Wisconsin technical colleges would receive an additional $9.4 million in state aid over the next two years under a GOP plan the Legislature’s budget committee approved Tuesday, lower than the nearly $66 million increase Democratic Gov. Tony Evers called for in his two-year spending proposal.
Democrats derided the Republicans’ plan, but GOP lawmakers said their proposal was more grounded in the state’s fiscal reality than Evers’ plan to give technical colleges their biggest-ever boost in state aid.
“That is incredibly disappointing,” Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, said about the Republicans’ proposal. “We’re talking about workforce today. It’s hard to imagine funding that we can provide that’s more directly related to our ability to train our workforce than to the technical college system.”