Browsing: Government Transparency

How federal grants are depriving us of our money, liberty and trust in government – and what we can do about it. This book by the Badger Institute urges states to push back.

It would seem a simple question to ask of any public agency: How much money do you spend and on what?

‘I have to do a lot of paperwork and spend time testing my kids instead of teaching my kids’

Effort to scrap popular Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is a case study in how difficult it is to reduce spending

Private contractors help states grab more U.S. dollars at the expense of serving children and the poor

U.S. education secretary also plans to give them more say over federal school dollars

Following institute’s story, Gov. Scott Walker asks Department of Public Instruction to resubmit Wisconsin federal funding plan.

ESSA could offer opportunities for state to involve districts in decision-making

School officials make decisions they wouldn’t make otherwise to comply with funding requirements.
By Julie Grace and Dan Benson
September 12, 2017

Grants-in-aid represent more than 1,100 federal aid programs, each with its own rules and regulations.

For close to a year now, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute has been wrestling with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to obtain a report on what steps

More than it used to be, but Mayor Barrett fails to count all the state’s funding to the city or how much other communities give

St. Croix Chippewa agree to fix grants review process.

Managing federal education dollars is costing Wisconsin taxpayers millions and benefiting children hardly at all.

On Jan. 24, 2017, Mike Nichols, WPRI president, and Dan Benson, editor of the Project for 21st Century Federalism, testified in Madison before the Assembly Committee on Federalism and Interstate Relations. Here is a transcript of their presentation.

Institute releases data on the federalization of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

The questions we should be asking, however, are: Why aren’t our problems getting better? What value does the Washington bureaucracy add?

Wisconsin Congressman Sean Duffy is seeking a forensic audit of all federal monies awarded to the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa after 113 tribal members sent him a petition alleging mismanagement of federal grants.

Hundreds of districts in Wisconsin and thousands more nationwide are saddled with the Single Audit of federal funds that feeds a bloated bureaucracy in Washington while adding little or no value to educational efforts.

Analysis: Wisconsin school districts call federal audits illogical, duplicative and burden to staff and taxpayers.