(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed a pair of bills into law Friday aimed at providing more transparency into teacher’s license investigations related to sexual misconduct and prevents local school officials from entering into agreements to hide information related to staff immoral conduct.
Senate Bill 785 requires the state Department of Public Instruction to keep a free, online searchable platform to include information on teachers who have had their licenses revoked and who are investigated by DPI.
The portal must name the license holder and the outcome of the investigation and must include if the teachers’ license holder voluntarily surrendered his or her license to avoid further investigation.
DPI currently posts each license holder who is under investigation and the name of each person whose license is revoked after an investigation.
The bill comes in response to a Capital Times investigation last year that showed DPI was shielding information on how it handled 200 cases of sexual misconduct and grooming between 2018 and 2023 and was forcing the public to file public records requests to access that information.
“By requiring DPI to post not only the names of license holders but also the results of investigations, AB 795 addresses this lack of transparency and strengthens the ability of families and school leaders to make informed decisions regarding the safety of students in their care,” bill sponsor Rep. Nate Gustafson, R-Omro, said in testimony on the bill.
Assembly Bill 1004 prevents schools from entering into confidentiality agreements related to investigations into immoral conduct.
“These ‘pass the trash’ policies simply move problematic staff from one school to another, putting more students at risk of being preyed upon,” Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, said as the bills passed the Assembly.
She noted that 10 states – including Michigan, Iowa and Illinois – have bans in place on confidentiality agreements.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District represents a rural area running from the Minnesota and Iowa borders to Eau Claire and a strip that ends between Wausau and Appleton. But a large topic of debate in the rematch race between incumbent Republican Derrick Van Orden and Democrat Rebecca Cooke is about a country a world away – China.
The race is expected to be close, which Cooke’s team claiming its internal polling showed a 1 percentage point lead over Van Orden in polling by Impact Research between Feb. 12-17 with questions asked of 500 likely general election voters.
Cooke recently touted an endorsement from the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Plan, a group heavily tied to China with everything from a Beijing office to employees who came to NRDC from the Chinese government. The group supports a fracking ban, opposes the Line 5 pipeline that stretches across Wisconsin and it supports the Green New Deal.
“It’s not just concerning, it’s completely disqualifying,” Van Orden Spokesperson Grace Kim told The Center Square. “Rebecca Cooke is in lockstep with radical left-wing groups like the NRDC, the same extremists pushing fracking bans, killing American energy, blocking pipelines like Line 5, and shoving Joe Biden’s reckless Green New Deal down our throats.
“If she gets her way, costs will soar, family farms will collapse, and the U.S. will hand more power to adversaries like China. She claims her family lost their farm to competition, but now she’s willingly siding with radicals who would make it impossible for any small farm to survive. Cooke would sell out Wisconsin families, even her own, just to pander to Washington Democrats.”
Cooke’s campaign, however, has a different viewpoint. They didn’t directly respond to questions from The Center Square about NRDC’s Chinese ties, but told The Center Square that Cooke has clearly stated she is against foreign nationals, including Chinese, from owning Wisconsin farmland.
“It’s not just a food security issue but a national security issue,” Cooke said at a recent event.
She also is against hyper-consolidation in the agricultural industry and beyond, saying there is no place for monopolies in America.
“Cooke can’t claim that she’s against Chinese owned farm land, while getting in bed with groups tied to China whose policies enrich China and crush American farmers,” Kim said. “So either she didn’t bother to research who she’s getting in bed with, or she’s willing to sell out Wisconsin farmers to advance a far-left, China-benefiting agenda. Neither is acceptable and shows that she is completely unfit to represent our state.”
Cooke’s campaign then pointed to Van Orden, who accepted a $5,000 donation from Syngenta, an agricultural technology company with Swiss roots that is now Chinese-owned. Van Orden refunded the donation in March and has since told his fundraising team not to accept donations from any Chinese state-owned companies.
Gov. Tony Evers recently vetoed a Wisconsin bill that would have banned allowing Chinese nationals from purchasing Wisconsin land.
In terms of fracking, Cooke’s campaign said that the federal government does not regulate frac sand projects, so her NRDC endorsement doesn’t relate to the group’s anti-fracking stance. But the state is one of the country’s largest producers of frac sand, which is used for hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas from rock formations in other states, according the the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, which oversees the mining.
“Unlike Derrick Van Orden, who voted to raise electricity costs, Rebecca supports efforts at the federal level to lower energy costs while protecting Wisconsin’s natural resources and environment,” the Cooke campaign said.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin governor has not yet signed the biggest piece of legislation on his desk.
