WI Republicans Seek to Dismiss Public Education Funding Lawsuit
Suit cites state constitution mandate that all children must have access to sound basic education.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, flanked by Assembly Republicans, addresses reporters ahead of a vote on the state budget on July 2, 2025. Anya van Wagtendonk/WPR
Legislative Republicans are asking the court to dismiss a lawsuit filed earlier this year by parents and educators from across Wisconsin alleging lawmakers have failed to adequately fund public schools.
In February, 19 plaintiffs, led by the Wisconsin PTA, filed a complaint against the Legislature for “not meeting its constitutionally mandated obligation to provide all children with an equal opportunity for a sound basic education.”
In an April 13 filing with Eau Claire County Circuit Court, Republicans said the 110-page complaint makes “sweeping constitutional claims against Wisconsin’s school finance system, while asking the judiciary to take over the Legislature’s constitutional role in funding primary and secondary education.”
Republicans cited a 2000 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision upholding the state’s school funding system as constitutional.
“For all of Plaintiffs’ sky-is-falling assertions, the school finance system that Plaintiffs challenge here is the same system that the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld against similar (indeed, mostly identical) constitutional claims in Vincent v. Voight,” the filing reads.
“The Supreme Court reached this conclusion notwithstanding various complaints relating to test scores, school facilities, teacher staffing, and the like— complaints that are materially indistinguishable from those that Plaintiffs raise here,” the filing continues.
The 19 plaintiffs allege the decline in student reading and math scores are tied to the decrease in state funding to public schools over the last decade.
The complaint also alleges lawmakers are breaking the law by using taxpayer dollars to pay for private voucher schools while not meeting their constitutional obligation to fund public schools.
Jeff Mandell, general counsel at Law Forward, representing the plaintiffs, said the state Constitution is clear and it is up to the Legislature to provide all children with an equal opportunity for a sound basic education.
“We filed this lawsuit because families, educators and communities across Wisconsin are seeing firsthand that the current system is not meeting that promise — forcing schools to rely on referendums, widening inequities and leaving too many students without the resources they need,” Mandell said.
Mandell said the motion to dismiss by Legislative Republicans is predictable. And he anticipates it will take several months for the court to decide. But Mandell believes the case will continue.
The Republican request to dismiss the case also included filings from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which represents several individual private schools and School Choice Wisconsin Action. There are also filings from a parent group represented by the Center for American Rights in Chicago and EdChoice Legal Advocates, an Indianapolis‑based organization.
Legislative Democrats say they support the position of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The Wisconsin Choice program has grown over the last 30 years to now include the statewide Wisconsin Parental Choice Program, the Wisconsin Special Needs Scholarship Program, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program and the Racine Parental Choice Program. Each of the four choice programs provides parents more than $11,000 on average toward their children’s tuition at a private school.
This year, about 96,500 students participate in the program costing about $700 million in taxpayer dollars, according to the Department of Public Instruction.
Mandell said the goal of the lawsuit is not to end the choice program, but to provide more funding to public schools.
“Our case asks for no relief, against no changes in the voucher programs or the school choice programs in this state,” Mandell said. “Our case is really focused on how the legislature funds public schools, which is an obligation that the legislature has had since the founding of our state in 1848 and it’s not being met.”
Wisconsin Republicans seek to dismiss public education funding lawsuit was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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