(The Center Square) – Wisconsin State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly said the state’s schools are underfunded and the state needs to step up during her annual State of Education Speech on Thursday in Madison.

She also called the federal government the “biggest schoolyard bully” that Wisconsin schools face.

Critics, however, say that the way Wisconsin schools spend money is a large problem with the state’s education system.

“Dr. Underly complains that funding is 'inadequate,' but the average school district in Wisconsin now has nearly $18,000 in revenue per student,” Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty Policy Director Will Flanders wrote in response. “A class of 20 students represents $360,000 in taxpayer value. Money is not what is holding our schools back.”

The Institute for Reforming Government wrote its own State of Education on Thursday, saying the state received record budget increases for the second straight budget but test scores have not improved.

The state’s public schools have a record amount of staff as the state’s schools are now facing decreasing enrollment but public schools have a lack of classroom teachers in specialized areas.

“The real state of education in Wisconsin is that the education bureaucracy keeps blocking progress, and it’s students and taxpayers who are paying the price,” Quinton Klabon, Senior Research Director at the Institute for Reforming Government, said in the group’s Real State of Education. “After consecutive years of record-breaking investment, parents, and taxpayers deserve results, not excuses.”

Underly went on to say that state legislative leaders are starving public schools to benefit private schools by pulling resources from public schools.

“Decades of insufficient investment have forced a historic number of districts into an impossible situation,” Underly said. “Turning to referenda, year after year, just to survive. All while facing micromanaging from Madison and endless finger-pointing from lawmakers who too often choose politics over partnership.”

Flanders, however, showed that inflation-adjusted spending for public schools in Wisconsin has nearly doubled since the 1970s.

Underly closed by issuing a challenge to give more funding to public schools and see better results.

“This is our wake-up call,” Underly said. “This is the mirror we must face. And we have to ask ourselves: Is this who we want to be? Will we be the generation that looked away as our schools crumbled? Or will we be the ones who stood up, kept our promise, and chose to write a different story?”

President Donald Trump is designating Antifa a “major terrorist organization,” he announced in a social media post Wednesday evening.

The Center Square asked the president Monday afternoon if he would be designating the left-wing group a domestic error group following a spate of political violence against conservatives and Republicans, including the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

“I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices,” the president posted.

On Monday, the president told The Center Square that he “100%” supported designating the group a domestic terror organization.

Consistent with his latest social media post, the president said he would consider designating other groups, but wouldn’t indicate others by name. He said he's talked with Attorney General Pam Bondi about bringing federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charges against some of these organizations and their donors.

In May 2020, the Department of Justice “formally labeled Antifa violence as domestic terrorism.”

‘‘The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly,” according to a DOJ statement.

This is a developing story.

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Political activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination at an Utah college on Wednesday has drawn a renewed call for security measures to protect individuals across college campuses and in public forums. The fatal shooting also raises concerns about freedom of speech on campuses and elsewhere.

Kirk, the founder of the nonprofit political organization Turning Point USA, was killed on the first stop in his “American Comeback Tour,” an event where he engaged attendees on political issues.

“Join Charlie Kirk on campus for a lively discussion of Freedom and America! Don’t agree with Charlie? Great, you go to the front of the line,” a TPUSA social media post reads.

The reactions following Kirk’s death have reverberated throughout the nation, with sympathies pouring in from elected officials across the world.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told reporters on Thursday that she does not plan to host any public or outdoor events in the wake of Kirk’s killing.

“I am deeply concerned for my safety,” Mace said. “I don’t care if you are Republican or Democrat – any elected official across the country – if you are vocal, your life is at risk.”

“I will not be doing any outdoor events anytime soon, we will not be doing any public events anytime soon until we have a better handle on greater security controls,” Mace said.

Robert Sibley, special counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, said Kirk’s shooting represented a threat to free speech on college campuses.

“His killing seems deliberately designed to dissuade people from engaging in that kind of open debate,” Sibley said.

Carrie Lukas, president of political advocacy group Independent Women, said Kirk’s shooting highlights a recent trend of political violence and threats to freedom of speech in the United States that makes her concerned.

In June, the Independent Women’s Forum held its “Her Game, Her Legacy” bus tour that focused on transgender participation in sports. Lukas recalled incidents of vandalism and times when her organization’s events have been disturbed by trespassing individuals or protesters.

Victoria Coley, vice president of communications at Independent Women, said these events are becoming common for conservative political groups.

“There tends to always be some level of threat that our security detail has to look into,” Coley said. “That is something that groups who are center or center right are facing.”

