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John Leiber: “The state superintendent has to be supreme over education.”

Featuring: John Leiber, Republican | Wisconsin Treasurer

Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25

Published December 8, 2025 | Video Starts at 51:10

And because the Supreme Court was interpreting a constitutional provision, unless we amend the Constitution, we really can't create any sort of new oversight of our state education. The state superintendent has to be supreme over education. So I would really, really like to see the Supreme Court overturn that case and get back to a common sense reading of that amendment that just says the state superintendent and other state officials. (51:10–51:14)

CLAIM

Asserts that the state superintendent is the supreme authority over education.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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John Leiber

“I am on the board of the bcpl, the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands. And we invest $1.6 billion of a common school fund.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 05:59-06:09
“We have to give everything we make to school districts. So this last year, we gave over $70 million to various school districts.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 06:18-06:26
“The only investments we could make until about 2015 were in U.S. treasury bonds.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 09:12-09:20
“We have not had a state treasurer reelected in Wisconsin since 2002.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 27:39-27:44
“The state treasurer used to maintain the deposits of all the state funds and do the investments in accounting that was taken away.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 05:06-05:15
“The state treasurer's office used to do auditing for the government for the state government that was taken away back in the 60s.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 05:18-05:26
“State treasurer used to do local government investment poll, like taking all the, the money from the municipalities and stick it in one…”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 05:26-05:38
“The last thing that the treasurer did that was taken away was the unclaimed property program. And that was taken away in 2014, 2015.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 05:47-05:57
“The board [BCPL] was created in the state constitution back in 1848.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 05:59-07:17
“What's left is about 70,000 acres [of state land].”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 07:57-08:01
“We've made about a million dollars last year selling timber rights.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 08:11-08:15
“We are now investing in commercial loans and real estate and equities of all types.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 09:58-10:05
“I didn't vote to make Sarah the chair of the board, but I lost that one. Two to one.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 12:33-12:40
“I voted no to give that town a loan because...our loans are secured basically by land that can be taxed.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 12:53-13:10
“The tax base was shrinking because...when they bought it, it became tax exempt again.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 13:31-13:47
“Every other loan we've done in this program has been 100% guaranteed.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 14:36-14:41
“Our BCPL meetings are actually broadcast live online.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 17:36-17:41
“We also post the minutes on the BCBL website with the audio recording and the written minute.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 17:43-17:50
“The first step is to be a government entity.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 18:41-18:44
“It's a very competitive interest rate, like basically in line with what you can get, you know what the federal rate is.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 18:56-19:01
“There's no prepayment penalties.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 19:08-19:11
“All the interest we make, we send right back out to the districts around the state.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 19:17-19:22
“It's not limited on what you can use for, it's for any public purpose.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 20:01-20:05
“There's what, 1800 different municipalities in the state.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 20:33-20:37
“By state law, they [municipalities] can only go up to a certain amount [of debt].”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 21:59-22:01
“In my entire time here, we haven't voted down a loan.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 22:15-22:19
“We have money, we have a bunch of money to lend out.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 22:49-22:54
“Two of them [state treasurers] ran for reelection as an incumbent and then lost.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 25:37-25:45
“Eric Wilson ran for Congress in the third district in 24 and finished in third place out of three with 8% of the vote.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 28:41-28:53
“There are still split ticket voters in Wisconsin.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 31:56-32:00
“There weren't any treasurer debates last time, probably not this time.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 33:27-33:31
“RPW is basically hands off. You guys look into whatever you want. We'll give you whatever information you want.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 35:14-35:21
“They actually have an opposition researcher now and they had one on a temporary basis once in a while.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 36:26-36:33
“We should be looking to raise money from around the country just like the Democrats do because Wisconsin is a battleground state.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 37:29-37:37
“If we can just get back to equal, we'd be in a much better position.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 38:29-38:33
“The earlier the money comes in, the better and the more useful it is.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 40:40-40:44
“You can give unlimited amounts to the Republican Party, Wisconsin, and then RPW can turn around and give unlimited amounts to candidates.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 43:09-43:17
“The Democrats are doing it that way, is my understanding. They have. They raise money for their eventual nominee and then give it all over.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 43:30-43:37
“A lot of the Schimmel's money came from third party groups.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 44:21-44:25
“The cost of ads are much higher for third party.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 44:39-44:43
“RPW has been working on that. I believe they have. They've actually said that we're working on the stuff in the report that we can do.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 45:51-45:58
“The Supreme Court decided [in Thompson v. Craney] that we can never reform education because the state superintendent must always be in…”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 50:21-50:39
“Unless we amend the Constitution, we really can't create any sort of new oversight of our state education.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 51:02-51:10
“Wisconsin used to be a leader on education.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 51:44-51:47
“We've kind of been frozen ever since then because we're not allowed to innovate anymore because the Supreme Court made a bad decision.”
Ep.32 - Candidate Spotlight: John Leiber for Treasurer | 12/8/25 | Uploaded December 8, 2025 | 51:59-52:07