Marathon County District Attorney Kyle will ride in memory of Everest Metro Police Detective Jason Weiland.
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Negotiations are resuming around moving Green Bay’s downtown coal piles after previous proposals were rejected. Efforts by local leaders to move the massive coal piles have been ongoing for decades.
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Nearly a quarter of Wisconsin fourth graders lack basic math knowledge. The National Council on Teacher Quality says that's because only one in eight colleges are adequately spending enough time preparing future teachers to teach fundamental math topics.
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Spooner, Wisconsin is not only up north – it’s up near the top of John and Emmy’s “love it here” list! It could be Spooner’s fascinating railroad past, or the […]
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Trixie cares for a single mother discharged from a psychiatric hospital; an outbreak of gonorrhea sees Shelagh and Miss Higgins using the new tracking system to identify contacts.
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Michael Gableman, the former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who led a failed investigation into the 2020 election results, should lose his license for three years, according to a recommendation from the Office of Lawyer Regulation.
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Christine works to ensure dignified lives for herself and her brother, Peter, who was born with multiple disabilities, while facing uncertainties about becoming his primary caregiver.
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The head of Wisconsin's preeminent business advocacy group says they're not sure how a rash of steep tariffs on global trading partners will affect companies in the dairy state.
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Amid rising boycotts of major companies, the owners of Bound to Happen Books in Stevens Point and WordHaven Bookhouse in Sheboygan find themselves uniquely poised to meet the political moment.
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The Trump administration has fired thousands of employees at federal health agencies like Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food & Drug Administration.
The post Federal layoffs affect state resources for bird flu, other animal health concerns appeared first on WPR.
Former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman in a video promoting the partisan review of the 2020 election. (YouTube | Office of the Special Counsel)
Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who led a widely derided review of the 2020 presidential election, searching for evidence for baseless accusations of fraud, will have his law license suspended for three years, according to a stipulated agreement between him and the state Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR).
Law Forward, the progressive voting rights focused firm, filed a grievance against Gableman with the OLR in 2023. The OLR filed a complaint against Gableman in November that alleged, among other counts, that he had failed to “provide competent representation” and to “abstain from all offensive personality” and of violating attorney-client privilege.
The allegations against Gableman stemmed from his treatment of the mayors of Green Bay and Madison, whom he threatened with jail time during his review, false statements he made during testimony to legislative committees, violating the state’s open records laws, breaching his contract with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and, when OLR began investigating him, “making false statements” to the investigators in an affidavit.
As part of the stipulated agreement, Gableman admitted that “he cannot successfully defend against the allegations of misconduct … and agrees that the allegations of the complaint provide an adequate factual basis in the record.”
In a statement, Law Forward’s general counsel Jeff Mandel said that Gableman’s actions “were and continue to be a threat to our democracy and the rule of law.”
“Our justice system can work only if everyone plays by the rules,” Mandell said. “Two years and one month after Law Forward first filed a grievance with the Office of Lawyer Regulation explaining how Gableman’s unethical behavior did lasting damage to the public’s faith in elections, we are glad to see consequences for those who plan and promote overturning the will of the people.”
“Gableman violated his sworn duty to uphold both the U.S. and the Wisconsin constitutions and his obligations as an attorney,” Mandell continued. “He broke more rules than he followed, acting with complete indifference to election law, procedural norms, and the ethical obligations that bind attorneys. With this deal, Gableman stipulates that he misled courts, lied in public meetings, and violated government transparency laws.”
A Wisconsin Democracy Campaign poll finds nearly 90% of voters say they're concerned about the influence of money in politics. (Getty Images)
After an April election that broke national records for spending, Wisconsin voters are eager to see measures to rein in money in politics, a campaign finance watchdog group leader said Monday.
“It is an environment where billionaires are running the show and everyday people like you and me are here watching,” said Nick Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. “We will continue to see unprecedented spending unless something changes from our Legislature and our lawmakers.”
The numbers that the organization posted Monday haven’t yet pierced the predicted $100 million threshold in the Supreme Court race, but final data won’t be compiled until the end of June. The Democracy Campaign focuses on the money actually spent, as distinct from what was raised or what was budgeted, said research director Sam DeForest-Davis.
As of Monday morning, the campaign for Judge Susan Crawford, who won the Court race, spent $22 million compared with the campaign for Judge Brad Schimel, which spent just under $10 million.
While the campaigns spent a combined $32 million, independent groups supporting the campaigns spent a combined $51 million. Schimel was the larger beneficiary of independent spending, with $33.5 million in his favor or opposing Crawford. Independent spending that favored Crawford or opposed Schimel totaled $18 million.
