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ow much do election-year firewalls cost to build? For the state’s largest teachers union, $1.57 million.
That’s how much the Wisconsin Education Association Council said last week it will spend trying to make sure four Democratic state senators are re-elected – enough, WEAC hopes, to keep a Democratic majority in the 33-member state body.
Although there are 15 Democratic candidates running for the state Senate, and 80 Democrats running for the state Assembly, the latest WEAC report shows that the teachers union is placing what amounts to an “all in” bet on saving just four Democratic senators who are finishing their first terms.
In an Oct. 25 report to the Government Accountability Board, the 98,000-member union reported that it will independently:
• Spend the most – $440,044 – to try to re-elect Democratic Sen. Jim Sullivan of Wauwatosa in the 5th district. WEAC’s pro-Sullivan spending will total $327,939; the remaining $112,105 will be used against Sullivan’s Republican challenger, Republican Rep. Leah Vukmir, also from Wauwatosa.Amazing and something to consider when school spending is discussed.
Olivia Herken: But the endorsement this month from the Wisconsin Education Association Council, or WEAC, gives her a boost in a primary race just beginning to heat up. Here’s how Roys, whose campaign calls her “a dark horse” in the race, received the endorsement from an organization representing about 97,000 educators in Wisconsin: Peggy Wirtz-Olsen, […]
Dave Cieslewicz: It gets even more confusing when we realize that there is no clear frontrunner. Usually, a big entity like this wants to wait for the field to clear out before they back the eventual winner. At only 1% in the polls and lagging the rest of the field in fundraising, nobody would pick […]
Will Flanders summary: Last night, the 2024 NAEP was released for Wisconsin and nationwide. The picture it pains of the state of education in America is bleak, and Wisconsin was no exception. Here is a 🧵of some key results. —— Parents overestimate student achievement, underestimate spending Related: Act 10 Did taxpayer funded Wisconsin DPI Superintendent Underly Juice Test […]
WILL School board elections have a big impact on the day-to-day lives of Wisconsin families. Yet they are decided in the least democratic elections. Today, WILL is releasing a new policy report with a proposal to solve this problem. Spring elections have an average turnout of 28% in the last decade, compared to Fall elections where […]
Abbey Machtig: Of those 13 successful referendums, Madison residents still are paying for five of them. If voters approve two proposals from the district in November that together total $607 million, that number would jump to seven. Voters already have authorized the district to increase its spending limit by $72 millionthrough recurring, operating referendums approved during […]
Arthur Jones II, Tal Axelrod, and Jay O’Brien Learning to read isn’t fair. It comes naturally for some students. But for others it’s a frustrating, agonizing process that, if left unaddressed, can cause long-standing academic problems. Ask D’Mekeus Cook Jr., a fourth grader from Louisiana, who was reading at a kindergarten level when he started second grade […]
The Free Press: Many parents saw America’s public education system crumble under the weight of the pandemic. Stringent policies—including school closures that went on far too long, and ineffective Zoom school for kindergarteners—had devastating effects that we are only just beginning to understand. But, as with so many problems during the pandemic, COVID didn’t necessarily causethese […]
Will Flanders: Recently, results from the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) have caused shockwaves around the country. At least partially-related to teachers’ union-led shutdowns that kept schools closed well past when it was reasonable to do so,[i] decades of progress in scores were erased over the course of three years.[ii] Despite declining scores across the […]
Ben Chapman and Douglas Belkin: Scores released Thursday show unprecedented drops on the long-term trends tests that are part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the “Nation’s Report Card.” The tests are administered to U.S. students age 9. The test scores reflect more than a pandemic problem, with experts saying it could […]
Dave Cieslewicz: That’s an average of about 3.5 times a day or almost once per day to each school. According to a story in this morning’s Wisconsin State Journal the breakdown is 220 calls to East, 158 to La Follette, 170 to Memorial and 92 to West. In addition to the raw numbers there were […]
Mitchell Schmidt: Andrews became executive director of WEAC, the state’s largest teachers union, in 1972. At the time, the association of 40,000 teachers had little involvement in state politics or lobbying efforts. But that soon changed. Andrews was considered a force to be reckoned with in the statehouse halls and advocated for teachers, bus drivers, […]
Molly Beck She said the union has shifted staffing to a “new regional structure,” creating 10 regions to which members belong instead of a centralized location in Madison. Brey would not say how many members are in the union. “After all, our union isn’t a building. Our union is teachers and support professionals who work […]
Mike Antonucci: changed nothing, and Scott Walker is running for President of the United States. In June 2012, it didn’t require a crystal ball to write , “Now that the recalls are over, we’re likely to see a WEAC in a few years that’s no better than half what it was at its peak.” That […]
Mike Antonucci: Financial Status of All NEA State Affiliates. In-depth analysis will follow in the weeks to come, but for now here is the table containing total membership, total revenues, surplus or deficit status and net assets for all 52 National Education Association “state” affiliates for 2012-13 Related: $1.57M for four State Senators.
