Policy

Fran has a vision: a better Wisconsin is possible, we all play a role in building it, and any argument that we need to accept less is bullshit.

After a generation of MAGA rule, there’s so much to do to move forward. We know our next governor needs to expand BadgerCare, guarantee abortion access and reproductive freedom, protect immigrant communities and LGBTQ rights, and fight fascism in Washington and at home—but that’s the bare minimum. Fran demands better—her serious, sensible, and achievable platform rejects a system that shovels public money to billionaires and massive corporations but asks regular people to find ways to get by with less and less. 

This rigged game—in which you and your community scramble to survive while billionaires pull down incomprehensible amounts of money—is a policy decision that cannot be untangled by one politician alone. If we want something better, we need to organize for it; we beat the system by building power. 


We make better possible: when we work together, we can live in a Wisconsin where we care for:

Children

Fran is one of the leading education advocates in the Wisconsin State Legislature, with the track record to prove it. Not only can we fully fund our public schools—including special education and healthy school meals—we can develop a universal childcare program that ensures all families have access to free or affordable childcare.

  • Childcare

    The childcare system in Wisconsin inches closer to calamity by the month. Families can’t afford childcare—on average, child care for a four-year-old costs roughly a quarter of Wisconsin's median annual household income—and 48,000 families are on a waitlist. At the same time, childcare providers face rising costs and low state subsidies, meaning most providers struggle to stay in business and earn a living wage.

    Fran’s platform, based on successful childcare initiatives in Vermont and New Mexico, would ensure all families making up to 400% of the Federal Poverty Level (that's $110,000 for a family of four) will be eligible for completely free childcare for all children from birth to age 12. Families making above 400% will be eligible for subsidies that cap their childcare costs to an affordable share of their annual income—vastly reducing the cost of care. A huge increase in subsidy rates means providers can stay in business—and new providers can open—while workers benefit from an increased wage floor, scholarships, and signing and retention bonuses.

    Education

    Where Wisconsin once led, it now falls behind. Wisconsin voters have had to pass hundreds of funding referenda to increase local property taxes to keep schools open—a tremendous sacrifice, compensating for decisions to cut the share of state money apportioned to public schools by nearly a fifth, that fails to yield results. Meanwhile, a discriminatory voucher program means private schools enjoy preferential treatment that keeps our public schools on their back feet.

    The results are predictable.  Budget pressures have led to a 20% decrease in teacher compensation. Rural school districts struggle to keep their doors open, and larger school districts close schools and sell property to make ends meet. Special education is neglected and we are not meeting the health and nutritional needs of our most vulnerable students. Our students, our families, and our communities all deserve better.  

    Every child deserves an equal opportunity to thrive. Parents and educators deserve to be supported and included in their child’s education. Wisconsinites deserve a school system that matches their values: one that fully supports students, values teachers, and gives everyone, no matter their background, a chance to lead a dignified and secure life. As governor, Fran will restore public school state aid, indexed to inflation; close the special education funding gap, and ensure free, healthy school meals and mental health support for all students.

Workers

Nobody should have to choose between paying their bills and taking care of their health or family. As a state representative, Fran authored a bill that offers universal family and medical leave for all workers — including small businesses and the self-employed.

  • An emergency, accident, or illness at just the wrong time is enough to disrupt anyone’s life. For lower-wage workers and self-employed professionals, the consequences can be catastrophic: with no safety net available, every day, people across Wisconsin need to choose between taking care of themselves or their families or making enough money to pay the bills. 


    In 2023, Fran introduced Assembly Bill 1156. It both extends family and medical leave to all workers, including the self-employed, and includes new provisions like three months of parental leave, job protection while away from work, and leave for workers helping family members deal with urgent situations stemming from sexual abuse, stalking, or domestic violence. Fran’s plan also includes a voluntary insurance program that covers wages for workers on leave—meaning that self-employed workers and small businesses won’t go bankrupt when emergencies arise.

Small Businesses

The system is rigged—and small businesses and their workers pay the price. While megacorporations take over Main Street, local entrepreneurs are left struggling to compete. Drawing on seven years running a beloved Madison ramen shop, Fran’s small business plan is designed to help entrepreneurs take care of business and their employees.

  • Small businesses are the engine of Wisconsin’s culture and economy, employing 1.4 million workers; nearly half of the state’s workforce. Yet these small businesses are struggling to survive because the economic deck is stacked in favor of massive corporations that take advantage of an uneven playing field and corporate-friendly tax codes to invade Main Streets across the state. Additionally, limited access to capital and skyrocketing health care costs make it increasingly difficult for hardworking and innovative entrepreneurs to get off the ground.

    As governor, Fran will enact a two-pronged strategy. Through the introduction of a public bank, like the one established in North Dakota a century ago, Wisconsin can offer small businesses access to capital at much lower interest rates than what are available from private institutions—meaning that the small businesses that make Wisconsin a nice place to live, from family farms and cheesemakers to restaurants and mechanics, can afford to grow and meet the needs of their customers. By developing a subsidized BadgerCare public option that takes advantage of federal credits under the Affordable Care Act and complements them with money raised by correcting a megacorporation-friendly tax code, Wisconsin can offer small businesses and workers much cheaper healthcare premiums—because small businesses shouldn’t have to choose between taking care of their employees and paying rent.

Ourselves

We’ll only survive if the people who care for us can afford to live. Fran will push for a suite of bills, including Medicaid expansion, that guarantees fair wages and working conditions for care workers — including primary care and mental health providers, rural hospitals, nurses, and long-term-care workers.

  • Caregivers

    The care economy is the engine of a better Wisconsin. It is the method by which we determine what growing up and growing old look like; the mechanism by which dignity and compassion are allocated. It is literally a universal matter of life or death and its uneven distribution — in which the rich are permitted age and debility with dignity; everyone else is left to die in place; and the workers who make the whole thing run are deprived of wages that let them take care of themselves — is the core question that defines what we want Wisconsin to look like. We take care of ourselves when we demand that the people who take care of us don’t need to run themselves ragged to do it.

    The needs of a large rural population and the needs of an aging population conflict with a system that allocates healthcare by profitability instead of need. As a result, we face a rising wave of devastating hospital and facility closures, unprecedented rates of worker burnout, and sub-living wages for those who care for the most vulnerable. Remaking the care economy is a generational effort, but it begins with strong, simple changes: demanding that a healthcare system that eats up tens of billions of Wisconsin dollars gives us our money’s worth. As governor, Fran will sign the “care package” — a bundle of bills that guarantee fair wages and working conditions for nurses, long-term care aides, and care workers of all stripes. Key to it is both the expansion of Medicaid and the creation of new avenues of Medicaid investment — including an innovative mechanism by which the most egregious price gougers in Wisconsin healthcare must get in line with reasonable standards and the resulting savings are used to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates — ensuring the stability of the rural hospitals, primary care providers, and safety-net clinics our healthcare system neglects.

    Housing

    We can’t take care of ourselves if we don’t have places to live. Whether or not someone can afford to live in their communities is an issue that sweeps the whole state, rural and urban areas alike. Fran supports policies that make it much easier to build new housing — while taking the appropriate measures to ensure that people can afford to live in the housing that gets built — as well as new models of land and home ownership, like community land trusts, that let neighborhoods come together to keep people in homes they can afford.