Supporting Educators at the WPEN Summer Summit (Hour 2)

On Location, it's the Todd

Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host,

Todd Alba.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Albaugh, reporting live from Green Bay Preble High School in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and welcome into this special edition, special report edition of the Todd Albaugh Show.

Back in the world headquarters in Madison, our producer and engineer, Mr. Aaron Zomeres.

Zomers big day.

Lots of breaking news.

Of course, the passing of Hulk Hogan due to cardiac arrest was reported.

Also the passing of legendary musician Chuck Magione.

But believe it or not, that is not the top breaking news story across the state of Wisconsin today.

Hello everybody.

Welcome and welcome in and joining us here.

We are here for the Wisconsin Publication Education Network Summit.

Gonna talk a lot about public education in the state, particularly in hour two.

But first to the breaking news story of the day, highly anticipated for some, not particularly a surprise, perhaps for others it is.

Regardless, it is going to send off an earthquake politically in this state for 2026.

About two hours ago at high noon via Twitter account Wisconsin Democratic Governor Tony Evers made the announcement that many were waiting for and this is what he said.

Hey, Wisconsin.

Governor Tony Evers here.

You know, I was a scrawny kid with glasses who grew up scraping mold off a cheese.

I

never

dreamed I'd end up governor of Wisconsin.

But here I am, the last six years who welcome me in through your churches, businesses, classrooms, farms, hospitals, and communities.

I cherish every moment, every tour, visit, high-five, question, and selfie.

To honor my life, to be able to give back to the state that raised me.

I promised you when I ran for this office, and I always worked to do the right thing, and I always give it to you straight, and that I'd always try to be a governor for all of Wisconsin.

And I work every day to keep those promises.

That'll never change.

I began my run for governor as a proud Plymouth Progressive, and that's still who I am today.

I'm a science teacher at heart who ended up running for office and winning five straight statewide elections.

So would I win if I ran the sixth time?

Of course.

No question about that.

But whether I'd win or not has never been part of my calculus about running again.

There's the truth, Wisconsin.

The only thing I love more than being your governor is being a husband, a dad, and a grandpa.

I spend 50 years in public service.

I'm damn proud I devoted my entire career and most of my life to working for you.

and from Plymouth to Baraboo, Choma to Oshkosh, Rona to Madison, and everywhere in between, Kathy and my family supported me all the way.

Marrying Kathy is the greatest accomplishment of my life because it gave me a lifetime with her, three amazing kids, and nine incredible grandkids.

For five decades, my family has sacrificed to give me the gift of service.

They're my world and I owe it to them.

to focus on doing all the things we enjoy and love doing together.

It's why, Wisconsin, I'm announcing that I will not be running for a third term.

And so

it's humble to be your governor.

This is the best job I ever had.

And folks, we are not done yet.

There is, as always, much work to do.

And, Wisconsin, I'll be working just as hard as I have for the last six years to keep doing the right thing and deliver for you.

So let's get to work.

Forward for you and for Wisconsin always.

Thank you.

Governor Tony Evers, an announcement about an hour ago, pardon me, two hours ago, that he will not seek a third term for governor of the state of Wisconsin.

Here to discuss it, news director for Civic Media, Shaly Pittman, joining us from the World Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, and political director of Civic Media, also the founder of the Reconpopulation Area, joining us from his studios in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Dan Schaefer.

Shaly, Dan, thanks for taking time for us.

A lot of people have been waiting for this.

Dan Schaeffer, you got a lot of press ready to column about it, but today it comes.

Tony Evers is out and we'll see what happens next.

Before we move on to what's forward, Shali, look back with us if you could at what has happened.

Tony Evers three time school superintendent, twice elected governor.

He has quite a legacy.

He leaves behind.

Yes, he touted his five elections and said he would even win a sixth, but that's not why he isn't running.

that he wants to spend time with family, like many working people, he wants to retire.

And that makes sense.

Evers is currently 73.

He was elected when he turned a day after he turned 67.

And if he had gone for a third term, he'd be 75 by the time he's sworn in.

He'd be 79 by the end of his third term.

So like many working folks, the governor wants to retire after another year in office.

Dan Schaefer, as we said, you wrote a column on this at the recombination area.

Got a lot of press, ruffled some feathers perhaps, and were you surprised by today's announcement that Tony Evers will not seek a third term?

I think the surprise element of it has perhaps waned a little bit.

I think over the past couple of weeks, things seem to be heading in this direction.

We saw some of the tea leaves with Evers fundraising report.

There were some other reports last week suggesting that he might be announcing that he would not be running for a third term.

So I guess the surprise element isn't quite there at this moment.

But I think Tony Evers.

As he said, he always looks to do in this state is doing the right thing here.

And I think he should be commended not only for this bold and selfless decision to not seek a third term.

You know, I think so many of us who have supported the governor in his last

in his two terms in office are grateful for the work that he has done.

You know, I think as governor, he brought stability and sanity to the state at a time of genuine crisis in 2020.

He defended the state's democracy when it's been under attack.

He helped dig out from the damage from Scott Walker's two terms as governor and has delivered a number of important wins for the state, despite a hard right obstructionist Republican controlled legislature.

And I think now with having the opportunity to pass the torch to a next generation.

generation of leaders.

Tony Evers is only bolstering what is going to be a proud legacy as governor in the state of Wisconsin.

Well, we seem to have lost Todd for a second, but Dan, you and I can hold down the fort while he gets reconnected.

Dan, let's recap the many years of Governor Tony Evers.

He's known as the education governor.

He's a former teacher.

He's a former principal.

He was state superintendent, as Todd said, of public instruction for a decade.

This year, he declared, is the year of the kid.

And he has very much centered education in his policy.

including when he used a partial veto two years ago during the budget process then to lock in school funding increases for the next then 400 years.

Now we have 398 years to go on that.

So what do you make of the education governor and centering that particularly after Governor Walker's time in office and the big bill then?

Yeah, he's you know, he certainly has made that a primary focus of his time as governor You know the very creative use of the partial veto in the budget two years ago is certainly going to be one of those Decisions that's going to stand out You know in this most recent budget here He has touted some increases for special education funding That that was you know part of the new budget that he negotiated in part with Senate Democrats and Republican leaders in the led

So I think that is going to be certainly a big part of his legacy as governor in the state of Wisconsin.

I think we can also point to two things that happened over the last couple of years here.

One, I would say the big shared revenue reform bill that he was able to shepherd through in a bipartisan fashion through the legislature and get signed by the governor.

you know, that was a huge win for Wisconsin.

That was one of the things that he prioritized as in his reelection campaign, not your typical type of, you know, headline reelection campaign issue to address shared revenue and local funding, but he was able to accomplish that in his term.

And I think also bringing new maps to the state of Wisconsin in the legislature and, you know, signing that bill, the bill that he, you know,

to bring new maps to the state, new fairer maps.

There's still a lot of work to be done in the long term there.

But I think that shared revenue, new maps, his legacy as the education governor, I think those will be a big part of what we look back on in Tony Evers' two terms in office.

And, you know, he's still got some work to do, as he noted in his press release, in his letter to Wisconsin on this.

I think he's got about 17 months to go as governor, still plenty of time to get a lot of

things done.

And he said he's going to be, you know, getting back to work after making this announcement here.

But you know, a pretty proud legacy for Tony Evers in his six plus years now or six plus years now as governor.

Dan Schaefer, Shelley Pittman.

Thank you very much.

A couple of technical difficulties here.

We're on location live in Green Bay, Green Bay Privilege High School.

Thanks so much for for doing Yeoman's work is always there as I had to step away and readjust things on this end.

Forgive me if you already if you guys already talked about this, but either one of you will start with Dan.

Have you heard from any other people around the state in terms of political folks?