Good teachers are more important than good teachers unions.
That’s worth noting as the Wisconsin Education Association Council loses membership and explores a possible merger.
WEAC has been hurt by Act 10, Gov. Scott Walker’s strict limits on collective bargaining for most public workers. Act 10 means most teachers across Wisconsin are no longer required to pay dues to a union. The legislation also prompted many aging teachers to retire sooner than planned.
WEAC membership has fallen from nearly 100,000 two years ago to around 70,000, with further decline expected as contract extensions in cities such as Madison, Janesville and Milwaukee expire.
Unions actively reorienting themselves – even in states without Act 10-like legislation in place – are mobilizing teachers around curriculum and instruction issues. That could mean organizing teachers to champion what’s working best in the classroom by bringing new ideas to the school board, or working to get the community to support specific practices.
It means working more collaboratively, and offering solutions.
But collaboration can break down over ideological differences regarding what’s best for kids. Or teachers.
For example, while WEAC has supported a statewide evaluation system for educators in recent years, it has resisted emphasizing test scores in such evaluations. Others argue that robust data on test-score performance can say a lot about a teacher’s quality and should be used to make more aggressive decisions in termination or promotion.
Asking teachers to take a more active role in their union could also become an additional stress.
The conversation covered much ground, but mostly we talked about WEAC’s new reality, and the daunting task facing a union that just lost a huge political battle in a decisive way.
Some highlights:
- Did WEAC make a mistake in endorsing Kathleen Falk so early in the process? “She was a strong and viable candidate,” Bell said. “And we needed to make sure there was another voice in the arena.”
- What does the future hold for WEAC? “Every election has lessons,” she said. “Scott Walker is going to be in office for at least two more years, and we have to figure out how we can work with that.”
- Can WEAC sustain its membership in a post-Act 10 world? Burkhalter said membership was about 90,000 before Walker’s strict limits on collective bargaining for most public workers kicked in. Once all the current teacher union contracts expire and individual teachers are free to choose whether to pay dues or not, WEAC hopes to retain 60,000 to 70,000 of that base, he said.
WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators. Much more on WEAC.
Since the collective bargaining measure was enacted last year, WEAC’s membership has dropped from around 90,000 to 70,000, but the remaining membership became energized by the recall. Union leaders are hopeful that passion will continue as the union rallies around issues such as public school funding. The union is working on membership drives this summer.
“I think we will be smaller but stronger,” Bell said.
Burkhalter estimated 25% to 30% of WEAC members voted for Walker in 2010 while on Tuesday about 5% voted for the governor.
“He really united our membership,” said Burkhalter.
Bell said Walker prevailed in the recall partly because many voters don’t like recall elections and some believed recalls should only be used in cases of malfeasance. She admitted public employees were easy targets for the governor and Republican lawmakers because of generous pensions and benefits, which Bell noted were mostly a result of former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson’s qualified economic offer law that gave better benefits in return for salary concessions to public school employees several years ago.
the Recall WEAC website is live, via a kind reader’s email:
Reforming Education And Demanding Exceptional Results in Wisconsin (READER-WI) is a non-partisan organization devoted to reforming and improving the education system in Wisconsin.
