Browsing: K-12 Education

Facing an increasingly difficult market for hiring teaching talent, leaders of Wisconsin independent schools are developing useful strategies even as they look to the state for some fundamental policy and financial reforms.

Wisconsin’s public school teachers are leaving their classrooms at higher rates than they have in more than 25 years. Here, we present their voices.

State aid represents just one component of public-school financing. Districts also levy property taxes and receive federal aid as well. All the sources combined yield a “comparative revenue per member” — that is, per pupil — figure the state publishes annually.

Wisconsinites should be concerned the state’s growing crisis of disappearing educators — a phenomenon the Badger Institute has been taking a closer look at. Multiple studies confirm that retaining good teachers is essential to school effectiveness and student achievement.

Wisconsin’s count of 421 school districts has been mostly steady for decades, but it’s far below the figures of a century ago, when the Badger State was divided into more than 7,000 school districts.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of education policy revealed a grave misunderstanding of school choice as practiced here — and in the process slandered the Wisconsinites who educate more than 60,000 children.

Nearly 50 years after the U.S. government banned lead-based paint, Milwaukee Public Schools officials have again been trying to cover up or remove the toxic substance that parents likely presume was dealt with long ago.

As math proficiency continues to decline in Wisconsin schools, the Legislature is considering a plan to improve numeracy.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is facing a crisis of confidence after accusations of gutting academic standards, manipulating report cards, slacking on fiscal oversight and bungling oversight of sexual misconduct among teachers.

Vague Wisconsin laws have allowed teachers who are sexual predators to groom children without fearing either appropriately severe criminal penalties or sufficient scrutiny of their teaching licenses, according to testimony Thursday from law enforcement and education administrators.

A family’s huge bet on bettering the lives of thousands of Milwaukee children is moving a step closer to launch as St. Augustine Preparatory School starts taking names for its $104 million north campus in Glendale.

When asked about whether Evers would wave his hand to let Wisconsin taxpayers use a new federal tax credit for education-related donations, the governor slammed the door.

Gov. Tony Evers’ refusal to let Wisconsinites donate to public and private schools by using a federal tax credit is baffling.

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.

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.