Browsing: Media

The statewide, uniform use of value-added analyses already being done in Wisconsin is a step toward giving teachers and principals additional tools to meet the needs of Wisconsin pupils.

Report recounts the history of the recall amendment in Wisconsin and explains how utilization of the recall in practice diverts substantially from the original intent of the provision’s drafters.

Investment in young children supports economic development by boosting the long-run productivity of the labor force and reducing public costs.

Wisconsin’s teacher compensation system is outdated, out-of-touch, and not designed to attract and retain top talent.

Based on a 30-year program of reconstruction and assuming moderate toll rates comparable to those on other toll road systems, the study estimates that the entire rural Interstate program could be financed by toll revenue bonds.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a commentary contrasting the tough budget introduced by Governor Walker with the soft, easy on-the-eyes budgets we’ve seen out of Washington.

MPS has a fundamental lack of focus. Instilling accountability will require a structural and cultural transformation similar to the one the Milwaukee Police Department has undergone — one that revolves around measurable objectives.

As critical as competition is in our lives and in the unprecedented success of our country, few of us understand the first thing about it. We don’t know its origins, why it pushes us forward, why some people are more competitive than others or why artificial constraints on competition will stifle an entire population.

The result of antiquated management practices has often been failure of state government to control costs and operate efficiently, according to the study.

In the academic programs of Wisconsin’s public schools, economics and personal finance have a weak presence. Despite the obvious importance of the subject matter, relatively few students take courses in economics or personal finance, relatively few teachers are qualified to teach such courses, and educators generally do not see the situation as problematic.

Study assesses the condition and 10-year needs of Wisconsin’s State Highway System. It estimates the costs of addressing deficiencies, adding new or expanded facilities, bringing the system up to prudent standards, maintenance and administration.

If the governor’s budget forces some administrators to cut back on staff to the point where they don’t have time to worry about political correctness in the classroom or the lunchroom, that’s fine by me.

I hadn’t seen my buddy Ernie in a few months since I had visited him at St. Mary’s.  That day Ernie was sipping ice water through a bent straw looking paler than usual – which is something for a guy who spends his free time either in a tavern or a betting parlor.

Hey, did you hear the one about how Gov. Scott Walker wants to kill puppies?

There could not have been a sharper contrast between the tension in Madison and the calm in Washington, D.C.

As is the case with any extended crisis, the Wisconsin stalemate has begun to create its own vernacular.  Previously familiar terms and phrases are used in foreign contexts. 

It has been 10 years since Wisconsin overhauled an old set of rules for state teacher licensure (PI 3 and PI 4) and replaced it with a new set called PI 34. This report assesses PI 34 in an effort to learn whether it has made good on its high expectations.

Elizabeth Coggs, the new Democratic state representative for the 10th Assembly District in Milwaukee, is against the Voter ID proposal because, she told me today, many poorer residents of her central city district don’t have IDs and would be disenfranchised if one is now required to cast a ballot.

Peter Barca, a usually levelheaded Democrat, articulated what has been wrong with state government.

Wisconsin has much to gain by enacting a constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds majority to raise taxes and fees. Its citizens would be further insulated from a government all too willing to fix deficits with rate increases, and its legislators would need to learn to balance budgets through more sustainable measures.