We are facing a critical time here in Wisconsin. Where is education going in the 21st century? Will we have an educational system designed to improve educational outcomes for all children in all income brackets and of all ethnicities? Or will we have an educational system designed to maximize Big Labor revenues, and designed to protect the worst teachers while driving out the best?
Click on the tabs at the top of this page to learn more about the crisis we are in. Then, join us in our fight to reform education. Children can no longer be used as political pawns. Let’s make a real, positive difference.More, here, including the beltline billboard due tomorrow.
Al Shanker: Blekko or Clusty.
Related: WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators, Sparks fly over Wisconsin budget’s labor-related provisions and Teachers Union & (Madison) School Board Elections.
Joe Tarr:The quote has been repeated many times, often by conservatives attacking unions as the bane of public education. Joe Klein used it in a June 2011 article in The Atlantic.
However, the Albert Shanker Institute made an extensive effort to find the source of the quote but failed. In a blog post, the Institute concluded: “It is very difficult — sometimes impossible — to prove a negative, especially when it is something like a verbal quotation…. So, we cannot demonstrate conclusively that Albert Shanker never made this particular statement. He was a forthright guy who was known for saying all manner of interesting and provocative things, both on and off the record. But we believe the quote is fiction.”
The Institute speculates that the quote might be a distortion of a speech Shanker gave in the 1970s at Oberlin College, where he said, “I don’t represent children. I represent teachers… But, generally, what’s in the interest of teachers is also in the interest of students.”
The Wikipedia entry lists other quotations from Shanker that are not disputed, including some that would fit perfectly with the stated goals of READER-WI.
Such as this one: “A lot of people who have been hired as teachers are basically not competent.”
And this one: “It is as much the duty of the union to preserve public education as it is to negotiate a good contract.”
A rural legislator who received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from out-of-state school choice advocates took flak back home for supporting expansion of a Milwaukee voucher program when his own school district is struggling financially.
According to a story in the Sauk Prairie Eagle last week, an aide to Rep. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, had to use a gavel to bring order back to a budget listening session at Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital on May 6.
Marklein, a freshman Republican legislator, was asked if campaign contributions were influencing his support for two pieces of recent school choice legislation which provide public tax dollars for families to spend in private schools in Milwaukee. This, at the same time that the River Valley School District, which Marklein represents, has been forced to cut programs and staff and is facing more cuts in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget.Related: WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators by Steven Walters:
How much do election-year firewalls cost to build? For the state’s largest teachers union, $1.57 million.
That’s how much the Wisconsin Education Association Council said last week it will spend trying to make sure four Democratic state senators are re-elected – enough, WEAC hopes, to keep a Democratic majority in the 33-member state body.
Although there are 15 Democratic candidates running for the state Senate, and 80 Democrats running for the state Assembly, the latest WEAC report shows that the teachers union is placing what amounts to an “all in” bet on saving just four Democratic senators who are finishing their first terms.Wisconsin Teachers Union Tops Lobbying Expenditures in 2009, more than Double #2
The 14 Wisconsin Democratic senators who fled to Illinois share more than just political sympathy with the public employees and unions targeted by Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill.
The Senate Democrats count on those in the public sector as a key funding source for their campaigns.
In fact, nearly one out of every five dollars raised by those Democratic senators in the past two election cycles came from public employees, such as teachers and firefighters, and their unions, a Journal Sentinel analysis of campaign records shows.
“It’s very simple,” said Richard Abelson, executive director of District Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “We have interests, and because of that, we attempt to support candidates who support our interests. It’s pretty hard to find Republicans who support our interests these days.”
Critics of Walker’s budget-repair bill say it would mean less union money for Democrats. That’s because the legislation would end automatic payroll deductions for dues and would allow public employees to opt out of belonging to a union.
