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Get the latest news and research from Badger Institute
- Metrics show free-market reforms lead to broad prosperity in Wisconsin
- Act 10 becomes a front-burner issue — along with billions in savings, lower costs to local governments, and better pay for excellent teachers
- Political rhetoric on trade poses risks to Wisconsin
- Wisconsin’s burdensome childcare rules hurt parents’ pockets
- The harm of guaranteed basic income
- Milwaukee aside, police ranks recovering across Wisconsin
- Wisconsin: the GOAT of dairy goats
- Justice has gotten swifter in Wisconsin; observers see room for more improvement
Browsing: Media
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.
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.”
Sociologist Brad Wilcox is telling young people to marry because it will make them happier. “People who embrace the core values and virtues associated with marriage are more likely to flourish both in marriage and in life.”
Wisconsin is handing out almost $79 million in federal funds to private businesses to build charging stations for electric vehicles at a make-or-break moment for both the EV and charging station industries.
The Social Development Commission, Wisconsin’s largest anti-poverty social services agency, abruptly closed its doors in late April after the latest in a series of scandals stretching back over more than 30 years.
“Wisconsin presents far different trade-offs when it comes to the adoption of all-electric heat, given its climate and the economic particulars,” said Hanson. “We found the cost disadvantage strikingly large, and it was remarkable how robust the difference was. We hope this helps policymakers.”
What if Wisconsinites were told they couldn’t heat their houses by burning fossil fuels in a furnace, the way about 4 out of 5 Wisconsin homes do now? What would that cost us?
If voters approve two constitutional amendment questions this coming August, Wisconsin would join 34 other states whose governors and legislators have authority over major federal funding allocations.
Free-market reforms are driving prosperity and fostering human flourishing in the Dairy State. This unmistakable trend is evident in state economic indicators from recent decades, a hopeful story that can instill pride in all Wisconsinites.
In both of the two most recent legislative sessions, Wisconsin legislators introduced just over 2,300 bills and saw less than 12% enacted.
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.
At the national level, recent studies show that small businesses are not contracting with the federal government as frequently as in the past. And those that do are becoming more concentrated in a handful of congressional districts around Washington, where rent seeking is the norm.
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.
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.
Separate constitutional amendment on veto power also advances Wisconsin voters will decide on primary day, Aug. 13, whether the state…