Supporters of public schools from around the state – including parents, students, superintendents, board members, referendum team leaders, and state leaders – will gather in Madison to close out national Public Schools Week by celebrating the accomplishments of public schools and connecting the dots from local support of referenda efforts to the failures of the last state budget to adequately meet kids’ needs. Over ⅔ of Wisconsin’s 421 public school districts have held school referendum since the passage of the last state budget.
As Wisconsin moves into the next budget cycle, we will call on state leaders to stop the cycle of gap-widening budgets and listen to these voices and ensure the priority needs of Wisconsin kids are the priority allocations in the next state budget, and issue a call to action to join us in our advocacy.
What: PUBLIC SCHOOLS WEEK Day of Action at the Capitol
When: 12:00 – 1:00 pm on Friday, February 28, 2025
Where: Rotunda of the Wisconsin State Capitol
Who: Wisconsin Public Education Network partners; public school parents, educators, administrators, school board members, community supporters.
A diverse range of public school advocates will be in attendance and representatives from urban, rural and suburban districts as well as allied organization leaders will deliver remarks, and be available for interviews.
Why: To connect the dots between the needs of local students and the failures of state leaders to provide for those needs.
Visuals: Advocates will bring yard signs, banners, and other referendum signage from school districts around the state, representing the state’s failure to adequately fund public schools. A scroll bearing the names of all districts that have gone to referendum since the last state budget has passed will hang from the rotunda balcony.
Members of the press and the public are invited to attend this event to hear first hand the concerns and causes for celebration of rural, urban, and suburban students, teachers and districts around the state.
Each speaker’s remarks will be limited to two minutes.
Speakers (subject to updates) include
- Heather DuBois Bourenane, executive director, Wisconsin Public Education Network
- State Superintendent Dr. Jill Underly
- State Representative Angelina Cruz
- Peggy Wirtz-Olsen, president, WEAC
- Jeff Pressley, Adams-Friendship School Board
- Tom Wermuth, Adams-Friendship Superintendent
- Joni Anderson, Adams-Friendship School Board
- Jim Murphy, Mauston radio personality and YES team member + testimony of Ellie Ferguson, Mauston High School freshman
- Corrine Hendrickson, WECAN childcare advocate
- Chris Bauer, Yes to Tosa Kids referendum team Treasurer
- Rita Wiesneski, Wisconsin PTA, Wauwatosa Council of PTA
- Kim Anderson, Wisconsin PTA Legislative Chair (Racine)
- Denae Walcisak, Prentice School District referendum team
- Emily Tseffos, Freedom parent and disability rights advocate
- Tiffany Schanno, Fox Cities parent and disability rights advocate
- Kristina Sandherr, Executive Director, Wisconsin Progress
- Laurie J. Burgos, Ph.D., Superintendent, Shorewood
- Jessica Wieczorek, Dodgeville School Board and YES for Dodgeville Kids referendum team
- Michael Jones, President, Madison Teachers, Inc.
- Alondra Garcia, Milwaukee Public Schools bilingual educator
- Ishaan Shukla, Katherine Noack and Leela Bourenane, Sun Prairie West High School students
