Sen. André Jacque (R-New Franken) and Rep. Barbara Dittrich (R-Oconomowoc) argued that a measure regulating the use of student names and pronouns was needed to standardize policies across the state. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

A bill that would require school districts to inform parents when students want to use pronouns and names that differ from the ones given to them at birth received significant pushback Tuesday during a Senate Education Committee hearing.

The committee also took testimony on a bill to add video requirements to human growth and development curriculum as well as to opt the state into a federal school choice tax credit program.

Under SB 120, Wisconsin schools would be required to adopt a policy on name and pronoun changes by July 1, 2026. Policies would not require written authorization if school staff are using a shortened version of a student’s first or middle name.

Sen. André Jacque (R-New Franken) and Rep. Barbara Dittrich (R-Oconomowoc) argued that the measure was needed to standardize policies across the state and ensure parents are involved in conversations related to pronoun and name changes for students. Many testified in opposition to the bill, saying it would do harm to students and infringe on local decision making. 

“It is deeply troubling to me that school staff are being encouraged to keep parents out of major life decisions concerning their children, while at the same time these same officials cannot give them aspirin without parental approval. Why would schools promote secrecy in such a way?” Jacque said. “Something has gone terribly wrong in our education system if officials inherently perceive parents as harmful to their own children. Parents are legally accountable for the health and welfare of their own children… Hiding from us important things that are going on in their lives is not only disrespectful to parents, it is harmful to our children.” 

Jacque said the legislation would be consistent with a 2023 ruling by a Waukesha County Circuit Court judge, which found that a policy that allowed students in the Kettle Moraine School District to change their names and pronouns in school violated the rights of parents to make medical decisions for their children. The school district now has a policy that requires express parental consent for staff to use different names and pronouns. 

“To me, if there’s going to be a name and pronoun change the school should be working together with parents and students to advance that together,” Dittrich said. 

Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) pushed back on the Republican bill, saying it would infringe on local communities’ ability to make decisions about policies and would harm students.

“You could sub out the words ‘parental decision making’ and say that the Legislature is going to have the best authority of what should happen — instead of parents, instead of local governments, instead of local school boards. You’re saying that you guys know better,” Larson said. 

“That’s a total distortion of what the bill does,” Dittrich said.

Larson asked the bill authors to consider a situation where parents may not be accepting of a student who wants to use a different name and pronouns. 

“You are expediting that situation by making it come to a head when there are parents who are less than understanding, who are brought up under a very strict and very incorrect… and you are forcing the question in a vulnerable population that is already overly targeted with transphobia with this, which is already overly targeted for bullying, which is already higher than the average rates of suicide and mental health. You are bullying them by bringing this bill forward,” Larson said.

“You are saying we should hide information and not facilitate those conversations,” Jacque replied. Dittrich added that Larson was “trampling all over parental rights.”

Paul Bartlett, a father of two transgender children, said the bill works to “prioritize the unfounded fears of conservative parents over the well-being of children.” 

“Like any parent, I want my children to thrive and be happy. They are well supported against these continued legislative attacks, but many trans and nonbinary kids are not,” Bartlett said. He said that school should be a refuge for unsupported students, “not a place where teachers are obligated to out and humiliate them.” 

Bartlett pointed out that lawmakers recently approved a law, known as Bradyn’s Law, that seeks to protect young people from being sexually extorted online. 

“That everyone agreed on [that bill] was important because what we were doing was preventing teenagers from killing themselves basically from humiliation… and yet these bills, they do the opposite,” Bartlett said. 

Bartlett noted that anti-trans laws have a negative effect on young transgender people. 

According to a 2024 survey by the Trevor Project, 45% of transgender and nonbinary youth have reported that they or their family have considered moving to a different state due to anti-LGBTQ+ politics and laws, and about 90% have said that their wellbeing was negatively affected by  recent politics. 

The Trevor Project survey, which pulled from the experiences of over 18,000 LGBTQ+ youth, also found that 39% of LGBTQ+ young people, including 46% of transgender and nonbinary young people, had seriously considered attempting suicide. 

“I just don’t understand, like, why do we keep doing this?” Bartlett said.

Abigail Swetz, executive director of FAIR Wisconsin, said bills that target transgender youth contribute to the mental health struggles they face. 

The bill is part of a slate of bills that Wisconsin Republicans introduced related to transgender people, including children, last year. According to the 2025 anti-trans bills tracker, there were over 1,020 bills introduced across the country including 20 in Wisconsin. 

“Inclusive policies, like making it possible for students to use an affirming name and the pronouns that best represent their identity in school in an easily accessible way — those policies are a pressure valve making it possible for [youth] to live fully and healthily,” Swetz said. 

