New figures refute Walker claims on eve of State of the State Address

MADISON – New figures show that Governor Walker and legislative Republicans have cut more than $2 billion from public schools, universities and technical colleges in Wisconsin over the past five years. These figures come from the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB).

Funding cuts under Governor Walker and Republicans include:

• K-12 Public Schools – $1.05 billion lost in GPR school aids
• University of Wisconsin System – $795 million lost in state aid
• Wisconsin Technical College System – $203 million lost in state aid

“The cuts imposed by Republicans to our K-12 public schools, universities and technical colleges have done serious harm to our students, our economy and our workforce,” Assembly Democratic Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) said. “Governor Walker will try tomorrow night to obscure the damage the Republican agenda has done to education in our state, but the facts are clear. The governor’s Band-Aid proposals certainly won’t make up for the extremely harmful Republican cuts to education and job training.”

Wisconsin schools and the workforce continue to suffer under Republicans. Media reports detail that Wisconsin companies issued 10,000 layoff notices last year – more than any other year since and Gov. Walker and Republicans have been in the majority. In addition, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ quarterly jobs reports show that over the last four years Wisconsin is dead last in the Midwest in job creation.

The full LFB memo can be found here.