Erin Gretzinger: The district “had identified early on, for the thousands of people who now live there, that there would be a school in that area. Here we are, 25 years later, with nothing there,” Gothard said at a November School Board meeting. “Part of our impetus for doing this work is to avoid ever […]
JMann: The “Mississippi Miracle” – the transformation of one of the country’s worst school systems into one of the best – was more of a marathon than a sprint, insiders say. Three people involved in education in Mississippi discussed how the state changed its policies and practices over time to dramatically improve results. “The story […]
Blaise Mesa: Wisconsin students have struggled to recover since the pandemic, leaving the state ranked toward the bottom for academic growth in math and reading, a new report says. The state ranks 33rd out of 38 states in math and 30th out of 35 states in reading, according to the Education Scorecard. The report, released annually, […]
Claire Cain Miller, Francesca Paris, Sarah Mervosh: The drops in U.S. scores go beyond the pandemic and cut across income, geographic and racial divides, new data shows. Something troubling is happening in U.S. education. Almost everywhere in America, students are performing worse than their peers were 10 years ago, according to new, district-level test score […]
Nicholas Bagley, Robert Gordon: The left has two competing impulses: Expand high-quality government services and embrace the public sector union agenda. But those two impulses are in tension with one another — and too many Democrats are in denial about that. At its core, the problem is that public sector unions generally fight to minimize […]
Larry Sand: States are starting to push back against the extensive perks granted to the teachers’ unions. A May 4 Wall Street Journal editorial argues that the single biggest problem in state governance is the “political dominance of public-sector unions.” These include the SEIU, AFSCME, and, notably, the teachers’ unions. But now, several red states are pursuing […]
Natalie Eilbert: The period of academic prosperity, as Kahloon notes in his October article, was 2000 to 2007. That window corresponds with then-President George W. Bush’s controversial No Child Left Behind law, which set higher standards for education and used test scores as the measuring stick for academic progress. It also captures the last generation […]
Dave Cieslewicz: Conservative Republican Sen. Steve Nass, points out correctly that this is still more dollars going into public schools with no requirement for better results. But Madison senator and gubernatorial candidate Kelda Roys also blasted the deal as irresponsible and she has been endorsed by the state’s largest teachers union. She wouldn’t have made […]
Erin Gretzinger But between the years where scores jumped, the state Department of Public Instruction adjusted testing benchmarks and lowered the threshold to score proficient. The number of students reading and writing proficiently statewide went from 39% to 51%. The department cautions the public against comparing test scores before and after the change because the results “cannot be […]
Jenny Peek: The gravity of Madison’s literacy crisis didn’t come into focus for Patterson until she became a literacy teacher leader with the Madison Metropolitan School District; before that she had been teaching fourth and fifth grade for 15 years. “You kind of know as a teacher but once you have an admin-type view you […]
Michael Ford In communities across the United States, citizens are paying a hidden tax. No, it is not some new fee or utility hike. It is the cost of local government dysfunction. Here in Wisconsin, historically known as a good-government state, news headlines contain stories of local city councils and school boards plagued by infighting, […]
Matt Barnum: Cecilia Lopez Alvarado was scrolling through Reddit one evening in her dorm room when she came across a thread about students at the University of California San Diego who struggled with basic math. A report had warned of an alarming decline in students’ math skills at UCSD, a highly selective university. It drew international headlines […]
Erin Gretzinger The Madison school district unveiled its proposal for a new cell phone policy at a School Board meeting Monday, recommending an all-day ban for students in grades K-8 while allowing more leniency for high school students to use their phones during passing time and lunch periods. At the meeting, some School Board members expressed trepidations […]
Tyler Cowen Summary: Often what is on the phone is in fact more interesting and sometimes more instructive as well, even if the students do worse in terms of the standards set by the school. Have online worlds become the last free places for children? Eli Stark-Elster: Major public intellectuals and politicians have responded by […]
Karen Vaites, Curriculum Insight Project: An important “Science of Reading Progress Report” just dropped from Fordham. It’s full of lessons on the state of reading instruction. I’ll start with the ones that people aren’t (yet) talking about. Curriculum advocates encourage the use of curricula which are “educative,” meaning they incorporate professional learning for teachers, and/or model good […]