Swetz said when she previously worked as a teacher she helped support students that were preparing to share information about themselves with their family and said it was important to follow the child’s lead. 

“The youth themselves are the experts in their own experience and have a better understanding than anyone about the challenges they might face when it comes to acceptance and safety at home. I have witnessed that conversation go well, and I have seen it go badly,” Swetz said. She said the bill that lawmakers were pushing “aims to traffic in distrust while a process like this, one that is directed by a well-supported young person, is actually how we can build trust between parents, children and school staff.” 

Peggy Wirtz-Olson, president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), said she was speaking out against the bill on behalf of the students who would be “devastated” by the bill. 

“All students deserve safe and welcoming schools, not only some of them, every single one of them, and that includes our trans students,” Wirtz-Olsen said. “The simple use of preferred names and pronouns is associated with a large decrease in depressive symptoms, suicidal thoughts and even suicidal attempts. Respecting preferred names and pronouns is a proven measure to show respect, earn trust, affirm our students, so they can feel safe, and they can focus on learning.”

Requiring videos of fetal development

Lawmakers also took testimony on a bill to add requirements for schools that offer human growth and development education. 

Human growth and development is optional for Wisconsin school districts, but for those that do opt in, state law includes some requirements including encouraging abstinence for students who are unmarried. 

SB 371 would add requirements that explanations of pregnancy, prenatal development and childbirth include a high definition video that shows the development of the brain, heart, sex organs and other organs, a rendering of the fertilization process and fetal development as well as a presentation on each trimester of pregnancy and the physical and emotional health of the mother. 

The bill would also require that instruction on parental responsibility include information on the importance of secure interpersonal relationships for infant mental health and on the value of reading to young children. 

Bill coauthors Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) and Rep. Amanda Nedweski (R-Pleasant Prairie) rejected the assertion that the bill is a mandate, noting that school districts do not have to teach human growth and development. 

“Today’s youth are technologically and visually inclined learners. We should lean into this to better convey this important information,” Felzkowski said. She also added that there should be bipartisan agreement around “preparing the young women of today with all the knowledge they could need to prepare for motherhood and young men for fatherhood.” 

“Being able to actually see the real life process of fetal development in action will be more tangible to students than textbooks or seeing it in a still diagram or a drawing. We have a resource at our disposal to bring science into our classroom and we should use it to our advantage to give students a stronger educational experience,” Nedweski said.

Nedweski also said it “might not be obvious to some people that using an iPad as a babysitter is not healthy” and that it is “far more important for their health to read to children and to bond with them.”

Larson asked the lawmakers what type of research they had to back up the change to state law.

“There’s not one specific scientific research that we’re relating this to,” Felzkowski said. “Just Google it and numerous things will pop up, or we can have our staff do that for you.”

No one spoke against the bill. 

The Wisconsin Public Health Association (WPHA) and the Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards are registered against the bill, according to the Wisconsin Lobbying website. The organizations outlined their concerns with the Assembly version of the bill in a statement to the Wisconsin Examiner. 

The organizations said they opposed the legislation in part because it doesn’t do anything to restore the educational standards that were in place under the Healthy Youth Act. The former state law, which included a more comprehensive policy that required providing age-appropriate instruction in human growth and development, was adopted in 2010 but was later repealed in 2012 during a special session under former Gov. Scott Walker, who reestablished abstinence-only education. 

“Evidence-based, comprehensive instruction is essential to equip students with accurate information and skills necessary to make informed decisions about their sexual health, reducing rates of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. It also promotes healthy relationships, consent, and emotional well-being, contributing to overall public health and safety,” the organizations said in the statement.

DPI spokesperson Chris Bucher told the Examiner in an email that the state already has similar guidelines for human development instruction in state law and said the bill is an example of infringing on local control. 

“It is up to districts to determine human development curriculum for what best fits their community. This is also another unfunded mandate for districts choosing to offer human development. District budgets are already stretched thin,” Bucher said. “If the Legislature wants to mandate specific instruction, they should provide funding for curriculum.”

Federal choice tax credit program 

SB 600 would instruct Gov. Tony Evers to opt Wisconsin into a federal school choice tax credit program.

Gov. Tony Evers has previously said he will not opt Wisconsin into the program, and if the bill were passed by the Senate and Assembly instructing Evers to take action, he could veto the legislation. 

A provision in the federal law signed by President Donald Trump in July, which goes into effect in 2027, will provide a dollar-for-dollar tax credit of up to $1,700 to people who donate to a qualifying “scholarship granting program” to support certain educational expenses including tuition and board at private schools, tutoring and books. 