In the race for state superintendent, the two candidates’ campaigns — for incumbent Jill Underly, who won, and for her challenger, Brittany Kinser — were just about even in their spending, with $1.3 million for Underly and $1.1 million for Kinser.
Independent spending, however, heavily favored Underly at $1.9 million. Independent spending for Kinser totaled $160,000.
Research director DeForest-Davis said the organization will have a final report in July on spending data, including spending on issue ads that don’t include explicit messages to vote for or against a candidate but are slanted to clearly favor one or the other. That information won’t be available until the end of June.
Along with the campaign finance data released Monday, the Democracy Campaign released results from an opinion poll of Wisconsin voters on campaign finance.
The survey, of 861 voters conducted from Feb. 11-14, found that 88% of participants were “very concerned” or “extremely concerned” about the influence of money in politics.
“I have a hard time thinking of an issue that has this kind of universal feedback across the state,” Ramos said. “After seeing the gaudy amount of money that was spent in this Supreme Court race, I can only imagine that this number and this percentage are going to increase.”
Nearly as many — more than 85% — said “no” when asked if individuals or groups should be able to spend “unlimited amounts of money” to support political campaigns. And 83% said there should be limits on how much campaigns can spend.
Nearly 74% said they would support a ban on campaign spending “by outside political action committees (PACs) that are not directly affiliated with a candidate’s campaign.” About 53% ranked spending by “dark money PACS who do not have to disclose their donors” as their greatest concern where the influence of money on politics is concerned.
Another question showed that so far publicly financed campaigns haven’t gained support from a majority of voters. Almost 47% said they would “strongly” or “somewhat” support such a proposal. Just under 30% said they would “somewhat” or “strongly” oppose public financing, while 23.5% said they were unsure.
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President Donald Trump is displayed on a television screen as traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on April 7, 2025, in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Global markets plummeted Monday for the third consecutive trading day since President Donald Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs — and the administration gave mixed signals on meeting other nations at the negotiating table.
U.S. stocks reacted positively to a short-lived, incorrect report amplified on social media that Trump may pause the tariffs for 90 days, but the market plunged quickly when the White House dismissed the claim as “FAKE NEWS.”
Any upward progress was erased upon Trump’s announcement that he planned to further punish China starting Wednesday.
At about 11:15 a.m. Eastern Trump threatened to raise tariffs on China a further 50% if the country does not back down on its retaliatory 34% tax on U.S. imports by Tuesday. If left unresolved, the latest U.S.-China trade war will hit American farmers, particularly soybean producers.
Writing on his platform Truth Social, Trump said “Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated! Negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately.”
The administration maintains more than 50 countries have reached out to negotiate.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote on X that Trump has tasked him to negotiate with Japan, which could face a 24% levy beginning Thursday.
“Japan remains among America’s closest allies, and I look forward to our upcoming productive engagement regarding tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers, currency issues, and government subsidies. I appreciate the Japanese government’s outreach and measured approach to this process,” Bessent wrote on the social media platform.
“China has chosen to isolate itself by retaliating and doubling down on previous negative behavior,” Bessent added.
Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she has offered the U.S. zero-for-zero tariffs on industrial goods.
“But we are also prepared to respond through countermeasures and defend our interests,” von der Leyen said Monday at a press conference.
Trump slapped a 20% tax on goods from the EU, set to take effect Thursday, on top of 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum that began in mid-March. A 25% tariff on all foreign cars imported to the U.S. also launched Thursday.
The EU is poised to impose retaliatory duties on American products in response to the import taxes. The bloc of 27 nations is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a list of U.S. goods to be taxed at its borders.
When asked by reporters in the Oval Office Monday if the EU offer was enough to scale back the tariffs, Trump said “No, it’s not.”
Journalists had gathered in the Oval Office for Trump’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited to discuss Trump’s new 17% tax on his country’s imports.
Netanyahu promised to “eliminate” his country’s trade deficit with the U.S.
“We intend to do it very quickly. We think it’s the right thing to do and we’re going to also eliminate trade barriers, a variety of trade barriers that have been put up unnecessarily. And I think Israel can serve as a model for many countries who ought to do the same,” Netanyahu said.
When asked by reporters if he intends to lower the tariffs on Israel, Trump said, “Maybe not.”
“We give Israel billions of dollars a year,” he added.
The meeting was streamed on C-SPAN.
Two Republican senators publicly urged Trump on social media to take the EU offer.
Sen. Mike Lee of Utah wrote, “Let’s take that deal! Much to gain.”
“Totally agree,” Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin replied. “At some point you have to take YES for an answer.”
Another Senate Republican, Ted Cruz of Texas, has publicly criticized Trump’s steep levies on almost every nation around the globe.
A bipartisan effort to claw back power from the president’s near-unilateral authority to impose tariffs might not get far, despite the economic uncertainty unleashed since Trump unveiled his “Liberation Day” plan.
