This bill requires that the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents and System institutions establish and use only “objective admissions criteria” in making undergraduate student admissions determinations and course admission criteria and requires that institutions publish the criteria online.
I am vetoing this bill in its entirety for several reasons, among them the fact that the concerns this bill purports to address are already addressed under current law—Wisconsin state statutes already prohibit any tests based on partisanship, religion, national origin, or sex in student admissions for the University of Wisconsin System. As I have also said before, I object to the Legislature’s efforts to politicize our campuses and micromanage our higher education institutions. I also object to the Legislature haphazardly mandating the University of Wisconsin System to use only certain criteria in the admissions process that Legislature apparently took no care to even define, much less extrapolate upon, in the present bill before me.
Moreover, this bill would likely have inadvertent but severe consequences for Wisconsin’s workforce and our ability to likewise keep talented Wisconsinites here by arbitrarily limiting enrollment in our universities. In so doing, I am also concerned this bill might necessarily affect non-traditional students, including folks returning to education, service members and veterans, or other individuals who might not have taken a typical path to one of our institutions but who nevertheless are an essential part of our state’s success.
Implementing this bill could severely and negatively impact overall enrollment across the System, hindering both the state’s future workforce and individuals seeking access to the high-quality education System institutions provide.
I am vetoing Assembly Bill 995 in its entirety.
This bill prohibits school board districts or their employees from requiring students to wear face coverings in school buildings or on public school grounds if the student is opted out of the requirement. It also requires a school board to provide a full-time, in-person option for all pupils enrolled in the school district.
I am vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to the Legislature inserting itself into mitigation decisions that parents, educators, and schools have been making together at the local school district level throughout this pandemic to keep our kids, our educators, and our classrooms safe. Having spent most of my career working in Wisconsin schools and classrooms, I know that every school district in Wisconsin looks different—they have different challenges, different class sizes, and different facilities. This is among the reasons why many Wisconsin schools returned to in-person instruction in 2020 and we have trusted local districts, parents, and schools, in consultation with local public health officials, to make decisions about mitigation efforts that make sense for their schools based on their unique needs. We will continue to do so.
Respectfully submitted,
TONY EVERS
Governor
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Communications
April 8, 2022
Edward A. Blazel
Assembly Chief Clerk
17 West Main Street, Suite 401
Madison, WI 53703
Dear Chief Clerk Blazel:
hist159919Please add my name as a co-author of Assembly Bill 17, relating to various changes to the worker's compensation law. hist159920Please add my name as a co-author of Assembly Bill 67, relating to storage and processing of sexual assault kits and requiring the exercise of rule-making authority. hist159921Please add my name as a co-author of Assembly Bill 190, relating to the responsibilities of the Law Enforcement Standards Board and disclosure of employment files when recruiting former or current officers. hist159922Please add my name as a co-author of Assembly Bill 297, relating to traffic violations when emergency or roadside response vehicles are present and providing a penalty. hist159923Please add my name as a co-author of Assembly Bill 333, relating to crisis program enhancement grants. hist159924Please add my name as a co-author of Assembly Bill 960, relating to battery or threat to a health care provider or staff member of a health care facility and providing a penalty. Sincerely,
STEVE DOYLE
State Representative
94th Assembly District
