(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s high school sports association doesn’t want to be subject to open meetings and public records laws, the subject of a legislative effort that has reached the governor’s desk and been vetoed multiple times.
The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association is concerned about being inundated with public records requests, especially in cases of transfer eligibility, Executive Director Stephanie Hauser said.
“I think we’re going to get pummeled with them,” Hauser said.
Hauser and WIAA officials pointed out that the organization is private and does not accept tax money.
But the group makes most of its funding from “host tournaments and through private donations,” according to Hauser and “subjecting a private organization to open records policies is akin to forcing a church, small business or any other sort of private organization to such policies.”
Many of those tournaments and the majority of teams competing in them are from public schools and teams.
Proponents of Senate Bill 16, however, say that the WIAA has a monopoly on high school sports in the state, giving public schools no other options, and the organization is selectively transparent when governing those schools, often leaving public schools, coaches, parents and students in the dark related to important decisions.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty advocated for the bill, saying the Legislature has never granted power over public school athletics to the WIAA.
“WIAA is a nominally private membership association that exercises governmental power by playing gatekeeper over interscholastic athletics, a government-provided benefit,” WILL wrote.
“The Department of Public Instruction even says WIAA is the ‘regulatory agency’ for interscholastic athletics.”
WILL said it believes the WIAA lacks transparency and meaningful oversight and it abuses that power.
But the WIAA noted in a letter against the bill that former Gov. Scott Walker vetoed a similar bill in 2015 and Gov. Tony Evers vetoed one in 2021.
“I am vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to the legislature’s insertion into the decision-making process of a private, member-driven organization,” Evers wrote in his veto message.

(The Center Square) – The plan to make English the official language in Wisconsin is moving forward at the state capitol.
The Assembly Committee on Science, Technology and AI approved Assembly Bill 377 which would set an official state language.
Supporters say the plan both requires that all government business be conducted in English and allows for the use of technology as a way to help implement the new policy while providing cost saving to local governments and the court system.
“This bill is not about exclusion, but a practical and unifying measure aimed at encouraging immigrants to become active participants in American civic life,” Sen. Ande Jacquee, R-DeePeere said in a statement.
Jacquee is the Senate author of the plan.
Thirty states, including Wisconsin’s neighbors Illinois and Iowa, already have English as their official language. A little more than a third of those states put the question to voters.
Jacque said surveys continue to show that most Americans want to see English as their state’s official language.
“A Rasmussen poll early this year found that 73% of voters supported making English the official language, including 93% of Republicans, 61% of Democrats and 63% of independents,” Jacque added. “Similarly, a Pew Research Center found 72% support, with 51% saying it is ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ important to make English the official language.”
Jacque also said the legislation would help people who don’t speak English, particularly in court.
Local and state governments and courts are often required to provide interpreters. Jacque said his plan will allow governments to use A.I. to assist with translation, and to use things like Zoom to help avoid the unnecessary expense of physically providing an interpreter.
“Particularly in our rural counties, where local governments may have to spend considerable taxpayer funds to accommodate immigrants who are not yet fluent in English, this legislation will help reduce costs by taking advantage of emerging technology,” Jacque added.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin school districts will be eligible for $2,000 per student extra in funding for the first year if a series of bills in the state are passed into law.
A group of Republican lawmakers are pushing the bills as the state’s K-12 student population declines by an estimated 10,000 students. The state’s largest school district, Milwaukee public schools, saw a total enrollment drop of nearly 30,000 students (32.8%) between 2006 and 2024.
The five consolidation bills were introduced Wednesday by lawmakers.
They include a bill for a statewide consolidation feasibility study, a $25,000 grant for each district to conduct its own consolidation or shared services study, grants for districts that consolidate but have differing levy limits and school board consolidation grants of $500 per student for whole grade sharing.
The bills come after legislative Republicans announced they would be pushing for legislation to encourage school consolidation in early September.
“Our goal is to provide support, give tools and provide incentives for voluntary consolidation,” Wisconsin state Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, said in September while teasing the bills.
Nedweski is a co-sponsor of two of the bills, including the whole grade sharing bill along with Senate President Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk.
The bill allows for the $500 per student grant if a district agrees to share an entire grade of students with another district for one or more years, according to the Department of Public Instruction’s program requirements.
