Frederica Freyberg:
In his seventh State of the State address, Democratic Governor Tony Evers laid out his priorities for the coming year. He declared 2025 the “Year of the Kid,” promising again increased funding for K-12 education, childcare, firearms restrictions, and mental health services.

Tony Evers:
Thirty-seven days ago, a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison took the lives of Erin and Rubi, a student and an educator who woke up and went to school that morning, will never return home. Six others were injured and countless lives will never be the same. Folks, Wisconsinites, Wisconsinites sent us here to see big problems and fix them. We cannot let common sense get lost in debates over whether basic policies could have prevented the most recent shooting, or the one before that, or the one before that. … My budget proposal will invest nearly $300 million to provide comprehensive mental health services in schools statewide, including support for peer-to-peer suicide prevention programs and expanded mental health training.

Frederica Freyberg:
As is custom, Republicans gave their response to the address. In it, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos spoke to core GOP issues like taxes and immigration, but he also made his own appeal about K-12 education.

Robin Vos:
While we heard tonight about another education plan to write a blank check to our schools, Republicans will focus on increasing standards and demanding accountability. Right now, only 48% of students in Wisconsin are even reading at grade level. This is absolutely unacceptable and it has to change. Our reading crisis is not just limited to our biggest school districts, however, it exists in districts all across the state, both large and small. … Republicans will enact legislation to require the Forward exam to be aligned with the National Assessment of Educational Progress. This will bring our standards back to the baseline before DPI artificially inflated them. It will also allow parents to compare the past with the present. Recently, Governor Evers even said in a statement, “We need to have as high of standards as possible.” He’s right. Hopefully this will be a place where the Legislature and Governor Evers can actually find common ground to come together with a solution to this growing failure in K-12 education.