(The Center Square) – State Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, D-Milwaukee, agreed to plea guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct and will pay a $300 fine after she was charged following 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’s late husband was a Latino veteran.
She said in a Friday statement that that she broke directives from her party’s leaders when she voted for maps proposed by Gov. Tony Evers and his budget and that was later held against her.
“My voting choices caused a rift that has turned ugly and bitter,” Ortiz-Velez wrote. “My constituents did not send me to Madison to litigate internal caucus disputes or to be distracted by the personal feuds – they sent me to deliver results. I continue to focus 100% of my efforts for the people of the 8th Assembly district.”
She went on to say that she will continue to be an “independent voice in the Capitol.”
Ortiz-Velez left the Democratic caucus after the incident.
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.”

(The Center Square) – A registered nurse can no longer sign an excused absence from school in Wisconsin starting Sept. 1.
Gov. Tony Evers signed a bill Friday to remove registered nurses from the list of those allowed to excuse an absence. The list now includes licensed physicians, naturopathic doctors, dentists, chiropractors, optometrists, psychologists, physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses
“By elevating the threshold to these specialized providers, the bill aims to prevent potential misuse of excused absences, promote consistency in evaluations, and prioritize classroom attendance for students aged 6 to 18,” Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Fox Crossing, wrote in testimony on the bill.
The Wisconsin Association of School Nurses asked for the change due to what it called “confusion that was created with an inadvertent change to the state’s school absence law.”
The bill goes along with a new system to license Advanced Practice Registered Nurses. The Wisconsin Nurses Association also supported the bill.
“Registered nurses, while highly skilled in patient care, typically do not have the independent authority to diagnose conditions without supervision from higher-credentialed professionals,” Cabral-Guevara wrote. “By limiting excuses to those with advanced diagnostic capabilities, we can better ensure that absences are genuinely warranted, reducing unnecessary disruptions to learning and fostering a more accountable system.”

(The Center Square) – There is another warning about school finances in Wisconsin, but it has nothing to do with taxes.
The Institute for Reforming Government released a report that shows almost every Wisconsin county is seeing fewer students this year. Only four counties added students, but even those saw just a few more students.
“Wisconsin lost 14,087 students this year, 1.7% of enrollment,” the report notes. “Sixty-eight of 72 counties lost students. Florence added zero students, Richland added three, Burnett added four, and Dane added 198 due to gaining hundreds of virtual students. No Wisconsin region was a bright spot.”
The IRG report states that this kind of student loss is rare. In fact, there are only three other school years where almost every county in the state lost students.
But IRG’s report is not just a head count. It is a warning.
“Losing students forces tough choices on the educators looking out for our kids and the taxpayers funding our schools,” IRG’s Quinton Klabon said. “Wisconsinites must attract families and businesses to our great state, or we will never escape the cycle of referenda and layoffs.”
Wisconsin’s school aid is student-based, meaning when schools lose students, they also lose state dollars.
Earlier this week, IRG released a tracking tool for the 74 local schools asking for $225 million in local referendum questions this year. Many of those schools say they need more money from local taxpayers to make-up for the state aid they have lost because of a drop in enrollment.
IRG’s new report also provides a snapshot of how schools across the state are doing in other areas.
“Students are attending school more often, getting suspended less, graduating high school more often, and enrolling in college more often. However, schools have reached “a new normal” below pre-pandemic performance,” IRG added.
That snapshot includes:
● Attendance rose to 92.6%, up 0.2%. Black and Indigenous students improved significantly…However, attendance has not recovered from pandemic policies, when Wisconsin regularly reached 95.0% attendance.
● Suspension rates fell 0.2%, the equivalent of 1,468 fewer suspensions statewide.
● High school graduation rates reached a modern high of 92.3%. All groups graduated more across income, racial, special needs, and native language designations. However, Wisconsin continues to struggle against other states on graduation rates.
● College enrollment rose slightly, with roughly one half of graduates enrolling in 2- or 4-year universities.