Nedweski and Felzkowski are also sponsors of the levy bill, which would provide aid for if a consolidated district’s levy is higher than the lowest allowable levy at the district that were consolidated to create the new district. The consolidation must take place after July 1, 2026.
The grant would be worth the “amount equal to the consolidated school district’s equalized value multiplied by the difference between the maximum allowable levy rate of the consolidated school district and the lowest levy rate of the underlying school districts.”
The per-student grant bill is sponsored by Rep. Joel Kitchens, R-Sturgeon Bay, and Sen. Romaine Quinn, R-Birchwood.
The state currently provides consolidated district with $150 per pupil for the first five years after a consolidation but the new bill would raise that number to $2,000 for a new consolidation that takes effect in 2026, 2027 or 2028.
Rep. Shannon Zimmerman, R-River Falls, and Sen. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield, sponsored the bill providing $25,000 grants to districts for a feasibility study on either consolidation or whole grade sharing.
Quinn and Rep. Cindi Duchow, R-Delafield, are sponsoring the statewide feasibility study to examine school district boundaries, facilities, student populations and 10-year projections and recommendations on potential consolidation.

(The Center Square) – An audit was ordered Wednesday in the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s process to suspend, revoke and investigate teacher licenses.
The vote came after DPI Superintendent Jill Underly and staff explained the process to Wisconsin’s Joint Audit Committee, repeating much of the language she used at a press conference and Senate Committee on Education meeting the day before.
Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, questioned if DPI determines it will ask for a voluntary surrender of teacher licenses rather than conducting an investigation in cases where law enforcement isn’t already involved in order to fully look into accusations.
“There is more than just writing this down on paper,” Rep. Robert Wittke, R-Caledonia, said before starting the hearing.
The audit scope includes identifying trends in allegations received and investigations, the timeframe from allegation to investigation, whether DPI follows its rules and policies, the evidence gathering and evaluation process and the patterns of DPI determinations.
The audit will also look at the amount of staffing and time put into the process along with the qualifications of investigators.
DPI advocated for more investigative power through state law as it looks into accusations.
“We have had hostile interaction with local school districts or law enforcement,” Deputy State Superintendent Tom McCarthy said about issues with relying solely on local investigations.

(The Center Square) – Republicans at the Wisconsin Capitol are taking the first step to change how the state’s Elections Commission handles election complaints.
The Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections held a hearing on
the Help America Vote Act, officially known as AB 595.
The plan would stop the Wisconsin Elections Commission from dismissing election complaints when voters accuse the Elections Commission itself of
making a mistake or wrongdoing.
“If the commission receives a complaint that alleges that the commission itself is violating [the federal Help America Vote Act] and the complaint raises a substantial question of material fact, the commission must make a final determination on the merits of the complaint and issue a decision,” the legislation states. “The bill prohibits the commission from dismissing the complaint simply because the complaint alleges a commission violation.”
The legislation also requires changes to how Wisconsin handles data sharing agreements, how the Elections Commission removes ineligible voters from the state’s voter rolls, how much Wisconsin charges for its voter list and would require the Elections Commission to conduct a non- citizen voter audit.
Kyle Koenen, Policy Director at The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, said Wisconsin needs to make every change in order to restore faith in the state’s electoral system.
“In September, Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty released a report calling for a five-step audit of Wisconsin’s voter registration list to ensure that only U.S. citizens are voting in elections. The audit proposed in Assembly Bill 595 is similar to WILL’s proposal in many respects,” Koenen told lawmakers. “It will ensure that only U.S. citizens are voting, in compliance with the law.”
Koenen said being compliant with federal and state election laws should not be an option for Wisconsin’s election managers.
“[WILL] believes that regularly auditing Wisconsin’s statewide voter registration list is critical to ensuring the integrity of our elections and maintaining the public trust,’ he added.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s top education official did not attend the committee review of an audit of the state agency’s financial reporting policies and requirements for the state’s school districts, drawing the ire of the committee’s co-chairs.
The audit showed that 370 of Wisconsin’s 421 school districts had at least one material deficiency in its audit, 281 had repeat deficiencies, 96 submitted their 2022-23 financial statements late and the Department of Public Instruction did not begin reviewing reports for an average of 74.7 days after the Dec. 15 deadline.
