Public Schools Week Day of Action

media release: Supporters of public schools from around the state - including parents, students, superintendents, school board members, and referenda team leaders - will gather in Madison to close out Public Schools Week by celebrating Wisconsin’s public schools and connecting the dots from local inadequacies and record number of school referenda to the failures of the last state budget to adequately meet kids’ needs. The passage of the 2025-2027 state budget cements 18 consecutive years of state aid that has failed event to keep pace with inflation from the prior year, and the current budget provides an unprecedented $0 in new general aid for both years of the biennium.

Speakers will include plaintiffs in the Fund Wisconsin Public Schools case (Wisconsin PTA, et.al. V. Wisconsin Assembly) filed this week in Eau Claire County, and others from around the state who share their concerns regarding the state legislature’s failure to adequately fund public schools

Participants will issue a Call to Action to others to join this urgent effort, and call on state leaders to stop the cycle of gap-widening budgets and listen to these voices by convening a special or extraordinary session to mitigate the harm done by the inadequacy of the current budget.

Speakers:

Heather DuBois Bourenane, executive director, Wisconsin Public Education Network* 

Statement from Wisconsin PTA*

James Lyerly, Green Bay Public School District*, school board president

Chris Hambuch-Boyle*, retired educator and former school board member (Eau Claire Area School District) and Wisconsin Public Education Network NW regional organizer

Amiee Leavy, School District of Beloit*, school board member

Jeff Presley, Adams-Friendship School District*, school board treasurer

Tanya Kotlowski, district administrator, Necedah Area School District*

Peggy Wirtz-Olsen, president, Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC)

Martha Siravo, Madison school board member and disability rights advocate, Madtown Mommas and Disability Advocates

Laurie J. Burgos, Ph.D., superintendent, Shorewood School District

Dylan Helmenstine, Wisconsin Heights School District,  school board ember

Maha Kothinti, Ishaan Shukla, and additional Sun Prairie West High School students

* Indicates representatives of plaintiffs named in Wisconsin PTA, et.al. V. Wisconsin Assembly