This week’s Weekly Radio Addresses from Wisconsin’s Capitol are focused on mental health and education. These addresses are available for Wisconsin broadcasters to use as they see fit. Here are the summaries from WisPolitics:
— In this week’s Democratic radio address, Gov. Tony Evers says he declared 2023 “the year of mental health” because of a “quiet, burgeoning crisis.”
He touts his proposals to spend $270 million to improve kids’ access to mental health resources and another $500 million to expand mental and behavioral health services for adults.
He says improving children’s mental health is important because distracted or disengaged kids often don’t finish their homework and are unable to focus on their studies.
“But these last few years haven’t just affected our kids’ mental and behavioral health–but adults’ mental health, too,” he adds. “The state of mental health in Wisconsin is a quiet, burgeoning crisis that I believe will have catastrophic consequences for generations if we don’t treat it with the urgency it requires.”
Listen to the address:
https://www.wispolitics.com/2023/230202demaddress
— In this week’s Republican radio address, Rep. Robert Wittke says a report by conservative non-profit Institute for Reforming Government shows room for improvement in schools on reading and math.
The Racine Republican says the report shows many students are reading below their grade levels. He adds the one-time use of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund funds could be a good way to improve reading, which he says would also help kids learn math better.
He adds the $1.5 billion in ESSER funds could help improve reading curriculums but feels “not enough money is being spent on learning loss categories that the federal government has prescribed.”
“Especially coming out of the health emergency that we had, we all know students are needing more support to get back to where we had them before 2019,” he says.
“These will be things that we will be digging into deeper as we get into this session. We all need to take this seriously, this is not a partisan issue.”
Listen to the address:
https://www.wispolitics.com/2023/230202gopaddress
Find the archive of weekly addresses, organized by the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association, by going to: https://www.wi-broadcasters.org/for-the-public/weekly-addresses-archive/
