Browsing: Education

Overwhelmingly popular new mandate spurs action from nonprofits Editor’s note: Fourteen years ago, the Badger Institute (then known as WPRI)…

School choice is 41 percent more effective in Racine, and in the rest of Wisconsin, money going to choice is spent 33 percent more effectively than in district schools.

Wisconsin’s district-run public schools had $18,592 of revenue per pupil, an all-time high and more than twice what it was in the school year ending in 2000, according to the most recent figures from the Department of Public Instruction.

There are 541 days until the next Legislature’s sworn in, and there’s plenty of unfinished business

The big picture: For every kid who enters MPS as a freshman each fall and goes on post-secondary education, there are at least two who do not, at least not in the year after high school ended.

“Decoupling” is an excellent way to simplify Wisconsin school choice funding and eliminate choice’s impact on property taxpayers.

Starting in 2009-10, transfers between districts for Wisconsin teachers began to steadily climb. The average transfer rate from 2013-14 to 2019-20 of 4.4 percent was 3.6 times greater than the historical baseline.

If Brittany Kinser wins Wisconsin’s race for state school superintendent, it would be the first victory over union-backed candidates since 1981.

Years after we first reported on daily calls to police from MPS high schools, the Milwaukee Public Schools finally obeyed a judge’s order and placed cops back in the hallways this week.

Wisconsin was one of the lowest-ranked states in a state-by-state index of teacher morale released by the news outlet Education Week in early March.

A Milwaukee County judge lambasted the Milwaukee School Board in a rare broadside aimed at finally getting cops back in MPS high schools.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has flatly stated that the most pressing challenge currently facing the state education system is teacher retention. Two different analyses conducted by the Badger Institute at a statewide level appear to contradict the DPI’s findings.

Badger Institute supports 2025 AB 1, because no matter how lousy our kids’ and schools’ test scores are, it’s both counterproductive and plain wrong to pretend otherwise.

Badger Institute supports realigning educational standards with NAEP, using common sense language for describing the levels of proficiency, and setting higher expectations for our kids.

Wisconsin’s public schools are losing students faster than districts are downsizing their staff, analysis of data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction shows.

Enrollment headcounts of children receiving a publicly funded education in Wisconsin this school year continued the trends of the past 20 years.

The winner of Wisconsin’s race for school superintendent will have far-reaching powers to advance changes and improvements in education.

In the 12 years leading up to Act 10, school levies across Wisconsin rose 72%, compared to 31% in the dozen years after that up to and including 2024.

By the best estimate, the Act 10 reforms saved Wisconsin taxpayers between $18 billion and $31 billion since 2012.

In the 2023-24 school year, MPS schools called police 1,245 times for help with allegations of everything from armed robbery to sexual assault to felony theft.