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.Michael J. Petrilli Formal reading instruction in the United States predates our nation’s founding. Published in the 1680s, The New England Primer—the nation’s first major schoolbook—included spelling and sounding-out exercises that modern science of reading advocates would readily identify as early phonics instruction. But it was the late nineteenth-century psychologist Edmund Huey who […]
Anna Stokke: People often ask me how I became involved in math education, and why I so often call out poor practice and insist on evidence. As with many of us, it’s personal. We sent our daughter to school expecting she’d be taught math. After all, that’s what schools do: they teach kids how to […]
Patrick Mcilheran: That Jill Underly was elected—and in an election structured to guarantee union control of the outcome—poses a big problem for oversight by the people’s legitimate representatives. Where was DPI Supt when she skipped a public hearing on April 15 on her department’s standards-setting conference in the Dells? This is the level of transparency […]
Asra Nomani, Preston Mizell, Michael DorganMay 1, 2026 Teachers plan May Day walkouts nationwide, igniting debate ‘Outnumbered’ discusses teachers planning May Day walkouts nationwide, sparking a debate about the impact on students. The panel debates the political motivations behind protests against President Donald Trump’s policies, and the implications for declining student academic performance in cities […]
Early Literacy Screener Map. More. Act 20. 3,887 Madison 4 year old to third grade students scored lower than 75% of the students in the national comparison group. Madison taxpayers have long supported far above average k-12 tax & $pending. This despite our long term, disastrous reading results. Madison Schools: More $, No Accountability The taxpayer funded Madison […]
Erin Gretzinger: In Caire and his team’s view, One City and other charter schools are more accountable than traditional public schools given the specific academic goals and other stipulations in their charter contracts. Wittke, the Republican lawmaker, said One City’s lobbying wasn’t a factor in his support for funding demonstration charter schools. “I don’t care […]
Dave Cieslewicz: Shortly after those taxpayers voted to pony up a record $607 million in school spending increases, the district blew $100,000 on a new marketing campaign including a new MMSD logo — to add insult to injury that money was paid to an outstate consulting firm. Then the school board voted themselves a massive […]
Bloomberg: Most students in the US aren’t proficient in reading or math — but you wouldn’t know it by looking at their report cards. Four out of 5 parents say their children are getting B’s or higher. Test scores, meanwhile, have hit multiyear lows. According to one study, 60% of grades don’t match standardized assessments. […]
Andrew Mark Miller According to research from Defending Education, national teachers unions alone have directed roughly $669 million toward left-wing political groups, advocacy organizations and campaigns since 2015. When state and local affiliates are included, that figure balloons to more than $1 billion in total political spending. The reports track spending from the two largest unions, the National Education […]
Erin Gretzinger: “I don’t know when, where or what age — but there is interest in the city, in this region, right now that we have to think is going to produce more children with the kind of growth that’s being projected,” Superintendent Joe Gothard said in an interview this year. The new projections from MGT, a […]
Will Flanders: In Madison, less than 40% of students can read proficiently using the most recent legitimate data. Perhaps it’s not surprising that the union would shut down schools for a day for politics given their history of supporting COVID shutdowns—doing immeasurable harm to a generation SCOOP: The Madison Metropolitan School District (@MMSDschools) in Wisconsin […]
Dad29 In the Good Old Days of the mid- ’70’s, a “very generous” benefit plan cost about 33% of payroll dollars. IOW, for every dollar one was paid, another 33 cents were paid by the employer in benefit costs: the Social Security tax, health insurance, pension, unemployment comp, disability, etc., etc. Those numbers were common […]
Quinton Klabon: 1 of the main reasons Milwaukee Public Schools is among Wisconsin’s and America’s lowest-performing districts is that Milwaukee banishes superintendents who try to address root problems. May God help us if it happens again. more. We’ve now updated this story with total cost savings estimates, per bargaining documents. For union workers, specifically, delaying […]
David Blaska: We wanted Ray Mendez to run for school board this year but he has more sense than that. No entity in local government more needs a disrupter than the Metropolitan Madison Board of Education. We introduced the gentleman to Werkes readers in November 2025. Mr. Mendez picks up on a platform this on-line scribbler […]
