UW-Madison journalism center and women’s studies major raise some questions — and eyebrows
We had a lot of potential stories to choose from for this edition of Diggings.
First possibility: Unearth the high school yearbooks of each Wisconsin Supreme Court justice to determine if anyone drank a beer before they were legal, ever said something sophomoric or awkward about a cute classmate or perhaps had parents who sacrificed to send them to a so-called elitist private, religious school actually focused on service and values.
Then we realized that the mainstream media were more than capable of doing all that.
So we decided to take a look at the media itself, including the odd relationship between the Gannett newspapers in this state and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism inappropriately run out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The story by former Gannett editor Dan Benson shows just how far once-reliable sources of news have strayed toward Progressivism.
Speaking of UW-Madison, our flagship university is almost leading the country in at least one area: Gender and Women’s Studies degrees. Rachel Horton tells us that the highest-paying industry, by average wage, for the major on the national level is travel arrangements and reservation services.
Count us among those with reservations.
Many other Gender and Women’s Studies graduates in the United States become elementary and middle school teachers. I don’t know if that has anything to do with the fact that girls significantly surpass boys in reading and writing in almost every U.S. school district, but I doubt it helps.
Lots of Badger State kids really do need help. Wisconsin is dead last in the nation in providing oral health care to children who have Medicaid dental benefits. This is an absolute tragedy, especially since there is a simple free-market solution.
On a much more positive note, please read Shannon Whitworth’s piece about a new program focused on teaching about free enterprise and entrepreneurship at Milwaukee Lutheran High School. If the kids would like to see real-world evidence, maybe they should take a field trip to another place we write about in this edition — the absolutely fabulous Sand Valley Golf Resort in Adams County.
Finally, we’re providing an introductory excerpt from our new book, “Federal Grant$tanding.” Our state capital was named after President James Madison for a reason — but not one that many elected officials seem to remember.
Thanks for reading and, as always, please contact me or our managing editor, Mabel Wong, if you have ideas for stories or would just like more information about something other than high school yearbooks.
Read the entire issue of Diggings Fall 2018 here.
