On a wide range of different indicators, Wisconsin has some of the largest racial disparities in the nation. For example, the poverty rate for Black Wisconsin children is 36% — four times the rate for white children, which is one of the widest gaps among all states.

It is time for state policymakers to ensure that all Wisconsinites can succeed by reversing policies that contribute to our state’s shameful disparities, and by enacting initiatives that will help make Wisconsin a more equitable state for people of color. Our schools, our communities, and our economy will be better when every person in the state has access to opportunity.

Governor Evers’ budget contained many policy recommendations that would help reduce the wide gap between whites and people of color in Wisconsin. However, almost all of those proposals were removed from the budget by Republican legislators.

This blog post summarizes four issue areas where the Legislature rejected proposals by the governor that would help create a more level playing field in Wisconsin – health care, K-12 education, taxes, and access to driver’s licenses. We also raise a fifth issue that both the Legislature and the governor failed to tackle in a meaningful way – reform of the adult corrections system.

Health Care

Near the outset of the budget process, the Republican-controlled Legislature stripped from the budget Governor Evers’ proposal to expand eligibility for Wisconsin’s Medicaid coverage for low-income adults, which is known as BadgerCare. That policy change would have provided affordable health care to an additional 82,000 adults who often work in low-wage jobs that don’t offer access to affordable health insurance. Expanding Medicaid would also save state taxpayers about $160 million per year.

Expanding BadgerCare would help in a number of ways to reduce Wisconsin’s wide racial disparities in access to health insurance and health care. It would make a significant dent in the number of uninsured Wisconsinites, who are disproportionately people of color, particularly among the state’s Latinx and Native American communities.

In addition, Evers proposed using the savings from BadgerCare expansion to fund initiatives that would help reduce racial disparities. Those proposals, which the Legislature also dropped from the budget, included extending post-partum coverage for mothers, increasing access to treatment for children exposed to lead, and using Medicaid funds to address structural barriers to getting and staying healthy, such as housing, food security, and toxic stress. These changes could have helped to move the needle on improving access to coverage and care for communities of color, but the Legislature refused to fund them.

K-12 Education

Making Wisconsin a place of opportunity for all state residents will require reversing the long-term erosion of funding for public schools. Unfortunately, the Legislature approved only about a third of the increased funding recommending by the governor.

In addition to slashing the increase the governor recommended for special education aid, Republican Legislators eliminated or sharply cut various aid increases that would help children the furthest from opportunity, including kids of color. For example, Legislators substantially reduced the increase for general school aid, which helps level the playing field for poorer districts. They also eliminated the proposed funding increases to expand after-school programs that help students start the school day fed and ready to learn, and to support students as they move towards English-language proficiency.

Taxes

Wisconsin’s tilted tax system is a major driver of economic inequality and contributes to the increasing concentration of income and wealth in a few hands – hands that are most likely to be white, due to a long history of policies that reinforce racism and white supremacy. Governor Evers proposed a broad range of proposals that would help create a more   including closing tax loopholes that primarily benefit the richest Wisconsinites, and increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Homestead Credit.

Republican Legislators rejected almost all of the governor’s recommendations for improving tax fairness, and they increased a tax credit that disproportionately benefits white homeowners. They are using state General Fund revenue to increase the Lottery Credit, which excludes renters (in contrast to the Homestead Credit which includes renters, but which Republicans have cut in recent years). Due to historic and current discriminatory practices related to home ownership, almost three-fourths of white Wisconsinites are homeowners, while most people of color in our state are renters who get no benefit from the Lottery Credit.

Driver’s Licenses

Undocumented immigrants make significant contributions to the state’s schools, communities, and economy and deserve to be treated humanely. But Wisconsin law bars undocumented immigrants from obtaining driver’s licenses, and as a result something as minor as being pulled over for a burned-out headlight can trigger a series of events that results in family separation and the loss of homes and livelihoods.

The governor’s budget proposal removed barriers to licenses for undocumented immigrants, a change that would strengthen families and reduce child trauma. Republican Legislators rejected the change and kept the status quo.

Adult Corrections System

Neither the governor nor the Legislature proposed major changes in the budget for adult corrections, leaving in place a system that has resulted in a black incarceration rate that is among the highest in the country. The absence of meaningful reform was especially noteworthy given that as a candidate, governor Evers campaigned on a platform of reducing the prison population by half.

WISDOM, a statewide network of faith communities that focuses on criminal justice reform and other issues, issued a statement calling the governor’s budget “extremely disappointing in its treatment of criminal justice issues,” noting:

• Wisconsin’s successful Treatment, Alternatives, and Diversion program helps people with addiction programs get matched with treatment instead of going to jail or prison. A study from the University of Wisconsin showed that for every $1 spent on TAD, the criminal justice system saves nearly $2. Yet the governor’s budget provided only a very small increase in TAD funding and even that amount was a one-time increase rather than ongoing funding. The Legislature’s budget includes the same tiny increase.
• Violating the terms of probation or supervision – rather than being convicted of a new crime – is the number one reason for prison admissions. In his budget, the governor did not propose any changes to the way the Department of Corrections uses incarceration for crimeless rule violations. Instead, he proposed dealing with overcrowded conditions by adding new beds at two institutions. The Legislature proposed adding beds in a different way than the governor did, but also failed to address the issue of prison admissions stemming from crimeless rule violations.
• Rather than taking steps to close the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility, Governor Evers proposed spending $8 million for upgrades to the facility. WISDOM describes MSDF as “one of the harshest, most inhumane prisons in the nation. People locked up there can never see out a window, can never have outdoor recreation, and can never have an in-person visit from a loved one.” Instead of taking steps to close the facility and re-invest the resources saved to build safer, stronger, and healthier communities, the Governor chose to “double down on an investment in failure,” in WISDOM’s words. The legislature backed Governor Evers’ plan to renovate the facility .

Conclusion

Wisconsin residents deserve a budget that makes sure the door to opportunity is open for all. To move forward together, we must remove barriers to success that make it more difficult for children, families, and communities of color to succeed. Unfortunately, lawmakers have given us a “business as usual” budget that fails to remove – and instead sometimes even reinforces – obstacles to success for families of color and others.

The budget, designed by Republican legislators and signed by Governor Evers, squandered a golden opportunity to make the sorts of investments needed to decrease racial and ethnic disparities. We agree with the governor that the budget he signed is “in many ways, insufficient.”  We also agree that “we are nowhere near where we need to be, and there is more work for us to do.” So we at Kids Forward will continue to fight for investments to make Wisconsin more equitable: investments in health care, K-12 and higher education, tax equity, protections for undocumented immigrants, and justice reform.  Wisconsin’s kids, particularly our kids of color, deserve better.