(The Center Square) – A Wisconsin lawmaker charged with disorderly conduct is scheduled to have her initial court appearance Friday afternoon in Milwaukee County where several judges will be recused from the case.
Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, a Democrat who is not part of the caucus, was charged after a Sept. 2 phone call where she reportedly threatened another member of the Assembly that she would “tell the press negative personal information” if she was not included in writing a Joint Resolution honoring Latino veterans.
Ortiz-Velez left the caucus after the incident.
The charge is a misdemeanor that could lead up to a $1,000 fine and up to 90 days in jail.
Ortiz-Velez’s attorney, Michael Chernin, told The Center Square on Thursday that he could not comment on the case before it was completed.
The complaint states that Ortiz-Velez felt she was intentionally left out of writing the resolution despite the fact that her late husband was a Latino veteran.
The complaint was filed in Milwaukee because both representatives live in Milwaukee and both were in Milwaukee when the phone call occurred.
“These were personal attacks regarding Witness 1 that were outside the bounds of political response,” the complaint said. “The statements were indecent and tended to disrupt the good public order.”
Rep. Jim Piwowarczyk, R-Hubertus, wrote that he was denied the records when he sent a public records request to the state’s Department of Administration for Capitol Police records related to the incident because the “continued confidentiality is material to that prosecution and release would harm the prosecution.”

(The Center Square) – A Wisconsin name, image and likeness bill that would send $15 million annually for athletic facility debt to the University of Wisconsin system could soon reach the Senate floor after passing the Assembly.
But, the Wisconsin Newspaper Association is warning lawmakers and the public that a public records stipulation that could have a sweeping unintended impact that goes well beyond NIL records.
The bill would exempt records related to the “generation, deployment, or allocation of revenue generated by an intercollegiate athletic program.”
“As drafted, it looks to create a sweeping exemption for any financial record connected to a public university’s athletic program,” WNA Executive Director Beth Bennett wrote in testimony. “Public universities are taxpayer-supported institutions. Athletic departments generate and spend millions of dollars in public and quasi-public funds. Decisions about how revenue is raised, allocated, and spent directly affect students, taxpayers, and the broader public.”
UW-Madison Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs Nancy Lynch told a Senate committee this week that the intention is to codify what the university is currently doing by denying NIL records by citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, saying the goal is to “protect our ability to remain competitive by not releasing documents that would provide information about the strategy, the approach and how we’re managing things on an NIL basis.”
Amending the bill would mean the Assembly would need to concur with any changes. The Assembly has completed its session but Gov. Tony Evers has called lawmakers back for a special session on redistricting.
UW-Madison Athletics Director Chris McIntosh said that the $14.6 million annually to the athletic department for facilities debt is essentially for the athletic department to remain competitive and supporting 23 sports and 600-plus athletes.
UW-Madison athletics operated with a $4.3 million surplus in its most recent annual NCAA financial report released earlier this year covering the financial year that ended in June 2025.
The football program accounted for 80% of the program’s revenue, equaling $113.6 million last fiscal year, according to the NCAA report, which showed the football program brought in $72 million in excess during the year.
“In the event that this legislation is not passed, we will be forced to reconcile our revenues with our liabilities, like we always have,” McIntosh told the Senate committee. “And that will come through a series of painful reductions, further emphasis on increasing our revenues.
“And, what I fear is, that through those reductions in support of our sport programs, all of our sport programs, all 23 of our sport programs, we’ll be left in a situation in which it will be difficult to say the least, for us to be competitive in the sports that generate in excess of 80% of the revenues. And it will also be difficult to be competitive.”
Athletic department officials and bill sponsors cited a 2022 marketing report from Philadelphia-based Consult Solutions that claimed each UW-Madison football game brings $19 million of economic impact to Dane County.
Those types of hired marketing reports, however, are consistently rejected by sports economists who point out the flaws in the math used and how they do not factor in items such as diverted spending, crowding out effects and the costs related to large events and facilities.
Sports teams and athletic programs then use those marketing reports to justify public spending, the UW-Madison athletics officials are doing with AB 1034, which does not have a fiscal estimate attached yet.

(The Center Square) – The front-runner to manage Wisconsin’s Medicaid system has a history of missing deadlines, inflating costs and a “questionable track record.”
