Jerry Menne reading with 4th grade students at Valley View School in Ashwaubenon, December 21, 2022. PC: Fox 11 Online
(WTAQ-WLUK) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court decided unanimously Wednesday that Governor Tony Evers overstepped his veto powers.
The case is specifically referring to a bill that would fund new literacy programs designed to improve K-12 students’ reading performance.
Now, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) is without $50 million to help fund the program.
The money initially meant for the reading bill will now be put in an emergency fund by the Wisconsin Legislature’s budget committee. Evers, a Democrat, said it’s not right for them to hold back these funds from Wisconsin schools.
But four liberal justices sided with three conservatives in Wednesday’s state Supreme Court ruling to rein in the governor’s veto powers. Despite this, Evers said someway, somehow, the money needs to go to the state’s students.
“Let’s get the money out to the schools so that they can complete their work,” Evers said. “I mean, this has dragged on for way, way too long. So even though we lost, it’s not like I’m going to sit back and gnash my teeth about it.”
The bipartisan early literacy program known as Act 20 was signed into law by Evers in 2023. The goal is to revamp Wisconsin schools’ reading curriculums. The now withheld $50 million was meant to help pay districts back for making those changes.
“We were initially told that this would not be an unfunded mandate, and yet again, it is now becoming a unfunded mandate,” Appleton Area School District Executive Director of Finance Holly Burr said.
Burr said they’ve noticed vast improvements with student reading after Act 20. The district spent $2 million on the changes and were initially expecting to be paid back between 25% and 50% of that cost.
Burr said AASD is disappointed they won’t see a reimbursement.
“It would just be very nice now if the state legislators could take a look at their pool of money and make this right,” Burr said.
AASD will now likely have to get that money through state aid or local tax dollars.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court said it can’t force the legislature to release the money to the Department of Public Instruction. Republican legislators argued Evers illegally used his partial veto power.
State Senator Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, who is on the Joint Finance Committee, released a statement that reads in part:
Governor Evers attempted to take the power over the purse away from the Legislature, and the Supreme Court stopped him. He used a literacy program aimed at helping struggling kids as an opportunity to play politics, try to redefine the word ‘appropriation,’ and become both the executive and legislative branches. Today’s unanimous Supreme Court ruling confirms that the Governor’s decision to hold up funds for literacy reform was not only against the law, but needlessly delayed $50 million of support from reaching our classrooms.
As for the Department of Public Instruction, State Superintendent Dr. Jill Underly said despite Wednesday’s ruling, that doesn’t change the fact that Act 20 will remain in place. However, she would like to see the $50 million released.
FOX 11 reached out to the Department of Public Instruction, but they were unavailable for an interview. Instead, Underly released a statement that reads in part:
Under my leadership and direction, the DPI negotiated with legislators to find a comprehensive solution to improve reading that worked for Wisconsin. Like any good compromise, no one got everything they wanted, and I’m proud of the work we did together. Increasing choice payments as Act 100 would do was never part of that discussion, and I’m hopeful that mistake is corrected.
Comments