we'll leave it there. Thanks >> Thank you.
>> The legislature's budget writing committee is on a road
trip across Wisconsin this month. The Joint Finance
Committee, now fashioning the 20 2527 state budget, is holding
public hearings in four cities through the month of April. The
Republican majority will start from scratch on the budget, even
after Governor Tony Evers delivered his two months ago.
One item in the governor's budget that legislators will be
deciding on is money for lead remediation. Evers wants $300
million to replace lead pipes and remove lead from buildings
statewide. Of particular concern. Lead contamination in
the city of Milwaukee. Inside its schools. Here and now.
Reporter Nathan Denzin is tracking that.
>> It's about doing what's best for our kids and families.
Simple as that. >> In his state of the state
address, Governor Tony Evers declared 2025 the year of the
kid. Part of that declaration was over $300 million in budget
proposals that would go towards lead remediation across the
state. >> There is no safe level of
lead exposure for kids. >> Lead is the one. Lead is the
serious one. That really hurts kids.
>> Marty Kanarek is an environmental epidemiologist and
professor at UW-Madison that has studied lead and lead poisoning
for nearly 50 years. >> A little kid exposed to lead
doesn't grow as fast, doesn't reach developmental milestones
as fast. It affects behavior. It causes hyperactivity, attention
deficit, bad behavior, disorderly conduct, lack of
concentration. It affects hearing. It affects speech.
>> Lead exposure affects everyone but children from birth
to about six years old are at particularly high risk. There
are many ways to get lead poisoning. Two of the most
common are from inhaling lead dust from deteriorated paint, or
from lead pipes carrying water. Once the toxin is in the body,
it can be stored in bones for more than 25 years, and in some
communities it can be hard to escape.
>> Milwaukee is like its own state on lead.
>> I think 62% of lead poisoning cases in children are from
Milwaukee. Throughout the throughout the whole state.
>> Ryan Clancy is the representative for Assembly
represents the area around Trowbridge Elementary School,
which temporarily shut down in March after dangerously high
levels of lead were found. >> Really, every almost every
MPs school and many schools across the state were built
before 1970. They almost certainly have lead paint in
them. >> So far in 2025, seven schools
in the MPs district have found a concerning level of lead.
>> That probably is the tip of the iceberg here.
>> Trowbridge was the first to temporarily relocate students,
but three more temporarily shut down after health officials
found nightly remediation work was unsafe. In some instances,
lead paint chips were found within arm's reach of a child's
desk. The other three schools were able to complete emergency
remediation without relocating students. One of those schools
is Golda Meir lower campus. >> My child is a third grader at
Golda Meir lower campus, and on January 13th, we received a
letter from MPs and the Milwaukee Health Department
alerting us that there had been a lead poisoned child. And the
at the school and the source of that lead poisoning was our
school. >> Kristen Payne was shocked
when the Milwaukee Health Department released pictures
from inside the school. The pictures show cracked and
of lead dust on windowsills and floors. Emergency remediation at
Golda Meir was done while children were still attending
class in the building. >> I'm deeply concerned about
sending my child into an environment that is not safe.
>> While Payne says she's frustrated with how school
district leaders have handled remediation, the buck ultimately
stops at the legislature. >> The defunding of our public
schools is sort of a longer kind of trajectory of how we got
here, right? That there just hasn't been adequate money for
staffing. know, even lead paint from
schools are extreme. >> Clancy estimated that a
single classroom could cost up to $20,000 to remediate,
replacing lead water pipes can cost even more.
>> You can't ask a school to sa, how many teachers will you fire
in order to do lead remediation? >> It's not something that we
can defer. And if we do choose to defer it, it will have
serious consequences for our communities.
>> Making sure our kids are healthy physically and mentally
is a crucial part of improving outcomes in our classrooms.
>> Evers proposals can be broadly broken down into two
categories remediation for lead painted windows and for lead
pipes. For window remediation. The governor is asking for $100
million plus two full time positions for a program that
replaces lead painted windows to tackle lead pipes. The Evers ask
includes more than $200 million to fund replacement efforts.
>> You've got not just a classroom. You've got not just a
school. You've got multiple schools shut down. So that
creates creates this wave of chaos behind it.
>> Chris Kapenga is the state senator from Delafield.
>> Number one, there needs to be accountability in NPS because
the parents are upset about it. Local elected officials are
upset about. >> It. At the Capitol. Assembly
Speaker Robin Vos said Evers entire budget proposal is dead
on arrival for the fourth consecutive biennium, making it
difficult to know how much of this funding will be passed.
>> The legislature will most likely just create their own
budget, and we always have. The governor always lays out a
budget and it's his wish list. >> Kapenga said NPS first needs
to figure out what went wrong before the state commits to
sending more money to the district.
happened so that it never happens again. So the new
superintendent of schools should be the one that says this is
important to us. >> Realistically, Kapinga says
Evers entire proposal won't get funded, but he still isn't sure
what the legislature will propose yet.
>> That is a big question that cannot be answered in a
political sound bite, because we haven't done the work yet to
understand what's needed. >> But Clancy and Payne say even
the full proposal wouldn't have been enough to remediate all of
the lead in Wisconsin. >> I'm grateful that there's
some money in the state budget for now, write Evers recommended
budget, but even that's not enough.
>> $221 million just for lead hazard control.
>> So we're estimating somewhere you know between $600,000,001
billion. We should be starting there in the budget.
>> It's just a question of money. Political will to give
the money to do the job. >> Even if the initial cost is
high. Everyone agrees that something needs to be done to
keep students safe. >> This is going to have to be a
priority because we can't educate our kids if they can't
be in the classroom. >> Every dollar that is spent on
that means an improvement in the quality of life for folks all
across the state. >> It's a losing argument to not
focus on lead eradication. >> The research is exquisite in
showing that every little bit of lead hurts kids brains.