Gov. Tony Evers took action on 33 pieces of legislation, but not the plan to legalize online sports gambling.
That proposal went to the governor on Thursday. He has seven days to sign it or veto it.
Among the new laws the governor signed are plans to:
● Add search and rescue dogs to the list of animals included in the crime of harassment of police and fire animals.
● Send $950,000 a year to the program that is tasked with tackling veterans homelessness in Wisconsin.
● Allow the use of security cameras on school buses but makes it clear that those recordings are only to be used for “investigations, school disciplinary actions and criminal prosecution.”
● Create a new veterinary loan repayment program for vets in rural parts of the state.
● Allow Wisconsin fire departments to use soybean-based firefighting products as an alternative to PFAS-based products.
That is a law written by Rep. Clint Moses, R-Menomonie.
“This is a great example of how good ideas can come from anywhere,” Rep. Moses said. “After reading about this innovation, it was clear Wisconsin was well-positioned to use these products. We have the farmers, the research, and the need for safer alternatives — this bill brings those pieces together.”

(The Center Square) – The two candidates for Wisconsin Supreme Court attempted to frame themselves as the middle-of-the-road fair candidate while painting the other candidate as partisan in the lone debate between judges Maria Lazar and Chris Taylor on Thursday night.
The debate was delayed an hour due to storms, including tornado watches and warnings in the state, more than a week after the debate was delayed when Taylor suffered from kidney stones.
The candidates are vying to replace conservative justice Rebecca Bradley for a 10-year term on the court in Tuesday’s election. Both candidates are currently appellate court judges. The court currently has four liberal judges and three conservatives.
Lazar, considered the conservative candidate, said that she is “running so that we can restore independence.”
Taylor, a former Democratic state lawmaker, said that “I have a spine of steel when it comes to making sure that people’s rights being protected.”
Lazar called the state court’s abortion ruling settled law and she would respect what she called the court’s “20-week compromise.”
Taylor, who previously represented Planned Parenthood as an attorney, would not say if she would recuse herself if the group had a case in front of the court.
“We need a judge who loves the law, not a judge who loves their causes or their beliefs or their agendas,” Lazar said.
Taylor denied that she has prejudged any case involving abortion or other causes.
“Never have I said I am an advocate,” Taylor said. “Never have I said I am an activist on the bench.”
Lazar vowed that she would not “legislate from the bench” and that “we need to have a collaborative court.”
Taylor said that her opponent would be a “rubber stamp for the federal government.”
She added that she would respect workers and unions and has had family members who were union members, saying she should respect her values.
When asked about the 2020 election, Lazar said “”Joe Biden did win. I don’t think we should be looking back and instead looking forward.”
She noted that she believes that Illinois has a gerrymandered congressional map, but that Wisconsin should have a map drawn by the Legislature and approved by the governor, not having maps being drawn by other places like a court.
Lazar also said that she was concerned with how Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested in Milwaukee after allegedly assisting a defendant in eluding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I think that there has been a real attack on the independence of judges,” Lazar said.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s sports wagering bill and a name, image and likeness bill that will send $15 million annually to the University of Wisconsin athletics departments while exempting athletics spending or revenue from public records requirements were both formally sent to Gov. Tony Evers, leaving him one week to decide if he will sign or veto them with an option to partially veto the NIL bill because it includes an appropriation or state funds.
The sports wagering bill passed the Senate with a 21-12 vote with nine Republicans voting against it.
Evers’ administration will now have to negotiate updated compacts with the state’s 11 tribes and then send those compacts to the federal government to be approved before online sports wagering in the state can begin.
Evers has stated that he would want all of the tribes on board with the change before approving the plan.
“This bill fundamentally expands gambling in Wisconsin, while massively profiting tribes, by allowing people to download and place a bet on a computer or mobile device through an app tied to a tribe with a casino,” Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, wrote in his newsletter about the bill. “Most of us have the common sense to see the dangers of expanding legalized gambling, including the social and financial harm. I voted no, along with a significant number of Republican colleagues.”
The proposal would change the state’s definition of “bet” to allow the state’s tribes to offer mobile sports wagering if the bettor is in Wisconsin and the sportsbook servers are on tribal land, an amendment to current compacts allowing for casino gambling and sports wagering on tribal lands despite the state’s ban on betting.
The law would allow for a similar sports wagering model as Florida, where the state’s sportsbook operators have servers on federally recognized tribal lands while users can be in the state of Wisconsin.