(The Center Square) – The average price of a gallon of unleaded gas in Wisconsin was up nearly 60 cents from a month ago at $3.21 as of Thursday, according to the American Automobile Association.
That was up from $2.96 a week ago and $2.63 a month ago but it was below the national average of $3.59. That national average was $2.94 a month ago.
A large part of the increases across the country is the impact of the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran.
Wisconsin ranked as the ninth least expensive state to purchase a gallon of unleaded gas with Kansas ($3.04), Oklahoma ($3.05), North Dakota ($3.09), Arkansas ($3.11), Missouri ($3.12), Mississippi ($3.16), South Dakota ($3.18) and Kentucky ($3.19) leading the way.
The prices are similar to 2024 prices, AAA wrote.
“Crude oil prices play a major role in what drivers pay at the pump, and prices have surpassed the $100/barrel mark multiple times in recent days,” AAA wrote on Thursday. “To help offset rising prices, the U.S. announced it will release 172 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserves over four months. The move is part of a broader effort by the International Energy Agency to release a total of 400 million barrels of oil, the largest emergency release in its history.”

(The Center Square) – An audit of how Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction handles grooming and sexual misconduct cases involving teachers will be completed in the coming weeks, according to Sen. Eric Limburger, R-Gillett.
Wimberger said that the results are even more important after a federal civil rights lawsuit was filed alleging that three Oconto Falls students were sexually groomed and abused by teachers in what lawyers called a pattern of abusive actions.
“This lawsuit again highlights the need for the results of our statewide audit of how the Department of Public Instruction handles grooming and sexual misconduct allegations,” Limburger said in a statement. “I look forward to the audit report’s release in the coming weeks to provide transparency regarding Wisconsin’s education leaders’ highest responsibility: ensuring our children are safe at school.”
The Oconto Falls lawsuit accused the school board of ignoring the issue for years, claiming that at least nine teachers or staff members were involved in sexual abuse, grooming, harassment or severe misconduct with at least 14 students between 2005 and 2025.
“They were abused by teachers and coaches under circumstances created by the Board through its pervasive custom and policy of knowing about teacher-student sexual abuse and failing to act,” the lawsuit said. “While Plaintiffs were aware of their abuse, they had no knowledge, and no reason to know, of the Board’s unwritten policies, customs, and practices tolerating sexual abuse and grooming across many teachers and students, and the Board’s deliberate indifference to such conduct until Fall 2025, when they learned of the full scope of teacher-student sexual abuse at Oconto Falls High School and the Board’s decades-long pattern of ignoring it.”
Wimberger and the Joint Legislative Audit Committee ordered an examination of how DPI handles teacher abuse cases in November following reports from the Capital Times detailing how DPI handles and hid 200 cases of sexual misconduct.
“All sexual abuse allegations deserve serious investigation by our justice system,” Limburger said. “Students in our community should feel safe when they walk the halls of our schools – and especially safe from predators who disguise themselves as someone their victims know and trust.”

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has dealt a blow to class action lawyers, finding their targets can avoid lengthy and costly litigation if they take a simple preliminary step.
The justices last week ruled in Gudex v. Franklin Collection Service that class certification under the Wisconsin Consumer Act is not available when a defendant makes an appropriate settlement offer to just the named plaintiff – even though the offered relief does not apply to the entire class.
The case involved allegations that Franklin Collection Service attempted to collect a debt against Heather Gudex by sending her a letter that included statements like, “IF YOU ARE NOT PAYING THIS ACCOUNT, CONTACT YOUR ATTORNEY REGARDING OUR POTENTIAL REMEDIES, AND YOUR DEFENSES” and “[w]hen this letter was mailed no attorney has personally reviewed your account.”
Gudex alleged the letter caused her confusion and anxiety as to whether she was about to be sued and led her to bring a class action lawsuit against Franklin under both the WCA and the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act on behalf of herself and other recipients of Franklin’s letter.
