MADISON, Wis. — This week, as Attorney General Josh Kaul and Democratic leaders in the Legislature reintroduced common sense gun safety reforms to keep Wisconsin families, schools, and communities safe, Republican politicians moved to deprioritize school safety entirely.
Republicans on the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee last Thursday voted to slash funding from the Office of School Safety, undermining efforts to keep Wisconsin students safe in school. The GOP’s budget cut threatens the 24/7 Speak Up, Speak Out tip line, which has collected over 3,500 tips since its launch in 2020 and helped to keep thousands of Wisconsin students safe.
While Republicans in the State Legislature play games with school safety, Democrats are listening to the will of the people by reintroducing a package of commonsense gun safety reforms to keep Wisconsin communities safe. Democrats’ previous attempts to pass popular gun safety reforms have failed in the GOP-controlled Legislature, where Republicans beholden to the gun lobby instead push legislation to make guns more accessible.
“This week is yet another exercise of misplaced priorities for Republican politicians in Madison,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Haley McCoy. “Fully funding the Office of School Safety and passing commonsense gun safety reforms should be no brainers, but it seems that the GOP is more concerned with appeasing the gun lobby and their far-right base than they are with keeping Wisconsin kids and communities safe.”
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