Audio file of Radio Address.

MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers today delivered the Democratic Radio Address on his efforts to support Wisconsin’s continued economic recovery with a groundbreaking $130 million investment in workforce solutions and proposed investments in education. The governor also underscored the need for providing additional state resources for areas including education, transportation, housing, and childcare to ensure Wisconsin continues to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic.

Hi, Wisconsin! Governor Evers here.  

A few weeks ago, I announced we are investing $130 million of our federal funds into workforce initiatives to help reduce barriers to employment and get folks back to work.  

That investment includes $100 million to find real, long-term solutions to address these challenges at the local and regional level, $20 million to support job and training opportunities for workers through local employers, and $10 million to help get workers connected with jobs that are available. 

These funds are a critically important first step to addressing the workforce challenges we face in Wisconsin.  

But we also know addressing these problems means we need to make meaningful investments in things like childcare, transportation, and housing—things that are about quality of life in Wisconsin—to support the workers we have and bring new jobs and workers to our state.  

And it also means investing in education. That’s why I called a special session of the Legislature to finish the work they started in the budget by investing more than $500 million in education, including more than $400 million for K-12 and more than $100 million for our UW and technical colleges. 

I know what’s best for our kids is what’s best for our state. Unfortunately, Republicans gaveled out of my special session and rejected my plan to invest more than $500 million in our kids and our schools. 

But here’s the deal, folks: if we want our state and our economy to continue recovering from this pandemic and we want to address our workforce challenges, we need to be investing in our kids and our schools, too—we know these investments will pay dividends for our state’s future. 

This pandemic has underscored the challenges our state faces—from getting our kids and our schools the help they need to be successful next year, to making sure we find long-term solutions to our workforce challenges. 

We have a lot of work to do to make sure our economy continues to recover from this pandemic, and we’re going to keep working to move forward, together. Thank you.

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