I mean, what might come next in terms of candidates, but also maybe as interestingly, what about this Governor Evers agenda that he he has laid out?

He's now officially a lame duck.

What chance does he have to get any of his

Yeah, to that second part of the question there, you know, that will remain to be seen.

I think the era of divided government has has meant that not a whole lot gets done outside of the state budget.

But I know there are a number of priorities that the governor is going to going to look to address in the coming months.

So, you know, that is certainly going to be a big thing.

And then, you know, we can we're all working the phones here to try and figure out what exactly is going to be happening with other candidates potentially jumping.

into the mix.

You know, I had previously reported that David Crowley, Milwaukee County executive, he first mentioned to me at the recombobulation area in an interview in December 2023 that he would be interested in running for governor if Evers does not seek another term in office.

You know, the other kind of list that I had run through in that piece that you referenced included Attorney General Josh Call, State Senator Kel DeRoy's former party chair, Ben Wickler, Secretary of State.

Sarah Godlowski, David Crowley, and Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez.

So I think there is quite the bench for Democrats in Wisconsin right now.

It's going to be interesting to see how that takes shape in the coming days, weeks, months, and what have you.

But I think it's going to make for a really interesting decision for the voters.

decide the next path forward for Democrats in Wisconsin.

Shelly Pittman, you're relatively new to civic media.

Always happy to have you here.

Super happy to have you here.

But you are not new to the news business.

You are with WRT as the news director there in Madison for a number of years.

You know the scene well.

What are your sources saying in terms of perhaps legislatively what the fallout might be and also politically?

Well, I'm still we're two hours in, so I don't want to say anything out of speak out of school.

But I do want to say that this is the

first open race for governor since 2010.

It's the first in 15 years without an incumbent running.

So on the Republican side, obviously we have two candidates already declared, Josh Oman, Bill Barion.

We also have some folks hinting at a run.

But as for Democratic candidates, I remember 2018, do you remember the 10 other candidates in that primary?

It was a lot.

We had debates right here in Madison and elsewhere.

And so I expect we're going to see that again.

Looking back, let's take to about a minute here.

So I guess let's start with you, Shali, and someone who's covered this governor.

What just personally or from a covering standpoint, standing out?

You know, what do you think that it might be as far as its legacy?

I guess Zomers is giving me the high side here.

We got to go to do a little business as they say.

We'll come back, we'll answer that question, but also we'll be joined by a political strategist on the Republican side, Bill McCoshen.

What does this mean?

The announcement of Evers not running for a third term for Republicans.

We'll discuss all that as well.

back after this, along wi Dan Schaefer.

I'm tout

And welcome back live to Green Bay Preble High School in Green Bay, Wisconsin title will hear live on location today for a special breaking news special report show.

Governor Tony Evers announcing just over two hours ago.

He will not seek a third turn.

Joining me at our World Headquarters, back in Madison, Wisconsin, Pacific Media News Director, Shaly Pittman, also a Pacific Media political editor and founder of the RECA Vibulation Area, Dan Schaefer from his office and studios in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and very pleased to give us the Republican perspective of today's fallout news or the fallout from the news, the one, the only, Bill McCosher, former Secretary of Commerce, former Chief of Staff to Tommy Thompson, and for those of us who've been around a while, have white in our beard, better known as

Billy Mack, The Boy Wonder, Bill McCosh and Bill, thanks for joining us.

Hey, thanks for having me, appreciate

it.

It's great to have you here.

Shaly, let's start with you quickly, because I wanted to just, I did leave you time at the end there.

Just as someone who's been around news for a while, what's just a personal, a covering this Governor, what's kind of a takeaway or memory that you will have of Governor Tony Evers?

That's a great question, and I've had a break to think about it.

Well, his folksy charm, right?

When you talk to folks outside of Wisconsin, they know him for saying, holy mackerel.

And for reserving the worst swear words that we can't say on this radio network, for truly the most high-profile fights with the Republican legislature.

But I also have to say, on a more day-to-day level,

The fact that we are in divided government, the fact that Evers came after, that the governor came after from our Governor Walker in this time of very tense partisan divide and we're still in divided government, it has felt like a different...

period epic in in Wisconsin politics.

And so one of those things in divided government that we always look at is that veto pen.

The governor has the most powerful veto pen in Wisconsin than of all governors in across the nation.

And he has wielded that quite frequently about a third of the time, according to a New York Times analysis of the Legislative Reference Bureau data from several years ago.

But quite often he

vetoes bills and in a period of divided government that is a significant thing.

Dan Schaefer, let's set it up for Bill quickly.

Run down the list of people that, you know, as people are saying, who are people saying who are the top Democrats right now that people are looking at to run as Tony Evers announces he will not seek a third term.

Yeah, I think we're gonna see a whole lot of people jump into the mix as as shawley noted earlier the last time we had a Democratic primary there were quite a few candidates Running for governor.

So initially on my list.

I said I have Attorney General Josh Call State Senator Calderoy's former party chair Ben Wickler, Secretary of State Sarah Godluschi, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez I would also add former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes to the mix there he

mentioned to me today that he is considering a run.

for governor, he's thinking about it and will consider.

So we'll have to keep a watch on what he'll say as well.

And former current Milwaukee mayor Cavalier Johnson, he has also, his spokesman has also mentioned that if evers were not to run that he might jump into the mix as well.

So it could be a very big crowded primary, which, you know, would be very interesting.

And I think presents a real opportunity for voters to determine the next step for the party and their leadership in Wisconsin.

Bill McCosher, when you heard the news today, what was your personal reaction to it?

And on the Republican side, what does this mean for Republicans who are already in the race and who might we see looking forward?

Well, I'll start with the question you asked, Shaly.

And that's my one word for Tony Evers is undefeated.

If you look at candidates who have won statewide twice or at least three times or more.

There's only two on the Democratic side, Tony Evers and Tammy Baldwin.

On the Republican side, there's only one, Ron Johnson.

So that's a pretty rare feat to go undefeated statewide.

My old boss, Tommy Thompson, won four movement of Toyota races, but then lost a U.S.

Senate race to Tammy Baldwin in 2012.

So I'd say undefeated.

I think this is also a legacy period for him.

I thank him for his service.

I think they ended a service to his readers and the civic media viewers and listeners.

with a PC wrote a few weeks back.

He got a lot of grief for it, but he pushed the envelope.

He said some very positive things about the governor, but then encouraged them to, you know, think hard about not running for reelection and go out on what would be called a legacy.

The truth is he has signed for bipartisan budgets.

That's pretty rare as well.

So that's a point Shelly made.

I mean, he sort of toned down things in Madison in a lot of different ways.

So.

For us on the Republican side, it's an opportunity.

This is the second open gubernatorial race in my 60 years on this planet.

The only other one was in 2010, where Scott Walker beat Mark Newman in a Republican primary and then went on to beat Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in the general election.

They faced off against each other again just two years later in a recall, which Walker went by an even larger margin, but it's pretty rare in Wisconsin politics to have an open gubernatorial seat.

So for me,

All the Dems Dan listed are credible.

I don't think they're all going to ultimately be in the race and we can go over that later.

But for us, we have Josh Showman, Washington County executive already in the race.

Businessman Bill Berry and just got in the race about 10 days ago.

I expect there to be several more now that it's an open seat.

I think a lot of people were worried about running against an incumbent who's very good at raising money.

You say what you want about Tony Evers political abilities.

Raising money was not a problem for him ever.

You know, there's significant advantages of incumbency.

So for us, it's a real opportunity to take back the seat, not having an incumbent in there creates an opportunity.

And I think as a result of that, you're going to see more candidates getting the race.

A minute left, Bill.

Can you stick to the break and join us for a couple of minutes on the other side as well?

All right, cool.

Quickly then, a minute to go.

