No one who has the privilege of working in this building can read these statistics and say with a straight face that we’re already doing enough. Folks, ‘enough’ will be enough when these are not the statistics we’re reading about our kids in the news. It’s time to get serious.
As a governor who’s also a grandfather, tonight I am calling on the Legislature to join me in doing what’s best for our kids by approving the largest increase in K-12 schools and education in state history.
I’ve said before, and I’ll say again tonight: our kids can only achieve their full and best potential when they can bring their full and best selves to the classroom. If we want to have a chance at improving our kids’ outcomes, then we have to shorten the odds.
We can start by addressing the statistics I just read to you. Let’s make sure every kid in Wisconsin has access to school-based mental health services through our “Get Kids Ahead” initiative. It’s the Year of Mental Health, folks. I know we can get this done.
Here’s another easy step we can take: let’s make sure kids aren’t hungry—yes, ever, but especially at school. My plan is simple: fully fund universal school breakfasts and lunches so that every kid can be focused on their schoolwork and not when or whether they’ll eat next.
These are basic steps we can take to help improve outcomes for our kids so they can come to class coursework-ready. Coupled with our investments and initiatives to bolster our educator pipeline to keep class sizes small and improve financial literacy, math, and reading outcomes across our state, we’re going to make sure our kids are ready for success.
And we’re also going to make sure our kids have the skills and tools they need to join the 21st Century workforce we’re working to build together. So, I’m going to deliver on my pledge to improve access to computer science education in Wisconsin with a $10 million investment to bolster computer science education across our state, including requiring high schools to provide this critical instruction.
The best measure of the opportunity we have to offer is whether we’re willing to invest in the future of our kids and our families. So, high-quality education has to start early. Our budget expands access to quality, affordable child care for Wisconsin’s kids through our successful Child Care Counts initiative that helped stabilize our child care industry during the pandemic.
And we’re going to invest more than $22 million to keep working to support partnerships between businesses and child care providers who want to do their part to help make sure child care is more affordable and accessible for their workers.
But after I announced one of our budget’s top priorities would be expanding access to affordable child care, Brittany, who’s a nurse in Milwaukee, wrote to me saying that we should also work to make parental leave more affordable: “Let’s start from the beginning,” she said.
Folks, Brittany’s right—parents are the first and best teachers our kids have. So, we have to start from the beginning. And tonight, I offer a plan to do just that.
We have a plan to bolster our state’s workforce, maintain our momentum, and build an economy for our future from the ground up—that plan includes making sure parents can put their kids and families first. So, we’re taking a comprehensive approach to paid family leave for workers and employers across our state. Because doing what’s best for our kids is what’s best for our state—and it’s what’s best for our families and our workforce, too.
The weeks after welcoming a new child are critical for families to have time together and for kids’ future development. Tonight, I’m announcing that we’re going to create a statewide program that will provide most private-sector workers in Wisconsin paid family and medical leave for 12 weeks, and we are going to invest more than $240 million in state funds to get that program started.
And new parents aren’t the only ones who can benefit from a paid family leave program that truly meets the needs of our workforce. Too often, folks are also unable to receive family or medical leave support based on their unique circumstances or situation. So, we’re also going to expand eligibility so workers have the flexibility to respond to their personal, family members’, or their kids’ needs.
We’re expanding eligible uses for family and medical leave to include caring for a new child, the unforeseen or unexpected closure of a child care facility, aftermath of domestic violence and sexual assault, having a serious health condition such as medical quarantine, caring for family members with serious health conditions, and military deployment for service members and their spouses, kids, and parents. My plan takes care of these folks, too.
Listen, I know the people in this building might not agree with me on the periphery of every policy all of the time—that’s democracy. But I also believe we should be able to pass common-sense proposals that already have broad, bipartisan support—especially those we know will help us retain and recruit a talented workforce. And here’s what else I know: we cannot afford to stand still while other states are willing to take bold, urgent action to compete for new workers, and that includes competing for Wisconsin’s own homegrown talent.
I wish we could all agree that expanding affordable healthcare will help our families, our farmers, our rural communities, our small businesses and Main Streets, and our state’s biggest employers alike. So, yes, I’m again proposing to expand BadgerCare because access to quality, affordable healthcare is workforce and economic development. And, with the help of the lieutenant governor, we’ll continue fighting to expand BadgerCare just as we have for four years.
And, yes, I wish we could agree that each day women in this state are treated like second-class citizens because of a law enacted before they had the right to vote—one that strips them of their reproductive rights —that is bad for freedom, it’s bad for families, and it’s bad for recruiting new workers, too. We cannot expect more people to move here if they have to give up basic freedoms when they do. Period.
I also think we should be able to agree that, in America’s Dairyland, immigrants are an essential part of our communities, our churches, our schools, our workforce, and our economy. So let’s finally answer the call of businesses, farmers and agricultural industries, and law enforcement, among others—let’s make sure everyone can access driver’s licenses, regardless of their citizenship status, so our workers can get from Point A to Point B, and we can keep our roads safer, too.
As we begin the budget discussion—and I have no doubt the conversation will be lively!—tonight, let’s dispose of the notion that the priorities in this budget are somehow extreme or far-fetched.
I promise you this: in this budget, there’s more that unites us than divides us. These aren’t Republican or Democratic priorities—they’re Wisconsin priorities, areas where we should be able to find common ground.
This is a budget about solutions, not wish lists. This is a budget about pragmatism, not politics. This is a budget about getting back to basics and doing the right thing.
Expanding high-speed internet. Improving healthcare access. Reducing child care costs. Keeping communities safe. Building more housing. Addressing PFAS and water contaminants. Funding our schools. Improving mental health. Fixing roads and bridges. Bolstering our current and future workforce. Maintaining our economy’s momentum.
We’re not flirting with fringe ideas here, folks—the priorities I just listed should be easy. These concepts aren’t controversial, at least not to the folks who spend more of their time outside of the Capitol building than inside of it.
So, as we shoulder the weight of posterity, let’s not allow our work together to be hindered by partisanship. As you consider this breakthrough budget, let’s not just dismiss ideas because they’re proposed by a person or a party you dislike. And as we balance this historic opportunity with our historic responsibility, let’s give these priorities deliberation and debate that’s worthy of the traditions and the people of this state.
We have so much work to do and so much we can accomplish if we’re willing to work together. Together we will.
Let’s get to work, folks.
Thank you, and On, Wisconsin!”
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Adjournment
The Joint Convention arose
7:41 P.M.
