Gov. Evers’ budget proposal – and his declaration of 2025 as the Year of the Kid – signals a return to a core Wisconsin value: supporting our children and their public schools, while making critical & popular investments in health care, prison reform, and meeting childcare needs. It’s now up to all of us to prioritize these shared values through the contentious and unconscionably partisan budget process.
Gov. Evers’ plan meets critical education needs, restores our special education reimbursement to a sum sufficient 60%, and finally revives what education folks often call the “Tommy Thompson standard” of predictable, inflationary increases to spending limits, so districts can budget responsibly without cutting services, staff, or programs, as they anticipate new costs.
While these investments, on their own, are not enough to close our gaps, they are a huge step forward after 16 years of state budgets that failed to provide an inflationary increase to public school spending. Concerned advocates – including over 1350 who signed our petition, educators, and State Superintendent Dr. Jill Underly – have long demanded providing public schools the same 90% special education reimbursement rate provided to students receiving Special Needs Vouchers. The Governor’s proposal should be the floor, not the ceiling, for further discussion.
For decades, Wisconsinites have begged state leaders to align spending priorities to the needs of Wisconsin’s children. These concerns dominate testimony at every state budget hearing, yet in each budget cycle, our gaps have grown wider, and local taxpayers and local students continue to pay the price, forced to pass record numbers of local referenda.
Enough is enough. The governor has set a clear and fair bar for doing right by our kids in 2025. We urge him to hold that line by refusing to sign another budget into law that forces public school kids to do with less. And we urge all who care about the future of our students and their public schools to join us in demanding a budget that actually meets their needs.
There will be many opportunities to take action in the coming weeks and months, and the first is next week. Let’s use PUBLIC SCHOOLS WEEK (Feb. 24-28, 2025) to celebrate our public schools by demanding that the state deliver the resources our students and educators need to thrive.
Follow our ongoing updates, action alerts, and more at our 2025 Budget HQ, and join us in Madison at the State Capitol on Friday, Feb. 28 from 12-1 for a Statewide DAY OF ACTION to let state leaders know you demand better this time around, and won’t settle for less.
