Offfice of Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 4, 2025 Contact: [email protected]

 

Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski to Tour Wisconsin for National Library Week and Mark Two Years in Office
 

Madison, WI – Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski will commemorate her two-year anniversary in office and celebrate Public School Library Week with record-breaking Common School Fund check presentations and reading events across the state.

Godlewski will visit communities in Central, Southeast, Northeast and Western Wisconsin–more details to follow. 

 “As I celebrate two years as your Secretary of State during Public School Library Week, I’m proud to mark this milestone by delivering a record $70 million to Wisconsin’s public school libraries,” Godlewski said. “But this work goes beyond school funding. We’ve modernized a long-overlooked office, increased civic engagement with young people, and expanded economic opportunity across the state—all with the goal of making government work better for the people it serves.”

When Secretary Godlewski took office in 2023, she inherited an under-resourced, technologically outdated agency with backlogged cases and minimal digital infrastructure. In just two years, she has led a sweeping transformation of the office by:


* Completed a record-breaking *"15,588"* Apostille and Authentication cases
* Digitized a backlog of over *"80,000"* records
* Created a new, universal Apostille Certificate
* Began accepting e-payments
* Launched a new online order system
* Launched a new public records portal
* Hosted K-12 civic engagement programs at more than a dozen schools
* Partnered with municipalities to promote local government jobs through Federal Work Study
* Announced a record-breaking *"$70 million"*" "Common School Fund distribution for Public schools in 2025
* Released a record-breaking *"$1.6 million"*" "Normal School Fund distribution for UW-System in 2024
* Financed *"134 community projects"* statewide, totaling more than *"$102 million "*
* Brought together local, state, and federal forestry leaders to advance the future of our forest products industry

As part of her constitutional duties, Godlewski also serves as Chair of the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands (BCPL), which oversees the $1.5 billion Common School Fund—the primary source of funding for over 90% of Wisconsin’s public school libraries. Under her leadership, the BCPL will distribute a record-breaking "*$70 million*" in 2025, reflecting responsible investment strategies and a renewed focus on maximizing impact for students.

“From streamlining services to strengthening civic life and funding future generations, our office is delivering results,” Godlewski said. “This is just the beginning.”

  An online version of this release is available here [ [link removed] ]. ###

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