Rightward, ho!
In 2011, it was Act 10.
In 2015, right-to-work.
In our cover story, WPRI President Mike Nichols explains the shift in both the economy and public opinion that led us to this point. He notes that union membership has steadily declined in recent decades, even as public support for right-to-work has risen. In a poll by WPRI in January, nearly twice as many Wisconsinites say they would vote for right-to-work as against it (62% to 32%).
Also in this issue, we have a provocative Q&A with Ray Cross, the president of the University of Wisconsin System. Those of you who have followed the debate over Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget cuts may notice that Cross seems to strike a very different note here (one more open to reform) than he has in other public forums. Richard Esenberg takes a decidedly more skeptical view of the UW in his Culture Con column. As do I in Spring Dispatches.
Speaking of a skeptical view, Sunny Schubert interviews Eloise Anderson, the secretary of Gov. Walker’s Department of Children and Families, who explains her decades-old opposition to Great Society social programs.
And, Dave Daley brings us a provocative look at new policies that limit suspensions in the Madison, Milwaukee and Racine public school systems. The result, says one teacher who talked with Daley about his experiences: “Utter chaos. … It feels like the inmates are running the institution.”
Another example of the law of unintended consequences.
— Charles J. Sykes
Cross purposes
Under fire as he looks to further campus innovation,the UW’s new leader talks of his challenges
By Mike Flaherty
Spring Dispatches
UW uncorks a fine whine
By Charles J. Sykes
Culture Con
The UW’s “sifting and winnowing” is hardly fearless
By Richard Esenberg
Take this money or else
Uncle Sam’s “economic dragooning” of the states has to stop
By Mike Nichols
Families First
Eloise Anderson is a conservative warrior in the struggle to lift people of of poverty
By Sunny Schubert
The right way to modernize Wisconsin’s Interstates
Voters and legislators need to face the need to reconstruct this vital resource over the next several decades
By Robert W. Poole Jr.
Open Shop
Even Democrats favor a right-to-work law that would end compulsory union dues
By Mike Nichols
Today’s Lesson
Classroom disorder increases in Milwaukee and Madison after school administrators unveil a new discipline policy
By Dave Daley
Pro & Con: The conservative debate over common core
Still a good conservative idea. By Michael Petrilli
Wisconsin can do better. By Leah Vukmir
