Joint Finance Proposal Shamefully Inadequate; State Leaders Must Do Better

Heather DuBois Bourenane, Executive Director, Wisconsin Public Education Network and Sandy Whisler, President, Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools, released the following statement today in response to the Joint Finance Committee’s proposal to deny even an inflationary increase to public school funding for the 2025-2027 biennium. 

“Last night the Joint Committee on Finance advanced a shockingly inadequate proposal which ignores literally all of the priority needs the public brought forward at all four of their public hearings. The Committee’s votes were strictly along party lines.  This amounts to playing partisan politics with our children and their public schools. It punishes Wisconsin’s children and puts their futures at risk, all while forcing local property tax payers to foot the bill. Sadly, this is a new low in Wisconsin politics and education. 

With federal funding uncertain, school referenda at an all-time high, and state funding already woefully inadequate to meet the needs of our students, the state should be bending over backwards with bipartisan support to protect Wisconsin children. They should be interested in fulfilling their state constitutional obligation to provide and fund an adequate public school system. Instead they are turning their backs on public school students while proposing yet another reckless increase to unaccountable privatization schemes.  The  vast majority of our kids will pay the price.

If you share our outrage and concern, please sign on to our joint letter calling on Gov. Evers and all state lawmakers to reject any budget that fails to meet the priority needs of our kids and communities. 

Gov. Evers and every single member of the state legislature must reject this radically inadequate, irresponsible proposal and go back to the drawing board. Stop playing politics with our kids and do your job.”

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