Neetu Arnold In recent months, leaders in several cities and states have touted their schools’ sky-high graduation rates. Such figures usually justify celebration—but not when state exams and standardized test scores show weak results. Praising high graduation rates could mislead families about what their kids really know, setting them up for unpleasant surprises later in […]
Washington Post: But the support staff union’s concerns weren’t about education at all. Its negotiators wanted the district to give them more work hours, hire fewer nonunion subcontractors and rescind a previous layoff of tech workers. This left families wondering whether their kids would be able to go to school as the district haggled over […]
Molly Beck: Guv race news: WEAC, the state’s largest teachers union, endorses Democratic state Sen. Kelda Roys for governor. —— A bit of history: WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators ——— Fast Lane Literacy 1998! Money and school performance. A.B.T.: “Ain’t been taught.” 3888 (!) Madison 4k to 3rd grade students scored lower than 75% of the students […]
WILL: The Wisconsin Constitution grants the Legislature the authority to determine education policy and to effectuate school funding and charges the Superintendent of Public Instruction with the task of supervising public instruction, not the judicial branch. Moreover, the Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s Choice Programs 30 years ago. The Quote: WILL Deputy Counsel, […]
Karen Vaites: A recent study “compared trends before and after dyslexia laws were enacted across 47 states, ” and the findings were grim: “First, more than half of the states with these new laws showed no significant shift in identifying learning disabilities related to reading. Some states identified more students, some fewer, but there was no consistent […]
Teagan King: The programs are shuttering at the end of this school year, the district confirmed Monday, after President Donald Trump’s administration cut funding for AmeriCorps initiatives like United Way’s Schools of Hope last year. “We are deeply grateful to United Way of Dane County, as well as the many volunteers who have supported our […]
Rachel Canter: No story has caught the imagination of education reformers this decade quite like the “Mississippi miracle.” From 1998 to 2024, fourth-grade reading and math scores in my home state—the nation’s poorest—rose from among the worst in the country to among the best. When adjusting for demographic factors such as poverty, we’re in first place. Other states […]
Erin Gretzinger: Blair Mosner Feltham and Nicki Vander Meulen will retain their seats on the Madison School Board, defeating challengers Daniella Molle and Dana Colussi-Lynde in two contested races Tuesday. In the Seat 6 election, Mosner Feltham, a teacher in the Sun Prairie Area School District, received 61.8% of the vote with 100% of precincts […]
By Paul Ciotti: For decades critics of the public schools have been saying, “You can’t solve educational problems by throwing money at them.” The education establishment and its supporters have replied, “No one’s ever tried.” In Kansas City they did try. To improve the education of black students and encourage desegregation, a federal judge invited […]
IRG link: 25% of Wisconsin college students fail the FORT Foundations of Reading Test. While the Universities of Wisconsin has said they are complying with reforms required in 2023 Act 20 that could help more students pass, DPI has not detailed that compliance. Meanwhile, only 10% of students fail in literacy leader Massachusetts, which has […]
Will Flanders: For years, Wisconsin has held a troubling distinction in American education: the largest racial achievement gap in the nation. On the 2024 fourth-grade reading assessment from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the gap between white and African American students in Wisconsin was 45 points. The scale of the disparity has fueled intense debate. Some […]
Kyle Koenen: Reality: ~$17,900 (Madison > $26,000) If people don’t know how much we’re spending, it becomes difficult to determine the “right” amount of spending on schools. 🧵/2 WILL: Parents Are Unaware of Current School Spending: 44% of parents surveyed say they are “not sure” how much is spent on each student. Another 43% provide estimates […]
Will Flanders: A new lawsuit has challenged the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s public school finance system, with plaintiffs arguing that inadequate state funding denies students a “sound basic education.” The case threatens the entire current state education funding system, with implications extending beyond traditional public school funding to include school choice programs. While the complaint alleges […]
Tristar Daily: Key Findings from the Interim Report – Deficiencies and Observations: Nearly 175 deficiencies were identified across various sections of the report, indicating systemic issues. – Financial Mismanagement: – Disbursements: $1,145,909.97 flagged as waste or abuse, with about $1,112,750 linked to contract-related spending. – Issues included inadequate oversight, unsupported or duplicative […]