Congressman Tom Tiffany in the seventh.

This guy's been running a thick for governor for the last umpteen years, although he likes to deny it.

How soon is Tom Tiffany going to get in?

Well, what he said a couple of weeks ago was he was going to wait till late fall.

That's too late.

You can't wait that long.

But if he doesn't

run,

I am starting to expect State Senator Mary Palskowski to run.

And being the only female in the primary could be advantageous for her.

On the Republican side, yeah.

On the Republican side.

But I think there will be others.

Players to be named later that we haven't heard of before, now that there's an open seat.

Bill McCostian is joining us as Republican strategist, Charlie Pittman, news director for Civic Media and the political editor and founder of the Reconpopulation area, Dan Schaefer as well.

Don't go anywhere.

News, sports, weather update.

Pam Yankee, Farm News, going to come back live from Green Bay Preval High School.

Might talk a little hockey with McCostian on the other side as well.

It's the All Ball Show on the Civic Media Ready Network.

Welcome back to the Towelball Show.

We are live on location at Green Bay Preble High School.

Beautiful Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The Packer training camp underway just down the road here from us.

Our very own sports reporter Mike Clemens covering that will bring you sports updates throughout the afternoon as well from Mike on the Packers chances this year right now that we're up here to cover the Wisconsin Public Education Network Summit.

Gonna be talking to some of the fine folks who are putting this on discussing.

K-12 public education at greater length later on this hour and in hour two.

But the top news story of the day takes precedent.

This is a breaking special news edition of the show joining me to break down the announcement by Democratic Governor Tony Evers a little over two and a half hours ago via Twitter on a video that he will not.

seek a third term as Wisconsin's governor joining us to continue to discuss this, our very own political editor, Dan Schaefer, joining us from this home studio in beautiful Milwaukee, Wisconsin to help us.

This is very discombobulating for a lot of political reasons, Dan Schaefer.

So help us re-combobulate.

And also he's the founder of the re-combobulation area as well.

And on the Republican side, Bill McCosher, longtime political strategist, former chief of staff to Governor Tommy Thompson and secretary of

commerce guys listen let's talk about this a little bit more on the kids for political geeks like us this is like kids in a candy store right as bill said first open seats since 2010 wasn't bill right right so I mean this is this is just crazy because it's going to be open seats on both sides

As we all know in this game of politics, now more than ever, money is the mother's meal.

My former boss, Dale Schultz, said there are three rules to politics.

Remember who your friends are, keep your ducks in a row, and raise more money.

No matter what, raise more money.

So who are the candidates, Dan, on the Democratic side, Bill, on the Republican side, who can have the ends to raise that money?

Dan?

That's a great question.

It'll all depend on who eventually jumps into the mix.

I mean, for one example, Ben Wickler has been talked about as a potential statewide candidate.

I don't know if this is going to be the time for him, but he's obviously has a pretty prolific record as a fundraiser.

You look at Attorney General Josh Colle, he's won two statewide races.

He's certainly going to be in the mix.

Kelly Royce has been a pretty accomplice.

state senator after her run in 2018.

Milwaukee County executive David Crowley has has ties to some pretty you know deep pockets in his run in Milwaukee when he initially ran in 2020 and won that race.

So you know it's gonna be really interesting to see kind of where that piece of it lines up and yeah you're right it's always smart to follow the money on these things.

So you know once the first financial reports come in in a couple months that will be a very important one.

to watch to kind of read some of those tea leaves for where, how this is taking shape.

Kaushen, as you noted earlier, Josh Showman, Washington County executive already in the race.

Businessman Bill Berrien also in, lot to others could, but who, those who are in and who could possibly get in, who has the ability to raise the money on the GOP side, Bill?

Well,

You know, someone like Sean Duffy, if he were to decide to come home and he got the Trump endorsement on our side, that's the end of the primer.

Whoever gets the Trump endorsement is going to go in the primer and it's not going to matter how much money they've raised.

So that would be pretty important.

I don't expect Sean to come home and run, but I think he'd have an opportunity to clear the field.

But having said that, we've got two guys in and Showman and Barry in.

There's rumblings about Tiffany, there's rumblings about State Senator Maryfelskowski, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear a few other names over the course of the next month as people explore this possibility because it is so rare that this has come around.

If you've always thought about doing this, this would be the time.

Is there another self-thunder like an air cubby or Tim Michaels?

Not that I'm aware of, but that doesn't mean there isn't one out there.

Money can buy you name ID.

And in

a

primary, that's very, very important.

The turnout in the primary is about one third of what it is in general election.

And it's very specific where the turnout comes for both sides.

So someone like a David Crowley on the Democratic side would be pretty well positioned in that situation because Milwaukee County produces disproportionate share of the primary votes.

Let's talk about some of these people before we get to who might be in and we talked about this on the break and we'll bring it back.

But before we go there, let's talk about those that we've already named here.

Josh Shulman was on this program when we were up at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair, was really impressed with him.

Seems like he's a great retail politician.

Bill Berry and stumbled a little bit out of this gate.

What I was interested in Bill is when Shulman was on this program, I asked him that question, do you need Trump's endorsement?

And he goes, look, I'm a fan.

President Trump but it's more important to me what the people of Wisconsin think was a little nuanced in it.

Over the weekend on up front on on WISN's program, Bill Barion was asked by Matt Smith and he went right out said, yeah, I got to have that endorsement.

Two very takes on that.

Yeah, if you look at 2022 though, Rebecca Clayfish had a very substantial lead in that primary.

There actually wasn't a primary.

Tim Michaels got in in April of 2022.

And by late July, he secured Trump's endorsement.

Actually, the Tuesday, the Friday before the primary, and he was able to win the primary by five points.

It is very impactful in a low turnout primary because Trump voters, at least in those situations, turned out.

So I think it is going to be critical to get through the primary to have that endorsement, and it's going to be a very steep mountain to climb if you don't have it and you decide to stay in.

I don't think he personally I don't think he could win a Democratic primary because of his lack of going after the

the fake voters in Wisconsin, I just think that he seems to want it too much.

And I just don't think the Democrats have a stomach for it.

Am I wrong?

I think because he's won two statewide races, he's certainly going to be one of the first names you hear.

You know, whether that is the same type of level of support for governor as he's had for attorney general, you know, obviously that remains to be seen.

And I think you're right.

There will be some people who will be critical of his actions.

You're kind of slow walking the case against the fake electors.

You know, I don't know if he's really made enough headlines over his time as attorney general to really break through.

on just like the political chattering class of what people's perceptions of him really are.

So I think that's going to be interesting to see.

But the Democratic field doesn't have the issue like what Mr. McCosh identified with the Republican side.

On the Republican side, it's all going to come down to Trump's endorsement.

I think you're absolutely right about that.

You look at the congressional primary that we had in the eighth district with eventually one by now state representative, or now Congressman Tony Weed.

You know, he got the Trump endorsement.

Every single one of his signs said Trump endorsed Tony weed and he cruised through the primary and was able to win that general election as well.

So I think that is absolutely the key factor.

Looking at the Republican side on the Democratic side, we've all been waiting to see what the governor is going to do.

And I think as much as we've, Todd, you and I have talked about over the last couple of weeks, things have been kind of trending in this direction that he's not going to seek a third term.

You know, there was still some uncertainty about that.

And so I think we this

field is, you know, still is going to take shape in the coming days, weeks, months here.

There's a lot of time until the primary Wisconsin's primary isn't until August of the year of the election.

So, you know, there's a lot that can happen, obviously between now and then.

And I think, you know, as far as, you know, we've ran through a number of names, a half dozen names, whatever it is, I expect there to be far more than that too.

I think

this

is going to be a big, weird primary.

And as I noted in the column that I wrote a few weeks back, I think that's a good thing.