Legislation co-sponsored by Democrat Maria Cantwell of Washington and Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa would require the president to notify lawmakers prior to new tariffs from the White House and limit the levies to a 60-day window unless Congress approves an extension.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota seemed to shut down the idea Monday, according to reporters on Capitol Hill.
“I don’t think that has a future. The president has indicated he will veto it. I don’t see how they get it to the floor on the House,” Thune told Politico.
A companion bill in the House is sponsored by Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska.
Chances of House Speaker Mike Johnson bringing the bill to the floor are likely slim, as the Louisiana Republican supported Trump’s tariff unveiling in person last week.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley said this week she’ll seek another 10-year term on the Court next year.
Bradley’s announcement came just days after Dane County Judge Susan Crawford defeated Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel by 10 points in the most expensive judicial campaign in U.S. history. Crawford’s victory gave the Court’s liberals control of the majority until at least 2028. Bradley told WisPolitics that she will run again to “ensure that there is a voice for the constitution and for the rule of law to preserve that in the state of Wisconsin.”
“I’m concerned for what an extremely radical court is going to do over the next three years, and I will be spending the next several weeks assessing what happened on Tuesday and figuring out a path to achieving a court that is not led by and dominated by the radical left, that gets back to deciding cases under the law and respecting the constitution,” Bradley said.
Liberals have now won four of the last five state Supreme Court elections, all by double digits. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that appeals court judge and former Democratic lawmaker Chris Taylor is considering challenging Bradley in next year’s race.
Schimel and former Justice Dan Kelly have lost the last three Supreme Court elections after arguing that their liberal opponents are partisan ideologues seeking to legislate from the bench.
Bradley was first appointed to the Court by Gov. Scott Walker in 2015 and elected to a full term in 2016. In recent years she’s been one of the Court’s most right-wing justices.
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, she compared restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of the disease to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and she sided with President Donald Trump in his unsuccessful effort to have the Court throw out the results of the 2020 election.
She has often written in her dissents against Court decisions about her belief that the liberal majority is acting politically and said the Court’s liberals are “pursuing a political agenda.”
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A view of the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Maryland, looking south beyond the Stokes Labs (Building 50) and Natcher Building (center) to the reflective façade of the National Library of Medicine (upper right). (Photo by National Institutes of Health)
WASHINGTON — A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction blocking the National Institutes of Health from implementing a policy that would cap the amount of funding research universities and medical schools receive for indirect costs.
The Friday ruling from Judge Angel Kelley of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts came just hours after Trump administration lawyers asked her to convert the preliminary injunction issued in March to a permanent one.
The move will likely speed up the appeals process.
Kelley wrote in her previous 76-page decision that a preliminary injunction prevented the NIH from inflicting “immediate, devastating, and irreparable” harm on research institutions.
“First, the suspension of ongoing clinical trials and the resulting threats to patients’ lives represents a dire risk of a quintessentially irreparable nature. Second, the threats to non-human, yet still essential, research subjects similarly rings in irreparability,” Kelley wrote, referring to research animals. “Finally, the potential loss of human capital and talent to virtually every Plaintiff poses yet another harm incapable of run-of-the-mill legal relief.”
Kelley added the “Court is hard pressed to think of a loss more irreparable than the loss of a life, let alone the thousands of people who are counting on clinical trials as their last hope.”
The case began in February after the NIH announced it would cap Facilities and Administrative fees for every institution receiving a grant at 15%, a significantly lower threshold than many research universities and medical schools had negotiated over the years.
That led to three lawsuits — Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. National Institutes of Health, Association of American Medical Colleges v. National Institutes of Health and Association of American Universities v. Department of Health & Human Services — all of which are before Kelley.
Facilities and Administrative fees, also referred to as indirect costs, cover expenses that are not associated with one specific research project. They can include building construction or renovations, utility bills, salaries for administrative staff, and dozens of other line items.
Prisoners sit at the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, a mega-prison in Tecoluca, San Vicente, El Salvador, on April 4, 2025. The Trump administration has acknowledged mistakenly deporting a Maryland resident from El Salvador with protected status to the prison but is arguing against returning him to the U.S. (Photo by Alex Peña/Getty Images)
This story was updated at 4:34 p.m. Eastern.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily granted the Trump administration’s request Monday to block a lower court’s order to bring back to the United States a Maryland man who was erroneously deported to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador.
The order from Chief Justice John Roberts that stays a lower court order “pending further order of The Chief Justice or of the Court” came hours after another appeals court upheld an order to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, of Beltsville, Maryland, to the United States.
Roberts’ order is not final, but pauses the lower court’s order to return Abrego Garcia while the justices reach a final decision on that order’s validity.
Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, told reporters Friday she hoped her husband would be returned to the U.S. by the midnight Monday deadline set by a federal judge.
The Trump administration made an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court on Monday, where U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that, despite the government’s admitted error in deporting Abrego Garcia, the lower court does not have the jurisdiction to order the Trump administration to return someone who the administration argues is no longer in U.S. custody.
The appeal to the high court came within minutes of an appeals court panel unanimously upholding the order by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who set a deadline of midnight Monday for the administration to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S.
Despite being granted legal protection from deportation by a judge in 2019, immigration officials detained Abrego Garcia and sent him on a March 15 deportation flight to El Salvador, where he was incarcerated at the notorious prison known as Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT.
A panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit agreed Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador was a major misstep.
“The United States Government has no legal authority to snatch a person who is lawfully present in the United States off the street and remove him from the country without due process,” two judges on the panel, Robert B. King and Stephanie D. Thacker, wrote.
King was appointed by former President Bill Clinton and Thacker was appointed by former President Barack Obama.
“The Government’s contention otherwise, and its argument that the federal courts are powerless to intervene, are unconscionable,” they wrote.
J. Harvie Wilkinson III, who was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, wrote in his option that “[t]here is no question that the government screwed up here.”
He noted that President Donald Trump’s administration has not made an effort to rectify its mistake.
“The facts of this case thus present the potential for a disturbing loophole: namely that the government could whisk individuals to foreign prisons in violation of court orders and then contend, invoking its Article II powers, that it is no longer their custodian, and there is nothing that can be done. It takes no small amount of imagination to understand that this is a path of perfect lawlessness, one that courts cannot condone,” Wilkinson said.
On Friday, Xinis ordered the Trump administration to return Abrego Garcia.
The Department of Justice quickly appealed the decision and Xinis issued a scathing 22-page order Sunday that cited records and official statements from Trump officials saying the administration has the power to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S.
“Neither the United States nor El Salvador have told anyone why he was returned to the very country to which he cannot return, or why he is detained at CECOT,” she wrote. “That silence is telling. As Defendants acknowledge, they had no legal authority to arrest him, no justification to detain him, and no grounds to send him to El Salvador—let alone deliver him into one of the most dangerous prisons in the Western Hemisphere.”
Abrego Garcia was on one of three deportation flights to CECOT on March 15. Two flights contained 238 Venezuelans who were deported under a wartime law that is currently being challenged in another court case.
Xinis slammed the Trump administration for arguing that she had no jurisdiction to order Abrego Garcia’s return.
“For the following reasons, their jurisdictional arguments fail as a matter of law,” she said. “Further, to avoid clear irreparable harm, and because equity and justice compels it, the Court grants the narrowest, daresay only, relief warranted: to order that Defendants return Abrego Garcia to the United States.”
She noted that the two countries have an agreement to house more than 250 deported men at CECOT.
The U.S. is paying El Salvador $6 million to detain the men at the prison. Trump is scheduled to meet with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele at the White House on April 14.
In response to the district court’s order to return Abrego Garcia, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, posted a GIF of a confused cartoon bunny on social media.
The Department of Justice attorney who argued on behalf of the Trump administration, Erez Reuveni, was placed on indefinite administrative leave over the weekend.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said during a Fox News interview Sunday that Reuveni was placed on leave because he did not “vigorously” defend the administration.
Reuveni, a veteran government attorney, has argued for the DOJ over the course of four administrations.
During Friday’s hearing he was candid that the Trump administration had provided him little information on why Abrego Garcia could not be returned to the U.S. and that “the government made a choice here to produce no evidence.”
Volunteers and staff with Worker Justice Wisconsin pose with the group's banner after an action Friday to call attention to wage theft. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)
A Wisconsin group that helps workers who have experienced wage theft is broadening its tactics to address complaints of employer misconduct.
On Friday staff members of Worker Justice Wisconsin, along with a group of community supporters, showed up at a Middleton contractor’s office where a former employee demanded payment of unpaid overtime wages.
The public action represents a new step for Worker Justice Wisconsin, according to executive director Rebecca Meier-Rao.
Based in Madison and supported by a group of churches and other religious bodies, Worker Justice Wisconsin has spent the last couple of decades assisting workers who don’t have unions with complaints about their treatment on the job.
For much of its existence the organization has worked one-on-one with individuals, helping them navigate the process of filing complaints with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) and other agencies.
“The prevalence of wage theft is astronomical,” Meier-Rao told the Wisconsin Examiner. She added that it’s a nationwide problem. “Every year just millions and millions of dollars are stolen from workers.”
People of color and immigrants are the most likely to be targets, she said. The organization does not discuss the immigration status of those who come to the group for help.
