I cannot begin to describe how relieved I was to hear that my governor, Tony Evers, would not be seeking reelection next year. He was, at best, a milquetoast governor who likely let his staff run the show most of the time. No, really: the rumor in conservative circles is that Evers' chief of staff Maggie Gau has been calling the shots. I have no proof of that, but given Evers' totalitarian response to COVID — a response for which he was smacked down in the state's Supreme Court — it wouldn't surprise me.
At worst, Evers was a Leftist ideologue who pushed not only insane ideas like changing language in state rules to replace the words "women" and "mother" with the gross and Orwellian phrase "inseminated persons" (a move he couldn't defend when questioned about it), but also one who refused to protect Wisconsin's girls from trans activism. On top of that, he abused the governor's line-item veto power to put WI taxpayers on the hook for 400 years of tax increases to fund Wisconsin's failing public schools.
And it's that last point I'd like to discuss now, because Evers unveiled the state's Christmas Tree at the Capitol Rotunda, but you'll notice a few things about his post.
It’s that time of the year again. We’re getting ready to decorate the tree in the Capitol!
— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) November 20, 2025
This year's theme is the 'Learning Tree,' so make sure to send in your homemade ornaments celebrating the heroes who help our kids grow and learn by November 21! ✏️🎄 pic.twitter.com/Sei5c21yw4
First, he refers to it as just "the tree" as if we happen to erect tall pines at the Capitol around this time of year for no specific reason. But rather than call it a Christmas tree — that might offend the blue-haired loons in Madison, after all — it's dubbed the "Learning Tree" and that's possibly even more tone deaf.
For those of you unfamiliar with Wisconsin politics, our state has a Superintendent of Public Instruction. That role, ostensibly, is meant to oversee Wisconsin's public schools and hold them to high academic standards. Evers himself served in that role for almost two decades, from 2001 until he was sworn in as governor in 2019.
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During his tenure at the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and his time as governor, Evers has presided over a sharp decline in the quality and outcomes of Wisconsin education. In 2015, testing showed that roughly 43 percent of Wisconsin students were proficient in both reading and math. That dipped significantly during COVID, down to 34 percent in 2020-2021. Scores have risen slightly since, but is only about 47 percent for both subjects.
In 2001, the now-discontinued WKCE test showed about 70 percent of Wisconsin students were proficient in reading and math.
Today, at least one-third of Wisconsin students cannot read at grade level, and Black students in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) rank at the bottom nationally in reading and math. Math proficiency for other students isn't stellar, either. In response to this abysmal news, what did Evers do? He vetoed a bill that would've raised educational standards in the state. Despite these educational realities, Evers vowed to fight the dismantling of the Department of Education, calling it an effort to "sell out our kids."
Additionally, the DPI was implicated in a damning report last month that showed hundreds of state educators were investigated for sexual misconduct while in office, and many of them were able to keep their licenses and keep working in Wisconsin's schools.
Undoubtedly, there are good teachers in Wisconsin who deserve praise and inclusion on this tree. But test scores and scandals show there's a serious problem in Wisconsin's public schools, and Tony Evers has made it worse. So perhaps, instead of this woke take on the Christmas tree, he could apologize for the damage he has done to Wisconsin's schools and leave office in shame.
Because that would be the best Christmas gift: a state free of Tony Evers' failed leadership.
