(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s top education official said Friday that the Joint Finance Committee’s budget changes fails Wisconsin students, educators and public schools.
The committee voted late Thursday evening to approve a $229 million investment in special education targeting mental health and sparsity aid, which is additional state funding provided to small, rural school districts that meet specific criteria based on enrollment and population density.
“The budget they approved raises your property taxes, doesn’t support students with disabilities and cuts youth mental health funding – all at a time when more kids than ever are struggling, and schools are stretched thin,” Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Jill Underly said in a statement. “This isn’t ‘right-sizing.’ It’s irresponsible. It puts politics ahead of kids and disregards educators and public schools when they need support the most.”
Thursday’s finance committee meeting also included tax cuts for retirees and residents in the second income tax bracket expected to save Wisconsinites up to $1.3 billion.
Underly was comparing the Republican majority committee’s proposal to that of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, a proposal that the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce recently said would be harmful to the state with increased taxes and state spending.
The group said that Evers’ budget proposal would increase spending by more than 20%.
“We’re entering this cycle with a $4 billion surplus, but Evers’ plan would leave us with a $4 billion deficit by the end of the 2027-29 budget,” WMC’s General Counsel and Director of Tax, Transportation & Legal Affairs, Evan Umpir said in a statement. “He proposed $3.3 billion in new taxes, including capping the Manufacturing & Ag Credit for manufacturers, and a new 9.8% millionaire tax bracket, modeled after Minnesota.”
Underly pointed to the school officials and parents who attended budget listening sessions and made calls or wrote letters asking for more funding for the state’s public schools, saying members of the committee did not listen.
“Our public schools desperately need and deserve funding that is flexible, spendable and predictable,” Underly said. “This budget fails to deliver on all three. Once again, those in power had an opportunity to do right by Wisconsin’s children – and once again, they turned their backs on them. Our kids, our teachers, and our communities deserve far better.”