I think there's been

So many like post 2024, where do Democrats go from here?

How do we message?

What do we do?

I think it needs to be the voters who make that decision, not the chattering class, not people looking for the Joe Rogan of the laughter who's talking about what.

you know, tactic Democrats should take.

It should be the voters who decide where the party goes from here, who their leaders are going to be.

I think this.

I think Democrats have avoided primaries to their detriment in recent past, and I think this is a real opportunity for the state in so many ways.

All right, it was as much as I'm going to have to take some pep talk.

Bizz will hopefully bring this up.

Dan shape.

I've been setting stuff up here in beautiful height.

By the way, Green Bay Preble High School.

What a beautiful high school here in a beautiful part of the state.

shout out to all of them for hosting us up here today.

But over the break, Dan Schaefer, you've been monitoring Twitter.

Why been doing this?

Like a phoenix or a bad penny, which everyone is saying former Governor Scott Walker putting out cryptic tweets on on the Twitter.

What do you got for us?

Yeah, so Scott Walker has tweeted twice since the since the news of about Tony Evers.

He posted one without.

make America great again hat that was the 45-47 and he said interesting so I think he what he's alluding to here is perhaps serving in non-consecutive terms as President Trump is doing now and Scott Walker you know obviously the governor before Tony Evers defeated him in 2018 would Scott Walker run again that's my question for Mr. McCosh and over here is Scott Walker going to make another run for governor what to make of these cryptic

tweets

I think Scott Walker's got another run in him.

He's a younger, he's younger than I am.

Will it be in 2026 to run for governor?

I'm not sure.

Or is it 2028 if Ron Johnson doesn't run for United States Senate?

But Scott Walker, I think is 57 years old, so he's a young man.

He's got statewide day might be.

He's got an ability to raise money himself.

But that would be new.

He wasn't on the list of potentials until two hours ago.

Funny

how that happens in politics, right?

I don't, I mean, look, I, you know, I, you know, unless there's this show, no, I'm a former Republican, you know, I still have friends in the party, Bill still talks to me, God love him.

But, you know, I think there are people that, I was super impressed with Josh Shulman as a retail politician.

He came, I saw Scott Walker campaign a lot.

To me, my personal opinion, it's forced, it's sappy, it's syrupy, it's not genuine, it's ain't no Tommy Thompson.

Josh Shulman seems like a guy

who really means it, who's genuine, authentic, and can connect with people.

I think Barron is already, he's disqualified himself with his Nikki Haley stuff, and I don't know, it just doesn't seem like a deal.

I think there are other Republicans out there Bill, Sean Duffy.

Yeah, I think he.

I might not vote for him.

I think he's a legit candidate, but boy, it just seems like Scott Walker brings a lot of baggage getting into this

race.

Well, I'll pick up on your first point.

Showman's working his tail off.

He is very authentic.

He's got a great resume, not only is he running a county, one of the large top 10 counties in the state, but he's also a veteran.

So he I would not underestimate Josh showman's ability in this race.

And Dan and I have had some offline communication about that where we disagree, but nobody all work.

Can he raise enough money to get his name ID high enough to win the primary?

That's really the question for him.

And we'll know more on the January report.

He did OK on the July report, but he's going to need to triple that, at least on his January report to be considered credible, especially considering who might get in this race over the next few months.

So we'll see how our side shakes out.

My guess is there's going to be some more teases like Scott Walker's over the next few weeks, but it doesn't necessarily mean somebody's going to get in the race.

They may just be trying to get attention.

We'll

see.

Let me ask you this, our mutual friend, Trigby Olson said, I walked back to Wisconsin to work on two races for governor.

One is Ben Wickler.

The other is Mr. Bill McCosh and Bill, any inkling, any thought that you might consider getting in this race?

I have a few texts today, but what I tell those textures is you got to talk to my wife.

This decision was made in 22 by my wife.

I was prepared to run that year.

So you're thinking about you're not you're not saying no.

It's I don't see it in.

I'm I'm happily married me and I love my family and I'm not

gonna

Our mutual friend, the late great Senator Tim Cullen told me many years ago.

He said, Todd, any time in politics, somebody says anything but a no is a yes.

Anything, anything, like you say, anything but a yes, it's a no.

So, so it's not a no.

It's not a no for Bill McCoshan.

All right.

A little over a little under two minutes left.

Dan Schaefer final

thoughts.

We have 30 seconds.

Oh, 30, I guess there are 30 seconds.

Sorry, I'm on location.

Bill McCoshan, thank you very much.

I appreciate your time, my friend.

Dan Schaefer, always a pleasure as well.

We'll come back.

Live from Green Bay after this on the Civic Media Ready Network.

truth or ever if they lead and having fun doing it welcome back the title ball show live on location in beautiful Green Bay at Green Bay Preble High School glad to have you along here for the Wisconsin Public Education Network Summit that was really what led us here today and super happy to be here but the breaking news of the day of course Governor Evers announcing he will not seek a third term

that took top billion here if the first part of the show.

So many thanks to our guests, Shaly Pittman, News Director of Civic Media, Dan Schaefer, Political Editor at Civic Media and Founder of the Recombobulation Area and Political Strategist Bill McCoshen, all for joining us.

And now at the table, we can actually talk about the Wisconsin Public Education Network Summit here, the Northeast Regional Coordinator of the Organization, Denise Gomer Hutchinson is here at the table.

Denise, thanks for taking the time.

my pleasure to be here.

It's so much fun and this were basically home for you where you live in Green Bay.

I do and this is my Children's Home School.

Is it really?

Right.

That's amazing.

That's true.

And I helped pass the referendum that made all the improvements that you see right here in this commons area.

Well for those watching on the stream Facebook, YouTube and Twitter were in the commons you can see

Preble Pride, the Preble Hornets logo here up behind us where some great food was served earlier.

We're into the second part of this.

Tell folks that might not have joined us before a little bit about the Wisconsin Public Education Network.

Wisconsin Public Education Network is a statewide coalition of advocates who are committed to high quality public schools around the state.

So we do what we can for kids and communities that serve these public schools and building partnerships so that all schools can be successful.

And so it's not, it's a private organization.

You're not a tax funded anything or that.

You put this together.

How long has it been

around?

This is our 11th annual summer summit.

And it's been around, the organization has been around even longer than that.

It came out of...

the need to really bring attention to fair funding for public schools and it wasn't being done and so Wisconsin Public Education Network was born.

I love the fact that the slogan is public schools unite us because it shouldn't be, although it has been politicized, no matter who we vote for at the top of the ticket, everyone should be invested in our public schools.

Right.

It's what we say every single day is when kids walk through the door of a public school and nobody asked them their political affiliation.

They just say hi and welcome.

Yeah, that's great.

I love that.

Tell us a little bit about the six of one of the successes.

We're literally in right now, but tell us some of the successes of Wisconsin Public Education Network in the Northeast part of the state.

Well, it's very exciting.

We have a huge win that we're really thrilled about.

between the Green Bay Area Public School District, their school board, wrote a resolution and sent it to the mayor and asked the mayor to create transparency on the tax bill for the city of Green Bay.

And the mayor, you know, looked at it, said this has to go to the city council.

They took it to the city council.

It went into committee.

It was defeated in that committee.

We brought it back the next year.

um had the support we needed and brought it to the floor of the uh city council and we are now putting for the first school just for the first city in the in the state is putting the cost of vouchers on the tax bill

and

separating it out so that we want taxpayers to know how much does it cost you to be funding a non-regulated non-credited non-transparent private school system

I think this is so important because so many folks, the news becomes overwhelming and they don't stop and look where their tax dollars really go what this means.

So I think breaking this out and making it understandable, I think it's a great service because then people are going away away.

I didn't know that, right?

Right.

Exactly.

