Contact: Jenni Dye, [email protected], 608-260-2417

BROOKFIELD – A Republican Senate candidate under fire for drinking on the job is
either forgetting his own voting record or deliberately trying to hide it. In a public
forum at the Elmbrook School District on Wednesday night, Rep. Dale Kooyenga
(R-Brookfield) claimed to have never cut funding for education as a member of the
Joint Finance Committee, and further claimed that Republicans had not cut
education funding at all since 2011 – despite a record of cutting millions from local
K-12 schools and UW campuses over several years.

“After recent reports of Rep. Kooyenga drinking on the job, it’s possible he just has a
hazy memory of his votes to cut school funding,” said Jenni Dye, SSDC executive
director. “If Kooyenga can’t remember his own votes to cut funding from local
schools and UW campuses, how can we trust him to make the right decisions
moving forward?”

As a member of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee, Rep. Kooyenga has
pushed several proposals to cut school funding while targeting more tax breaks to
millionaires and out-of-state corporations. In 2013, he voted to cut $100 million
from University of Wisconsin schools. In 2015, he backed another $250 million UW
cut. And in 2017, he voted to cut $10 million from K-12 schools and shift $30 million
in school costs onto property taxpayers. As a result of these cuts, state general aid
funding for public schools is lower this year than it was in the 2010-11 school year.
“How can Wisconsin families trust politicians like Dale Kooyenga who won’t come
clean about their own records of cutting education?” asked Dye.

“If Rep. Kooyenga won’t be honest with voters and take ownership for his decisions, it’s time to elect someone new. Julie Henszey knows the importance of our local schools and the responsibility that goes along with being an elected official. As a State Senator, Julie
will make sure that our schools are being properly funded and our children are
given every opportunity to succeed.”

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