However, governors in each state must decide whether to opt in and have until Jan. 1, 2027 to do so.

Felzkowski said it would be “shortsighted and self-defeating” to not opt into the tax credit, noting that other states including North Carolina, Tennessee, Nebraska, Texas, South Dakota and Iowa, are already opting in. 

If Wisconsinites opt into the federal tax credit, the money will be directed to private schools outside the state if the law does not pass, Felzkowski said. “Our dollars will be going to those states… instead of our students here in the state of Wisconsin.”

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WisconsinEye shut down its website on Monday due to a lack of funding. Emilie Amundson, secretary of the Department of Children and Families at the time, testifies during a hearing in the state Capitol in October 2023 as a WisEye microphone and camera record the session.(Screenshot/WisEye)

WisconsinEye, the independent, nonprofit service that provides video coverage of legislative hearings, floor sessions and Wisconsin state government business similar to C-Span, shut down its website on Monday due to a lack of funding. 

The organization, which launched in 2007, first warned in November it was at risk of halting live coverage as well as pulling its video archive of more than 30,000 hours of state government proceedings, candidate interviews and other programming offline. 

“Due to extreme competition and a complete collapse in private funding — marked by donor fatigue, competing nonprofit campaigns, record-breaking political fundraising and economic uncertainty — WisconsinEye’s website is unavailable,” a message on the WisEye website states. “Without consistent annual funding…. citizens, legislators, legislative staff, the governor’s administration, agency leadership and staff, trade associations, attorneys and the courts, local government officials, journalists and all print, cable, television and radio news outlets, businesses, nonprofit organizations — all lose the only reliable and proven source of unfiltered State Capitol news and state government proceedings.”

Jon Henkes, the president of WisconsinEye, told the Examiner last month that, similar to other nonprofits, the organization has faced a tough fundraising environment since the COVID-19 pandemic. He said then that the organization has made “well qualified, well cultivated” donation requests totaling more than $9 million with none of those requests leading to donations.

Henkes said that the organization was still making donor inquiries and that raising at least $250,000 could get the organization through the first quarter of 2026. 

WisconsinEye has also turned its attention to the state Legislature for help, sending a letter to lawmakers in November asking them to make state funds available for its operational costs. 

The Wisconsin Legislature and Gov. Tony Evers set aside $10 million in matching funds in the 2023-25 state budget to help WisconsinEye build a permanent endowment. After the organization failed to raise sufficient funds to access that money, the current state budget changed provisions so that $250,000 of the $10 million was available with no match, which helped cover expenses through Dec. 15. The rest of the funding was made to be available on a dollar-by-dollar match basis, meaning as WisconsinEye raises its own funds it would be able to get an equivalent amount of state funds. The opportunity for the organization to access the funds expires in June 2026.

The organization is asking for the state to modify the match requirement and make funds available.

“We’re simply asking for release of those funds, or part of those funds, in a way different from the endowment,” Henkes told the Examiner in November. “The best case scenario would be if the Legislature would release a minimum of one year, so $1 million, essentially to carry us forward, and we can focus 100% over the next several months through June, to really hammer down and see if we can’t raise some endowment dollars. We think that’s a very viable option, and we’re hopeful.”

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Neubauer said in an interview that Republicans have continued to “ignore” the core challenges facing Wisconsinites, which for the most part center on costs. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) told the Wisconsin Examiner in a year-end interview that Democrats have spent the past year preparing to lead and she is optimistic about the chances for flipping the Assembly. Neubauer reflected on the current session and previewed what’s ahead.

The effect of smaller margins and the remainder of session

This session has been different from previous ones, said Neubauer, who was first elected to the state Assembly in 2018 and has led Assembly Democrats since 2022. 

“Closer numbers in the state Assembly and state Senate have yielded some more bipartisan work,” Neubauer said. Republicans hold a 54 to 45 majority in the Assembly, and a 18 to 15 majority in the state Senate. 

She felt the difference this year  from her first seven years in the body, she said, when Democrats were “in a position where we really were on defense and having to spend a huge amount of time just trying to prevent the worst policy ideas from going through.”

That work across the aisle, she said, was evident in the state budget, when Senate Democrats had a seat at the negotiating table and were able to secure more money for public schools. She also sees a difference in some of the housing bills that recently passed the Legislature. Neubauer said that Assembly task forces focused on children’s social media use and elder care also allowed for discussion across the aisle and she is hopeful they will yield some bipartisan legislation.

Still, she said, the session hasn’t yielded everything she had hoped for. 