According to Gudex, Franklin was attempting to collect $51.13 she allegedly owed to AT&T.
The case proceeded under the WCA alone after discovery into Franklin’s financial statements revealed that Gudex could sue for greater statutory damages under the WCA rather than the FDCPA. The WCA prohibits plaintiffs from recovering WCA damages if they bring a federal action based on the same claims.
In response to Gudex’s demand for damages under the WCA, Franklin offered to settle the claim by paying Gudex actual damages and the WCA statutory damages of $1,000 in addition to entering a voluntary stipulation that Franklin would stop sending out collection notices using the same language.
Gudex rejected this offer and instead moved for class certification, which the trial court approved based on Franklin’s failure to offer settlement to the entire class.
Gudex also claimed that Franklin’s offer was not appropriate under the WCA because it failed to offer costs, attorneys fees and punitive damages.
In granting class certification, the trial court reasoned that barring the class would make class actions for damages “unduly difficult” because a defendant could avoid class liability by offering settlement only to the plaintiff and not the potential class. The Court of Appeals agreed.
The Supreme Court disagreed, however, and, in a 6-1 opinion written by Justice Brian Hagedorn that focused on a plain reading of the WCA, reversed the Court of Appeals and sent the case back to the trial court.
The WCA carefully “establishes a series of processes and conditions attendant to a class action,” Hagedorn wrote.
Among these are a requirement of notice of claims by the plaintiff to defendant before bringing a class claim. Once received, the WCA provides that an action for damages may not be “maintained… if an appropriate remedy … is given, or agreed to be given within a reasonable time,” by the defendant “to such party” within 30 days of receipt of the required notice.
The “party” to whom the defendant must offer the appropriate remedy “is Gudex, and Gudex alone,” not the entire class, the majority held.
In her lone dissent, Justice Susan Crawford argued that the majority’s view would defeat the legislative intent of the WCA by allowing “a defendant to avoid a consumer class action for damages by ‘picking off’ the representative plaintiff.”
“With a defendant having at its disposal this powerful, inexpensive, court-created tool for avoiding consumer class actions for damages, it is hard to imagine how any consumer class action for damages will be maintained,” Justice Crawford wrote.
That may be so, the majority argued, but a “better view of the statutory policy choice is that the legislature chose to incentivize making an affected customer whole as quickly as possible, while still preserving access to the class action lawsuit if the customer does not receive an appropriate remedy.”
Left unaddressed by the Court, as the dissent noted, is whether Gudex’s federal class claim is extinguished. “Although the majority doesn’t address it, the certification of the class for claims asserted under the FDCPA arguably stands,” Justice Crawford stated.
The case was sent back to the trial court to proceed on the remaining claims.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin may have just celebrated the last anniversary for Act-10.
Act-10 became law in 2011, changing how many public sector workers, particularly teachers, could negotiate contracts.
The MacIver Institute said Act-10 has saved taxpayers in Wisconsin more than $35 billion during the past decade-and-a-half. But the Wisconsin Supreme Court appears poised to strike the law down.
Will Flanders with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty believes if the court does, all $35 billion of those savings will disappear.
“The best hope is to convey just how devastating this will be to school districts, to local governments, and to taxpayers across the state if [Act-10] goes away,” Flanders said in an interview on News Talk 1130 WISN. “[Those] $35 billion in savings, that’s immediately going back on to the property rolls, at least a lot of it will immediately go back on the property tax rolls.”
Flanders said it will take a few years for some of the savings to be erased because schools and local governments will have to negotiate new contracts.
Flanders said while Act-10 mostly focused on schools, every government in the state will see costs jump if Act-10 goes away.
“For school districts [the savings] were about $1.6 billion in annual new costs…And local governments [the savings] are about $480 million in new annual costs,” Flanders explained. “But all told, we’re looking at about $2 billion in annual new costs. And that’s going to be borne by all local governments across the state.”
