Rich Lowry shares initial reactions to Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election, chatting with Badger Institute policy director Pat McIlheran.
Taxes in the Badger State are simply too high and too uncompetitive — which is why Wisconsin must consider a low, flat-rate individual income tax.
Sen. Ron Johnson kicked off Badger Institute’s 2025 Speaker Series with a clarion call to fiscal responsibility.
Smarter spending through stronger checks and balances. That’s what’s on Wisconsin’s ballot Aug. 13.
The status quo is on the ballot come April 2. Milwaukee simply cannot afford more mismanagement from MPS.
Learn how the Badger Institute’s policy research, storytelling, investigative journalism, videos and advocacy is crucial to help translate policy ideas into bona fide policy reform.
VIDEO: Watch a brief history of how the Wisconsin governors’ veto power has been used on state budget bills throughout the years.
Badger Institute education consultant Jim Bender, testifying in favor of Assembly Bill 305, answers a question on choice and charter school accountability measures from Representative Kristina Shelton (D-Green Bay).
Beloit families needed better options when it came to educating their children. A charter school, The Lincoln Academy, only two years old, is providing them — even as it works in the underfunded part of public education.
Parents who favor charter and choice schools often do so because they’re better suited to a family’s values. But Wisconsin puts a price tag on family values when the gap between funding traditional public school students and charter or choice students is so drastic. That’s why the Badger Institute is calling on Wisconsin lawmakers to close the gap through equal funding for charter and choice schools… and to celebrate character in the process.
Starting from a deficit…
That’s the reality for Wisconsin choice and charter schools that receive a fraction of the per-pupil funding that traditional public schools receive.
Close the gap and, in the words of Kingdom Prep principal Kevin Festerling, “We could open up five more of these tomorrow. We could say yes to more parents and more students.”
Innovation in public education is a good thing. You can hear it in the voices of students from Pathways High, where diverse needs are met through personal attention and creative collaboration.The state sends a different signal, however — especially when it comes to funding those students. Independent charter schools like Pathways are public schools. Yet they receive thousands of dollars less per student than traditional public schools.
Nancy’s hope is that more schools in Wisconsin would be a blessing to kids like hers. And many schools would . . . if they received the same amount of funding that public schools receive per student. If you struggle to see the sense in setting a student’s worth based on the school they attend, you’re not alone. Education freedom is about funding students, not systems, structures or institutions.
Parents are hungry for schools where opportunity abounds — where kids are taught to lead lives of purpose for the good of their families, their communities and their futures.
Yet, it’s difficult to create that opportunity when Wisconsin students are so inequitably funded. Students attending choice schools are funded at 60% the value of their public-school counterparts, meaning schools must spend time and energy raising funds in order to provide the quality education that every child deserves.
