Browsing: Reports

Evidence from border counties indicates increased economic freedom encourages prosperity for Wisconsin residents.

Nine policy recommendations for Wisconsin schools to keep teaching talent by correcting the conditions that lead to teacher loss.

Facing a difficult market for hiring teaching talent, leaders of Wisconsin independent schools are developing useful strategies even as they look to the state for 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.

Good teachers are essential to school effectiveness and student achievement. What role does character formation play in keeping such educators in the classroom?

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.

Federal enforcement of cannabis laws in Wisconsin has been minimal in recent years, with only 67 individuals sentenced for federal marijuana crimes since 2017 and none at all in the Western District between 2020 and 2023.

Wisconsin residents report the increasing strain of trying to afford a home. These experiences are borne out by market data showing more Wisconsin residents priced out of homeownership.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has flatly stated that the most pressing challenge currently facing the state education system is teacher retention. Two different analyses conducted by the Badger Institute at a statewide level appear to contradict the DPI’s findings.

Wisconsin’s public schools are losing students faster than districts are downsizing their staff, analysis of data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction shows.

Waiving the work requirement led to an increase of 780 adults receiving FoodShare on average per county per month from 2012-2023 in Wisconsin.

How do other states without an income tax fund essential services? Under what circumstances would this be feasible in Wisconsin?

Adult-use legalization could increase the incidence of disorders associated with cannabis use, including psychosis and schizophrenia, cannabis use disorder, depression and hyperemesis, and numerous other conditions.

The average potency of cannabis products – illegal and legal – is higher today than it was in past decades both domestically and abroad. The current data and research available do not conclusively indicate that such trends are driven by cannabis legalization, but there is initial evidence indicating that part of this trend is being driven by consumer preference for more potent forms of cannabis which appear to be more readily available in legal markets.

Demand for legal cannabis products is elastic, so states must consider this fact when setting tax rates. If taxes are set too high, legalization will not deter users from exiting legacy illegal markets.

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?

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.

Legalizing all adult use is likely to increase the uncontrolled and harmful use of cannabis — that is, “cannabis use disorder” — in Wisconsin. Researchers are more divided on whether legalizing only the medical use of marijuana has similar effects.

The Legislature appears ready to confront one of the primary factors driving up childcare costs in Wisconsin: overregulation. Failing to confront this reality would miss an opportunity to improve the affordability and accessibility of childcare without adding to the budget. Eliminating unnecessary or unverifiable regulations can reduce compliance costs for childcare providers without sacrificing quality — savings that they can pass on to families. Fewer regulations will increase competition among childcare providers, return authority to parents and ultimately make childcare more affordable for Wisconsin families.

Many counties in Wisconsin have essentially decriminalized the possession or sale of marijuana, or cannabis, as it now often is known, and the relatively few people who are charged criminally in other counties are ever incarcerated.