And they deserve to know

when

our taxed out, and because of what happened in the state legislature of a $00 increase to public schools, taxpayers could potentially see some raises in their income tax, or excuse me, in their property taxes.

And so this tax break that they wanted to give to people.

could be really kind of null and void because it's gonna public schools have to keep going and if you can't keep up with the cost of living which there hasn't been a cost of living increase for at the end of this budget 18 years.

Lots of people, great attendance here at Green Bay Purple High School for the Wisconsin Public Education Network Summit.

What do you hope to get out of this today?

What do your what do your participants want to walk away with today?

Participants want to walk away with more knowledge on what they can do in their own communities, how to have conversations, because we want to talk to everybody because we need doors and having community gatherings.

people love their public schools in the state of Wisconsin.

That's why our logo has always had a heart in it because we know that it's the heart of the community.

And so we hope that people leave here with more information, more knowledge, and re-energize to go back into their communities and say, I want to love my public schools so that our community understands the value of what we have here.

About a minute left.

I want to not ask you that you want people to know about today's Wisconsin Public Education Network Summit.

There's a real need for people to come together on the issue of public education.

You know, I mean, there are people that think that public education should be run as a business.

Well, guess what?

There's no revenue source.

The revenue source for public education is taxes.

And when we don't get those dollars, it makes it hard to compete on an international and national level.

So we're going to work every day because that's what it's all about.

Yeah, I totally agree.

I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you, ask you at about our 40 seconds left here.

Thoughts personally or politically on the Evers news of not running again today?

I am really thankful for everything that Governor Evers has done for the state of Wisconsin.

When he was at the Department of Public Instruction, he moved things forward and did good things for public schools.

And as governor.

He's very approachable and reachable and he cares about this state and what more can we ask for but people who care passionately about our state and he has served our state well and but I hope that there's somebody that wants to step in and

continue his legacy of doing really good things for the state of Wisconsin.

I think that whoever is going to be the Democratic nominee would do well to grab public education as a main issue because there's a lot of votes to get out across all spectrums.

I would totally agree with you.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate you.

Denise Gilbert Hutchinson, thanks for being here.

Thanks for all you do.

You're part of what makes Wisconsin great.

Thank you.

Our pleasure.

Come

on.

You are

too.

Well, that's too kind.

Thank you very much.

Come on back.

Well, a live on location in Greenville.

I'll both show in the Civic Media.

Ready Network in hour two.

On Location, it's the Todd Alba Show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

A cross with Scotson on the Civic Media Radio Network and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody here on location at Green Bay Purple High School and beautiful Green Bay, Wisconsin for the Wisconsin Public Education Network Summit.

Glad to be along with you.

Welcome into hour number two of the program.

Six minutes past the hour of three o'clock on this 24th day of July, 2025.

It is a great day to be Wisconsinite.

Great to have you along with us.

Our producer and engineer, Mr. Aaron Zommers, back at the Old World headquarters on State Street downtown Madison.

Zomeras is hot and humid and sultry down there as it is up here.

It is humid, but it's not very hot.

No, it's actually pretty cool.

And I am very thankful for that.

Probably because I'm unloaded equipment.

That's why I got a little sweaty.

But no, it's great to have lots of breaking news.

Of course, the news of the day across the state, Governor Tony Evers, Democrat, and obviously will not seek a third term for guns.

So, secondarily, in entertainment news, former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan passes away at the age of 71 of cardiac arrest.

And longtime legendary musician Chuck Magione, also passing away today, have more thoughts on those passings a little bit later on.

In this hour, we'll try to sneak a what's worse segment in as well.

But right now here at the desk in the beautiful commons of Green Bay Preble High School where it says Preble Pride on the on the wall of the Hornets.

My high school as well, the Hornets.

So a different high school, but the same mascot, the Hornets here at the desk is the Green Bay Education Association President.

Also a vocal music teacher.

We're pleased to welcome Brent Berksstrom to the desk Brent.

Thank you so much for being

here.

Yeah, you bet.

It's a pleasure.

So do you teach in this school or where we're at in the district?

I have taught in this school.

Yeah, I've taught in a lot of schools.

That's kind of the blessing in the curse of being in music.

We get spread pretty thin and across many buildings.

Well, I come from a whole family of educators.

My sister, my brother-in-law, my mom, my dad, my stepmom, all my grandmother, all educators.

I'm the only goofball that didn't go into it.

But as I look back at my life, both my vocal and my, in particular, my high school.

and teacher, instrumental figures in my life.

And I think it's such a great opportunity to work with young people and help them mature into full grown adults and help them reach their dreams.

Yeah, absolutely.

I knew early on that I wanted to be a music teacher because I had those similar role models growing up in the music departments.

Did you tell us a little bit about yourself where you grew up and kind of what led you to a career in education?

Yeah, I'm actually a product of the Greenberry Public Schools.

So I completed K-12 in Green Bay and then went to school at UW Eau Claire for music and education.

That's great.

worked in a few districts and then got back home.

We did our friend ongoing contributor Trig V. Olsen and we did a whole show over at UW Eau Claire, beautiful, beautiful campus.

Gorgeous.

Former Chancellor Jim Schmidt, great guy, had a lot of students on as well.

I think it just reinforces the importance of our University of Wisconsin system.

You're a product of that and look at the impact you're having on lives.

Yeah, absolutely.

I actually go back when I am back at UW Eau Claire, it's nice to see the

It's not new anymore, but new Davies Center because

that

was part of our fees as I was attending there.

They were.

pulling money to try to build that new center and it's just a beautiful.

It really is.

It was beautiful when I went there and it just keeps getting better.

Yeah, that's where we did the show from and you're absolutely right.

I will tell us a little bit about your role of president of the Green Bay Area Education Association.

What does the group do and what is on your agenda right now?

Yeah, you bet.

So the Green Bay Education Association is our union for our staff within the Green Bay Area Public Schools for our teachers and our paraprofessional units.

So that includes counselors, school social workers, nurses, all the way to special ed paraprofessionals, First Nations advocates.

It's really a broad range of all areas within the buildings.

So I am fortunate and love this work, but I get to help lead over 1300 members in our organization and support our 38 buildings across the district, supporting the staff to make sure that our kids are getting the best.

quality education that they can get.

Having grown up in Green Bay, this might sound like a goofy comment or question, but I think so many of us across the state we think Green Bay.

Oh, it's all about the Packers, right?

There's it's the end of the Packers are great.

Love the Packers just started training camp here, but I think this is a great reminder that Green Bay is also a vibrant community and is so much more in the Packers and educators are helping educate the kids, the young people who live in this community.

Yeah, the title town district is great and it has brought.

great things that we can enjoy but our schools and the people that work in these buildings are fantastic and they provide countless opportunities for our students who wouldn't have them otherwise and it's it's so refreshing and exciting to see everything that's happening including I mean you can see it in the commons our community pulling together and passing a referendum when our state doesn't fund what's needed and

Our kids deserve this.

They deserve a beautiful auditorium.

They deserve a beautiful common space to go to school.

And fortunately our community has continued to support that through the years.

Talk to us a little bit about, as the head of the association here, what educators themselves, just as people and professionals, what are their biggest challenges right now in the classroom, in helping our kids?

Because again, I just think that we don't take enough time to look at the challenges every day that our educators face.

Yeah, I mean, it's...

When you look at what's going on across the country right now, it's a tough place to be for so many of us and so many of our students.

And I think a lot of people forget that our educators are handling that day in and day out in the classroom and trying to manage what comes along with the social situations that are occurring on top of being completely underfunded.

support students with those things.

So that's again why it's just so important to continue funding our public schools so that we are able to provide the services that our students need to get through some interesting and challenging times.

I think we think about the time in the classroom.

That's certainly important.