In 2024, the group enabled 103 workers to recover more than $328,000 in wages they were shorted by their employers, Meier-Rao said, but those successes represent “just a fraction” of the wage theft incidents that go on each year. The resolved wage theft cases in 2024 were just some of the 155 that Worker Justice Wisconsin opened that year, involving more than $531,000 in unpaid wages.
“I’m sure the actual amount of wage theft was much higher,” Meier-Rao said.
Not only do those cases deprive people of their rightful earnings, they also cost government the taxes on those earnings, she said.
DWD investigates wage theft complaints and will calculate what is owed to an employee, but “there’s almost no teeth if the employer doesn’t pay,” she added. “That is not going to deter the problem from happening.”
While someone who steals from a store or a warehouse can be charged with theft, wage theft in Wisconsin “is treated not as a criminal offense but a civil offense,” Meier-Rao said.
Worker Justice Wisconsin’s tactics are evolving as it looks for new ways to address the issue. “We’ve been shifting from an advocacy organization to a worker power organization,” Meier-Rao said.
About a year ago the organization began planning to take public actions to call attention to the wage theft incidents it has investigated. The group developed leaders among the workers it has supported and began building a broader support group — a “rapid response network” that has enlisted 120 community members, union activists and other allies.
By directly confronting employers, Meier-Rao said, the organization wants to draw the attention of the public and policymakers to wage theft, encouraging them to enact tougher laws against the practice.
On Friday morning, Worker Justice Wisconsin organizer Robert Christl, Meier-Rao and a small crowd of the organization’s rapid-response volunteers drove up to the storefront of Stone Concepts in a Middleton industrial park.
They were there with Crescencio Albino, who worked for four years building and installing stone countertops at the home design and remodeling contractor.
Albino, who no longer works for the company, said that he had put in extensive overtime hours, but was paid only his regular hourly wage, not the time-and-a-half premium required under state and federal laws. A DWD investigation determined he was owed $6,875 in unpaid premium wages for the last two years of overtime work.
Outside the Stone Concepts office, with Albino at his side, Christl spoke to an employee and asked if the owner was on site. The employer said he was not, and Christl asked him to convey a letter to the owner. The letter called for Albino to be paid in full within two weeks.
Gathering at the other end of the block afterward, Meier-Rao, Christl and Albino addressed supporters. Christl served as interpreter as Albino spoke in Spanish.
Albino said he pursued the case with DWD after trying several times to resolve the issue directly with the business. Despite the DWD’s finding, Albino said the business owner has still not paid him.
“The employer wanted to pay the money already owed to me with a payment plan of six months, which I rejected,” Albino said. “It’s hard for me to understand why, in such a clear cut situation, I have to go through this whole process to get what is mine.”
He added: “If I hadn’t honored my obligation, or if I had stolen from my boss, the consequences would have been immediate and severe, but it seems that when it’s workers like me who are affected, justice isn’t applied equally. This seems wrong to me.”
Meier-Rao told the group that the action and others like it were aimed at throwing a public spotlight on a problem that has long gone unnoticed.
“For more than two decades, we have helped hundreds of workers file claims with the Department of Workforce Development to [recoup] unpaid wages,” Meier-Rao said.
“Although we have had many successful individual cases, the harsh reality is that this approach does not change the system. No amount of complaints filed will put a stop to wage theft.”
To accomplish that, “we have to organize inside and outside the workplace,” Meier-Rao said. “We have to be public. We have to make noise. We have to build collective power. That is why it’s so important that you are all here today.”
Responding Saturday to an email inquiry the Wisconsin Examiner sent Friday to Stone Concepts, Andreia Nogueira wrote that “we are not refusing to make a payment. I am sending the payment to my lawyer.”
As of Sunday, Worker Justice Wisconsin had not received a response on behalf of the company, Meier-Rao said.
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People from across southeast Wisconsin gathered in the Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Center Friday. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner.)
People from across southeast Wisconsin gathered in the Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Center Friday to call on legislators to fund a range of priorities in the next state budget — from education to a new public safety building for Milwaukee to public transportation to child care.
The public hearing of the Joint Finance Committee was the second of four across the state this month. A hearing was also held in Kaukauna last week, and Republican and Democratic lawmakers on the committee agreed Friday morning that education funding was one of the top issues discussed.
Committee co-chair Sen. Howard Marklein said at a press conference that funding for school districts and the fate of the Green Bay prison were two of the biggest issues discussed during the first hearing. He said lawmakers haven’t discussed any specifics yet when it comes to actions they may take on public school funding, adding that K-12 funding has historically been the No. 1 largest item in the budget and it’ll likely be that way in the future.
“We’re here to listen and input today may influence what we decide to do down the road,” Marklein said.