The NIL bill passed the Senate on a 17-16 vote.
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. He said that women’s and Olympic sports were at stake related to the bill.
The Badgers’ 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.
The Wisconsin Newspaper Association 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.”
“AB 1034 would not only codify NIL into state law but hand over more record funding to UW-Madison, this time dumping your tax dollars into a bottomless pit of college athlete recruitment,” Kapenga wrote. “But it gets worse. Under the bill, student athletes and the UW athletic department are now exempt from open records requests, raising significant questions about transparency. I voted no to one of the more absurd wastes of taxpayer dollars I’ve seen in a long time.”

(The Center Square) – Neither side of Wisconsin’s political spectrum is happy with the latest pitch from the state’s largest utility to hike power bills.
We Energies this week submitted a plan to the state’s Public Service Commission to raise electricity rates by 14% over two years.
“Our filing reflects the realities that our customers count on us every day for the energy they need. We recognize it’s our responsibility to continue providing safe and reliable energy while keeping customer bills low,” We Energies spokesman Brendan Conway said.
We Energies wants regulators to approve a 9.25% rate increase next year, and a 5.5% rate increase the year after that. The utility says the rate hikes would add around $13 more per-month next year, and an extra $8 or $9 per-month the year after that.
We Energies said the average electric bill for homeowners is currently a little less than $143 a month.
The request brought immediate condemnation from both Republicans and Democrats.
Republican candidate for governor Tom Tiffany took to social to blast We Energies’ request.
“We Energies wants to raise your electric rates another 14%,” Tiffany wrote in a post. “This comes after the Democrat-appointed PSC under @GovEvers approved over $2 billion in rate hikes in the last five years, a whopping 71% of what utilities requested.”
Tiffany said if elected he would “appoint PSC commissioners who say NO to unreasonable rate hikes.”
Democratic frontrunner Francesca Hong used the request to once again push for her plan to create public-owned utilities in the state.
“Who would you rather have in charge of your essential services: a private company accountable to shareholders, or a public utility that answers to you?” she added on X.
Tom Content with the Citizens Utility Board in Wisconsin said We Energies is not “reading the room” with its latest rate hike request, especially as people in Wisconsin continue to struggle to make ends meet.
“Based on an initial snapshot, it looks like another double-digit increase for We Energies customers, who have already seen their bills rise much faster than inflation over the last four years,” Content told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Twenty years ago, the average We Energies electric bill was just $76 a month. If this latest request is approved, that monthly cost would be more than double that amount.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction spent about $8 million on resetting its standards on the Forward Exam, according to new records released by DPI.
The records came after Dairyland Sentinel asked the Department of Justice last Tuesday to intervene on its public records requests. The DOJ sent a letter to both DPI and Dairyland Sentinel but also stated that it would have to defend DPI in the case of a public records lawsuit.
The records appeared to be one year of the expenses of what has been reported to be a 10-year, $80 million contract between DPI and Data Recognition Corp. to operate the Forward Exam and help desk.
The Center Square was unable to obtain clarity from DPI on if the $8 million was part of that contract, an amended contract or separate from the 2016 contract.
“The DPI holds a massive contract with DRC to manage the Forward Exam,” Dairyland Sentinel Publisher Brian Fraley told The Center Square. “However, the Department cannot use a private vendor to shield itself from public records requests, nor can they use that vendor to prevent citizens from seeing the inner workings of public meetings that altered state education policy.”
DPI also sent Dairyland Sentinel the $396,0000 in expenses from its workshop in the Wisconsin Dells, a document it previously shared with only a select group of reporters that did not include The Center Square, despite requests for that information.
The conference was used to change standards on the Forward Exam.
Dairyland Sentinel still believes there are minutes and recordings from the conference that should be public records that DPI has not released related to its workshop, conducted by Data Recognition Corp. It plans to continue to fight for those records.
The Institute for Reforming Government has called for Wisconsin lawmakers to create a special committee to investigate the workshop and whether it should constitute a public meeting.
Jake Curtis, General Counsel and Director of the CIO at IRG, previously told The Center Square that he believed 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.
Conference attendees were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements to hide discussions that occurred at the workshop.

(The Center Square) – The Republican sponsors of a bill to enhance penalties for drug dealers near homeless shelters say that Gov. Tony Evers’ veto of the bill continues what they called failed policies against addiction and recovery.
The big would have allowed the maximum penalty for dealing drugs by delivery or intent within 1,000 feet of a homeless shelter to be increased by five years.
