Education Committee Update - August 2026

Denise Gaumer Hutchison, Chair

The next meeting of the Education Committee will be announced after I have a chance to poll the members as to their availability. Stay tuned.

Wisconsin Public Education Network (WPEN) held its twelfth Annual Summer Summit in Superior July 24-25, 2026, at Superior High School and UW Superior. On Thursday evening, the League of Women Voters of WI joined the Network in co-hosting an education forum with four of the candidates for governor.  All candidates were invited, but Mr. Crowley, Congressman Tiffany, and Mr. Manske chose not to participate. The Forum MC was Kevin Henry, a board member of the Network and a professor at UW Madison in the ELPA program. AFT Wisconsin sponsored and hosted the reception before and after the Forum. All questions had an education focus.  All of the candidates did a good job answering the questions, but some were better than others on key questions such as voucher transparency, national voucher program and special education funding for our public schools. 

Dr. Julie Mead, UW Madison Emeritus professor in the Education program, delivered an amazing presentation on the long term impact of insufficient funding to our public schools. Dr. Julie Underwood, former UW Madison Dean of Education, was on the panel discussing the funding of our public schools and the lawsuit that has been filed suing the state of Wisconsin for not meeting its constitutional requirement regarding public school funding.   Both of the Julies are potentially available to do a program for LWVGGB and AAUW.

A number of public education advocates from other states joined the Summit this year, including leaders from Florida, Arizona, Illinois, Idaho and Texas. They commented explicitly on the need to stop voucher expansion, increase funding to public schools, and lead the discussion with what is best for children.

Interestingly, the Summit offered a great session on the new developments in geo-thermal energy and the continued value of solar for our schools – likely of interest to our League Healthcare and Environment committee. The American Lung Association was in attendance as well, talking about air quality in our public schools. Great information!  

The Summit concluded with an informative presentation by Jessica Levin from the Education Law Center in New Jersey. Jessica shared information about what is happening nationally regarding the “tax credit scholarship program.” Created by the President, the program has no guidelines yet, but the administration is working to “sell” this idea. Thankfully, Governor Evers vetoed this program coming into Wisconsin. Funding from this scholarship program cannot be used by public schools. Watch for more information on this legislation.

It was a great summit, with leaders from all over the country sharing the importance of continuing to advocate for our public schools and to educate the community about the values of our public schools and the need to vote for candidates that believe in high quality, well-resourced and child-centered public schools. 

Recordings will be available in the near future at WisconsinNetwork.org/SummerSummit.  They will help us all continue to learn the best ways to support our public schools.

Note to LWVGGB: As stated above, Julie Mead and/or Julie Underwood are available to do a presentation about school funding and voucher transparency. Contact Denise Gaumer Hutchison to arrange it.