Wisconsin is finalizing a $1.4 billion contract for a new single fiscal employer agent for Medicaid’s self‑directed care program. The New York-based company Public Partnerships LLC is seen as the front-runner.
But the company has a history that includes some questions.
The state of New York tapped PPL to take over its Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, but the company missed several key deadlines, including last April’s deadline to begin management.
There were also allegations in New York that that state’s governor, Kathy Hochul, improperly steered its Medicaid management contract to PPL.
“It has been brought to light that the Hochul administration has handed a de facto sole-source contract – under the guise of Medicaid reform, with only the illusion of competitive bidding – to PPL while at the same time receiving consultation about Medicaid reform from PCG, whose executives just happen to have a 25% ownership interest in PPL,” New York Democrat Congressman Ritchie Torres wrote in a letter to federal Medicaid managers in January of last year.
There are also questions about PPL’s performance.
The Legal Aid Society in New York sued PPL over allegations of not paying personal Medicaid assistants. The complaint accused PPL of paying some workers weeks late – or not paying at all for certain periods – and that contacting PPL for resolution was difficult.
In Wisconsin, there are worries about moving from three current Medicaid managers to just one.
Melanie Cairns, managing attorney at Disability Rights Wisconsin, said she worries about poor communication with agents at times and a lack of timeliness when it comes to returning calls and working out resolutions.
“It’s already extremely difficult for IRIS participants to hire workers,” she said. “When there is a delay in getting paid, it’s more likely that they will lose those workers and need to start over.”
Wisconsin has finalized the bids for its new Medicaid manager but has not yet announced which company it will go with. The new contract is supposed to begin in April 2027.

(The Center Square) – There are lots of words of support from Democrats at the Wisconsin Capitol for Gov. Tony Evers special session on redistricting, but the state’s Democratic leaders are measuring their words.
Evers on Tuesday ordered lawmakers back to the Capitol in Madison in April to “ban partisan gerrymandering.”
“Here’s the rub: new maps are redrawn every 10 years, and while Wisconsin has fair maps today, we have no guarantee we’ll continue to have fair maps in the future,” the governor said. “If the Legislature doesn’t act now, our maps could go right back to being rigged, and Wisconsinites could go right back to living under undemocratic maps – we cannot let that happen.”
Evers threatened to call for a special redistricting session during his State of the State speech last month.
Just a few weeks ago, however, he said he did not have buy-in from top Democrats at the Capitol. He said it again Tuesday.
“I feel confident that Democrats feel we are in a good position with fair maps, and I believe they’ll be supportive,” Evers added. “Are there some that may want to see something a little different, a little shaded this way or that way? But at the end of the day, everybody knows that fair maps means what it says.”
Immediately folllowing Evers’ threat in the State of the State, Republicans rejected the idea.
“Purely political and downright hilarious that he’s calling for a special session to ban partisan gerrymandering after he gerrymandered our maps,” Sen. Juian Bradley, R-New Berlin, told The Center Square after the speech. “In 2023, the legislature passed a bill giving him a redistricting commission, and he vetoed it after nearly every Democrat voted against it.”
Evers has proposed redrawn political maps in the past, including the People’s Maps.
Wisconsin Republicans agreed to a new set of legislative maps in 2024, though it was largely because they feared what the liberal-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court would do if they got to draw the maps. The court is currently waiting on a three-judge-panel to make suggestions for Wisconsin’s congressional maps.
Wisconsin’s top legislative Democrats, on Tuesday, mostly talked around the governor’s specific request to end gerrymandering, while claiming to support the idea of “fair maps.”
“The fair maps we passed two years ago have made a difference in Wisconsin,” Democratic Senate Leader Dianne Hesselbein said in a statement. “We now live in a time when the Trump administration has shown its utter disregard for our courts and our democratic system. In Texas, Trump showed he is focused on doing everything he can to create Republican advantages in critical upcoming elections. I am a fighter and my commitment is to make sure the people of Wisconsin have a strong voice in their democracy and that Democrats have the resources and tools to fully participate in whatever redistricting processes may occur in the future.”