The challenge before the Wisconsin Supreme Court challenges why some public employees, particularly police officers and firefighters, were not covered by Act-10’s restrictions. Act-10 has survived legal challenges in the past, and Flanders said if the Wisconsin court kills it, it will be for purely “political reasons.”
Though, Flanders said there is a chance that some pieces of Act-10 may survive.
“We have a Supreme Court ruling at the national level that says folks can’t be forced to pay union dues for political purposes,” Flanders said. “It would lead to a challenge immediately, because if we repeal Act-10, some of those things would go back into law. So, there is a potential for something at the federal level.”

(The Center Square) – A former Wisconsin prison warden, who was convicted of a criminal charge tied to the death of one of his inmates, was paid nearly $118,000 for unused vacation time after he resigned, according to state data obtained by The Center Square.
Randall Hepp was charged with felony misconduct in public office in June 2024, the same month he resigned his warden job at the Waupun Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison northwest of Milwaukee.
Hepp pleaded no-contest to a lesser charge and paid a fine and court costs that totaled about $1,100 last year, according to court records.
He and eight of his staff had faced prosecution for the deaths of two inmates. One died of dehydration and malnutrition after guards shut off water to his cell in solitary confinement, according to news reports. The other — who had insisted he needed medical treatment — suffered a stroke in solitary confinement. His death wasn’t discovered for at least 12 hours.
Hepp’s resignation — which the state Department of Corrections called a “retirement” – also came amid a federal investigation into drug smuggling that involved prison staff, news reports said at the time.
Hepp could not be reached to comment for this article. The Department of Corrections didn’t respond to requests to comment.
Wisconsin doesn’t require private employers to pay accrued leave time when their employees are separated from their jobs, but the department pays regardless of the circumstances, according to its policies The Center Square obtained with a records request. The state allows long-time employees to reserve up to three weeks of vacation time each year for cash payouts, without limit.
Patrick McIlheran, of the Badger Institute, a Milwaukee-based policy group that advocates for limited government, said generous benefits for public workers has led to labor law reform in recent years. That includes Wisconsin’s Act 10, which limits labor union bargaining and is the subject of ongoing legal challenges.
“Are big accruals and big payouts the kind of benefit that Wisconsin needs to be competitive in hiring talent — or is it out of line with what’s common in the private sector?” McIlheran told The Center Square.
The state paid Hepp $117,840.55 in late June 2024, which indicates he had accrued about 34 weeks of paid leave. His annual salary at the time was about $175,000, according to state records.
Payouts total millions each year
Data obtained by The Center Square show vacation payouts for state employees who leave their jobs total millions of dollars each year and have increased in the past three. The state did not disclose the reasons for their departures.
In 2023, the state paid about $4.6 million. In 2024, it was about $5.5 million. And in 2025 it exceeded $6 million.
The average payment is about $3,000 per person, but 11 people netted more than $100,000 apiece in recent years, including Hepp.
The others included:
– About $243,000 for Chad Neumann, a former executive with the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, which has the highest-paid employees of state agencies. His salary in 2024 was about $888,0000, according to state data.
– About $158,000 for Michael Witkovsky, a former psychiatrist for the Department of Health Services. That was more than half of his annual salary, which in 2024 was about $310,000.
– About $140,000 for Michael Harmelink, a former investment board employee.
– About $127,000 for Gary Boughton, the former warden of the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility, which houses the state’s most dangerous inmates. That payout slightly exceeded his annual salary, which indicates he had accrued more than a year’s worth of vacation time.
– About $120,000 for Chirag Gandhi, a former investment board executive who was fired for poor performance, state records show. He challenged the handling of his dismissal because he didn’t receive a more generous severance payout, but that appeal was dismissed by the state’s Employment Relations Commission. His salary was about $475,000.
– About $114,000 for Biren Patel, a former engineer for the Department of Transportation.
– About $111,000 for Robert Lemcke, a former transportation specialist for the Department of Transportation.
– About $109,000 for Patricia Benesh, a policy advisor for the Department of Health who died while she was still employed.
