System Refuses Reform, Sticks Taxpayers with the Bill
MADISON – Senator Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto) released the following statement after the UW System announced plans to raise tuition by up to 5 percent at each of its universities:
“The UW System is thanking taxpayers for a $256 million funding increase in our new State Budget by raising the price Wisconsinites have to pay to attend its universities. UW does good things, but not everything it does is good. It has unfortunately become ground zero for waste, and the prototype of dysfunctional bureaucracy.
In the last decade, the UW not only lost 16,000 students, but bloated its budget and increased the salaries of its academic staff by $697 million. UW has also chosen to prioritize DEI and irrelevant courses over rightsizing and efficiency. Instead of simply returning their staff-to-student ratio to what it was 10 years ago, UW chose to resist reform, demanding more and more from the State and its students.
The biennial budget appropriated $256 million additional in operations and $840 million in new capital projects across UW’s campuses. Within a week of the budget being signed, they now want even more off the backs of hardworking families who pay their tuition bills.”
Under the proposal announced today, each university in the UW System will see its tuition increase by 4 percent. The universities will also have the option of raising tuition by an additional 1 percent; UW-Green Bay is currently the only member school that does not plan to exercise this further increase. The 2025-26 State Budget, signed into law last week, authorizes an additional $256 million in funding for the UW System over the biennium.
Recent data released by Senator Wimberger’s office shows that despite a reduction of 16,000 students across its campuses over the last decade, the UW System has moved forward with massive increases in staff hirings and salary expenses at the same time.