“In our time as co-chairs of the Audit Committee, Superintendent [Jill] Underly is the first department head who has failed to appear before us when invited to discuss an audit,” co-chairs Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, and Rep. Robert Wittke, R-Caledonia, said in a joint statement after the hearing. “What can possibly be more important to her than ensuring transparency in how our schools spend and report their funds?”
Wittke asked Deputy State Superintendent Tom McCarthy directly why Underly chose not to attend to start the hearing.
“She’s an elected official,” McCarthy responded. “You don’t get the governor at every hearing, do you?”
During testimony on the audit, McCarthy commented on both the responses to Milwaukee’s late financial reporting and those of other districts.
McCarthy said that the department has now changed some of its processes based upon Milwaukee’s late reports, including informing a full board of education instead of just the board president if the financial paperwork is late.
“Wisconsin’s students, parents, and taxpayers deserve responsible leadership of our schools, and Superintendent Underly betrays their trust by believing she can pick and choose which crises she chooses to address,” the co-chairs said.

(The Center Square) – The current structure where Wisconsin tribes would receive 60% of the gross revenue from mobile sports wagering under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act would be too high of a cost for top national brands.
A representative of the Sports Betting Alliance told a Senate committee Tuesday that DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Fanatics and Bet365 the plan to expand mobile sports wagering statewide under the proposed bill would be too much for the organizations to operate in Wisconsin.
Counsel Damon Stewart, representing SBA, said that he didn’t know which number would work for the sportsbooks but that the bill seemed like a “bit of a rush.” SBA is supportive of Wisconsin expanding its mobile gaming statewide but “we don’t think this vehicle gets us there.”
The proposal would create a technical exception to the term “bet” in Wisconsin law by not counting mobile sports wagers that were conducted through a sportsbook with servers located on tribal land as one of those banned “bets.”
Wisconsin Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, said that the bill would allow for the exception, then the state would have to renegotiate gaming compacts that would then be sent to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for approval.
Jeff Crawford, attorney general for the Forest County Potawatomi Community, noted that the Milwaukee Brewers, Milwaukee Bucks and Green Bay Packers are supportive of Wisconsin expanding its tribe-based mobile sports wagering statewide.
The expansion would mean that sports wagering in the state that currently is done through offshore or sweepstakes operators could move into the regulated space, which would create consumer and operator protections.
Crawford said that estimates show there were $150 million in offshore or illegal sports wagers placed by Wisconsin consumers in 2018, that exploded to $1 billion worth in 2024 and it is projected to only expand from there.
Rep. Tyler August, R-Walworth, noted that many of those in his district drive across the state line to Illinois to place wagers with legal sports wagering operators there and then drive back home. He noted that the sponsors have not spoken with Attorney General Josh Kaul on the bill.
“It’s good for the tribes,” August said. “It’s good for the consumers.”
Crawford took exception to the SBA “implying that we do not have the capability of operating a statewide sportsbook.”
Stewart said that the hub and spoke model of mobile sports wagering Wisconsin would use without national sportsbooks involved would be similar to how Arkansas and Florida operates, which he believes is not the best model for consumers.
“Let us have the chance to work with the tribes,” Stewart said. “We want to tether with them.
“Let’s do this right, let’s do this legally.”
If not, Stewart said that consumers will continue to use the illegal sports wagering sites they currently use or they will go to Illinois to use national brands.
“Online sports betting is a low margin, capital-intensive business,” Stewart said. “It’s simply not economically feasible for a commercial operator to hand over 60% to the in-state entity just for the right to operate in the state. That is why Wisconsin adults would not be able to use the national brands they see advertised on national TV every day.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction announced Tuesday it has launched a new online database related to teacher licenses in response to an investigation of how DPI handled 200 cases of sexual misconduct and grooming between 2018 and 2023.
DPI Superintendent Jill Underly was set to appear in front of the Senate Committee on Education on Tuesday afternoon and for the start of an audit of the department’s license investigation process on Wednesday morning.
Underly did not attend an Assembly committee on the matter two weeks prior.
“We take every allegation of misconduct seriously and act whenever it occurs,” Underly said.
Underly’s prior response to an investigation of the matter from the Capital Times was demanding a correction on the story without pinpointing any factual errors in the story.