Research from the Cato Institute shows politically motivated violence accounted for 3,599 deaths in the United States between 1975 and today. Eighty-three percent of those murdered are attributed to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Lukas said she will be increasing security measures for future events the Independent Women’s Forum hosts in the future. The increased focus on security might alienate some people from hearing her organization’s messages, Lukas said, but she considers the precautionary measures to be more important.

“The reaction to this can’t be that we stop having public events,” Lukas said. “You don’t want to have to create a bunch of barriers to people attending those events. There’s going to be a lot more reticence to have events of this size, because it's going to be a real big concern for everybody moving forward.”

Lukas said a larger conversation on freedom of speech is important to have in the wake of Kirk’s killing.

“We absolutely have to stay committed to the right of terrible people to say terrible things,” Lukas said. “But we have to have a very clear understanding of what is no longer protest and what is no longer a part of speech.”

Free speech on college campuses, like where Kirk was, remains a contentious issue in the aftermath of mass protests across the country over the Israel-Hamas war.

Students held encampments in public spaces, barricaded libraries and vandalized buildings on colleges. Lukas said this violence, barricading and destroying of property crosses the line of free speech.

“Your right to free speech stops well before you are ruining public spaces for others,” Lukas said. “We can’t indulge and excuse all bad behavior under the name of peaceful protest.”

In an apparent crackdown on protest behavior, around 80 students at Columbia University were reportedly expelled or arrested.

“Disruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policies and Rules, and such violations will necessarily generate consequences,” the university wrote in a May statement.

The university also made a deal with the Trump administration to withhold pulling of federal funds in response to its handling of last year’s protests and treatment of Jewish students on campus.

Sibley said he expects college campuses to be more proactive in allowing students to express political views and hosting events like Kirk’s in the future.

“Colleges and universities have spent a lot of time and effort over the last 30 years telling students about the value of tolerating people with different identities,” Sibley said. “It's time to put that level of effort into explaining why it is so important to be willing to listen to and engage with people who have viewpoints you find objectionable rather than finding some way to silence them.”

“Campuses need to do everything they can to make it possible for people like Charlie Kirk to continue to come to campus and engage with others, and should dedicate whatever resources are necessary to make that possible. Murderers must not get a veto over who may speak on our nation's campuses,” Sibley added.

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(The Center Square) – Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley will run to be Wisconsin’s governor, his campaign announced Tuesday.

Crowley will joint Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez in the field as a Democrat after Gov. Tony Evers announced he will not seek reelection.

“I know what it’s like to struggle, and I know families across our state feel like they’re falling behind,” Crowley said in a statement. “With costs shooting up, we are all getting less, even if we’re making more. As Governor, I’ll fight every day to make sure that everyone in our state has access to what they need to succeed: good-paying jobs, more money in their pockets, affordable health care and housing, and fully funded public schools.

“Together, we can build a Wisconsin that works for all of us.”

Crowley previously said that he was taking steps to enter the race so his official announcement was not a surprise.

Whitefish Bay Resident Bill Berrien and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann, both Republicans, were the first two candidates to announce they are running for the seat.

Crowley was a Wisconsin legislator before becoming Milwaukee County Executive. He chaired the Milwaukee Caucus and the Legislative Black Caucus.

The Democratic primary is scheduled for Aug. 11, 2026.

“As a legislator, I fought to protect the rights of people across our state, and as County Executive, I’ve led Wisconsin’s largest and most diverse county,” Crowley said. “The challenges I’ve addressed in Milwaukee County aren’t specific to one county or one political party; these are issues that communities face all across Wisconsin.”

Pursuit of 12 jurors and four alternates for the trial of Ryan Routh in Florida has concluded a second day, with Judge Aileen Cannon both offering him some praise and enduring bouts of disjointed proceedings.

Routh has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations. Cannon granted his request to defend himself, with court-appointed lawyers on standby.

Prosecutors say the suspect was going to attempt take the life of Donald Trump, eventual winner of the presidency over then-Vice President Kamala Harris, as he golfed on a Sunday afternoon. The Sept. 15 incident came 65 days after a shooter on a roof struck Trump’s ear with a bullet in Butler, Pa.

Security agents for Trump encountered Routh prior to the golf group reaching the area. Routh is accused of raising a rifle, leading to a shot from agents, a short vehicle chase and the suspect’s apprehension.

Security is tight, including federal marshals in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Fort Pierce.

