Browsing: News & Analysis

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.

Admitting students with little chance to graduate helps no one; tying UW System funding to graduation rates would force change.

Litscher: “We’re in a slow creep”

The EITC promotes the expansion of the labor market by increasing the reward to work, while at the same time making it more attractive for businesses to hire.

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

Washington’s grip on state schools continues to grow.

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.

Many Wisconsin high school graduates arrive at college unprepared and end up in remedial math and writing classes, which makes completing a degree unlikely.

One of the rumored top choices President-elect Donald Trump was mulling to head the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was Rob Astorino

We need to rethink how we use the faculty at the non-Ph.D.-granting schools in Wisconsin to improve the lot of the state’s students.

Data show people of all political persuasions also favor a govern local approach to solving many of our problems.

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.

“Our philosophy used to be procure (funding) and then figure out how to use (the money),” Director of Business Services Andy Chromy said.

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.

U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) is asking federal housing officials to explain why grants meant to help needy members of the St. Croix Chippewa tribe may not be getting to those most needing that assistance.

Dozens of families have at times languished on waiting lists for housing assistance, and in 2014 and 2015 federal audits show tribal housing officials loaned themselves housing money without proper oversight.

In recent years, more than a dozen Indian tribes from North Carolina to Wisconsin to California have come under fire for using federal housing funds to treat tribal officials to lavish vacations, gifts and cash advances for personal expenses, a WPRI review has found.

As sovereign nations, tribes are not subject to state open records and open meetings laws as are Wisconsin’s municipal governments, school boards and other boards.
By Dave Daley
September 15, 2016