“Many of us as Legislative Democrats served under Republicans’ gerrymandered maps for years,” Assembly Democratic chief Greta Neubauer added in a statement of her own. “We deeply understand the importance of competitive maps and remain committed to supporting a redistricting process where the voters’ voices are heard.”

(The Center Square) – There is another bird flu outbreak in Wisconsin after the state’s Department of Agriculture confirmed a case in Dane County.
“The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection has identified a case of highly pathogenic avian influenza in a backyard poultry flock in Dane County,” the department said in an announcement.
DATCP said there were 55 birds in the backyard flock. All of them will have to be put down.
The Dane County case is the second in a week. And it is much smaller than the last.
The state said Friday that more than a million chickens had to be put down after a positive bird flu test at a farm in Jefferson County.
“DATCP and the U.S. Department of Agriculture animal health officials are working together in a joint incident response. The affected premises has been quarantined to restrict movement of poultry and poultry products. Birds on the property will be depopulated to prevent the spread of the disease. Birds from the flock will not enter the food system,” the department said Friday.
The agriculture department said the bird flu has been a problem in Wisconsin and across the country for the past few years.
“The H5N1 HPAI virus has continued to circulate in both wild and domestic birds in North America since December 2021,” DATCP added.
Last year there were also bird flu outbreaks at poultry farms in Jefferson County. Those cases led to the culling of more than 3 million birds. In 2024, Wisconsin’s Department of Ag reported four bird flu cases. Those forced the culling of over 54,000 birds.

(The Center Square) – As the Wisconsin Senate prepares to act on a sports betting bill that passed the Assembly, the Sports Betting Alliance is continuing its push to have the legislation changed to include SBA’s members.
That could mean changing the framework of the bill or making it a constitutional amendment that would go on a statewide ballot, Sports Betting Alliance President/CEO Joe Maloney told reporters Monday afternoon.
The current bill, which resembles legislation previously passed in Florida, would create a hub and spoke model to enable the state’s tribes to conduct online sports wagering, an extension of their current ability to take sports wagers on tribal land.
The tribes would pay Wisconsin a percentage of revenue that would still be negotiated.
“Wisconsin voters definitely want to have a say in this policy and they haven’t gotten that opportunity,” Maloney said.
SBA, which represents DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Fanatics and Bet365, is pushing for a framework to allow those companies to operate and pay the state taxes on revenue like it does is many other states.
Maloney said that those wagering will see less competitive deals if the tribes control wagering through what he called a monopoly.
Complicating the matter is that Fanatics, FanDuel and DraftKings now operate prediction markets on sports events that are federally overseen and do not pay taxes to states.
“The entry of prediction market platforms is a very dynamic topic, of course,” Maloney said in response to a question from The Center Square. “For so long, we’ve communicated about the illegal and unregulated market that are targeting, in this instance, Wisconsinites, taking their business and pushing them into offshore markets or unregulated settings without consumer in place, without responsible gaming controls and without tax dollars going back to the state.”
Maloney said that prediction markets are now operating in Wisconsin from billion-dollar companies that are advertising to residents.
“We have another competitive entrant, an entirely different category of gaming or trading and it is a very dynamic entry into the overall debate right now. So, leaders in Wisconsin have to contemplate now not just illegal and unregulated targeting the residents of their state but also this entirely new category and this federally registered, federally regulated framework that is sidestepping some of the state controls that we see in the traditional online sportsbook model, specifically which grant and deliver millions of tax revenue.”
Maloney criticized the Assembly’s choice to take a voice vote to pass the bill rather than having a recorded vote, calling it “backroom dealing” that voters are beginning to reject.
SBA reported that it spent 64 hours of lobbyist time lobbying against the effort in the second half of 2025. Only the Forest County Potawatomi Community (92 hours) and Ho-Chunk Nation (100 hours) did more lobbying.

(The Center Square) – Public opinion on large-scale data centers in Wisconsin has shifted as 70% of voters say that the costs of the data centers outweigh the benefits.
That’s a change from October, when just 55% believed that the costs outweigh the benefits.
The results are from the most recent Marquette Law School poll, which asked questions of 818 Wisconsin registered voters between Feb. 11-19.
The poll also showed that opposition has risen amongst independents and Democrats but has remained the same amongst Republicans.
