State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester and state Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, addressed changes they would like to see made to the UW System budget in a Wednesday press conference.
The legislators took questions from the press after they outlined the Republican agenda for the state Assembly and Senate. The two said their party would focus on education, specifically in the UW system. Vos stressed the importance of ensuring that the money in the UW System’s budget benefits students.
“Part of the things that we’ve put in our forward agenda ... is to make sure that people who are in the UW system are actually teaching, and they’re not using their time for purposes that don’t directly impact the lives ... of students,” Vos said at the press conference.
Vos, a former member of the system’s Board of Regents, said not all research at UW System schools is worth the state funding those programs receive.
He added that he envisions a public education system that produces students going into jobs that benefit Wisconsin’s economy.
“Of course I want research, but I want to have research done in a way that focuses on growing our economy, not on, you know, ancient mating habits of whatever,” Vos said.
Nygren, co-chair of the Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, said he told UW System President Ray Cross the System’s budget request was “the most difficult sell.”
The system currently has a $6.097 billion spending plan. Of that, $159.9 million was used to freeze tuition rates at current levels, according to a June press release. In August, Cross proposed a budget for the development of Wisconsin talent.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said in a Thursday press release that funding higher education will benefit Wisconsin’s economy.
“[Innovation] is what our institutions provide in terms of the people that businesses need to hire and, particularly for research universities, the ideas and the collaboration on innovation that they need,” Blank said.
Other priorities that the representatives covered include the possible repeal of common core, reasonable campaign contribution limits and tax cuts.
