One of the key priorities of Legislative Republicans is making strong investments to support our kids. Our budget makes historic investments in K12 education, with over one billion dollars going to classrooms throughout our state. We’ve provided both flexible funding for school districts to use for their unique needs and targeted aid for mental health and literacy initiatives—key areas where we know students are struggling. Our budget provides strong support for our public schools and the school choice programs, empowering parents to choose the school and type of education that is best for their child.

Standardized test scores in Wisconsin show that 64% of fourth-graders are not proficient in reading. Studies have shown that children who don’t learn to read struggle later in life and are more likely to end up in prison or on welfare. The Right to Read Act, enacted this past July, will make concrete steps toward addressing the reading crisis throughout the state of Wisconsin. This act will bring a transformative shift in how reading is taught within our schools. For too long, kids learned the wrong way to read and our test scores prove it.

The Right-to-Read Act not only switches our state to proven, science-based reading methods. It creates a comprehensive plan to catch struggling readers sooner and make sure they are not left behind. Republicans allocated $50 million in the state budget to re-train teachers, purchase new curriculum, and provide support for the switch to science-based reading methods.

We have seen a decline in student mental health and well-being over the past few years. To help counter that trend, we set aside $30 million in new funding for school-based mental health funding, along with changing how the funding is distributed from a competitive grant program to a per-pupil aid to ensure all districts have access to these funds.

While we made great strides in the future of our children's education, Governor Evers did pull out the veto pen for several provisions in the K-12 budget. This includes:

• $750,000 for Lakeland STAR Academy, a school supporting students with autism and unique learning needs.
• Extending the expiration date of the early-learning pilot program, designed to help pre-K children become kindergarten ready

The Pricey Pains of Back-to-School Shopping

Back-to-school shopping marks the shift from leisurely summer days to the structured routines of the academic year. According to an annual survey by the National Retail Federation, this year consumers are projected to spend record amounts on both back-to-school and back-to-college shopping.

Families with children in elementary through high school plan to spend an average of $890.07 on back-to-school items this year, approximately $25 more than last year’s record.