Overview

• State Superintendent Jill Underly said the U.S. Department of Education is using funding as leverage, citing a period when an estimated $72 million for Wisconsin was frozen after a Trump executive order before much of it was released.
• Underly urged greater state investment in public schools and argued that resources are being redirected to private schools, leaving districts turning to repeated referenda.
• The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty countered that districts average nearly $18,000 in revenue per student and asserted that money is not the primary barrier to better outcomes.
• The Institute for Reforming Government said consecutive record budget increases have not produced improved test scores and criticized what it called an education bureaucracy blocking progress.
• Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu labeled the system unaccountable and said Underly’s changes to testing benchmarks hinder parents from tracking year-over-year performance, while Underly highlighted the state’s widest-in-the-nation Black-white achievement disparities as an opportunity gap.