Nearly a third of Wisconsin’s public schools are going to get less money from the state for the next school year. The state’s Department of Public Instruction on Monday announced the general state aid estimates for July. “Estimated general school aids for 2024-25 total $5.58 billion, representing an increase of 4.2% from 2023-24,” DPI stated. “Payments to districts will increase an estimated $234.3 million because of two factors: 1) an increase of $224.9 million per the state budget as passed by the Wisconsin State Legislature; and 2) the decrease in the required Milwaukee Public Schools funding for the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program due to statutory changes.”

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 A new audit raises questions as to whether Wisconsin's attorney general will be able to meet a new state requirement to get sexual assault kits tested within six months. The Legislative Audit Bureau released its new report on the state’s crime recently, saying there are fewer requests for sexual assault DNA kits at the crime labs, but it is taking the labs longer to process each kit. A state law, that went into effect Monday, requires the state’s crime labs to be able to turn around those tests in no more than six months.

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 There are questions about the plan from public schools in Madison to raise taxes by more than half-a-billion dollars this fall after the Madison Metropolitan School Board recently approved two tax increase questions for the fall. The $600 million requests come after MMSD got a $350 million tax increase in 2020. Will Flanders, an education expert at the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, said there’s hardly any evidence Madison Metropolitan Schools deserve an extra half-billion dollars.

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There aren’t any fears about running short on money for Milwaukee’s Republican National Convention. Former Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman, and current chairman of the RNC Host Committee, Reince Priebus said Tuesday the “money is solid” for next month’s convention. Priebus did not say just how money has been raised, or just how much the 2024 RNC will cost. The last in-person convention, in Cleveland in 2016, cost an estimated $114 million. About $50 million of that came from the federal government for security and planning, and the other $64 million was raised by the Cleveland host committee.

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Most voters in Wisconsin say they are struggling or just getting by, and more than half don’t think the state’s economy is in great shape. The latest Marquette Law School Poll asked voters in the state about both the state’s economy and their personal finances.

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One of Wisconsin’s Republican congressmen who is in one of the state’s competitive districts says Republicans have to be willing to go as far as Democrats to win the 2024 elections. Congressman Bryan Steil said on News Talk 1130 WISN that Republicans have to turn out their votes this November. To do that, he said, the party has to embrace every tool that’s available. “You got to play by the rules as they're written. So, where Wisconsin law allows us to vote early, to vote absentee, to do other things to turn out the conservative vote, we got to play by the rules as they're written if you want to win,” Steil said.

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Wisconsin’s public health managers don’t want the bird flu to ruin fair season this summer. The state’s Department of Health Services and Department of Agriculture announced plans to monitor fairs across the state this year for the bird flu. “Obviously it is a concern for us having had the avian flu going from mammals to people, and from poultry to mammals to people as well. Right now, the risk is still being said to be very low. We've only had three cases in the United States so far this year,” DHS epidemiologist Tom Haupt said.

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Lawmakers at the Wisconsin Capitol say Milwaukee Public School’s financial crisis will cost their schools as well. Republican Rep. Jerry O’Connor, R-Fond du Lac, said MPS’ recently approved property tax increase will shift the way that state school aid dollars are spent. “Under Wisconsin’s equalization aid formula, state tax dollars are distributed to school districts inversely based on property value per student, aiming to ‘equalize’ aid. This formula is expenditure-based, meaning that as Milwaukee increases its expenditures, it receives a larger share of state aid regardless of property tax ‘wealth,’” O’Connor said.

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There are calls for hearings and action at the Wisconsin Capitol after the state’s public school managers announced a plan to change student reading and math scores. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction recently updated the asset-based performance levels that are used to see how well students are reading, writing and doing math. Kids who are thriving in reading, writing and math will continue to be rated in the advanced category. But the other terms for performance are changing. That means the current proficient rating will change to meeting. The current basic rating will change to approaching. And the current below basic will change to developing.

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The new free speech lessons for the University of Wisconsin’s next freshman class will not just be about speaking your mind. UW President Jay Rothman told regents during meeting in Milwaukee he is planning a new curriculum for new students about both sides of the right to freedom of speech. “This fall, all incoming freshmen students will learn more about freedom of expression and about the rights and responsibilities associated with the First Amendment,” Rothman said. “This provides the foundation for any subsequent discussion and debate on a number of possibly contentious topics.”

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