– About $102,000 for John Battaglia, a former psychiatrist for Department of Health Services.
– About $102,000 for Morna Foy, the former president of the Wisconsin Technical College System.

(The Center Square) – The price for the same prescription drug in different hospitals nationwide could have more than a $10,000 difference, according to a new report.
A report from 3 Axis Advisors used publicly available hospital data to analyze the cost differential between the same generic prescription drugs in hospitals across the country. It found a 2,347x differential between the minimum and maximum prescription drug prices in some cases. This means one insurance company could pay $1 for a prescription drug while another could pay $2,347 for the same drug purchased at a different hospital.
The report bears this out when it looks at prescription drugs across various hospitals. The report found 200 milligrams of Keytruda, a drug to treat cancer, ranged from $12,000 to $43,000. It also found 480 milligrams of Opdivo, another drug to treat cancer, ranged from $17,000 to $67,000.
The report found that, in some cases, uninsured patients could be receiving a better price for prescription drugs than insured patients. It pointed to various billing methods, inconsistent unit usage, and unclear contracts for the vastly different prescription drug prices.
In 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services implemented the Hospital Price Transparency Rule, a requirement for hospitals to publicly disclose detailed “standard charges” in prescription drug prices. However, the report’s analysis found this has done little to address vastly different prices across the country.
“While there is often consistency in list prices presented to payers and patients, the majority of a hospital’s patients – those with insurance – face a confusing array of potential prices,” the report reads.
The report also found other popular prescription drugs including Ocrevus, to treat multiple sclerosis, ranged from $16,000 to $65,000; Tysabri ranged from $6,500 to $27,000.
“These pricing disparities are significantly large enough to theoretically fund travel expenses between the hospitals while still resulting in significant savings,” the report reads.
Indeed, the report estimated a patient could obtain Keytruda through United Healthcare in Colorado for $12,059, but would likely pay $43,099 in Massachusetts. Similarly, the cost for Darzalez Faspro, a treatment for myeloma, cost $9,311 in North Carolina compared to $36,300 in Wisconsin.
Additionally, Tysarbi, a medication for multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s disease, cost $6,477 through Cigna in Tennessee and $26,451 in New Jersey.
“While transparency requirements have unveiled price variations, they have yet to achieve meaningful price standardization, consumer usability, or systemic affordability,” the report reads.
The report called for greater transparency and structural reforms to insurance and hospital pricing metrics. It called for standardized billing based on the number of units sold in a drug.
The report also called for hospitals to provide consumer-friendly search functions to negotiate and compare drug prices. Additionally, the report called on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to implement greater enforcement and oversight of its protocols.
“Hospital data revealed a new level of dysfunction that surprised even us drug pricing cynics,” said Antonio Ciaccia, president of 3 Axis Advisors. “What we found wasn’t just complexity — it was systemic chaos that makes it nearly impossible for payers and patients to understand or predict what they’ll pay at the hospital.”
The report comes as the Trump administration has sought to increase price transparency and lower insurance costs for millions across the country. Trump launched TrumpRx, a prescription drug tool for Americans to find prices on different products across the country.
He has also sought to reduce prices for common prescription drugs to similar levels as European countries. Most-favored-nation pricing means the U.S. would pay no more than the lowest price paid by peer countries. Trump has thus far managed to get 17 of the largest drug manufacturers across the country to agree on most-favored-nations prices.
“This represents the greatest victory for patient affordability in the history of American health care, by far, and every single American will benefit,” Trump said.
Advocates for reform have celebrated the administration’s moves to reduce prices but have called for greater price transparency within the country as well.
“Maximum price transparency with stronger standardization and enforcement will allow patients to shop, make informed choices, and be protected from overcharges,” said Cynthia Fisher, founder of Patient Rights Advocate.

(The Center Square) – A University of Wisconsin name, image and likeness athletics bill that would send $15 million to the universities for facilities and remove most college athletics spending from being a public record passed the state’s Joint Committee on Finance 8-5 on Wednesday.