That's where most of the work gets done.

But so many of our educators are called upon to be the advisor for the groups in school to show up at sporting events and help with that to be coaches.

And yeah, coaches might get a stipend.

But a lot of these other things, educators are not being given extra money, but they do this because they have a passion for kids, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

I was a show choir director for about 15 years.

The pay for that is not actually pay.

I did the math once, and then I just decided to stop doing

that.

So I did it because of the passion, and I did it because I wanted those students to have the experiences I had growing up in the schools.

The money was a nice bonus for maybe some shopping.

I don't know.

But it definitely didn't.

fully fund even the programs I was working in.

So yeah.

It's a lot to be desired.

Brent Bergstrom is our guest.

He is the president on the Green Bay Area Education Association and also a choral director here in the Green Bay Public School District.

Talk a minute if you could please about when you look at the kids and the growth of someone that you you start and then to graduation.

It has to be just particularly rewarding when a kid, have you had a student say, Mr. Bergstrom, I'm going into music.

I want to do that.

Talk about that.

Yeah, I have and actually my high school my high school Coral director at Southwest High School Was one of those people to me that I was able to say, you know, you've you've inspired me enough that I want to do this I've had the opportunity to work with kids From elementary and then go over and direct them in high school show choir So that's been really a cool opportunity They showed a video this morning of a song that the district put out one of two of those students were my

little babies at the elementary level and they're up there singing and it's great to see but yeah I've had a number of kids say I'm going into music and I was like yes because we need we need good people in our schools.

I think the arts is something that often times get overlooked and not valued enough.

Certainly, I have two godsons.

They were in AP classes in high school and went to University of Wisconsin, Madison.

They're very successful now.

But it's not all about the AP classes in science and math.

All those are very important.

people who go into music, people who go into instrumental, people who go into arts, whether it's painting or sculpture or whatever, that also has a tremendous value to our society.

And I think just like athletics, I mean, I was, I did a little bit of sports, but I was more of a band inquire kid in that camaraderie, learning how to, you know, a show choir piece.

You have to get along with everybody at the timing, the, the personalities that teaches you as much in my opinion about skills for life, then the math.

Yeah, that team aspect of sports absolutely carries over into the arts.

And, you know, I think of visual arts, there's a less team aspect, but there's obviously opportunities for that in visual arts, too, to work as a team.

But the skills that you learn within music classes, you're pulling art, music, fied.

reading, math, all of the things come into music, which is why I love teaching it because it was so easy to connect back to what the kids are doing at home, to connect what they're doing in their classrooms, and pull them in and find a passion for music.

We're here at the Wisconsin Public Education Network in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the beautiful Green Bay Preble High School.

Brent, about two or three minutes left here.

This summit, what have you gotten out of it, and just professionally, and what do you hope to come up from it as a group of educators in this state?

You know, I've been coming to the summit for a number of years and it's always great to see new faces and see newly motivated people trying to take charge to get some momentum behind funding our public schools.

And I think that's our biggest challenge right now is getting the state legislators to look at the budget that they passed and realize how much it is not funding our public schools.

This program goes over 11 stations across the state.

So as an educator, what do you think people, voters, let's put it that way, voters in the state, what do you think they're missing when it comes to voting for people, when it comes to legislative elections?

What are they missing?

What issue do you think, would you like for them to think about when they go to vote for people that has a real impact on education, public education in the

school?

As an educator, I would say stay educated, stay informed and stay engaged and know which of your legislators aren't voting for the things that we need.

Look at what the Senate and the...

what they're voting for and passing so that we are able to then put people in those seats who are going to support our nearly 90% of students who are in public schools.

The average voter might say, well, you know, Mr. Bergstrom, why is it always about money?

What is the money going to do that you're not getting?

If you had more money, what would happen?

Well, our school budget hasn't kept pace with inflation since, I believe, earlier today.

I heard since 2009.

So yes, it sounds like more money, but it's really just keeping up with inflation to pay general costs and staff and keep the lights on.

And it's really warm in here today, but air's gotta shut off at some point because they gotta save the money overnight so that we are able to pay for our staff.

So really just that education and that staying engaged and sharing that education and that engagement across with your community.

I totally agree with you on that because I think that people overlook the ongoing costs of what it costs to keep these facilities running, the benefits packages, just the basis of it, and when the legislature under funds that, that's why they're, people say, why are there so many referendums?

And that's why it's just the full funding that isn't happening in Madison to a large degree, yes or

no?

You think, yeah, yeah, you think of funding just tri-

pay the bills for your house it's a lot of money right or an apartment or anywhere think of a boat a building this size that serves nearly 2,000 kids I mean that's

That takes a lot of money.

Right.

As it turns out, beautiful building, really, really fantastic.

Appreciate your part of what makes Wisconsin great.

Thanks for being a great educator, Brent Berkstrom from the Green Bay Area Education Association.

Appreciate

it.

You bet.

Thank you.

My pleasure.

Come on back.

We'll have more on the other side.

We are live on location of Green Bay Preble High School for the Wisconsin Public Education Network Summit.

Don't compare more after this on the Civic Media radio network.

We're ever it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the title ball show live on location at the Wisconsin Public Education Network Summit in beautiful Green Bay, Wisconsin at Green Bay Preble High School.

Glad to have you along here on a sultry day as they say, but the education the talk the education talk is also very hot very informative and we're glad to continue on with another guest here at the table from the Commons and Green Bay Preble.

Preble High School, our guest is Laura McCoy.

She is a member of the Green Bay School Board.

Laura, thanks so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

It's our pleasure.

Love coming up here.

My stepmom spent a lot of her time growing up here.

She, my dad, now live in Sean also.

Green Bay, as I said to Brent, her last guest, a lot of us that don't live here.

The first thing you think of is the Packers, and yet that's great.

But there's a vibrant community beyond the Packers at Green Bay.

I would completely agree with you on that.

our city is a thriving place.

I mean, we there's been a lot of things happening in just the last few years that we can be very, very proud of.

And the schools are one of them.

Absolutely.

How long have you been on the school board?

A little more than eight years.

Nice.

What's the biggest change that you've seen from the time that you got on until now at the Green Bay School Board?

Well, when I came on the school board, I was a little naive about what the job would entail.

I mean, it had all kinds of determination to be a good board member and to do well by my community.

In school board races, we're kind of sleepy little affairs.

There wasn't much attention that has completely changed.

In recent years, they've become much more partisan and a little bit more...

A little bit more spotlight on you as you run.

You know people are paying a lot of attention to public education right now, rightfully so.

We should be scrutinized and and and I wish more people paid more attention but yeah a lot of things have changed and of course public education in general in this state is under a lot of stress right now and has been for a number of years and and it's really starting to show up in this summit that

I'm attending today and taking part in has really shown that.

It's really good to see all these people coming together and paying attention to how we can work together to maybe alleviate some of that stress and bring more education and knowledge to people because taxpayers

You know, they should know about their schools.

They should pay attention to where their tax money is going.

And it's important work and I'm just really happy to be here today.

I'm glad that Green Bay is hosting

this.

The same thing from a school board member perspective that we asked our last guest Brent as an educator from a school board member perspective.

What's your biggest challenge right now that you face in this political climate, but also just trying to make this work for the Green Bay area

funding.

I mean every single school district in this state is under stress regarding funding.

The latest budget is just completely inadequate to fund public education here in Green Bay.

We're really gonna feel that.

You know, it's just the budget was such a disappointment and it's just really hard to educate over 18,000 students when you

can't rely on funding.

Again, this summit is part of that.

But the biggest thing right now, I'd like to be able to tell you that it's about curriculum.

It's about teaching children.

And we do that every day.

We have amazing staff.

But if you don't have secure funding, if you don't have funding you can rely on and plan for.