Data centers and their benefits have been the subject of several pieces of legislation in the state.
The state has a sales tax exemption for certified data centers in the state that led to $70 million in forgone sales tax in its first two years.
The state has also worked to increase the eligibility of data center projects for tax increment financing about statewide limits, meaning that the new construction does not lead to additional property tax collections for a community.
Data centers in Mount Pleasant, Verona, Beaver Dam and Port Washington have been certified by the state to be eligible for the sales tax exemption.
A group of lawmakers also have introduced a bill to block non-disclosure agreements from being used for data center projects, including testimony from comedian Charlie Berens supporting the bill.
The Data Center Coalition opposed the bill, saying that the NDA bill would put Wisconsin at a “competitive disadvantage” related to attracting data center projects.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says he is happy to finally have some justice in the failed effort to boot him from office.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission last week recommended charges against 13 people involved in the failed 2024 recall effort against Vos.
Vos asked the Elections Commission for an investigation after he said a signature check showed that the recall’s hired signature collectors allegedly “unlawfully listed fake addresses, and others fraudulently listed names of circulators who signed affidavits stating they never signed the petition.”
A number of voters in Racine County launched the recall effort because they were unhappy that Vos didn’t disband the elections commission or take other steps after President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election in Wisconsin.
“While it’s disappointing that this referral took so long to make, I am glad that the Commission agreed that there were likely laws broken during these ridiculous recall attempts in 2024,” Vos said in a statement. “I hope the Racine County DA moves quickly to prosecute these individuals. These prosecutions should be a high priority for everyone who cares about election security.”
Vos added that the decision to recommend charges is a victory for election integrity in the state.
But the recommendation for charges in Vos’ case is a stark contrast from the last WEC investigation.
Last summer, the commission found that Madison’s former clerk broke several laws when she did not count nearly 200 absentee ballots.
WEC chairwoman Ann Jacobs said the clerk showed “rather shocking dereliction of just ordinary responsibility,” but Jacobs said there was no need to ask for charges.
That former clerk, Maribeth Witzel-Behl, ultimately resigned from the clerk’s office. Madison, however, continues to fight WEC’s recommendations that Jacobs says will prevent ballots from going un-counted again in the future.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin taxpayers are growing in their concern over property taxes, as witnessed by a recent Marquette poll showing that 60% of voters are more concerned about reducing property taxes than increasing spending on public schools.
That opinion has shifted over time as 61% of voters were more concerned about funding for schools in Aug. 2018 and polling shifted from favoring funding for schools to being more concerned about property taxes in between late 2022 and mid-2023, according to the poll.
The most recent poll asked questions of 818 Wisconsin registered voters between Feb. 11-19.
The shift comes as state lawmakers continue to debate what the best policy is to spend an expected $2.5 billion surplus at the end of the fiscal year.
Legislative Republicans sent a plan to Gov. Tony Evers that includes $1.5 billion in income tax rebates, $500 million in money for the state’s school tax levy credit and $200 million included for special education funding.
Evers said during his State of the State speech that the plan for property tax relief and education spending must balance the two “a heck of a lot better.”
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos acknowledged during a press conference that Evers won’t negotiate on the school funding he approved with a partial veto that Republicans refer to as Evers’ 400-year property tax increase.
Evers used a partial veto and erased numbers and a hyphen to change “2024-25” to “2425” in the budget bill, locking in a $325 per student per year funding increase for 400 years.
That veto was the subject of a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling approving the move and then legislation and a constitutional amendment proposal to change the governor’s partial veto power since.

(The Center Square) – There is a warning about pros and cons of public funding for child care in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Policy Forum recently said lawmakers must be keenly aware of the “tradeoffs” that come with promising more taxpayer money for day care and other child care centers.
“With child care in Wisconsin already drawing heavily from federal funding, state sources may offer more opportunities for expanding child care revenue, albeit with important policy and political considerations,” the Policy Forum report stated. “Wisconsin could choose to increase the allocation of its current state general purpose revenue, or GPR, to child care, without a new dedicated funding source or increase in existing GPR sources…As with the federal funding, reallocating existing general fund revenues to child care would incur tradeoffs if it involved cutting elsewhere in the current budget.”
