MADISON, Wis. – In their last scheduled floor period of the year, Republicans in Wisconsin’s state Assembly spent today blocking postpartum healthcare coverage for new parents and advancing a bill that would take even more resources away from Wisconsin’s public schools after decades of local schools being starved by these same Republicans.
“It’s a shame that Wisconsin Republicans used some of their final working moments of the year to take two of the biggest issues facing Wisconsin communities and do the exact opposite of what Wisconsinites have been asking for,” said A Better Wisconsin Together Communications Director Lucy Ripp.
Wisconsin severely lags behind 48 other states in expanding postpartum Medicaid coverage for new parents, and recent reporting details the Assembly’s top Republican Robin Vos’ long and disturbing record of intentionally blocking postpartum Medicaid expansion in the Badger State.
“Assembly Republicans know their chronic blockage of postpartum Medicaid coverage is wrong and wildly unpopular, so they ought to be passing this expansion and helping mothers instead of bowing to their party bosses and hiding behind procedural shenanigans” said Ripp.
Ripp also noted that the school consolidation bill advanced by Republicans today will mean longer travel and higher transportation costs for Wisconsin families, larger class sizes and less individualized support for students, less opportunities for input from local parents, and a devastating loss of social and community hubs for local families.
“The answer to Republicans’ chronic underfunding of Wisconsin’s public schools shouldn’t be closing them, it should be funding them,” said Ripp.