She pushed back against claims regarding the department’s investigations are hidden because the state does not say why a license is revoked in its online database and the state requires a public records request is placed – with no required timeline and subject to potential large fees – before an individual can receive information on an investigation.
“Our work is open and accountable,” Underly claimed. “Nothing is hidden.”
Underly went on to state that she and DPI support the state further defining grooming. A bill was introduced Monday to do that.
Underly previously claimed that “the statutory definition of ‘immoral conduct’ does not currently include grooming or professional boundary violations, limiting our agency’s ability to obtain critical pieces of information.”
But legislative leaders disagreed. The statutory definition of immoral conduct is “conduct or behavior that is contrary to commonly accepted moral or ethical standards and that endangers the health, safety, welfare, or education of any pupil.”
“I’m concerned that the state’s superintendent of schools is saying maybe they don’t fall under that standard,” Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, told News Talk 1130-WISN based on questions asked by The Center Square. “It’s very concerning and I’m hoping to get an answer on that tomorrow.”

(The Center Square) – There will be more questions, and possibly more
hearings as part of Wisconsin’s teacher grooming investigation.
The Senate Committee on Education met Tuesday to hear from State Superintendent Jill Underly and to get answers about how her Department of Public Instruction handles teacher investigations.
But Sen. John Jagler, R-Watertown, said he has more questions.
“This story is not going away,” Jagler said Tuesday morning on News Talk 1130 WISN.
He also said the Cap Time investigation into 200 teachers investigated for grooming or sexual misconduct is not being framed as a ‘politics only’ story.
“The fact that the Democrats have not been criticizing me for asking questions or not really criticizing Tom Tiffany for making it a political issue tells me that we’re on the right page,” Jagler added.
Jagler said there are some questions to answer at DPI. Specifically, he wants to know what lawmakers can do to solve the problems and protect Wisconsin school kids.
“I’m not sure what type of legislation is going to come from this, on a policy side,” Jagler said. “How do you outlaw creepy behavior?”
Jagler does say the investigation, and the proposed pieces of legislation, will not stop with DPI.
“I have a ton of questions [for local schools]. Because that’s one of the things DPI has said. ‘Look the local reporting of this is not sufficient,’” he explained. “So, we need to look at that too as well, for sure.”
The Cap Times investigation found that 200 teachers were investigated between 2018 and 2023 for sexual misconduct or grooming complaints.
Some of those teachers were allowed to walk away from those investigations after agreeing to give-up their teaching licenses.
Underly on Tuesday announced a “new public resource” that she says will list Wisconsin’s revoked and surrendered educator licenses.

(The Center Square) – Democratic attorney generals from 22 jurisdictions sued the U.S. Department of Education Monday over its new rule limiting Public Student Loan Forgiveness for government and nonprofit workers.
The PSLF program was passed in 2007 with bipartisan support as part of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. Under the law signed by President George W. Bush, workers are entitled to forgiveness for the remaining balance of their loans if they dedicate 10 years to government or nonprofit work and stay up to date with their payments. On Friday, the Department of Education issued a rule that threatened to remove eligibility for student loan forgiveness to anyone who works for someone with “a substantial illegal purpose.”
California, Massachusetts, Colorado and New York are the states leading the coalition suing the Trump administration. The suit was filed by 21 states and the District of Columbia in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a court decision declaring the new rule unlawful.
The suit notes Congress directed the U.S. Department of Education to cancel the “balance of interest and principle due for any borrower” who had been employed in a public service job for 10 years and met other statutory requirements. The suit noted all government jobs are eligible, except for members of Congress.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta accused President Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon of using student loan forgiveness to reward loyalists and punish opponents.
“This is just the latest example of Trump weaponizing our government to wage his culture war,” Bonta said during a virtual news conference, which also included attorneys general from Colorado and Massachusetts.
“First he weaponized our schools, hospitals and military,” Bonta told reporters. “Now he’s coming for hardworking people who’ve devoted their careers to doing good in the world.
“Trump and McMahon have no legal right to impose this rule and break the government’s promise to the American people,” Bonta said. “This rule directly violates the Administrative Procedure Act and defies Congress’ direction under the Higher Education Act, which clearly states that government agencies and nonprofits are eligible employers without exception.