The report notes that Wisconsin already spends millions on child care. The WPF report shows that Wisconsin is ranked 10th in national TANF spending for child care. That price tag comes to $231 million.
Researchers say Wisconsin lawmakers have several options to find new money for childcare, including new sin taxes.
“Louisiana complements its tax on sports wagering with the Early Childhood Education Fund,” the report added. “The state has exercised creativity in its revenue sources; while the tax on sports wagering is the primary contributor, the matching fund also claims 50% of the revenue from sales of NBA Pelicans specialty license plates, surplus revenues from payments from casinos to the state, tax revenue from sales of hemp-derived CBD products.”
The Policy Forum said other options could include:
● An income tax credit to employers
● A child care contribution tax credit
● A child and dependent care income tax credit
“These options vary in their popularity and potential impact,” the report noted in its conclusion. “On one side of the spectrum, tax incentives tend to be more popular and bipartisan but may be underutilized and less impactful as they are typically put forward in other states (although they could be engineered to raise more money). On the other side of the spectrum, additional taxes are rarely popular but can have a large financial impact.”

(The Center Square) – A new Marquette poll shows that 64% of Wisconsin voters oppose legalizing online sports betting in the state.
This comes as the Wisconsin Assembly passed a bill last week to enable the state’s tribes to conduct online sports wagering and it waits for action in the Senate.
The Marquette poll showed that 34% of voters are in favor of the legalization.
The poll asked questions of 818 Wisconsin registered voters between Feb. 11-19.
The opposition was across the board as 61% of Republicans opposed legalizing sports wagering, 66% of Democrats opposed it and 74% of independents are in opposition.
The poll showed that 71% of those who oppose religious services at least weekly are opposed to legalized online sports wagering and 62% of those who attend religious services less often are opposed.
Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, wrote in a newsletter that legislative offices “got slammed with emails urging opposition” before the Assembly decided to delay its November vote. He compared the arguments saying that sports wagering is already happening in the state to the arguments supporting the legalization of marijuana.
The Assembly then took up the bill and passed it on its last day of business.
“Besides the dangers of gambling addiction and its social costs, I’m not a fan of funneling more money to one party that holds a monopoly on sports wagering in Wisconsin,” Kapenga wrote. “The Governor has expressed support for this proposal and has tremendous power over its outcome. I certainly wouldn’t want to bet the house on him doing the right thing, and I will be watching to see if this topic picks up steam in January.”
Senate leadership hasn’t indicated if it will take up the bill or when.

(The Center Square) – A group of Wisconsin Democrats and labor leaders are pushing a minimum wage bill that would increase the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 immediately, progressively increase that to $20 by 2030 and then have it rise with inflation afterward.
“Anyone working 40 hours a week deserves to make a living wage,” said Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, who is one of a group of Democrats running for governor.
The group referred to the increase as a “living wage” and said that the state’s minimum wage remaining flat for 17 years has led to more than 1 million workers in the state making less than a living wage.
“A ‘free’ market that doesn’t give families enough freedom to survive is a failed market,” Roys said. “And we don’t have to accept it.”
The proposed bill would also allow local municipalities to pass a higher local minimum wage, something that is currently outlawed in the state.
The bill would face an uphill battle to pass in what is now a Republican-controlled Legislature.
“The rising cost of basic necessities including housing, food, and health care undermines the stability of our workers, families, and communities,” said Rep. Angelina Cruz, D-Racine. “While rising costs continue to receive attention – as they should, suppressed wages require our attention as well,“ Cruz noted. “I am proud to introduce this legislation and to continue pushing wages to the forefront of the affordability conversation. We must not allow the hard-working people of our state to be paid poverty wages.”
Thirty states currently have a minimum wage above the federal $7.25 minimum wage.

(The Center Square) – There is a new fear among education reformers in Wisconsin following the lawsuit to change how the state pays for public schools.
Cory Brewer, one of the attorneys at the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, said the case filed Tuesday by Law Forward and Wisconsin’s largest teachers’ union is a clear attack on school choice.
“We think that the real targets of this lawsuit are the tens-of-thousands of kids who are participating in the private school choice, or charter school system [in the state,]” Brewer said during an interview on News Talk 1130 WISN.
