(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.

(The Center Square) – With the ongoing government shutdown dragging on for a record-breaking period of time, U.S. lawmakers are introducing bills to make shutdowns as painful for Congress as they are for federal workers.
Since the government shut down on Oct.1 after Senate Democrats filibustered Republicans’ House-passed funding bill, hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been furloughed without pay. Thousands more are forced to work without pay because their jobs are considered “essential,” such as air traffic controllers and federal police officers.
But members of Congress, the only people with the power to end the shutdown, are receiving their salaries as usual.
In a show of good faith, some lawmakers have asked the U.S. Treasury to withhold their salaries for the duration of the shutdown. But other lawmakers are taking steps to make that mandatory.
In the upper chamber, U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., has introduced the Withhold Member Pay During Shutdowns Act, which would cut the annual pay of all members of Congress by the number of days spent in a shutdown.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has put forward a similar constitutional amendment where lawmakers would receive no pay during the shutdown, and the forfeited money instead would go to the Treasury to help reduce the national debt.
“If Members of Congress had to forfeit their pay during government shutdowns, there would be fewer shutdowns and they would end quicker,” Graham said. “The U.S. Constitution requires Members of Congress to be paid, even during government shutdowns. This is the most constitutionally sound way to deal with this problem.”
In the U.S. House, Rep. Mike Kennedy’s, R-Utah, No Work, No Pay Act of 2025; Rep. Angie Craig’s, D-Minn., No Pay for Disarray Act; and Rep. Derrick Van Orden’s, R-Wis., constitutional amendment would each ensure that members of Congress receive no pay as long as the shutdown continues.
The salary for most senators and representatives is $174,000 annually as of 2025, according to the Congressional Research Service. Given that both chambers are in session for less than half of the year, that means lawmakers would lose more than a thousand dollars per workday during a shutdown, if such a bill passes.
But Rep. Frederica Wilson’s, D-Fla., Government Shutdown Salary Suspension Act goes a step further, preventing not only Congress but also the president and vice president from receiving pay during a shutdown.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, is losing patience with senators as the government shutdown begins to affect critical federal programs like SNAP. The president told Republicans in a Friday social media post to “Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!”
So far, shutdown negotiations have led nowhere, with Democratic and Republican leaders seeming content to wait each other out.
Democrats have demanded that any funding deal extend the pandemic-era expansion of the Obamacare Premium Tax Credit, set to expire Dec. 31. Republicans refuse, accusing Senate Democrats of “holding the government hostage.”
There are some bipartisan efforts to prevent future shutdowns, however. Reps. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., and Scott Peters, D-Calif., have together introduced the No Budget, No Pay Act, another bill that would withhold lawmaker salaries during a lapse in appropriations.
“If Congress can’t fulfill its most basic duty to pass a budget, it shouldn’t get paid, and Members of Congress shouldn’t get back-pay either,” Huizenga stated.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin school boards must create rules banning cell phones during instructional time with a deadline by July 1 after Gov. Tony Evers signed the bill into law Friday.
States across the country have moved to ban cell phones at school or during certain parts of school.
“It has always been my belief that decisions like this should be made at the local level by local school districts and that we should trust local school boards to work with students, parents and families, educators, staff, and administrators to make decisions that make sense for students in their community,” Evers said in a statement. “That continues to be my position. Nevertheless, my promise to the people of Wisconsin is to always do what’s best for our kids, and that obligation weighs heavily on me in considering this bill, as it does every bill affecting kids that reaches my desk.”
Pew Research showed that an increasing number of adults in the U.S. approve of school cell phone bans with 74% supporting a ban for middle and high school students during class, up from 68% last fall.
“While I wish the Legislature would have taken a different approach with this legislation, I will never stop fighting for Wisconsin’s kids and working to do what’s best for them, which is why I am signing this bill into law today,” Evers said.
School district-issued electronic devices are exempt from the prohibition and districts can create an exemption to the prohibition for emergencies, managing a student’s health care, through a student’s individualized education plan or for educational purposes authorized by a teacher.
Several Democrats pushed back on the bill as it made its way through the Legislature.
“Wisconsin seems to be the only state where this is a partisan issue,” Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Fox Crossing, said at the time.