“That means the administration can’t exclude an eligible organization just because it provides legal services to immigrants or provides gender-affirming care to minors or participates in legal diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives or engages in civil protest and the right to assembly – constitutionally protected rights,” Bonta said. “They can’t cherrypick which public service employers qualify or which don’t.”
The Center Square reached out Monday to the U.S. Department of Education after the news conference.
“It is unconscionable that the plaintiffs are standing up for criminal activity,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent told The Center Square in an email. “This is a commonsense reform that will stop taxpayer dollars from subsidizing organizations involved in terrorism, child trafficking, and transgender procedures that are doing irreversible harm to children. The final rule is crystal clear: the Department will enforce it neutrally, without consideration of the employer’s mission, ideology or the population they serve.”
But attorneys general at Monday’s news conference expressed concern about the people who would be denied the student loan forgiveness promised by Congress. Bonta noted the recipients vary from teachers to police officers, firefighters, librarians, social service workers and members of the military.
Attorney General Phil Weiser of Colorado said his state’s employees, varying from firefighters to state troopers, could lose their loan forgiveness if Trump and McMahon simply labeled Colorado as “unlawful.”
“That’s the sort of bullying we’re not going to allow,” Weiser said, answering a question from The Center Square. “This rule is illegal.”
He added he didn’t know how much money the federal government is trying to save in Colorado.
But as the attorneys general answered The Center Square’s questions about numbers such as costs, Bonta put the total amount of the program’s value, as of 2024 in California, at $6 billion.
The attorneys general answered The Center Square’s question about the number of people served by their programs: 18,000 over the last two-and-one-half years in Colorado, 25,000 between 2021 and January of 2025 in Massachusetts, and over 81,000 in California as of 2024.
“These are hardworking folks who had to be in the program 10 years and consistently make payments,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell told The Center Square. “It’s not a handout. It’s folks who work hard. We honor their service, knowing they make less than those in the private sector.”
As of July, 1.25 million people had received the forgiveness nationwide, Bonta said.
Besides the attorneys general from California, Colorado, Massachusetts and New York, the attorneys general filing the lawsuit are from Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
In addition to discussing the lawsuit, attorneys general Monday reacted to the Trump administration’s announcement that it would issue half of the November payments for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits after Friday’s court orders saying the Trump administration couldn’t suspend the program Nov. 1. SNAP was formerly known as food stamps and is designed to help low-income individuals, seniors and those with disabilities. The Trump administration issued its response to the court orders on Monday, as reported earlier by The Center Square.
Partial instead of full payments could make the program more complicated and increase delays, Campbell of Massachusetts told reporters.
The attorneys general argue there’s enough money for provide full payments.
“They are intentionally starving some Americans when they don’t have to,” Bonta said. “We believe they should use all available funds.”
The Center Square reached out Monday to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers SNAP, for this story, but did not get a response. But as reported earlier by The Center Square, the USDA said it only has enough emergency funds, about $4.6 billion, to cover half of November benefits. The USDA said it will not draw from other contingency funds, which are normally used for events such as natural disasters when the federal government is open.

(The Center Square) – A pair of Wisconsin legislators have introduced a new bill that would create a felony offense of grooming with increased punishment if the grooming comes from a person in a position of authority, the child has a known disability or the crime impacts multiple minors.
The bill from Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, and Sen. Jesse James, R-Thorp, comes after an investigation from the Capital Times about the state investigations into 200 cases of sexual misconduct and grooming in Wisconsin schools since 2018 along with a Kenosha case of a teacher that led to 12 misdemeanors and sentence of 450 days in jail and three years of probation.
“Whether it’s a teacher, a coach, or a mentor – we must ensure that adults who exploit their positions of trust to manipulate and prey upon children face real accountability under the law,” Nedweski said in a statement. “This bill gives our partners in law enforcement the clear legal tools necessary to prosecute these predators and provide victims and families with the justice they deserve.”
The lawmakers said the bill language drew from prior grooming laws in Florida, Illinois, Ohio and Texas.
The bill defines grooming as “a course of conduct, pattern of behavior, or series of acts with the intention to condition, seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a child for the purpose of engaging in sexual intercourse or sexual contact or for the purpose of producing, distributing, or possessing depictions of the child engaged in sexually explicit conduct.”
The bill provides examples of the conduct.