Republican Sens. Julian Bradley, Patrick Testin and Rob Stafsholt opposed the bill along with Democratic Sens. Kelda Roys and LaTonya Johnson.
The Republican-sponsored proposal is about NIL changes and rules while its impact goes beyond NIL. The bill passed the Committee on Government Operations, Labor and Economic Development earlier 3-2.
The bill will next head to the full Senate after it was approved 95-1 by the Assembly.
UW-Madison Athletics Director Chris McIntosh said in committee that the $14.6 million in funding annually to the school’s 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.”
The Wisconsin Newspaper Association, meanwhile, warned lawmakers and the public that a public records stipulation in the bill 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.”

(The Center Square) – A Wisconsin Senate bill would require local governments to approve a solar or wind project before it can be approved by the state’s Public Service Commission.
Senate Bill 3 will first receive a Senate committee vote before going in front of the full Senate. The bill did not reach the Assembly before it ended its session.
Bill authors say it is about local control while those opposing the bill say that it adds an additional step to make creating new renewable energy more difficult.
“This bill would simply provide our municipalities, our townships with the ability to stop any wind or solar projects that are objectionable to the citizens who live there,” said Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green.
Marklein said that wind and solar projects are different than data centers in that there is no local control on the projects.
“Wisconsin’s energy future depends on scaling up affordable clean energy options quickly and responsibly, but SB3 risks delaying or blocking these projects before the Public Service Commission can act,” the Clean Economy Coalition of Wisconsin said in a statement. “At a time when Wisconsinites across the state are concerned about rising utility bills, lawmakers should be finding ways to expand affordable, reliable, clean energy. Legislation like Senate Bill 3 would inject uncertainty into the approval process and send the wrong signal to companies looking to build new projects in Wisconsin.”
Rep. Travis Tranel, R-Cuba City, said that the utilities have done a great job ensuring that Wisconsin has reliable power but that he feels it is the Legislature’s job to ensure that power is affordable and that residents are happy with how the power is generated.
Tranel said that he wants to ensure that Wisconsin’s rural communities are not covered with wind and solar in places where the community doesn’t want that to occur.
“I would challenge you to come to southwest Wisconsin or any part of Wisconsin where they are proposing these 1,000-acre solar farms or these wind turbines that are going to be 600 feet tall or taller, start knocking on doors and asking people if they support them or not,” Tranel said. “I would submit that the only people that you will find that support them are the people that are going to directly benefit monetarily from them by hosting them on their property.”

(The Center Square) – Voters across Wisconsin now have a bit more information on the nearly quarter-billion dollars in school referendum questions they will see on ballots next month.
The Institute for Reforming Government on Tuesday released its School Referenda Transparency Tool.
“Funding schools sufficiently is important, but taxpayers deserve clear information about district spending and staffing trends when considering new referenda,” IRG’s Quinton Klabon said. “IRG’s tool provides simple, helpful information for anyone seeking to understand this April’s proposals.”
The tool lists all 74 school referendum questions on the April ballot. They total $225 million.
The tool breaks down the cost of the proposed tax increase through 2033, as well as whether the referendum is for building new buildings, maintaining old buildings, or paying day-to-day bills.
The institute also tracks how many students each school district asking for money has added, and how many employees they have added.
“Taxpayers now have clear, consolidated information in one place, helping inform them about local school referenda,” the institute said.
The institute is also sharing its latest school funding report. That report details the final $1.4 billion in federal COVID-19 funding. It questions whether local schools are “investing wisely.”
“After sending $860 million to help Wisconsin public schools manage through spring 2021, Congress sent a final $1.49 billion to get students back on track,” the report writes. “The goal? Do whatever it takes to catch kids up by September 2024. The problem? No one knows how schools have directed it or not directed it … until now.”
That report allows parents to look at how schools spent their COVID-19 money, breaking it down by category like student spending, teacher spending, mental health spending, and transportation spending.