(The Center Square) – An audit is expected to be ordered of Wisconsin’s educational license program as Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Jill Underly will appear before the state’s Joint Audit Committee at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.
The agenda for the meeting includes a public hearing on the proposed audit and a follow-up executive session.
“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.”
Underly was not present at last week’s meeting of the Assembly Committee on Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency related to a report showing that DPI hid 200 sexual misconduct and grooming accusations since 2018.
Underly was also invited to an informational hearing in front of the Senate Committee on Education on Tuesday but there is no agenda yet for that meeting.
The audit would examine how DPI handles complaints against teachers as it investigates related to state teacher licenses.
Deputy State Superintendent Tom McCarthy said that DPI requires that license revocations be made permanent if teachers choose to have their license revoked instead of going through an investigation.
McCarthy admitted that process was not in statute nor could they prevent a teacher from later asking for the license to be reinstated. He also said that there are jobs within schools, like some paraprofessional roles, that do not require licenses.
Questions have also arisen about when individual school districts must inform DPI of issues and communication with law enforcement in those cases to ensure teachers are not able to simply move districts to avoid accusations of sexual misconduct.

(The Center Square) – Southeast Wisconsin’s congressman says once the government reopens, hundreds of thousands of people in the state will see their food stamp benefits restored quickly.
Republican Congressman Bryan Steil told News talk 1130 WISN that it won’t take long to restart the program. But he said Democrats on Capitol Hill have to vote to reopen the government first.
“It would be very quickly,” Steil said. “You’d have to [see] how fast they can fund those programs, and sometimes there’s a day or two delay. But it would be near instantaneous for folks, that funding would then kick back on and flow through.”
Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services says nearly 700,000 people in Wisconsin receive SNAP or as it’s called in Wisconsin FoodShare.
Steil said those are the people, along with thousands of federal workers in the state, who are paying the price for what he calls the political games of Democrats.
“Democrats have voted for this time and again. In fact, Chuck Schumer voted for this multiple times in the past. And so you have to ask yourself what changed? What changed in the Democratic Party is the politics,” Steil said. “The policy has not changed. The politics have changed. Their radical base is demanding that they do anything to try to ‘stand up to
Trump.’ What does that mean? They’re willing to put American families through a ton of pain.”
As for when a vote may come to reopen the government, Steil said he didn’t know. But he echoed Vice President JD Vance who Thursday said Republicans will not surrender to the “hostage” situation created by Democrats.
“The Democrats are trying to cause pain to try to force Republicans to the table to capitulate to their demands. What we’re saying is we’re happy to have the conversation about different policy areas, but we’re not going to do it in a in an environment where you are holding hostage the American people, [and] countless paychecks. We should be doing this in a more reasonable and thoughtful way,” Steil said.

(The Center Square) – Democrat Brad Smith is running for Wisconsin’s 6th congressional seat and plans to hold a campaign launch from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Edison Hall at Inventors Brew Pub in Port Washington.
Smith is a veteran of the Wisconsin National Guard and plans to advocate for middle-class families, farmers and access to health care.
The 6th congressional district is currently held by Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, who has held the seat since 2015. Grothman retained the seat with 61.2% of the vote against Democrat John Zarbano in 2024. Grothman won the 2022 general election virtually uncontested with nearly 95% of the vote.
“I’m running because the Wisconsin I love, the one that gave my family a vibrant future, is slipping away,” Smith said in a statement. “I’ll fight for affordable healthcare, good jobs with fair wages, and real access to education and training that help move us all forward, together.”
Smith said his priorities including expanding access to education and job, protecting and improving affordable health care for all and growing good-paying jobs.

