MADISON, Wis. — The state Legislature’s budget committee met Thursday to vote on releasing nearly $32 million in funding to the Universities of Wisconsin to help with expanding workforce development programs.

Thursday’s move was part of a bigger deal made in December involving pay raises and campus construction in which Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos agreed to release funding cut from the budget by the end of February if the Universities of Wisconsin scaled back Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) positions.

What You Need To Know

  • The Legislature’s budget-writing committee released nearly $32 million in workforce funding Thursday, which is equal to the amount withheld in the budget approved in July

  • GOP lawmakers estimated that amount to be what was spent on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts on campuses

  • In December, Republican leaders and the Universities of Wisconsin reached an agreement on pay raises, construction projects, and workforce development

  • Thursday’s vote restores those previous cut funds to be used on engineering, health care, business, and data science programs

Democrats and Republicans traded some jabs Thursday over how well college campuses across the state are doing.

“The University of Wisconsin at Green Bay is considering cutting majors in economics and environmental policy, cutting minors in environmental policy and physics; I mean that doesn’t sound fine to me,” State Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, told her colleagues. “That sounds like a campus that is struggling because they have not been adequately funded.”

“They’re expanding quite a bit, and any changes in any sort of programming is deliberate and by choice, not because they are fiscally squeezed in some way,” State Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Green Bay, responded.

The four members from the minority party argued the cuts have been costly.

“We’re allowing these minor political arguments to impact people of this state,” State Rep. Tip McGuire, D-Kenosha, explained. “We’ve already seen people lose their jobs, lose their livelihoods, because of the delays of this committee.”

Democrat members on the Joint Finance Committee listen to debate ahead of Thursday's vote. (Spectrum News 1/Mandy Hague)

However, Republicans, who control the committee, said they have heard plenty from campus leaders trying to “rightsize” their staff amid declining enrollments.

“Do we want to fund the system? You’re damn right we do,” State Rep. Tony Kurtz, R-Wonewoc, said during the meeting. “Is it the best system in the country? It is because of the faculty and all the great people that work there, but there is a point that people have to be very realistic about what is the demographics for our state. Not just Wisconsin, but the Midwest and [the] United States in full.”

With the funds now approved, the Universities of Wisconsin plans to focus on skills needed in the workforce, including engineering, health care, business, and data science programs.

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