“Many of our fellow citizens who are homeless are also struggling with addiction. They need to get on the path of sobriety, but drug dealers preying on them nearby only make their situation worse,” Sen. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield, said in a statement after the veto. “The Governor’s shameful veto will prolong a failed approach to homelessness and addiction that keeps people mired in the darkest period of their lives.”
Evers argued that the bill was part of an outdated and archaic approach to criminal justice. He said that the Legislature should instead use an evidence-based approach, which he did not describe.
“I am disappointed the Legislature continues to focus its attention on proposals that do little to improve this landscape when there are serious and urgent needs facing our correctional institutions and our criminal justice system, including aging facilities and a soaring prison population that Wisconsin’s correctional institutions cannot continue to accommodate,” Evers wrote.
The bill would have created something similar to a drug-free school zone around homeless shelters.
“I’m disappointed in Gov. Evers’ veto of SB 610,” Rep. Bob Donovan, R-Greenfield, said in a statement. “Yet again, it proves how naive the Democrat Party is when it comes to dealing with critical urban issues.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin ranks 35th on a list of states with affordable electricity with an average price of 12.72 cents per kilowatt hour.
North Dakota topped the list with the lowest price of 7.93 cents per kilowatt hour while Hawaii (38.0) and California (27.04) ranked lowest on the list.
The American Legislative Exchange Council ranks the affordability of energy across the country each year and the new report was produced using the most recently available data from 2024.
Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission has continued to approve increase rates since the report in the data.
The PSC approved Jan. 1 increases with a $31.3 million increase settlement to residential rates for electricity and natural gas for Madison Gas and Electric customers over the next two years soon after similar approvals for Alliant Energy and Xcel Energy that amount to $300 million in increases, meaning the three combined increases will be valued at more than $330 million.
“Wisconsin ranks in the bottom half of states in electricity affordability. Its electricity mix is led by natural gas and coal, with nuclear and smaller renewable contributions from solar and hydro,” the report states. “The state operates as an importer of electricity, balancing its generation with regional demand.”

(The Center Square) – A new survey says Wisconsin businesses are thinking about artificial intelligence, but they’re not yet thinking it is a major problem.
Better Business Wisconsin recently released its 2026 Accredited Business Survey that asked business owners across the state about their worries, their challenges and thoughts of AI.
Hiring, costs and finding new customers took the top three spots on the survey’s challenges list.
“Our latest survey shows that Wisconsin businesses are navigating a complex mix of workforce shortages, rising costs, and rapid technological change – while remaining deeply committed to trust, transparency, and quality customer service,” BBB Wisconsin President and CEO Jim Temmer said. “As AI adoption grows, businesses are asking important questions about ethics, accountability, and consumer confidence, and BBB is proud to help lead those conversations.”
The survey says 30% of businesses said finding qualified staff was their biggest challenge. That’s the same number that said finding new customers was their biggest challenge. The survey said 37% of businesses say increasing costs and inflation is their biggest concern.
Just 17% of businesses said making their business visible in AI searches was a problem.
But the survey also said that embracing AI is the number one area of opportunity for Wisconsin businesses.
“As technology rapidly evolves, businesses view AI as both an inevitable evolution and a potential threat. Currently, 50% of BBB Accredited Businesses are not yet using AI, while the other 50% use it primarily for simple applications like writing or editing emails, creating social media posts, drafting website or marketing content, brainstorming ideas, summarizing long documents or messages, and designing simple graphics or images,” The BBB said in the survey. “Notably, half of the respondents believe that AI can help increase their overall business competitiveness.”

(The Center Square) – A Wisconsin special committee is advising Attorney General Josh Kaul’s use of special assistant attorney generals paid for with private funds.
Senate President Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, said that the attorneys had salary and benefits paid by the Michael Bloomberg-funded New York University State Energy & Environmental Impact Center.
Felzkowski read that the committee found that the use of those attorneys was not authorized by Wisconsin statute, it was never requested to be allowed in the departments budget and it acts as a unallowable gift from an outside influence. Felzkowski noted that a formal complaint about the issue has not been resolved within 412 days.
“We are deeply troubled by the Department of Justice’s practice of allowing volunteer attorneys paid by out-of-state interest groups to prosecute Wisconsinites. Rather than seeking legislative approval or funding for additional staff, Attorney General Kaul brought in progressive, billionaire funded attorneys who do not answer to the taxpayers of Wisconsin,” the committee said in a statement after hearings on the matter. “The lack of transparency is astonishing, and the taxpayers of Wisconsin have a right to that transparency. The Department of Justice is not for sale in Wisconsin.”
