Browsing: Education

There is a crisis in Wisconsin higher education, brought about by costs and demographics. There are, however, ways for colleges to adapt, overcome and improve — if they’re willing to take advantage of technology and the brainpower already in-house.

If you’re puzzled why progressive commentators seem so threatened by a school choice program with one-sixteenth of the state’s pupils, with 2% of Madison’s kids, and with a taxpayer outlay per child that’s only 60% of what Madison’s government-run system spends to get its certifiably worse results, perhaps our answer lies in the upcoming referendum ask…

Passage of the controversial $252 million Milwaukee Public Schools referendum means hundreds of other districts statewide will get less aid. Madison, Waukesha and Racine school districts could lose $2 million or more in one year, Appleton and West Bend between $1 million and $2 million, and New Berlin, Fond du Lac, Green Bay and Mukwonago at least $760,000, according to calculations made by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

“Below basic” becomes “developing.” “Basic” becomes “approaching.” “Proficient” becomes “meeting.” Tellingly, the category of “advanced,” the result no one wants to hide, stays the same.

Gov. Tony Evers remains silent on the call for him to intervene in the Milwaukee Public Schools meltdown and use his education background to set up a new governance structure.  

Gov. Tony Evers, a former state Superintendent of Public Instruction, has a unique opportunity given his skill set to take charge of the Milwaukee Public Schools, a former MPS superintendent said.

“We could do so much better but we’re not right now because the universities are one-sided and need to have more people to engage in a robust dialogue over what it is that we should be doing. We just don’t have that right now, and I think, as a consequence, we’re suffering, our students are suffering, the taxpayers are suffering, and the long-term success of universities is suffering.”

We live on land that was made free by the more than 1 million Americans who died defending it. Certainly none of them wanted to die, but our imperfect country was given a chance to stick around and overcome its flaws because they were willing to do so.

DeAngelis spoke with the Badger Institute’s policy director, Patrick McIlheran, about the ideas in his book and about the future of school choice both in Wisconsin and nationwide.

Slightly more than 60% of school district requests to levy higher property taxes were approved by voters on last Tuesday’s ballots throughout the state — a lower percentage than in recent years but around the historic norm.

Among 85 Wisconsin school districts seeking tax hikes Tuesday, Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) is making far and away the biggest ask.

Years after the pandemic, chronic student absenteeism rates remain distressingly high across much of Wisconsin in both large urban districts and smaller places, according to figures for 2022-23 released by the Department of Public Instruction.

The lasting damage to children from shutting down schools for month after uselessly virtual month during the pandemic is now so obvious that even the New York Times admits it.

State Rep. Bob Donovan is seeking a state audit of the Milwaukee Public Schools.

The status quo is on the ballot come April 2. Milwaukee simply cannot afford more mismanagement from MPS.

Enrollment in schools run by Milwaukee Public Schools district is now down to 59,200 — a dramatic and larger decline than is often acknowledged in a district that is asking its voters for $252 million more a year in funding in an April 2 referendum.

The number of school buildings controlled by Milwaukee Public Schools that are most dramatically underutilized totals 21, a look at the district’s complete filing with the state confirms.

The children in MPS deserve better. The city deserves better. There is no realistic argument that more money is the solution. To the extent a big influx of cash allows further complacency, it is more likely to hurt.

According to the Milwaukee Public Schools’ own figures filed with the state, at least 20 of the district’s schools had enrollments last school year that were less than half the building’s capacity.

Many — if not most — kids counted as enrolled in the Milwaukee Public Schools miss at least three weeks of class throughout the year. In some schools, nearly all kids are chronically absent — that is, absent on more than 10% of possible attendance days.