It puts a what blanket over everything and it's just really to navigate that.

I were about three minutes here before the end of the.

before we have to step away, I'm gonna bring you back with Representative Clancy, but let's start beginning because I get what you're saying, but I think a lot of people around the state who don't pay attention to these issues, what they hear, not just from you, but from a lot of people, when they say, all they want is more money, what do they do with the money they got?

And they look at the budget, and it's like, oh, there's 500 million or whatever it was more for public education.

Hey, that was great.

But begin the discussion, if you would please, about

What is it that is lacking when it comes to funding?

What are the challenges that you're required to do as a school board that you're saying we're just not getting the funds we need are required from Madison?

Well, I would start with in the 1990s.

I'm sorry to go back that far, but it really matters.

It's important.

So the revenue caps are put into place.

And Green Bay was a conservative low spending district.

So our levy was really low.

And we've been

struggling with that basically ever since so you know so and then at some point around I think around act 10 we stopped having cost of living increases for the funding to and once that happened the the span between what what we were getting and what we needed just skyrocketed and then you know you know 16 years of no increase and cost of living it's just it's just

made it impossible.

So here in Green Bay, we have done a lot of hard work with consolidating schools.

The people in our community have stepped up again and again to pass referendums.

I mean, if you look in this room, just this room here, I am looking that way into the auditorium.

That has all just been renovated last year with taxpayer money and referendum behind us.

There's a new addition and beyond that is a new football stadium, right?

This is the level of commitment we have here in Green Bay.

So we have beautiful facilities, but that's referent.

I mean, that's taxpayers saying yes

to

generations that are still not even born, right?

That's wonderful, but we need that per pupil increase.

We need the cash to keep the lights on, basically, and to pay our staff what they deserve.

We're going to come back, talk more about this, so you can see the table.

We're going to add Representative Clancy, who is here as well from the legislature, and we'll have him join us at the table as well, and talk more from the Wisconsin Public Education Network Summit here at Green Bay Preble High School in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

And also, Zomers, we'll try to speak in a little bit of what's worse, a little bit of a

extra fun before we get out of here as well.

And catch you all up and more of the news.

Don't go anywhere.

Farmer update from Pam Yankee and her staff.

News, weather and sports is next.

We'll come back for Green Bay after this on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Now 35 minutes past the hour of three o'clock.

We're live on location for the Wisconsin Public Education Network Summit.

We're Green Bay Preble High School, beautiful Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Zomers, well done.

The iconic music of the now late, great Chuck Magione.

I don't have my notes for me, Zomers.

How old was he today when he passed away?

He was, I just saw

it.

If you don't know,

let's find this.

Well,

yeah,

I believe 84.

We lost Chuck Magioni today, Hulk Hogan passing with age 71, and Governor Tony Evers says he's not running for a third term.

So there you go.

There's your news headlines today across the Civic Media.

But you're probably too young, Zomers, but when I first started getting into radio, like back in 87 in high school, we used to have a program called Music for Dining.

And the thought was that people were still back in 87, sitting down together and having dinner, and you want dinner music in the background.

And so I used to play a lot of Chuck Magione on my first shifts at WRCL and Richland Center.

So well done.

Well done on the on the Chuck Magione music.

Well, let's get back to the reason that we brought us here for the show in Green Bay of Green Bay.

For those watching on the stream, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and X, whatever you want to call it.

There it is, the Preble Pride, the Hornets logo in the back with a beautiful commons area here.

It is a product of the great support of voters in the Green Bay Area School District here and joining us at the table.

We have Laura McCoy, she is a member of the Green Bay School Board and also joining us at the table.

State Representative Ryan Clancy of the 19th Assembly District, Bayview River West Area, a more towards Milwaukee representative, but glad to have you up here in Green

Bay.

to be here and what an amazing school to be in.

Yeah, it really is.

It really is a part of what makes Wisconsin great.

We're going to get back to Representative Clancy in a minute, but Laura, I wanted to follow up with you because it's another indicator of successes in public education.

in a place you know the last couple of elections brown county of the valley as they see up here is tending to be a bit more purple but historically it's voted more red in the republican column but green bay voters have led the way in something called voucher transparency first what is it and why is this important

well um well

In fall of 2023, our school board passed a resolution asking our city council to support us in putting the money that our district loses to voucher schools on the tax bill because as it was, you would see a certain amount that went to Green Bay Area public schools.

Well, that's actually not really accurate.

A chunk of that goes to voucher schools.

It leaves our district and then we turn around and levy locally to our taxpayers for that money.

We really don't have any choice.

We have to recoup that money in order to be able to run our school district.

So we passed that resolution unanimously as a board and we brought it before the city council and there was some maneuvering going on and it got tabled.

So we were like, OK, now what?

So we brought it back this last spring.

We had a different city council.

An election had happened.

And with a lot of work from a lot of people, it passed.

And I think we're the first school district in our city, I'm sorry, the first city in the state who has done that.

Now, a hot topic today at this summit is

other districts and cities wanting to do exactly that as well because if you're going to ask your taxpayers to constantly pony up more money to support their public schools you should let them know what they're losing to to voucher schools and that money leaves your

You have no control over it.

It goes to schools where they don't have the same amount of transparency.

They don't have an elected school board.

You know that money that's taxpayer money going leaving your district and so let's you know we lost about

$12.5 million last year.

That's real money.

And that doesn't even include a charter school that we give a lot of money to, like $1.1 million for a charter school here.

It's a lot of money and taxpayers ought to know that and they ought to be able to see that on the tax bill.

So the city council took that vote.

It was tied and the mayor broke that tie and that that information will be on our tax bill, our property tax bills for the city of Green Bay.

Now our district is more than just the city of Green Bay.

There's a bunch of municipalities around it, but.

Green Bay obviously is by far the biggest entity in that.

So they will have that on their tax bill this fall.

And I'm interested to see the reaction from the citizens of our community when they see that number.

Mayor Gingrich has been on this show before.

I know this is something transparency, something that's important to his agenda as Mayor and Green Bay, just to put a fine point on it, because I think it ties into the discussion we were having prior to our step away for a news update, is that people, taxpayers will say, well, why do they want

money because I'm given this explains why correct because because by doing this as you said literally when they get their tax bill in the mail on a piece of paper it will break down where their money went which hopefully will help people understand look the money you're paying in taxes the school it ain't all going to the school system that's why we have to come back and have another referendum sometimes for either ongoing costs or other needs because you're paying the money but it's not all

going to what you pay for.

Did I get that right or correct

me if I'm wrong?

I mean there's there's a lot there's a lot of factors in it as to why we have to go to referendum constantly but the referendums are coming at a fast pace now and it's all because we need to fill that gap that this that where the state won't step up and fund public education the way it ought to.

And budget after budget, they've been choosing not to do that.

So our districts, the districts around the state are getting, the problem is becoming so acute that those referends are coming at a faster and faster rate.

Now we're going to have to go to referendum next year.

In Green

Bay.

We just passed one last fall.

right

for ongoing costs or

this one will be an operational one which is just money right i mean i don't know

literally keep the lights

on yeah i mean we've done a lot of fine work around facilities um but this next one is good because we're currently operating under under an upper operational referendum but that was for a 10-year period and it's going to fall off next year and we need to go back to the voters again

And at some point, they're going to be like, wait a minute.

Right.

What's going on?

Yeah.

Before we hand it off to our president, Clancy, very quickly, if you could, just to make sure that I'm clear and our listeners are clear, people are going to say, wait a minute.

And she said that our tax money is just given to somebody else beyond our public schools.

It's the Republican control legislature that allowed that to happen, correct?

Yes, absolutely.

The thing around vouchers has been growing steadily over a number of years now.

I mean, public schools didn't get a bump this year in funding.

Zero new dollars.