Sen. Melissa Ratcliff, D-Cottage Grove, said the report was false and that the two Democratic members of the committee were not consulted on the final report, instead receiving the committee’s report on Monday.
“This report was not done in a collaborative manner,” Ratcliff said.
She called the committee “political theater” instead of a responsible use of time.
The report advised the Legislature to put new rules in place to prevent the special interest money from being used to prosecute Wisconsinites in the future.
It noted that one of the special attorneys was not licensed to practice law in Wisconsin at the start of the attorney’s tenure and that responsive documents to the committee’s questions were not received from Kaul’s office.
Committee member Jodi Habush Sinykin, D-Whitefish Bay, said that the topic could have been addressed by legislation from Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Gillett, that did not make its way out of committee.
Wimberger said that his bill was about employees but these attorneys are categorized as volunteers, not employees.
Wimberger said that, if this is allowed, then the DOJ is “for sale,” calling it “very concerning.”

(The Center Square) – A three-judge panel ruled Tuesday that it cannot overturn the state’s congressional maps because it lacks the authority to do so.
The panel of three circuit-court judges said they collectively “do not have the authority to read into a Wisconsin Supreme Court case an analysis that it does not contain.”
The maps challenge was based on stating that the maps were gerrymandered in an unconstitutional case.
The case was reviewed by a group including Dane County Judge Julie Genovese, Milwaukee County Judge Mark Sanders and Outagamie County Judge Emily Lonergan.
A second challenge from the Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy and a group of individual voters will be determined by a panel including Dane County Judge David Conway, Portage County Judge Patricia Baker and Marathon County Judge Michael Moran.
The originally drawn maps were challenged after the 2020 U.S. Census and four maps were submitted to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, including maps from Gov. Tony Evers and the state’s Republican Congress members. Ultimately, the court chose Evers’ maps.

(The Center Square) – Anyone who wants to collect signatures for political candidates in Wisconsin must now live in Wisconsin.
Gov. Tony Evers signed a new law that creates a residency requirement for signature gatherers.
The law follows 2024’s failed recall against Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. In that race, out-of-state crews gathered signatures from voters to try and oust Vos. But many of the people gathering the signatures, and many of the people who signed the recall petitions, were not from Vos’ district or even Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission earlier this month recommended charges against 13 people who gathered those signatures.
State Rep. Jim Hubertus, said requiring the people involved in Wisconsin’s elections be from Wisconsin is a common sense, election integrity issue.
“[The new law is] an important step toward strengthening the integrity of Wisconsin’s election process. This legislation ensures that individuals circulating nomination papers and recall petitions are qualified Wisconsin electors – people who live here, vote here, and have a direct stake in our communities,” he said.
There are exceptions in the new law that allow for people from outside of Wisconsin to get signatures for presidential and vice-presidential candidates. But the law makes it clear that people gathering voter signatures for local and state elections must be from the state.
“This is a commonsense reform,” Piwowarczyk added. “By ensuring that those gathering signatures are Wisconsin residents, we are reinforcing accountability and maintaining public confidence in our elections.”
The proposal passed on a voice vote in the Assembly but faced a party-line vote in the Senate. Senators approved it in February.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoed five bills he called anti-LGBTQ bills including bills that would require high school and public college athletic teams to declare if they are for coed, male or female athletes and have that sex defined as their sex at birth.
Evers also vetoed a bill that would create a civil cause of action against health care providers performing gender transition surgery on minors and one that would prohibit medical referrals for minors seeking certain gender medical interventions along with a bill related to how school boards define legal names and pronouns.
“This type of legislation stirs harmful rhetoric, negatively affects Wisconsinites’ and kids’ mental health, emboldens anti-LGBTQ harassment, bullying, and violence, and threatens the safety and dignity of LGBTQ Wisconsinites, especially our trans and nonbinary kids,” Evers said about his vetoes. “Especially in the wake of continued attacks against LGBTQ communities, particularly targeting the trans community, our work to fight this hatred and bigotry is more important than ever. I’m proud to stand with LGBTQ kids and Wisconsinites today and every day.”
Bill authors, however, believe they are protecting athletes and following the public’s desires with Sen. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield, citing a 2024 Marquette Poll showing that 76% of Wisconsin residents saying that athletes should only compete on teams matching their gender at birth in his testimony.