Jury questionnaires have aided the process and Cannon complimented him at one point. He’s also clashed with the bench on asking questions related to politics.

Selections are expected to close on Wednesday, and opening arguments would follow on Thursday. Four weeks are reserved on the court calendar.

Routh is a construction worker by trade from Greensboro. He’s been outspoken on world conflict, inclusive of the countries of Ukraine, Afghanistan, Moldova, Taiwan and Russia.

The Center Square confirmed he participated in the Super Tuesday primaries in 2024 from the North Carolina State Board of Elections website, and in Hawaii’s 2024 elections through the Office of the City Clerk for the city and county of Honolulu.

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The Biden administration spent more than $10 million over three years on a security detail and related expenses for former First Son Hunter Biden after denying similar protections to other high-profile political figures, documents obtained by the Center to Advance Security in America and shared exclusively with The Center Square show.

The security detail for former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, cost nearly $11 million, including on travel, real estate and expensive hotels, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request CASA filed.

The documents from Jan. 1, 2022, to Dec. 31, 2024, indicate that the Biden administration spent nearly $9.3 million on hotels, $1.1 million on air and rail travel, and nearly $600,000 on car transportation and rentals for Hunter Biden's Secret Service detail.

“Due to reports that Hunter Biden was playing a senior role in advising his father within the White House in 2024, CASA filed a FOIA request for information related to the taxpayer resources being spent to protect him,” CASA Director James Fitzpatrick told The Center Square in an exclusive interview. "What we found is that while the Secret Service denied protection to [then presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.], and failed to properly protect President [Donald] Trump resulting in two assassination attempts, Hunter Biden was enjoying a robust detail wherever he traveled, including trips to Nantucket, South Africa, and the Virgin Islands.”

Nearly all costs – 95% – were incurred in California, where Hunter Biden often resided, but also were incurred on expensive trips to the Virgin Islands, Nantucket, and Santa Ynez, California.

“If the Biden Secret Service was truly low on funding and staffing as they claimed in July 2024, the American people deserve answers as to why their priorities were so grossly misaligned,” Fitzpatrick said.

According to the documents, taxpayer-funded Secret Service expenses for Hunter Biden included multiple trips to Nantucket, an exclusive island off of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

This included several hundred thousand dollars spent for a 2022 Thanksgiving trip to Nantucket, including $10,000 on golf cart rentals, $120,000 on lodging with $740 nightly hotel rates; $120,000 on travel cards, among other expenses.

A 2023 Thanksgiving trip to Nantucket cost more than half a million dollars, including $26,000 on ferries, $10,000 on golf cart rentals, $36,000 on Salt House Nantucket lodging, $133,500 on White Elephant Hotel lodging, $198,000 on Faraway Nantucket lodging, $161k on The Beachside Hotel lodging, $60,000 on Nantucket Inn lodging, among others.

Hunter Biden reportedly stayed at the estate of Democrat Party donor Joe Kiani when visiting Nantucket. “Biden and his family have made a habit of vacationing at the homes of donors to the Democratic Party. The president and his family spent Thanksgiving together three years in a row at the Nantucket compound of private equity billionaire David Rubenstein, and rang in the New Year in 2023 at the U.S. Virgin Islands home of Democratic donors Bill and Connie Neville,” The Los Angeles Times reported.

Other trips carried hefty price tags: a New Year’s trip to St. Croix cost $372,000 for real estate property and $372,000 for travel cards, according to the documents.

Multiple trip costs were for Hunter Biden and Melissa Cohen, Hunter's wife. They include:

$18,000 for a two-day trip to Santa Barbara;$10,000 for one night in Arlington, Virginia;more than $170,000 for a two-day trip to Wilmington, Delaware;more than $250,000 on 13 hotels for a Biden family and Cohen day trip to New York City;nearly $650,000 for a trip to Santa Ynex, Calif, for six hotels.

During the Biden administration, CASA recognized “a significant departure from the typical norms surrounding Secret Service protection coverage,” Fitzpatrick told The Center Square, which prompted his FOIA request. CASA, a nonpartisan organization, is dedicated to improving the safety and security of Americans.

Many also raised concerns about Biden administration policies. During the 2024 election season, the Biden administration denied former Democratic presidential candidate Kennedy secret service protection when he was running for president even though both his father and uncle were assassinated. Since then, extensive failures have been uncovered by congressional investigations regarding Secret Service protections, or lack thereof, for Trump, including during two assassination attempts made on his life.