Co-chair Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam) added that the lawsuit over Gov. Tony Evers’ partial veto that extended increases in revenue limits — the cap on how much schools can bring in — for 400 years will play a role in the discussion. The case was heard by the Wisconsin Supreme Court last year, but a decision hasn’t been reached yet.
Lawmakers also have a $4 billion budget surplus that they will be considering as they write the budget in the coming months.
During a separate press conference held by Democrats on the committee, Rep. Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay) called attention to education funding, saying that lawmakers need to “stand up and fund education, particularly special education.” Andraca said lawmakers should adopt Gov. Tony Evers’ budget proposal, which would invest an additional $3 billion in K-12 education.
“I’m looking forward to hearing more today from all the people at this public hearing about what their priorities are in the state budget. I certainly hope my Republican colleagues are listening and will follow our lead,” Andraca said.
A focus on education at the hearings continued as members of the public started speaking on Friday.
Three days before the town hall, voters approved 57 referendum requests and a total of $952 million in new funding through property tax hikes for Wisconsin school districts. This was an approval rate of about 58% of the nonrecurring operating referendum requests, 65% of requests for building costs and 20% of recurring requests, which contain increases across multiple years.
While the successful results will help school districts meet costs in coming months, voters also denied over $640 million in requests from other districts, including for Kenosha Unified School District.
Kenosha school board member Todd Price said the failed referendum, which was a $115 million nonrecurring request for operational expenses, leaves the district of 18,500 students in 31 schools facing a $19 million fiscal deficit.
“As we are frozen in what we can raise due to revenue caps, we needed to go to our local tax payers for approval of the money,” Price said. “Our aim was to keep our class sizes reasonable, vital programs intact like advanced placement programs… which are popular for students aiming to go to college, and we want to retain our staff.”
KUSD Superintendent Jeff Weiss, who spoke alongside Price, told lawmakers that they have the power to “be a strong partner of public education.” He said the passage of Act 20, a 2023 law to change literacy education in the state is a recent example of lawmakers using that power.
“I am asking you to do this in the area of finances,” Weiss said. “By raising the reimbursement for special education to 60%, KUSD will receive $13 million of spendable money. We are currently facing a $19 million budget shortfall. $13 million as well as raising the revenue limit… will go a very long way to helping prevent the district from having to seek an operational referendum in the coming year.”
Weiss emphasized that the resources needed to pursue a referendum are “immense.” He said the district held four town halls, 20 small meetings, and five interviews with TV and radio stations in a six-week period ahead of Election Day.
“This is not how I want to spend our time in the school district,” Weiss said. “I would much rather be using that time to increase student learning and improve our educational program.”
Swallow School District Superintendent Jill Ries said that the small district in Waukesha County has a history of being fiscally responsible, a trait that has helped it weather the “storm” caused by the state’s funding formula.
“We can no longer weather the storm, and we are facing a multi-million-dollar deficit in the future. We have reached the fiscal cliff. We can choose to have barebones public education, but is that what we want our state to become?” Ries asked.
Ries also called on lawmakers to increase revenue limits and at a minimum increase the special education reimbursement to 60%.
Zachary Geiger, a physics teacher at Greendale High School, also voiced his support for Evers’ budget request, telling lawmakers that teachers have been trying to accomplish more teaching and learning with fewer resources for the last decade and a half. He said this is catching up with the district, which has had to go to referendum and recently had to cut an engineering course for the first time in 12 years.
“Instead of supporting students in pursuit of their futures and responding to the needs of the industries in Wisconsin, this course was cut with many others to reduce costs in order to balance a budget dependent on insufficient funding from the state,” Geiger said. “Please fund public education.”
The tension between public schools’ financial challenges and the growing costs of the state’s school voucher programs was also on display at the hearing.
Glendale River Hills School Board President Carla Pennington-Cross called on lawmakers to stop using school boards as a “laundering service” by sending an increasing amount of taxpayer money to private schools that don’t have “equal accountability, equal transparency and equal legal obligation” to students.
Pennington-Cross called on lawmakers to increase per pupil funding to keep up with inflation.
“Your long-term failure to do so means that my district has lost more than $3 million in real spending power since 2009 under your revenue limits,” Pennington-Cross said.
Pennington-Cross called attention to the significant increases that voucher schools received in the last budget cycle. She also spoke to the disparity between the rate that public schools are reimbursed for special education costs and the rate that private and charter voucher schools receive.
“In the past year public schools were reimbursed for only 32% of special ed costs, while private schools received 90%. Why are students with disabilities worth less when they go to public schools? They should get the same financial support from the state regardless of their school choice,” Pennington-Cross said. “Your funding model causes people to blame kids with disabilities for budget shortfalls in public schools, reinforcing stigma and discrimination. It is unconscionable.”
