Leading by heart

State of Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers knows that it’s all too easy to blame failures in the classroom on the skills of the teacher. While not taking away from the significant role they play, he equally knows that other factors weigh in on student success at school.

“It also depends on the background of the child,” Evers tells The CEO Magazine.

“Obviously it’s related to the quality and skills of a teacher, but issues like affordable housing, transportation, healthcare and ensuring their parents have a good job also come into play.”

As a qualified teacher and principal himself, Evers speaks from firsthand experience. The Wisconsin native has decades of science teaching in the state’s schools under his belt, before becoming Wisconsin’s Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2009, an elected position he held for a decade.

Knowing there was more that he could do, he decided to run for Governor in 2018. “I felt the need to have a voice for children at the highest level of government,” he says.

In 2022, he was re-elected for a second term.

As Governor, he describes his role as “connecting the dots” so that everything comes together to ensure the state has a robust public education system. “The importance of all the things that I do as Governor really does eventually impact the quality of life for children in schools,” he says.

“Successful education outcomes, as well as dealing with the issues that surround children, not only in school but in real life, is my north star.”

State of play

He lists a roll call of achievements since becoming Wisconsin’s 46th Governor, which all feed into this vision. “We’ve been able to increase funding for our schools; our K through 12 is receiving more money than they have in the past and more interest in their success,” he explains.

The state has also made significant headway on issues around the climate crisis.

“It’s a work in progress, but the utilities that operate in the public sector are increasingly able to harness more solar, more wind energy and other innovative technologies,” he continues.

Infrastructure improvements were one of the key promises of Evers’ first election campaign, and he’s delighted that he’s fulfilling these commitments.

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“Governor Evers’ collaborative approach engages local leaders, residents and stakeholders to shape policies that reflect community needs, fostering innovation and open dialogue. This partnership aligns with Northwest Side Community Development Corporation’s mission to drive equitable economic growth statewide, creating opportunities that strengthen Wisconsin’s prosperity through solutions tailored to each area’s unique challenges.” – Willie Smith, Executive Director, Northwest Side Community Development Corporation

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“One of the things I ran on – and it has been a pleasure to see this happen – is that we’re fixing the damn roads,” he says with pride. “We’ve been able to utilize both federal and state money to make our transportation system much better than it had been.”

The state’s network of roads has been blighted by potholes and crumbling bridges, but Evers is committed to raising the standard. To date, his administration has improved more than 11,500 kilometers of road and 1,780 bridges.

“There’s a long way to go, but we’re in a much better place than when we started,” he says.

Also in a better place is the employment rate – currently at 2.9 percent, just up from the record low of 2.4 percent recorded in April 2023.

“There’s more people working than ever in Wisconsin, but there are actually pluses and minuses to that,” Evers explains. “It’s great that a lot of people are working in good jobs, but the problem is that we’re running out of workers.”

Training up the community, in particular the 300,000 veterans that call the state home, to ensure they have the skills after they return from service to quickly integrate into the workforce, is another area of focus.

With its effect on so many facets of life in the state, from education to workforce challenges, Evers is also concentrating on creating more affordable housing for Wisconsin’s residents. Enacted in 2023, the biennial budget heralded one of the largest investments in housing in the state’s history – US$525 million.

All of these initiatives combined means there’s a lot of anticipation about what is to come. “I feel very strongly about the state of Wisconsin’s future,” he says.

Out in the real world

One segment that understands Evers bringing the voice of children to government is the business community.

“Firstly because the childcare folks are a business, but also because we have a lot of businesses in the state that either provide childcare on-site for their workers, or they offer some financial support to their workers to pay their childcare bills,” he explains.

Evers works closely with the state’s business heads to the extent that he’s out in the ‘real world’, as he calls it, significantly more than he is at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison.

“In fact, as Governor, I spend perhaps one day a week in total in the Capitol and more time out in the real world talking to business leaders,” he says. “These are the people making jobs for Wisconsin, making great products and generally doing great things.”

He’s also conscious to prioritize conversations with other external partners, including the 12 tribal nations in the state and non-profit economic and community development agencies like Northwest Side Community Development Corporation.

While tourism, agriculture and manufacturing are traditional sources of income and employment for the state, Evers explains that Wisconsin also has a burgeoning high tech industry, pointing to the recent announcement that Microsoft is investing US$3.3 billion in the state to transform it into a hub for AI-powered economic activity.

“It’s important for Wisconsin to be multifaceted,” he says. “It’s healthy for our state. That’s what makes us strong.”