisconsin! This map can help local-level advocates find an existing team, organization, or coalition in their community and get involved.
Leadership team
Regional and statewide organizers help Wisconsin Public Education Network dive deep into local actions with educators, families, community members, and advocates in every corner of Wisconsin.