Advocates for more state funding for the charter and private schools that participate in the state’s voucher programs were also out in full force.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks for the additional funding for school choice. Your decision has made an incredible difference for families like mine,” one parent of a student at Living Word Lutheran High School in Jackson said.
In the last state budget, lawmakers implemented the largest increase for the school voucher program in Wisconsin history. The change increased payments for schools at a minimum by 18% and at most by 44%.
Many of the parents who testified for school vouchers wore matching bright green “Parent Power” t-shirts. A group of about 75 parents were organized to attend the listening session by the City Forward Collective, a Milwaukee-based organization that advocates for school choice.
Executive director of City Forward Collective Colleston Morgan told the Wisconsin Examiner that the last budget was an example of state leaders moving past “partisan rancor” to take action, something he is hoping they’ll be able to do again.
“We saw the Legislature come together on a package that in our understanding benefited everybody — increases in the low revenue ceiling, lifting of the revenue limits and, yes, a significant increase for students in charter and private schools,” Morgan said. “Nobody got everything they needed… but everybody got something.”
Morgan said that there were many participating charter and private schools that were “in existential crisis” during that cycle, and the historic increase to the program helped stabilize the situation. He said many schools have been able to increase staff pay.
“There’s still more work to do, but we’re not today talking about schools on the precipice of closing like we were two years ago,” Morgan said.
Morgan said his group wanted to attend to express thanks and encourage legislators to continue to work in a bipartisan way to get more accomplished, including raising the special education reimbursement rate, lifting the low revenue ceiling and putting additional funding into the voucher program.
Local leaders who spoke at the hearing included Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, who thanked lawmakers for their work last session to secure an increased sales tax in the city. He said the investments in the last budget show that “working together and investing in Milwaukee benefits all of us because a strong Milwaukee means a strong Wisconsin.”
Johnson called on lawmakers to invest in young people in the next state budget, including by increasing funding for Milwaukee’s Earn & Learn program, a summer employment program where youth can gain experience working with local businesses, nonprofits, community and faith-based organizations. He also called on lawmakers to support Evers’ proposal for investing in 4-year-old kindergarten and increasing state funding for special education and child care.
“It’s our responsibility to ensure that the youngest residents here and young families have the support they need to start off on the right foot as they enter school and the workforce,” Johnson said.
Sarah Kazell, an advocate with Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed (WECAN), is attending all the budget listening sessions.
“Child care is a public good and without public investment, it just dwindles and dies in the private market, which is what we are seeing,” Kazell said. “We cannot find teachers willing to do a really essential, really high-skilled, high-stress job for $14 an hour, which is the average pay in my field. I’m personally making $12.50 an hour to take care of eight children.”
Evers has requested the state place $480 million towards the Child Care Counts program, which gives facilities funds to help pay staff without raising costs for parents. However, the program, which has been funded with federal money, is quickly approaching the end of those funds.
“We need at the minimum to make the investment that’s in the governor’s budget for child care, but that’s honestly just a starting point to be able to stabilize the field,” Kazell said.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said the “most important” investment for public safety would be to fund the removal and replacement of the Public Safety building.
“We have steered clear of a fiscal cliff. We kept the Brewers in Milwaukee, we shared the burden of funding important services and investments with some of our region’s most urgent issues being addressed,” he said, listing accomplishments in the last budget cycle. Now, he added, it’s time to focus on the “generational impact that we can have in our community on public safety.”
Crowley said that the removal and the replacement of the Milwaukee County Public Safety building, which was built in 1929, would cost $495 million. Milwaukee County has requested $250 million for the project from the state. According to the capital budget, due to the integrated nature of the county’s Courthouse Complex, the Historic Courthouse and Criminal Justice Facility will need to be renovated in addition to the new Public Safety building.
Evers’ budget proposal included $25 million for the project — a tenth of their request.
“Many of you have seen this crumbling, unsafe and inefficient facility firsthand and that’s why, in order to improve outcomes for all, strong partnerships will be key in this endeavor,” Crowley said.
Crowley said almost 80% of Milwaukee County’s property tax levy is dedicated to state-mandated services and the county has invested an additional $70 million in state-mandated public safety services over the last five years.
“The cost continues to rise and outpace our revenues and challenges our ability to continue funding these critical services and make any additional investments in local priorities like transportation, mental health, [services for children ages] birth-to-3,” Crowley said. “That’s why a partnership with the state is essential.”
Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball expanded on the request to replace the deteriorating building that houses the jail.
Ball said the current set-up of the building, which places victims, family members, visitors and defendants together, has created tension and resulted in 852 security incidents that required a response from the sheriff’s office in 2024.
