Continuing the ongoing tuition freeze and increasing state funds to the UW System by $150 million rounded out Gov. Tony Evers executive 2020-’21 biennial budget proposal Sunday.
The funds will increase student services and academic support, avoid sacrificing quality while maintaining frozen tuition, invest in the nurse educator program, hire agriculture agents to aid farmers and expand overall environmental education.
Last year, Evers advocated for providing the children of immigrants with in-state tuition rates, falling in line with familiar Democratic talking points. However, this proposal takes it a step further by including any Wisconsin resident who entered the country illegally, providing them residential tuition rates at all UW System schools as well as Wisconsin Technical College System schools.
Walker criticized Evers over this plan, stating he wanted “special treatment for illegals.” And yet, 21 other states feature the same policy, wrote the Evers administration.
The freeze on in-state undergraduate tuition will also continue into its seventh year after the system built huge reserves from increasing tuition costs annually. However, reserves have grown slim, and the Walker administration’s $250 million budget cut has not made college costs and accessibility any easier.
A third of the additional $150 million provided to the system is placed toward the funds lost in the freeze.
The executive spending plan is the beginning of a month-long approval process. The Republican-led legislature will read through the budget and revise before sending it back to Evers. It’s unclear how much of his original plan will stay in the budget prior to Evers writing his signature.
Evers is scheduled to release his final biennial budget plan Thursday.