“We have not seen the kind of movement that I would have hoped, especially given that we’re  all up for election next year, and everyone’s going to have to go home and answer to their constituents for what was and was not accomplished.”

Neubauer said Republicans have continued to “ignore” the core challenges facing Wisconsinites, which for the most part center on costs. 

“That’s what we hear over and over from the people that we represent,” Neubauer said, noting several issues where Democratic lawmakers have introduced proposals or advocated for action. “There’s been no interest from our Republican colleagues on addressing the cost of prescription drugs and health care, especially in light of the [Affordable Care Act] premiums going up in a significant way. We have had a bill out for the entire session on Healthy School Meals. This would save the average family with two kids $1,800 a year. People would really appreciate that money right now, especially going into the holiday season, but we’ve had no interest from our Republican colleagues in addressing that issue…. and we do need to see more movement on housing and on child care.” 

Neubauer also noted that a bill to extend postpartum Medicaid remains stuck in the state Assembly due to opposition from Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester). Democratic lawmakers tried to force a vote on the issue during their last scheduled floor session this year, but failed. 

Neubauer said she still hopes that measure could advance next year in the time remaining in the session. 

“We know that people across the state believe that new moms should have access to health care. It’s essential for mom and baby… You do have to ask why [Rep.] Pat Snyder and [Rep.] Jessie Rodriguez, authors on that bill, are not able to get it done when they are governing,” Neubauer said. “They’re in the majority, and they have been for a long time.”

Despite the gridlock on certain issues, Neubauer said Democratic lawmakers have been able to think differently this year. 

“We are able to think about what bills are we going to pass when we’re governing. How can we work across the aisle and use our numbers to get things done and put pressure on Republicans to make the bills better if they need our support,” Neubauer said. “I do think that we are preparing to govern in that way, and we’re really working over the next several months to get more input from our constituents on the things that are important to them to make sure that our agenda and our plan for the first hundred days is really tuned to the particular challenges that people are facing.” 

Democratic lawmakers have spent the session introducing and advocating for bills on a number of issues including K-12 education, higher education, local government and elections. Most haven’t advanced or received a public hearing, but they are laying the groundwork for the future. 

“The bills that we’ve rolled out this fall would be things we would absolutely do when we come into the majority,” Neubauer said. “We also know there are some pretty essential rights and freedoms that we would want, things like enshrining access to abortion in state law, in case there are further court cases that would put that at risk.” 

Neubauer said Democratic lawmakers will have additional bills coming out in the next few weeks and in 2026, addressing public safety, housing and health care. She declined to provide details on what those proposals might do.

Neubauer said her caucus will continue to push for additional education funding in the fall, including general aid. This year the state budget included additional funding for special education, but Republican lawmakers refused to provide an increase in general aid — something that public school leaders and advocates have said will strain their budgets and put pressure on property taxpayers. 

“We have failed to adequately fund our local public schools and what we see from Republicans is [a plan to] consolidate districts and close local schools. No one’s asking us for that,” Neubauer said. “They’re asking us to maintain that essential funding that will allow their kids to attend a grade school where they get a good reading and math education, they’re safe, and they’re prepared for their future career.”

Neubauer also commented on a handful of other issues that the Legislature is grappling with.

• Neubauer called WisconsinEye, the independent, nonprofit service that provides coverage of Wisconsin state government similar to C-Span, “essential.” WisconsinEye has announced it will have to cease operations Dec. 15 if it does not receive more funds. She said she thinks there is a bipartisan understanding of the service the network  provides and is hopeful lawmakers will be able to make changes to the law to allow WisconsinEye to access state funds that were set aside for it. She said Wisconsinites deserved to know what’s going on in the state Capitol. “They deserve to be able to watch testimony on a bill that’s really important to them or their family and to know how their representative is responding on a certain issue or voting on the floor of the Assembly,” she said. “We should have structured their funding a little differently in the state budget, but we have an opportunity to do so now to make sure that they can provide that service.” The state initially set aside $10 million for the nonprofit in the 2023-25 state budget that it could only access if it raised the same amount, but it failed to do so. The opportunity to access the funds for an endowment was extended in the 2025-27 state budget, but the organization has struggled to raise funds for both the endowment and its operational costs.
• Lawmakers have also been discussing, once again, legalizing medical marijuana, though Neubauer said she isn’t sure if Republicans, who are standing in the way, will budge this session. “The reality here is that THC products are available in Wisconsin because of the Farm Bill… so I do think that that’s shifted the conversation. People of Wisconsin have been very clear that they want access to both medical and recreational marijuana, and we should be regulating this market and taxing it, making sure that kids don’t have access to these products,” Neubauer said. “I do think it will be difficult for Republicans to go home and explain why they still have not done anything when we’re an island of prohibition here.” 
• On funds that have not been released to combat PFAS contamination in drinking water, Neubauer said she hopes the Legislature can finally get something done. “There have been some productive conversations on this issue. The central conflict really remains that Democrats believe that polluters should pay for the damage that they have done, and I’m not really sure my Republican colleagues would agree with that, and so that’s been a challenge for us to move through, but we just have to do something,” Neubauer said. “We have communities in Wisconsin that cannot drink the water coming out of their tap, and that’s unacceptable.” 