“It is not sustainable to continue working as we have, and it is not fair to those who come in contact with our justice system,” Ball said. “In order to address the significant safety concerns and preserve the comfortability of core operations, funding from the state of Wisconsin will be critical.”
Other public hearings will be held in Hayward and Wausau during the last week of April.
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'The incompetence and lack of qualifications of some MPS staff put our children in harm’s way, and this is the result of decades of intentional neglect from state policymakers who starve public schools of the resources needed to keep them safe and functional.' | Getty Images
I am a proud parent of a first grader in Milwaukee Public Schools. We are an open enrollment family, meaning that even though we don’t live in the district, we choose to send our kids to MPS because we love our public school’s mission, curriculum, and teachers. But right now, my daughter’s school is closed. Not because of a snowstorm or a spring break, but because the building is so contaminated with lead that it is undergoing emergency remediation.
As we work to unravel how deep the lead problem goes and how we’re going to fix it, we know that two things are true: 1) the incompetence and lack of qualifications of some MPS staff has put our children in harm’s way, and 2) this is the result of decades of intentional neglect from state policymakers who starve public schools of the resources needed to keep them safe and functional. While there’s blame to go around within the school system, it extends far beyond Milwaukee—all the way to the statehouse.
But let’s take a step back for a moment: imagine a thriving community garden. Lush with fruits and veggies, it’s a vibrant hub of cooperation. Gardeners, volunteers, and neighbors work side by side, cultivating a space that nourishes the entire community.
And now, imagine a group of lawmakers find out about this garden and see it not for what it provides to the community, but as an opportunity for political favors. They want it. But they can’t take it outright—not yet. So instead they sabotage it, slowly and methodically.
First, they put limits on water usage. Next, they dilute the fertilizer. Then, they restrict access to tools, making it harder for the gardeners to do their work. As the plants begin to wither, the weeds take over. The once-thriving garden now appears neglected and struggling, despite the community doing their best with what they’ve been given.
Then, the lawmakers point the finger at the very people who have been desperately trying to keep the garden alive. “You’re failing.” they say.
And with that, they present their “solution.” “This garden can’t be saved,” they declare. “It’s time to give this land to someone who can do something with it.”
So they sell the land to a private company—one that rips out the plants and paves over the garden to install a private- pay parking lot. The community is locked out, the public loses, and the private company profits. “It’s better for everyone this way,” the lawmakers insist, knowing full well who really benefits.
But they aren’t done yet. In return for their part in the heist, they collect their rewards— campaign donations, future job offers. A shared community resource is gone, transformed into private gain.
This is what’s happening to Milwaukee Public Schools.
Most MPS parents love and appreciate so much about our own public schools for the vibrant, nurturing communities they are—and for all they could be with the right support. But for years, some lawmakers in Madison have been quietly undermining our public education system — capping resources, limiting access and restricting funding. They’ve been misrepresenting outdated formulas to intentionally starve our public schools, making it harder for teachers and administrators to provide the quality education our kids deserve. Milwaukee voters recently passed a big referendum because people in the community want to support our schools. The news about poor financial reporting that followed that successful referendum drive was extremely discouraging. But problems with school administration pale in comparison to the impossible conditions the state has created for our schools. When they inevitably struggle under those conditions (frustrating every singe one of us) the same lawmakers who have been withholding funds shake their heads and blame the administrators and educators who have been forced to do more with less.
What happens next? They argue that public schools have failed and insist that privatization is the only answer. They push to divert public funds into private hands — voucher schools, for-profit education corporations and other institutions that lack the transparency and accountability of public education, but promise big profits for those in power.
They spout platitudes about how much they care about improving education, but they have had every chance to help us nourish our gardens and have resisted at every turn. We cannot let them gaslight us into dismantling a public good for private enrichment and turning our children’s future into a business model that benefits the few at the expense of the many.
Because here’s the truth: Our public schools are not failing. They are being sabotaged. There are some powerful Madison lawmakers who are forcing our school administrators to choose between things like fixing peeling paint in classrooms or hiring a new teacher, all so they can have someone to blame– when in reality, they themselves are the ones who have failed to provide enough for our kids to thrive in all the ways they deserve. They’ve been playing us for a long con, but we’re onto them.
We must demand true nourishment and resources for our public schools. We must reject the false narrative of “failure” that is being used to justify their destruction. And we must hold lawmakers accountable for the choices they make—because our children’s education should never be for sale.
This year, Madison lawmakers will decide how resources are allocated to our schools through the state budget process. The State Joint Finance Committee is currently holding public listening sessions on the budget. They need to hear from all of us what our kids need and deserve. We must work together to ensure our public schools– where so much of our kids’ childhoods happen– are deeply nourished for the good of us all.
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