The institute says the goal is to give Wisconsin taxpayers a fuller view of how much money is headed to their local schools. It comes as Gov. Tony Evers continues to insist that the state needs to spend money on public schools, and as a lawsuit over school funding in the state begins its likely journey to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The Institute for Reforming Government says its “main focus will be to remove the onerous barriers and red tape separating the individual from an efficient and functioning government.”

(The Center Square) – A Wisconsin bill headed to the Senate would require the University of Wisconsin-Madison admissions to be predominantly based on standardized testing.
Bill sponsors say the goal is to have high and fair standards for the flagship school in the state.
The bill passed the Assembly 52-45 and passed a Senate committee before it heads to the full Senate.
The bill works along with the Wisconsin Guarantee, which says that the top 5% of students in each public, private or tribal high school after their junior year based upon grade-point average will be guaranteed admission to UW-Madison.
“We have one of the best university systems in the entire country and we should be doing everything that we can to raise standards so students meet those standards,” said Sen. Patrick Testin, R-Stevens Point. “We’re doing the best we can to prepare these students for life after college and hopefully they stay right here in this state.”
The Universities of Wisconsin testified on the bill, stating that the term “predominantly” is not defined in the bill and that the school prefer to use other factors, such as high school grade point average.
“Substantial higher education research demonstrates that high school grade point average is a strong and consistent predictor of student success, reflecting sustained academic engagement, growth, and perseverance overtime,” the universities Office of Government Relations wrote in testimony. “Research, including findings from UW-Madison’s Student Success Through Applied Research (SSTAR) Lab, shows that standardized test scores add limited additional predictive value beyond high school performance.”
A letter from UW-Madison, meanwhile, says the school’s current process of allowing but not requiring ACT or SAT test scores is a better process to be open to more students in the Midwest with many high schools not requiring the tests.
“These legislative proposals have the potential for negative consequences,” UW-Madison wrote in testimony. “Research shows that test scores are highly correlated to family income. Students from higher-income households are more likely to access extensive test preparation resources, participate in multiple test administrations, and otherwise engage in practices that may elevate standardized test performance. Furthermore, ACT scores of students in rural areas are typically lower across income distributions compared to students in urban areas.”
The bill sponsors, however, say GPA standards vary widely in different schools and a high-performing student in one school could be a much better candidate than a student with a good GPA at a school with lower standards.
“This reestablishes merit-based admissions back within higher education,” Testin said.

(The Center Square) – A group of Wisconsin lawmakers are looking to ensure the state shares information on recipients of the Supplementation Nutrition Assistance Program with the federal government.
The bill comes as Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul has joined 21 other attorneys general in suing the federal government to avoid sharing the information, which includes the immigration status of recipients.
The SNAP bill passed the Assembly 54-39 and will have a public hearing in a Senate committee on Wednesday morning.
“Complying with President Trump’s White House should be no different than complying with President Biden, or any other administration,” Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, wrote in testimony on the bill. “The supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution requires this.
“We cannot allow the disregard of law in our society. This is an increasingly disturbing trend in our country, yet it is not the first time we have seen this in human history. Every major civilization has gone through this disturbing trend right before they ceased being a civilization.”
In filing the lawsuit, Kaul said that he believes the U.S. Department of Agriculture is incorrectly limiting SNAP eligibility for refugees, asylum recipients and others admitted under humanitarian protection programs.
The largest issue in the bill becoming a law will be that Gov. Tony Evers has said he is against sharing Wisconsin’s SNAP data with the federal government.
Assembly Bill 1027 would also require Wisconsin to follow federal changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to SNAP requirements that included raising the upper end of the definition of “able-bodied” for SNAP work requirements from 50 years old to 65 and lowers the age of the care-taker restriction from those with an 18-year-old in their home to a 14-year-old.