A recent inspector general report highlights even more extensive failures. These include chronic understaffing of Secret Service counter snipers; agents working the equivalent of an additional 24 full-time employees’ workload each year in overtime; and agents missing mandatory weapons requalification testing.

CASA filed the FOIA request in June under the Trump administration and requested records within specific timeframes for resources, expenditures and other information related to travel and security detail for Hunter Biden.

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The Trump administration is cracking down on noncitizens receiving Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program benefits, according to an announcement by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The center launched an oversight program on Tuesday, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to provide states with reports of individuals enrolled in Medicaid who do not appear on federal databases.

“We are tightening oversight of enrollment to safeguard taxpayer dollars and guarantee that these vital programs serve only those who are truly eligible under the law,” said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

States are required to review the federal reports, identify immigration status discrepancies, request information and enforce noncitizen eligibility rules.

Federal law typically does not allow noncitizens to enroll in Medicaid. However, 1.4 million people are enrolled in Medicaid who do not meet citizenship and immigration status requirements, according to data from the Congressional Budget Office.

Some states, like California, Oregon and Colorado have extended Medicaid eligibility to undocumented immigrants, which accounts for the large number of recipients. It is unclear how cooperation will go between states who have expanded Medicaid enrollment.

“Every dollar misspent is a dollar taken away from an eligible, vulnerable individual in need of Medicaid,” said CMS administrator Mehmet Oz.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law July 4, implemented tighter restrictions on Medicaid eligibility including a crackdown on work requirements for able-bodied adults, frequent eligibility redeterminations and increased restrictions on noncitizens.

The move from the health department comes as the Trump administration has worked to share more data on individuals enrolled in Medicaid. The health department first gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement access to enrollment records for individuals on Medicaid in June.

Twenty states, including California, Colorado and New York, filed a lawsuit against the department in July. A federal judge temporarily blocked the health agency from sharing information in those states last week.

“Using CMS data for immigration enforcement threatens to significantly disrupt the operation of Medicaid—a program that Congress has deemed critical for the provision of health coverage to the nation’s most vulnerable residents,” Judge Vince Chhabria wrote in the order.

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While most Democrats are opposed, President Donald Trump’s vow to end mail-in voting, which he says is ripe for fraud, has been met with approval from both an election attorney as well as the America First Policy Institute.

“President Trump should be applauded for leading the charge to ensure that every American's vote matters and is not undermined by corruption,” the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) told The Center Square by email.

“This is not just a policy fight,” AFPI said. “This is a fight for the survival of our republic.”

AFPI is a non-profit and non-partisan research institute aiming to “advance policies that put the American people first,” according to its website.

Election attorney and founder of law firm OGC Law, LLC Greg Teufel told The Center Square that “eliminating mail-in balloting would go a long way toward restoring confidence in our election procedures."

“Mail-in voting has long been recognized as the most vulnerable type of voting for election fraud,” Teufel said.

“Because ballots are not completed in front of election officials, coercion, bribery, and voting on behalf of people of limited competence is all possible,” Teufel told The Center Square.

AFPI likewise told The Center Square that “President Trump is right in saying that our elections will never be secure so long as we have widespread use of mail-in ballots.”

“With rare exception, mass mail-in voting is a recipe for fraud and chaos,” AFPI said. “Other nations recognize this, and many abandoned this broken system decades ago.”

“The United States of America is the greatest nation in the world, and our electoral system should set the global standard for security and transparency,” AFPI said.

AFPI listed to The Center Square examples of the issues of mail-in voting.

For instance, “in some states, one now can apply to be on the voter rolls as a ‘permanent absentee voter,’ which means one automatically gets an absentee ballot application every election,” AFPI said.

Additionally, “reliance solely on mail-in voting may lead to the disenfranchisement of America’s eligible citizen class and could also lead to fraud through ballot trafficking,” AFPI told The Center Square.

“Mass mail-in voting presents vulnerabilities with the chain of custody of a ballot and increases the prevalence of error in states that do not maintain clean voter rolls,” AFPI said.

The Center for Election Innovation and Research did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Trump posted on his Truth Social account Monday: “I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS.”

“ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING, and everybody, IN PARTICULAR THE DEMOCRATS, KNOWS THIS,” Trump said.

The president further said that “while we’re at it,” he will get rid of “Highly ‘Inaccurate,’ Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES, which cost Ten Times more than accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper, which is faster, and leaves NO DOUBT, at the end of the evening, as to who WON, and who LOST, the Election.”

Trump said the efforts to protect elections will be brought about by an executive order “to help bring honesty to the 2026 Midterm Elections.”

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