Brewer said the merits of the lawsuit are thin and without evidence.
“The plaintiffs are just ignoring basic facts about education in Wisconsin,” Brewer added. “Wisconsin is spending more on public schools than we were a decade ago. Back in 2014, the state was spending about $7,600 per-student. And today it’s just over $8,300 per-student. And that’s just the state. Overall spending is even higher.”
The statewide per-pupil average actually comes in at more than $18,000 per-student. And some schools, like Milwaukee Public Schools, are spending closer to $25,000 per student.
Brewer said the intent of the case is clear.
“What it’s seeking to do, honestly, is turn the [Wisconsin Supreme Court] into having a legislative function,” Brewer explained.
WILL has defended school choice in Wisconsin for years, and Brewer said they are ready to defend school choice again.
Wisconsin’s school choice program has already survived several legal challenges, including one as recently as 2023. But Brewer is worried this approach, the lawsuit claims lawmakers give choice schools “preferred treatment,” may be different.
She said she’s also not sure the United States Supreme Court will be able to rescue school choice in Wisconsin.
“There are several recent United States Supreme Court decisions defending school choice, yes. And they are very strong decisions,” Brewer added. “However, they have more to do with funding private religious schools, and the First Amendment in that regard, or the right of parents to select schools, in that regard. Here we have a challenge to the funding mechanism.”
Brewer did say she expects this to be a “lengthy” case and said there is a chance that Wisconsin lawmakers could rework the school funding formula and end the case before it ever gets to the state’s high court.

(The Center Square) – The Green Bay, Eau Claire, Beloit, Necedah and Adams-Friendship school districts along with parent-teacher groups, educator associations and individuals are suing the Wisconsin Legislature saying that it does not properly fund K-12 public education in the state in a constitutional way.
The lawsuit was filed by Law Forward and the Wisconsin Education Association Council.
The lawsuit speaks to local property tax increases, the increased number of students with exceptional needs and changes over time in how much the state spends on education. It asks the court to “render the current school finance system unconstitutional.”
“The Legislature’s failure to provide adequate state funding for public school districts violates article I, section 22 because ‘free government’ is at risk,” the lawsuit states. “Also, the Legislature’s failure to prioritize public schools and allocate sufficient state funding to meet constitutional guarantees to public school students violates ‘recurrence to first principles.’ “
Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty Research Director Will Flanders, however, argues that the lawsuit is faulty because, adjusted for inflation, the state is spending more per student on public schools than it did a decade ago and that giving more money to schools has not proven to provide better results.
This lawsuit is based on a faulty premise. Adjusted for inflation, the state is spending MORE on public schools than a decade ago ($7,693 in ’14 versus $8,361 today). Overall spending has jumped even more to $18,592 per student from $16,820 (1/3). https://t.co/FGS5LvmGzz pic.twitter.com/awnszdHXs7— Will Flanders (@WillFlandersWI) February 24, 2026
“This may be the most fiscally consequential lawsuit in state history,” WILL Attorney Dan Lennington wrote on social media. “It demands a new level of spending: infinity.
This may be the most fiscally consequential lawsuit in state history. It demands a new level of spending: infinity. And absolutely no evidence that infinite spending would make one kid smarter. The real targets of this lawsuit: 110,000 kids in the choice/charter system. https://t.co/F7HneK1218— Dan Lennington (@DanLennington) February 24, 2026
“And absolutely no evidence that infinite spending would make one kid smarter. The real targets of this lawsuit: 110,000 kids in the choice/charter system.”
The lawsuit names the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate along with individual members of the Legislature, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, Senate President Mary Felzkowski and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu.
“Public education is central to Wisconsin’s identity and future,” Wisconsin Dept. of Public Instruction Superintendent Jill Underly said in a statement. “Our state’s founders recognized its importance by enshrining in the Wisconsin Constitution a shared state and local responsibility to provide a system of education ‘as nearly uniform as practicable.’ Every child, regardless of zip code, deserves that promise to be kept.”
She said that the “current funding formula is not working” and that education and opportunity shouldn’t depend on where a student lives.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s K-12 education leadership group said that its $368,000 standards-setting meeting in 2024 at a waterpark in the Wisconsin Dells was a “common approach” for state educational leaders across the country and in the two dozen other states that work with Data Recognition Corp. for testing.