2026 elections and a potential majority

Neubauer, who confirmed she will be running for another term in the Assembly, said she is optimistic about Democrats’ chances of winning the Assembly majority next year. The 2026 elections will serve as Assembly Democrats’ second opportunity under new legislative maps adopted in 2024 to try to flip the chamber for the first time in 16 years. 

In 2024, Democrats won 10 additional seats. For Democrats to win control in 2026, they’ll need to hold all of their current seats and win five more. 

The seats that they’ll be competing for are very close, Neubauer said, including some that former Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024, even as she lost the state as a whole.

“There are people who like the vision that we’re putting forward in these districts, so the path is there. We are recruiting great candidates who are very connected to their local community and who are ready to go out and speak directly to the voters of their district from now until election day,” Neubauer said. “That’s how we win. We win by talking about the failures of Republicans and pointing out that they have been in control here for coming up on 15 years, and they have really failed to provide the essential services that people deserve.” 

Neubauer said it helps that Democrats have fewer seats that they need to flip in 2026, so they’ll be able to better focus on tough districts. 

Neubauer said Democrats have candidates from a diverse array of backgrounds including teachers, coaches, small business owners, farmers, public safety employees and union members, who she said are representative of the state.  

“We know that people want to see folks in office that remind them of themselves and of their neighbors and who understand the challenges that they’re going through. We’ve got folks running who get what it’s like to be looking at the budget and worried about how they’re going to make it to the next month or how they’re going to afford those Christmas gifts or special meals for the holidays,” she said. 

She said to look out for more candidate announcements early next year.

Neubauer also said the election results from across the country bode well for Democrats in Wisconsin. She said the results in  New Jersey and Virginia were a “really strong overperformance for Democrats.” She said it’s a sign that people are unhappy with Republican leadership and the direction of the country.

“[President] Donald Trump said that he was going to focus on the economy and making life a little easier for folks, and he has engaged in reckless trade wars, and taking other steps that have made it harder for people to get by — not easier,” Neubauer said. She also said it is “shocking” that Trump would “completely fail” to recognize how cutting SNAP funding would hurt people, and said his comments about running for a third term are “unsettling” and it is “incumbent on all of us who believe in democracy and who believe in fair elections” to push back.

“I think you’re seeing the effects of that on people across the country. Not only the federal Republicans, but their state level Republicans are just not following through on the promises that they made so I think people are looking for something different and that gives us an opportunity here.”

Wisconsinites will also make a choice next year in a high-profile open race for governor, and Neubauer said she’ll do everything she can to elect a Democratic governor. 

“I am looking for someone who understands the necessity of winning in Wisconsin next year and is focused on communicating with the people of this state a vision for how life would be better with Democrats running the state Capitol,” Neubauer said. “It’s really important that we put out a vision, and that we connect directly with the people of Wisconsin and push through the frustration that folks have with politics right now by being really clear about what we’ll do and then winning and then getting those things done.”

Neubauer said she is happy with the field of Democrats running for governor, especially given how many have legislative experience, but won’t be making an endorsement. She noted that Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore all spent time serving in the Wisconsin Legislature. 

Two current lawmakers, state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), and state Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison), are running along with former lawmakers Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Milwaukee Co. Executive David Crowley and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.

“We’re excited that so many folks understand what it’s like to be a legislator and who will work well, I think, with our caucus in a governing trifecta,” Neubauer said. 

Former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes, another Democratic gubernatorial hopeful, has no legislative experience.

In the event a Republican wins, Neubauer said Democrats in the Legislature will “work with them to the best of our ability to deliver.” 

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is considered the frontrunner in the primary race, and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann, are the current Republican hopefuls.

“We show up every day remembering that our constituents sent us here to get things done and that has to be our first priority, so we will work with anybody who wants to work with us and that would include a Republican governor if that’s the situation that we’re in,” Neubauer said. “People are struggling, and it is our responsibility to respond to that and to do what we can to help.”

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