Wisconsin Right Now

The Green Bay Area Public School District is preparing for a "significant fiscal cliff" for the 2024-25 school year once federal emergency funding for COVID-19 dries up. Like school districts across the U.S., federal emergency funds have allowed districts to realize an increase in funding during the pandemic. Federal money for the district's general fund has increased from $12.2 million in 2019 to $33.5 million in 2022, a 175% increase. Total revenues for the district jumped from $275.6 million in 2019 to $304.6 million in 2022, an 11% increase. But the federal emergency funds are running out. The district is projecting $28.5 million in federal funds in 2023, far more than the pre-pandemic days but a $5 million decrease from the year before. While the district has had an increase in funding, enrollment has declined over the past six years, peaking at 21,937 students in 2016-17 and dropping to 19,828 in 2022-23. Green Bay schools' spokeswoman Lori Blakeslee ...

There’s a lawsuit in Green Bay that accuses the city’s election boss of not allowing poll watchers to actually watch people vote. The Republican National Committee filed the lawsuit Tuesday. It claims that Green Bay Clerk Celestine Jeffreys is partially blocking election observers. The suit says poll watchers can witness people sign in, register to vote, and pick up their ballot. But the suit says poll watchers are not allowed to see voters certify their ballots or return them to be counted. “Jeffreys has refused to afford the public with the ability to observe all public aspects of the in-person absentee ballot voting process," the lawsuit claims. Early voting began in Wisconsin last Tuesday. It will continue until the Sunday before Election Day. "This is unacceptable: Republicans are going to court to deliver Wisconsinites the ballot box transparency to which they are legally entitled," RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement Wednesday. Green Bay’...

Gableman has said he’s not looking to overturn the 2020 election. He’s said he simply wants to find out what happened, and whether anything went wrong. The "Wisconsin five" mayors of Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Racine, and Kenosha on Wednesday criticized the subpoenas from former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Mike Galbeman. But all said they would testify and produce at least some of the documents he’s requesting. None of the "Wisconsin five" mayors who’ve received subpoenas as part of the investigation into Wisconsin’s 2020 elections have said they will ignore them. Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said the investigation is “corrosive to our democracy,” but she pledged to testify for Galbeman in two weeks. “Our poll workers and clerk do an incredible job and they should be thanked, not harassed,” Rhodes-Conway said. "We’re very very proud of the work we did here in the city of Milwaukee,” Mayor Tom Barrett said. “I am happy to discuss what we di...