Frederica Freyberg:

We invited the Republican co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee to join us tonight. He was unable to be here, but Senator Howard Marklein wrote this about the school spending plan. “We invested $150.5 million in education. This is a tremendous investment of state resources in addition to federal funding that is already arriving at schools, colleges and universities all over Wisconsin. We also doubled investments in mental health programs for K-12 schools. We invested $19 million more in this important priority. We know that there are a lot of kids who are struggling as the result of the pandemic.” Senator Marklein went on to tout money for the state technical college and university system. UW System President Tommy Thompson is especially approving of the end of the UW tuition freeze and said by doing so, “the budget committee offers the UW System flexibility to develop talent, generate life-changing research and deliver the education students expect and families deserve.”

In COVID news, the last of the masks came off this week as Dane and Milwaukee Counties lifted their mandates, allowing people outdoors and indoors to choose not to wear masks if they are fully vaccinated.