“In recent years, instances of biological males competing in female sports and denying them the opportunity to compete on a fair playing field have become prominent in the news,” Hutton wrote in testimony on Assembly Bill 100. “As an example, an incident at a Sun Prairie school in 2023 in which a male student exposed himself to four freshman girls in their locker room, triggering a U.S. Department of Education Title IX investigation, raises further concerns about the ability of girls to feel safe and secure in their locker rooms.”
The WIAA instituted a policy change last year that prevents individuals who were born male from competing against girls in high school sports, Hutton noted.
Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie, wrote in testimony that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical interventions to children are being done at a high cost without long-term studies on the impact of the procedures and Senate Bill 405 would give patients recourse for the impact of those procedures later in life.
“Medical accountability should not be a partisan issue,” Nedweski wrote. “We have a duty to ensure that children are protected from experimental treatments that can inflict lasting damage on their bodies and minds as they enter into adulthood.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a bill that would have required the state to be part of the Federal Tax Credit Scholarship.
Evers called the program a nationwide expansion of private voucher schools while proponents of the legislation say that it simply allows every taxpayer to donate up to $1,700 to help fund education.
“The ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ created the first major federal program to effectively redirect public funds to private school tuition through tax incentives,” Evers wrote in his veto. “It is the first-ever federal effort to fund private school scholarships through vouchers the federal government will pay individuals in exchange for donating to organizations that award scholarships to attend private schools.”
Evers said that the tax credit is a redirect of tax money that should be received by the government to pay for programs and instead it is being redirected to private schools.
“Put another way, the federal government is now going to use public funds that should be used for public schools to essentially reimburse donors for helping fund private schools instead,” Evers wrote. “No joke.”
The Wisconsin Council of Religious and Independent Schools, however, argued that public schools stand to benefit also.
“The FTCS simply allows taxpayers to make a charitable contribution to the educational entity of their choice,” the group said in a statement. “As public schools have far more students than private schools, public schools stand to gain so much more funding through the FTCS. We see the value of a healthy educational ecosystem in Wisconsin, and the FTCS will help to ensure every student in Wisconsin has the ability and the resources to succeed.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin congressman and candidate for governor Tom Tiffany said Monday that he plans to work with the federal Environmental Protection Agency in an effort to change Clean Air Act rules and end emissions testing in Wisconsin, calling the program both costly and ineffective.
The proposal was brought to Tiffany and the Wisconsin congressional delegation in December by a group including Rep. Bob Donovan, R-Greenfield. Vehicle emissions testing is currently required in Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Sheboygan, Washington and Waukesha counties because the area was designated a non-attainment zone.
Donovan and Tiffany both spoke Monday in front of the History Hose Tower in Greenfield about the costs of the emissions testing, including both a 1-cent per gallon petroleum tax and an estimated $271.4 million spent by Wisconsin residents from 1984 to 2022-23.
Congressman and candidate for governor Tom Tiffany and a group of Wisconsin legislators are pushing for an end to vehicle emissions testing in 7 counties pic.twitter.com/oZylAJEUYT— Jon Styf (@JonStyf) March 30, 2026
The Wisconsin lawmakers cited advanced technology and a low failure rate of 3.1% and 3.0% in 2021 and 2022 for the program.
“It is not being done in an effective, efficient manner,” Tiffany said. “So, what we should do is set this program aside, try to get a waiver in regards to this, and allocate those resources – both manpower and money – toward things that are actually going to clean the environment because we want to ensure that we have clean air to live in here in Wisconsin.”
Matt Leppard, who owns a repair shop in Eagle, said that the emissions testing ruins the market for used cars with a check engine light on and can lead to costly repairs that need to then be prioritized over safety concerns such as new tires or other expenses for families.
“People should be allowed to drive a safe car,” Leppard said. “They should be able to put a kid in a car and not worry about that being their grocery budget every month. It’s not just the taxpayer that will save money, everybody will save money and it’s not a partisan issue.”
Tiffany said that he would not instead support a subsidy for those who need repairs, saying that would just be another taxpayer cost for a program that has not proven effective.
“Why are we continuing to do this 40 years later if it is ineffective?” Tiffany said.
Rep, Bob Donovan says it’s time to end emissions testing pic.twitter.com/MbIKfIJ7dM— Jon Styf (@JonStyf) March 30, 2026
Donovan said that he marched in St. Patrick Days parades and heard residents speak up there to him, shouting that he should end the emissions tests.
“I think I speak for most of those residents when I say that each of us is willing to do our fair share of what the government asks of us if it makes sense,” Donovan said. “Well, this doesn’t make sense any longer.”