The conduct of Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction in teacher’s license investigations was the subject of an assembly committee hearing on the matter and will also be part of a Senate Committee Education hearing at 1 p.m. Tuesday and the start of an audit from the Joint Legislative Audit Committee where DPI Superintendent Jill Underly is expected to be present at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.
“Superintendent Underly and DPI failed at their most basic oversight role: to ensure our kids are safe at school,” Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, told The Center Square. “Recent reporting revealed a significant lack of accountability in how DPI tracks teachers and school officials accused of sexual misconduct with children.
“This audit will attempt to bring to light what DPI has tried to hide, and ensure we can keep Wisconsin’s students safe from predators at school.”
The grooming bill does not have a committee public hearing date at this point.
“This critically important piece of legislation will protect our state’s most important and vulnerable assets – our children,” James said in a statement. “While I am proud to join my colleagues in authoring this bill, I am disgusted by the stories that have made legislation like this so necessary. It has become clear to me, the Governor, and to my fellow legislators that Wisconsin needs a statutory definition for grooming.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoed nine bills, including one that moves state employees back into an office and others that deal with unemployment requirements.
Overall, the vetoes dealt with bills that textended the time employers have to respond to unemployment claims, allowed for businesses to report when those on unemployment decline job offers, required state workers to work 80% of their time in an office, required schools to allow for inspection of instructional materials within 14 days of a request, prevented local governments from blocking the sale of motor vehicles based on energy source and required judicial approval for plea agreements related to violent crimes.
The vetoes came as Evers also signed 11 bills, including a cell phone ban in schools during instructional time.
Evers explained that he vetoed the unemployment requirements because he is against “creating additional barriers for individuals applying for or receiving benefits” from unemployment. Additionally, he wrote that an in-office work requirement for state workers would be encroaching on his own authority as governor.
Sen. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield, wrote Monday that the bill extending the time employers have to respond to unemployment claims came because delays in the U.S. Postal Service have created situations where employers don’t have enough time to respond to claims after they receive a letter and that some letters have even arrived after the deadline.
“Improper payments cause unnecessary paperwork for both the state and employer and create a sense that the system is unfair among the hard-working staff that show up to work every day and keep a business running,” Hutton said in a statement. “This bill wasn’t a silver bullet, but it was a needed step in the right direction.”
He also objected to Evers’ veto of the bill requiring judicial approval of plea agreements for certain offenses. Evers said he disagreed with limiting prosecutors’ discretion in charges.
“Governor Evers’ veto is a victory for violent felons, dangerous reckless drivers, car thieves and abusers who hope to walk away from the consequences their crime, and it’s a defeat for the law-abiding citizens those people prey upon,” Hutton said in a statement.
Evers said that he believes schools already are required to provide parents access to instructional materials and doesn’t believe the state should add additional requirements.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Congressman Bryan Steil is not a fan of Milwaukee’s little-used streetcar, but he’s not committing to join the effort to kill it.
Seil didn’t say if he’ll ask former Wisconsin congressman, and current U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to allow Milwaukee to walk away from The Hop.
“This whole situation of The Hop, and the massive amount of spending that’s going on, and the recklessness of the spending in the city of Milwaukee is a huge challenge,” Steil said on News Talk 1130 WISN. “This is one of the conversations that we need to have broadly about how federal grants have been abused to create massive payments down the road.”
Milwaukee used a federal grant from 2015 to build the streetcar, but it also used some of the remaining money from a 1991 transit grant to get the system up and running. Milwaukee’s mayor says shutting down The Hop will mean Milwaukee has to pay-back $48 million of that 19991 grant. And he says Milwaukee doesn’t have that kind of money.
Milwaukee Alderman Scott Spiker last week asked Duffy to essentially cancel that payback requirement. Two Republican state lawmakers quickly joined him.
Steil didn’t go that far.
“That is a broader conversation,” Steil said. “How do we prevent good money from being spent, after bad money has previously been spent.”
Milwaukee is ready to spend more on its streetcar. The city last week posted a job opening for a marketing and communication officer. The city is offering between $90,000 and $105,000 a-year for someone to handle “strategic public engagement for the streetcar, securing and maintaining sponsorship, as well as advocating for it as a zero-carbon transit option.”
If that person lives within the city of Milwaukee, they could see a residency bonus of up to $3,100.