Badger Institute

Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction is lowering the bar on academic proficiency. Unfortunately, high school graduates will see that the rest of life hasn’t followed suit. They’ve been misled; they’re in store for a cruel slap of reality.

Milwaukee Public Schools was supposed to start this calendar year with 25 resource officers on duty in district high schools. The requirement was part of the deal to raise sales tax in the city and county. The tax is in place, but the officers are not — despite the fact that schools called police 1,245 times in the 2023-24 school year for help with allegations of everything from armed robbery to sexual assault to felony theft.

VP Kamala Harris’ down payment assistance — a government subsidy of first-time home buyers — would cause home prices in metro areas to increase an additional 4.1% on average nationwide. Research shows the Midwest would see the sharpest price increases.

“Over the past three years, the American Rescue Plan Act supplied $7.7 million of the streetcar’s operating costs. In 2022, ARPA paid for 62.7% of its entire operating budget.”

Could Wisconsin nix its income tax? The state does not benefit from unique sources of revenue that other zero-income-tax states do. The only realistic way to replace lost revenue then is through higher sales taxes. How high would they need to go though?

“Shall able-bodied, childless adults be required to look for work in order to receive taxpayer-funded welfare benefits?” The question was posed to Wisconsin voters in 2023, and just shy of 80% cast a “Yes.” And for good reason:

The value of goods exported from Wisconsin reached a record high in 2023. The total value of Badger State exports exceeded $28 billion in 2023, or about 6.5% of its GDP. The value of imported goods totaled $39.3 billion, according to the WEDC.

Jagler isn’t confident officers will return to Milwaukee Public Schools any time soon. That, he says, is sending a terrible message to members of the Legislature. “They’re going to be in for some tough negotiations in the next session,” he said.

Both Google and Amazon are looking to small nuclear modular reactors to power the technology of the future. Here’s why that’s a big deal for Wisconsin, its developing AI economy, and Gov. Evers’ Clean Energy Plan.

On the developing tension between MPS and Wisconsin’s Legislature: “I don’t think they realize the damage they’re causing here,” state Sen. John Jagler told the Badger Institute. “How are we supposed to make any bargains with them going forward? I’m not going to be fooled again.”