But an investigation from The Center Square on standards-setting meetings and processes across the country showed that, while some other states that work with the company do hold in-person meetings, those meetings are all in capital cities with only participants who travel more than 50 miles to the conference utilizing overnight stays.
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s meeting in the Wisconsin Dells, however, meant that DPI staff also stayed at the water park, according to documents obtained by the Dairyland Sentinel through public records requests.
Some other states, such as Ohio and Minnesota, hold meetings remotely while neighboring Illinois does not work with Data Recognition Corp. but did its standards setting process in a mainly remote fashion as well.
Other states, such as Tennessee, hold smaller committee meetings such as the state’s standards review committees that will meet in Chattanooga this summer. Others hold regional small committee meetings.
But none matches up to meetings like DPI held at Chula Vista Resort.
DPI spokesperson Chris Bucher did not respond to questions from The Center Square asking for further details after he told other media outlets that the location was aimed at supporting Wisconsin tourism and stating the Wisconsin Dells meeting was a “common approach.”
Bucher said the company does testing in two dozen states.
A spokesperson for Data Recognition Corp. also did not respond to a request for comment from The Center Square on how it operates.
Data Recognition Corp., led by former Republican Wisconsin Senate Minority Leader Susan Engeleiter, reportedly signed a nearly $80 million 10-year contract with Wisconsin to operate its testing and create the Forward Exam after initially bidding $63 million on the contract.
The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign questioned Engeleiter’s donations to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker when the deal was signed. Gov. Tony Evers was the state school superintendent at the time.
Dairyland Sentinel and the Institute for Reforming Government are working together to fight for DPI to release a copy of a signed contract between DPI and Data Recognition Corp.
Questions regarding spending on the conference recently led Wisconsin’s Joint Committee on Finance to delay $1 million in a funding request to DPI.
“We just want to have the opportunity to at least review what’s going on there with this questionable use of funds,” Joint Finance Committee co-chair Mark Born said. “We just want to hit pause on that.”
IRG’s General Counsel and Director of its Center for Investigative Oversight Jake Curtis told The Center Square that, while the conference spending raised eyebrows and drew headlines, he believes the 88-member standards-setting group filled with school employees and leaders fits the exact definition of an Ad Hoc Committee and that meetings of that committee should be public and not subject to the non-disclosure agreements signed by conference attendees.
“In Wisconsin, we have very robust open meetings laws, public records laws and we have a strong sunshine set of laws in Wisconsin,” Curtis told The Center Square. “What the Department of Public Instruction did here was pretty obvious, just did not want the scrutiny from the public. And that’s frankly why it’s such a problem for DPI.”

(The Center Square) – Madison’s public school managers say they need $60 million just to keep up with special education requirements next year.
And they say they don’t know where they will find the money.
The Madison Metropolitan School Board this week began work on its 2026-2027 school budget.
“Our budget reflects what we value most as a school district,” Superintendent Joe Gothard said. “We are committed to uplifting the student experience, supporting our staff and making strategic investments that move our schools forward. At the same time, we must plan responsibly for financial realities that continue to challenge public education.”
Madison Metropolitan’s current school budget is $668 million – about 10% higher than the 2024-2025 school budget.
There is no proposed price tag for the next budget.
MMSD says it needs to find at least $30 million more for teacher pay raises and benefits. That includes:
● $4.7 million for compensation step increases
● $9.5 million for inflationary compensation increases
● 14 to $16 million for health insurance increases
● And the new costs for expanded parental leave benefits
“These increases reflect contractual obligations, market conditions and our responsibility to remain competitive as an employer,” Assistant Superintendent of Financial Services Bob Soldner said. “We begin planning early so we can evaluate multiple scenarios, manage risk and minimize disruption to schools and classrooms.”
Madison schools are also expecting less money from the state. MMSD officials say they could see $7 million less.
Voters in Madison agreed to give the city’s school district $600 million more in 2024. The school district proposed two referendum questions, one for $100 million to hire more teachers and staffers. The other was for more than $500 million for facility upgrades.