Monthly Archives: April, 2023

(The Center Square) – Regents at the University of Wisconsin say they are worried about the growing costs of attaining a college education, but almost every single one of them voted to raise tuition at the state’s campuses.

The UW’s 5% tuition hike passed Friday on a 15-1 vote.

Only Technical College System President Rodney Pasch voted against the increase, saying those are real dollars that real students are going to have to pay.

“Either they have an account, a savings that they can pull it out of, or if they have, if they have a job, they have to work some additional hours, or they have to go in debt. And we know that debt is a certain problem that students are dealing with today,” he said.

Regent Scott Beightol defended the tuition hike as part of inflation.

“It is important to all of us that a UW education continues to be affordable, but as resident tuition rates have been held flat for the past 10 years, inflation has increased a cumulative 26%, and it’s time to use this operational lever,” Beightol said.

The 5% tuition hike is the first for the UW System in a decade, and is earmarked mostly for raises and university employees.

Regent Dana Wachs said charging students more will allow the university to draw top employees from across the country.

“Now is the time to start taking steps to preserve this institution and preserve it into the future,” he said.

Regent President Karen Walsh echoed that idea, adding the University of Wisconsin needs more top professors and teachers.

“I’m very concerned about quality – and the campuses need to have the resources to deliver on this.”

The tuition increase is not a blanket across-the-board hike. Each campus will see a slightly different increase. For example, tuition will jump 5.4% at UW-River Fall, while only going-up 4.8% at UW-Whitewater.

Out-of-state students will also see a slightly lower increase, and graduate students will see a slightly different rate as well.

Wisconsin lawmakers froze tuition at the University of Wisconsin back in 2013 after years of tuition increases. Lawmakers have warned the university, however, not to move too quickly or raise tuition too high.

Rep. Dave Murphy, R-Greenville, has a piece of legislation that would limit tuition increases to the rate of inflation. The UW’s 5% hike falls well under the restrictions in Murphy’s legislation.

UW students will see the new tuition increase on their bills next fall.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s race for the state Supreme Court is the most expensive in U.S. history, and the conservative candidate says it’s all because of politics.

Former Justice Dan Kelly has long accused liberal Judge Janet Protasiewicz of focusing on her politics, and not the role of a Supreme Court justice, during the campaign. Monday, Kelly told News Talk 113- WISN’s Jay Weber that Protasiewicz is focusing on her politics, because national Democrats have made the race all about politics.

“This is a political drive for them. My opponent goes around the state talking nothing but her politics,” Kelly said. “All she talks about are the politics she’ll bring to the court.”

Protasiewicz has consistently said that she talks about her “values,” and insists those are different from her “politics.”

WisPolitics last week said the race between Kelly and Protasiewicz has cost $45 million. Most of that money has come from outside groups, and in Protasiewicz’s case most of her donations have come from donors outside the state of Wisconsin.

“This race is being watched so closely around the country because this is the first judicial race, to my knowledge in the country’s history, in which one of the candidates comes out and says she will put herself above the law. She will place her thumb on the scale of justice.”

That’s a reference to a Protasiewicz comment to a Madison TV station back in January where she talked about abortion

“What I will tell you is that the [for] bulk of issues there’s no thumb on the scale, but I will also tell you that I’ll call them as I see them and I’ll tell you what my values are in regards to [the abortion] issue, because this issue is so critically important,” Protasiewicz said at the time.

Protasiewicz’s campaign has stayed mostly silent in the last few weeks of the campaign, and has not responded to Kelly’s accusations.

Kelly said voters in Wisconsin will have to decide who they want on the court.

“[Wisconsin voters] still love our Constitution. We still love our liberties that are protected by that Constitution,” Kelly explained. “And I don’t think that she can spend enough money to get [voters] to give that up.

Voters will make their decision between Kelly and Protasiewicz on Tuesday.