(The Center Square) – For the first time in the past 10 years of polling, more Wisconsin voters said they would vote against a school referendum than for it.
Fifty-seven percent of voters said they would vote against a referendum in the new Marquette Law School poll.
That compares to 52% in June, 57% in February and 55% in January saying they would vote for a school referendum if it was proposed by a local school board.
The poll asked 846 registered voters the questions between Oct. 15-22.
“This is one to keep an eye on to see if this trend continues or it’s just a fluke of this sample,” Law School Poll Director Charles Franklin said.
The poll also showed that 56% said they believe reducing property taxes is more important than increasing spending on public schools.
That compared to 57% in June, 58% in February and 55% in January who said the same.
Historical Marquette polling showed that 50% first said they would prioritize reducing property taxes in June 2023 after years of polling showing that spending more on public schools was more important to voters.
That total has trended up since the 2023 polling.
“People have gotten more concerned about school spending and property taxes in particular,” Franklin said.
The polling comes after Milwaukee voters said they would prefer consolidating schools over another property tax referendum increase when Embold Research asked 535 likely Milwaukee voters in 2026 the questions between Oct. 6-10 on behalf of City Forward Collective and CFC Action Fund.
Legislators are currently discussing a bill that would require districts to file the required paperwork before being eligible for a referendum.
There also are a set of bills in the works on school consolidation.
Public school enrollment in Wisconsin is expected to decline by 10,000 students annually for the five-year period that began in 2023-24 and the trend is expected to continue.
The bill would provide a consolidation model process, funding for consolidation or shared service feasibility studies and assistance for schools as they try to match up differing levies and determine school board positions when consolidation occurs.

(The Center Square) – The office of Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers spent $16,500 on airfare and hotel nights for Evers’ economic development trip to Europe in April but records provided by his office were unclear on whether any of those were the governor’s expenses.
The office responded after six months to a request from The Center Square for records of the governor and his staff’s expenses for the trip with one bill from the Wisconsin Economic Department Corp. including a pair of round-trip flights and hotel stays in four cities.
The bill did not identify who stayed in the rooms on the trip, which ran from March 29-31 in Braunschweig, April 1-2 in Wlesbaden, April 3-5 in Dijon and April 6-8 in Berlin.
The plane tickets were identified as “Gau” and “Schroeder,” seemingly indicating the tickets were for Evers Chief of Staff Maggie Gau and Evers Executive Assistant Jack Schroeder.
The flights – from Madison to Hanover, Germany and from Berlin back to Madison – cost $5,099.67 apiece.
WEDC has not responded to a similar request from The Center Square related to its staff’s expenses on the trade trip. WEDC’s legal counsel has not responded to multiple follow-up questions related to the timeline of its response.
Evers’ office did not respond to follow-up questions related to the public records request or why it didn’t include Evers’ expenses, travel expenses within Europe and food on the trip. The response also did not indicate if there were security expenses as Evers traveled.
The WEDC’s budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year included $900,000 for trade trips “including trips planned to Japan, Canada, Mexico and Germany” according to its budget documents.
Governors in other states, including Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, have responded to similar requests for travel expenses and included both food and travel expenses in the responses.
Whitmer’s expenses have been covered by corporate donations to the Michigan Economic Development Foundation, which receives funding from companies that benefit from tax incentives from state government, the subject of a recent report from The Detroit News.

(The Center Square) – Local governments across Wisconsin could soon lose their ability to raise a tax without asking voters first.
Sen. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield, this week introduced legislation to give voters a say on wheel taxes.
“This doesn’t take away options from local governments, but it does require local officials to make their case directly to the people and ensures taxpayers have the final say at the ballot box,” Hutton said.
Wheel taxes are the name for fees that many cities and counties in Wisconsin charge as part of vehicle registrations in the state. Usually those charges cost anywhere between $10 and $40 per year, and are in addition to Wisconsin’s $85 registration fee.
Many communities already have local wheel taxes and have had them for years. But Hutton said more communities are looking to add wheel taxes as a way to pay for road projects, or simply to bring-in more revenue.
Both Elm Grove and New Berlin, which are both part of Hutton’ s district, have both said they are considering a new wheel tax. Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s new city budget includes a $30 increase in Milwaukee’s wheel tax. Johnson said he hopes to raise $2.7 million a year from the increase.
“[Wheel taxes] are not make-or-break amounts, but every cost adds up, especially when you’re a family who lives paycheck-to-paycheck and struggles to afford groceries or a senior citizen who has to get by on a fixed income,” Hutton said.
In all, wheel taxes are worth nearly $67 million to local governments.
Local governments in the state can create a wheel tax with a simple majority vote. Hutton said that’s different from other local taxes, including over-the-levy property tax increases, which require approval from the voters.
“By placing these decisions directly in the hands of voters, our bill strengthens accountability and transparency in local tax decisions, which is particularly important for those least able to absorb new costs like these wheel taxes,” Hutton added.