MONROE — The day before a statewide partisan primary, Gov. Scott Walker stopped within the city to talk about support for education and touting the unemployment rate along with Lieutenant Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch.
Roughly 30 people gathered at Alp & Dell Cheese Store Monday morning as Walker and Kleefisch descended the steps of his campaign bus to find a sprawling cheese tray set up by owner Tony Zgraggen, who performed about 10 seconds of yodeling to introduce the guests.
Kleefisch took the microphone to announce that the governor “brought Wisconsin back from the brink” after he took office eight years ago.
“Our friends and our neighbors had all fallen on hard luck at some point it seemed,” Kleefisch said, touting the administration figure of 2.9 percent unemployment statewide.
She said because of Walker’s policies, it was brought down from nearly 10 percent a decade ago. Kleefisch added that when Walker “opened Wisconsin up for business” it was to see business “boom” while still keeping taxes low. Her comments switched to education, which Walker has been emphasizing in this election cycle.
“Governor Walker sees our future through the eyes of the children of Wisconsin and he has truly invested in K through 12 education in a way that I, as a mom, feel truly grateful for,” Kleefisch said.
She said she sat in meetings as Walker worked to add $200 per student to the state budget and sparsity aid up to $400 per student to help fund rural schools. The requirements to receive sparsity aid, which is given as the result of a bill co-written by state senator Howard Marklein, include funding only to districts with 745 or fewer students and fewer than 10 pupils per square mile within the district.
Critics have called out Walker for allocating funding to help ailing districts after previously cutting funding to public schools in favor of funding the voucher program which allows tax funds to be used for students to attend private schools.
Walker argues that the money goes to directly benefit the classrooms rather than the teachers affected by Act 10, a statewide law that removed the public bargaining rights of teachers’ unions. He added that with the additional funding, school districts should have fewer votes to raise local taxes.
“We put more actual dollars in the schools than ever before,” Walker said. “If we continue to make that historic investment, we think even this coming year, you’re going to see a reduction in the number of referenda out there because they’re getting historic levels in the state.”
After Tuesday, Walker will face off against Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers in the November election. Walker claimed Monday that Evers had previously referred to the state budget as “pro-kid.”
“I think the best testament to our commitment to education comes from Tony Evers,” Walker said. “He said his priorities and my priorities are in line. He said that when he wasn’t a candidate for governor, but now … he sounds like a typical politician.”
Walker said he also agreed with the president on tariffs, from soybeans to cheese exports to Mexico.
“The best, most important thing we could is get to where the president’s been talking about lately and that is get to no tariffs,” Walker said. “That, to me, would be the right approach. The best answer is what the president himself put on the table. If we had that, our farmers, our manufacturers, our workers could compete with anybody.”
In the upcoming election, Walker said he can feel the federal government impacting the local electorate.
“I think in this election the national wave is coming at us, so we have to kind of cut through that,” Walker said. “Unfortunately, anger is a pretty powerful motivator. And the left is motivated.”