Education Committee Update – September 2026

Denise Gaumer Hutchison, Chair.

The next meeting of the Education Committee will be announced soon; stay tuned. In the meantime, we offer below an opportunity and an update.

Back to School Virtual Town Hall

Back-to-school should be exciting: kids reuniting with friends; teachers prepping classrooms; families imagining fresh starts and new possibilities. But there’s also a lot to be nervous about. School funding cuts, censorship, ICE threats, layoffs and closures have many parents worried about the schools their kids are walking into and whether they will receive the education they need and deserve. And on top of everything else, families are already stretched thin by rising costs—gas prices, groceries, housing—making school cuts hit even harder.

But this moment is also an opportunity.

Right now, during the back-to-school season, families are paying attention. This is when our elected officials listen. Wisconsin Public Education Network, Public School Strong and The Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools are organizing back-to-school actions to show our elected officials that we demand fully-funded public schools and a shared vision of what public schools could be.

Join us to hear from leaders from across the country on how we can make this back-to-school season a moment to build a stronger movement for public schools and build a mandate for public education in this fall's midterm elections!

Tuesdays 7 – 8:30pm EDT –––– Virtual event –––– Join from anywhere

 We’ll share registration information with interested parties. Email Denise Gaumer Hutchison to request it.

Referendum Efforts throughout NE Wisconsin

The November election is an important election for public education. Last week on August 28, WisPolitics released preliminary figures showing the Wisconsin State Department of Revenue collected $450.8 million more in tax revenue for 2025-26 than expected. Once final numbers are in, including expenditures for the fiscal year, it could push the projected surplus at the end of the 2025-27 biennium to $3 billion.  Why is this so important?  The state of Wisconsin legislature decided to give Wisconsin’s 421 public school districts a $0/0 dollar increase in the 25-27 state budget, forcing a high number of public school districts to go to referendum in November just to have enough money to pay their bills, maintain high quality staff, pay for mandatory programs and services and keep the lights on. 

Green Bay Area Public Schools, Luxemburg-Casco, Southern Door and West DePere – in the very near Brown, Door and Kewaunee counties – are just a few of the school districts going to referendum. In many districts you can see the cost of the referenda align with the outlay in funds for special education services - services that are mandated federally to assist our students with special needs. These are costs for which legislators were asked to increase funding to meet the needs of our public school districts’ special education services.  Again, the legislature did not meet the needs of our children and public schools. 

Please stay involved in your communities, put out yard signs in support of the school district referenda, vote yes for these issues, and encourage your friends to do so as well.