“It is also important to be clear about what this bill does not do,” Rep. Nate Gustafson, R-Omro, said in testimony. “AB1027 does not change who is eligible for FoodShare, how benefits are calculated, or how the program is administered. It doesn’t expand or restrict the program. It is focused solely on compliance with existing federal requirements so that funding continues without disruption, and Wisconsin citizens can keep receiving the benefits they have been promised.”
Evers has requested that lawmakers send $69.2 million to the Department of Health Services to administer FoodShare, the state’s SNAP program. He said the funding is necessary to keep the state’s program under the 6% error rate that triggers a penalty.
Wisconsin’s SNAP error rate was 4.41% in 2024.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s learning gap for students is greater than the national average in part because of poverty and not just race, says a report released Tuesday.
“Beyond Race: What Really Drives Wisconsin’s Achievement Gap,” authored by Dr. Will Flanders of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, examined academic achievement gaps between Black and white students.
“Wisconsin continues to lead the nation in the racial achievement gap between white and African American students,” the report says. “According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress in fourth grade reading, Wisconsin’s 45-point gap is the largest in the country – 13 points greater than the next grouping of states such as Louisiana, Michigan, and South Carolina.”
The report again points out that over 78% of Black students in the state fail to meet state standards in reading and writing, compared to just 37% of white students.
“According to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2015, children from families below the poverty line scored between 4 and 7 points lower on standardized tests on average,” the report says of an 11-year-old finding.
“As the percentage of African American students in a school goes from 0% to 100%, the proficiency rate on the Forward Exam would be expected to decline by 39.2%,” the report says. “A school with 100% African American students would be expected to have poverty rates 69.1% higher than a school with no African American students, and high poverty is in turn correlated with a 40.8% reduction in proficiency rates. All told, approximately 42.1% of the relationship between African American students and achievement is mediated” by poverty.
The report also looks at the rise in disabled students, and the impact of geography on poor school performance. It also explores family structure as a third cause for the learning gap.
“Research has shown that students who come from two-parent families are more likely to have academic success than those from other family situations. A particular key here is the presence of a father in the home,” the report notes. “As the family situation becomes more unstable, the risk of depression, anxiety, and dropping out of school entirely increases significantly according to research…This is relevant here because Wisconsin has the lowest rate of married African American adults of any state in the country according to the most recent analysis by the Census Bureau.”
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty bills itself as a nonprofit public interest law firm working on matters of “free speech, workers’ freedom, open government, good government, and other individual rights.”

(The Center Square) – Milwaukee’s school superintendent says she can save tens of millions of dollars by cutting hundreds of non-classroom jobs.
Superintendent Brenda Cassellius plans to ask the city’s school board to cut more than 260 positions in the next Milwaukee Public School budget. The savings could net $30 million.
“Protecting classrooms and supporting high‑quality instruction remains our top priority throughout this budget process,” Cassellius said. “These changes will be hard, but by reducing positions outside the classroom amid our budget challenges, we can put more resources where they matter most: in the classroom.”
Many of the layoffs that Cassellius is eyeing are vacancies.
In addition to protecting classroom teachers, Cassellius’ plan would also protect counselors, social workers, psychologists and nurses.
“Recently completed financial audits confirmed the structural deficit, including a $46 million gap at the end of last school year,” Cassellius’ office said in a statement.
While classroom teachers would be protected in Cassellius’ plan. Central office workers would not be.
“The approximately 263 position reductions include bout 116 positions from the offices of Academics; Communications; Family, Community, and Partnership; Finance; Human Resources; Operations; Schools office; and the Superintendent’s office,” the superintendent’s office said. “About 147 positions, including assistant principals, deans of students, and implementers.”
Casselius will ask the school board to support her plan during a special school board meeting on Monday, but her layoffs proposal is already facing opposition.
Milwaukee’s teachers union, the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, says it doesn’t want to see any job cuts.
“No rank-and-file worker should face the possibility of losing their job, and the board should not blindly trust this administration to act in the best interest of MPS students,” President Ingrid Walker-Henry said.
The union has asked for a specific, job-by-job list of positions that could be cut.