Yeah, zero new dollars voucher schools did.

Let's bring State Representative Ryan Clancy of the 19th Assembly District into the discussion.

Representative, just move the mic just a tad closer if you could to your mouth.

There we go.

Before we get into the policy of this, as we always do with the new guests, tell us a little bit about yourself, where you grew up, and what led you to the legislature.

Thanks so much.

Yeah, my name is Ryan Clancy.

I'm from Milwaukee, born and raised there.

And the reason that I'm in office right now is that I was a public school teacher in MPS for about 13 years off and on, both as a substitute and then

regular.

classroom teacher.

And my last year, I had 44 students in one of my classes.

I like to think I was a fairly adept teacher to 25 students at a time.

44, I could not be the educator that I wanted to be and that my students deserved.

And then when I was asked to run for office, I realized that I could have some impact outside of the classroom too.

So that's what launched me here.

And how long have you been in the legislature?

Forgive me.

This is my second term.

So yeah, moving into my

third year now, prior to that, I was a county supervisor in Milwaukee.

So let's pick it up on what Laura just said there, because I think this is so important.

I really appreciate you bringing this topic up, because this is a great, I think too often we get caught, I'm as guilty as anybody, and just the bombs, all these people are bad on that side, but once you break it down and explain it, this tells the whole story.

And when people are getting their tax bills, and they, because I'm a big believer in transparency, and you say that, oh, wait a minute,

that was told going to my public schools is being gone as being taken away for vouchers slash private schools.

Representative talk about this from a legislative perspective.

You know I was a Republican for 30 years left the party in 2011 because you know you could say what you want about former Governor Tommy Thompson but two thirds funding even that hasn't been maintained.

for a party.

Wouldn't it be great if the legislature picked up two-thirds

today?

And I'm so appreciative for what's happening here in Green Bay.

It's amazing to see you folks kind of leading the way on transparency because the problems here in Green Bay are not just Green Bay's problems, right?

We have

Every year, the most recent numbers are that over $800 million a year being siphoned out of our public schools and into these unaccountable, you know, non-instrumentality charter schools and voucher schools.

And most people don't know that.

So that transparency is really key.

And the other part about referendums, that is not Green Bay's problem either.

We saw over 400 referendums, 400 just in the last two years.

And these aren't to expand things.

These aren't to add, you know,

new opportunities for students, these are to keep the lights on, and they don't always pass.

So in Milwaukee, where I'm from, our last referendum barely, barely squeaked by, and I was terrified that it wouldn't, but I don't think that Milwaukee's gonna stand for another referendum, and I am really scared about what that means because...

Ultimately education should not be funded on the backs of property taxes.

I think we're in the top five in terms of like the property tax burden on folks.

Property taxes are a terrible way to collect those those monies.

What we should be doing and what I'm going to call for this fall will have legislation would stop paying for education with

entirely and have that be general state aid and raise those things.

What that would do is actually cut everybody's property tax in more than half from $4,200 on average to about $17,600 and all we have to do is tax the rich corporations.

We're talking with State Representative Ryan Clancy of the 19th Assembly District in the Milwaukee area and also Laura McCoy.

She is a member of the Green Bay School Board.

We are live on location at Green Bay Preval High School for the Wisconsin Public Education Network Summit.

Representative, I want to go back to the other legislative side.

My former party likes to talk about, you know, I call it the doggy, but Doge, you know, the Department of Government Efficiency in D.C., and now I think Robin Voss, the speaker, came up with some goofy thing about the Goat or something.

It seems like if you went to the common sense would say, okay, we might not agree on anything else, Speaker Voss, but can we agree that we both, without transparency in our government, why, what's joined together and have a state bill that Governor Evers can sign before he leaves office that requires what's happening in Green Bay to be on every taxpayer's

role?

galling to me that anybody would vote no for a basic transparency measure.

And it's very clear.

I mean, this is the Republican agenda.

It's transparency, austerity for public schools, and it's whatever, you know, the unaccountable, you know, private charters want to do.

And there is a massive double standard there.

And, yeah, I mean, asking Republicans, it makes them a little bit nervous.

And in fact, in an audit committee last term, we were able, when they were trying to just audit public schools to slip in, that they would also, you know, audit not as valid.

charter schools and we considered that a win when it's just good governance to apply the same standards to all schools of transparency of you know basic accountability.

I can promise you that there were there was pushback here in Green Bay and some of the people that showed up to push back were some of the people that were in the state legislature when in the 90s.

and they showed up at our city council and made us took a stand against the transparency on our tax bills.

It takes a lot to get this across the finish line.

A lot of people had some hand on this.

We had a unanimous school board, we had a superintendent support it, we had a city council support it, a mayor and local electives.

Yeah, Laura McCoy, Green Bay School Board Member and State Representative Ryan Clancy.

I appreciate you both.

We really appreciate you stopping by.

Have a great day.

Our pleasure.

Come on back.

We'll wrap things up here live in Green Bay.

Don't go anywhere across the civic media.

Ready network.

you

Welcome back to the Tahleball show live on location at Green Bay Preble High School for the Wisconsin Public Education Network Summit.

Glad to have you along.

Eight minutes before the hour of four o'clock at the top of the hour.

ABC, CBS or James Kelly News, depending upon which of our great stations you're listening to, a weather update with Brittany Merleau and our great sports reporter, Mr. Mike Clemens is just down the road from where we are at right now at Lambeau Field for the start of

Packers training camp.

Clemens is going to be giving you the latest on the Packers.

So stay tuned for that.

And then coming up after that, another edition of the Maggie Dawn show across the state of Wisconsin.

Maggie Dawn every afternoon from four until six.

And then Pete Schwabba will beat it down down the road the other way in our GBW studios here in Green Bay for another graded.

Oh, wait, Thomas Schwabba's in Madison again,

right?

Yes, Schwabba's in Madison tonight.

Don's producing.

All right, Zama, Dom, and Schwabba from six until eight tonight.

All right, very good.

Before we get out of here, another great member of a school board in the state of Wisconsin, this time from the Madison area school board, Nikki VanderMullen is here at the table, and Nikki wanted to give you the opportunity because you came by and said hi, and just wanted to say welcome to the show.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate the invitation.

It's great to be

here.

It's great to have you.

And as it turns out, I know your dad for way back when when I was at Plattville and Bo Ryan was coaching there.

The archerymnemesis rival, but in a good way, UW Whitewater and one of our producers Parker is a graduate of UW Whitewater.

The great Dave VanderMullen and Bo and Dave used to go at it all the time on the court, but it ends up behind the scenes.

They were good friends.

They were, and it was a good rivalry.

It was fun.

It really was.

They were part of what makes Wisconsin great, both of them.

But so are you.

A couple of minutes here.

Give us just your take on this summit here, but also the challenges that you currently face in the Madison School Board.

Very simply.

The summit here is excellent.

It shows a lot of the issues that we're going through in public education, what we need to do, how we need to focus on accountability, especially on dealing with accountability regarding vouchers.

Madison Metropolitan School District has a huge problem with having to fund voucher schools at a 90% reimbursement rate.

While we get now 42%, but that's not some specific, it's some certain, so there's no.

there's no guarantee that we get what we need.

And the problem with that is that as someone who was a special ed kid, cerebral palsy and Asperger's syndrome, my parents had to sue to get me into public school.

Those kids are kids like me who will not get a chance at an education.

My parents could afford to fight.

How many can't?

I just think you're a great role model for kids because too often times, I think that there are certain people in our school systems who are overlooked.

Oh, you know, those people never quote unquote amount to anything.

And we don't take time to realize that there's a real person there.

And so we all, as Robert Roberts' mom said years ago, everybody's got something.

And if we just take time to get to know someone, there's a brilliant person inside each individual.

Absolutely.