Democratic gubernatorial candidate and state school superintendent Tony Evers announced plans on Wednesday to cut tuition by 50 percent at all 13 of UW’s two-year colleges if elected.
The proposal would cut the current tuition of $4,750 with the hope to “strengthen our UW Colleges, create a better-trained workforce and make college more accessible to all Wisconsinites,” Evers said in a statement.
In total, Evers expects the plan to cost less than $20 million – an amount he says is more than feasible if current “legislative Republicans are fine with giving 11 multimillionaires $22 million in tax breaks,” referring to Gov. Scott Walker’s most recent two-year budget.
Besides the financial benefit of reducing tuition, Evers suggests his plan would restore Wisconsin’s history of supporting public education. He repeatedly compared his proposal to Article X, a piece of legislation that provides public funding for children between 4 and 20 to attend school.
In addition, Evers pledged to support the “Higher Ed, Lower Debt” proposal into his first budget as governor. This Democratic-sponsored measure in the state legislature aims to reduce student debt among graduated Wisconsin residents by allowing them to refinance their debt like they would a mortgage.
Critics of Evers say this plan is only a means of “scoring political points” while Walker has supported families through freezing tuition for in-state students.
“After voting 21 times in favor of higher tuition and fees on UW students as a member of the Board of Regents, this hypocritical stunt highlights the desperate state of Madison bureaucrat Tony Evers as he tries to score political points," Alec Zimmerman, spokesperson for the Republican Party of Wisconsin told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Evers is one of a plethora of Democratic candidates trying to unseat Walker in the 2018 election.