Dave Cieslewicz: For example, in 2024, Madison voters approved a record $507 million capital improvements referendum. One of the largest items in that referendum was $85 million for a new, bigger building to house Sherman Middle and Shabazz High schools. Yet, that building is at only 50% of capacity, and projections are for enrollments to go down. Before […]
The Economist: Until recently, most leading AI research was produced by experts based in the West. That is changing. In 2025, for the first time, more studies presented at the world’s top AIconference had lead authors based in China than in either America or Europe. To better understand the international ebbs and flows of AI talent, The Economist tracked the education histories […]
Chris Rickert: Madison School District teacher exchanged nearly 130,000 messages with a female student and repeatedly told her he loved her and pressured her for increasing amounts of physical contact, a criminal complaint alleges. Eliav M. Goldman, 29, was charged Tuesday with felony grooming and sexual misconduct for his behavior with the student, which began […]
Erin Gretzinger: Under state open records laws, the Cap Times obtained the open-ended survey responses, which reveal the extent of tension in the community over what should be the school district’s priorities as it redraws school boundaries. While dozens stressed the importance of diverse schools and equitably distributing resources, many also urged the school district […]
Washington Post: Higher graduation rates are something to celebrate, so long as they’re actually backed by an increase in academic achievement, but Boston’s standardized test scores tell a different story. Mayor Michelle Wu (D) says her city’s graduation rate at public high schools — 81.3 percent last year, the highest in district history — came […]
Chicago Tribune: Cook County’s property tax system is a Rubik’s Cube for even those relatively steeped in assessments and equalization factors value to decipher. So pity the ordinary property owners who have to pay the taxman two times every year. All they know is that the tax cost of owning a home — you know, […]
Will Flanders: That Wisconsin schools are somehow “underfunded” is pure misinformation. Below is inflation adjusted spending since 2000. We spend MORE than we did in 2000. We spend within $200 of the all time highs right before Act 10. The media needs to start questioning this narrative. ——- more. ——- Fast Lane Literacy 1998! Money and […]
Shannon Whitworth: For example, the Obama administration implemented a race-based disciplinary approach for secondary schools. In practice, this policy led many schools to limit discipline to avoid racial disparities in disciplinary outcomes, reducing accountability for students’ unacceptable behavior in school. In turn, that policy encouraged disruptive behavior in classrooms. It also created an environment not conducive […]
Joe Gothard: I want to sincerely thank the community members who havewrittenletters to the editor about my recent comments in a March 2 Wisconsin State Journal article. In it, I used “tax rate” when I meant “tax amount.” I realize my wording missed the mark, and I regret any misunderstanding this caused. My consistent message has been that […]
Teagan King: This year, 25,029 students are enrolled in Madison schools, a 0.5% decrease from last year, when 25,155 attended. Enrollment also has fallen statewide over the past five years, according to data from the Department of Public Instruction released earlier this month. Larger 12th-grade classes than incoming freshman classes are partially to blame for […]
Corrinne Hess: The 1776 Project PAC was launched in 2021, with financial backing from GOP megadonor and Illinois billionaire Richard Uihlein, owner of Pleasant Prairie-based Uline, to support school board candidates who said they would overturn the teaching of “critical race theory.” Girdusky told WPR he started the group because schools were closed during the […]
Paul Runko: So it’s time for K-12 public education to have a “Moneyball” moment. Here’s the “stats” that should matter when schools construct their teacher rosters: 1. Classroom Management Students can’t learn if they are constantly distracted by their peers or chaos in the classroom. Principals, administrators, and school board members can easily observe a […]
Will Flanders Public scjools apparently have realized the(y) can no longer lie about their failures, and have now decided to blame taxpayers. $18,592 per kid is more than enough. Private and charter schools get better results for $1000s less per student. ——- Fast Lane Literacy 1998! Money and school performance. A.B.T.: “Ain’t been taught.” 8,897 (!) Madison 4k […]
Elizabeth Messenger: For example, a union member who wants to look at officer and employee compensation over the past five years would start by visiting UnionReports.gov to find their union. On the union’s report filing page, they would click the “View” button in the “Visualization” column to launch the interactive tool. From there, they can navigate using […]
John Stossel: “My child can’t read!” That’s become a common complaint from parents. Why? It might be because kids are distracted by social media and video games. But I think it’s also because reading instruction became lazy and political. “Progressives” at teachers’ colleges pushed a reading technique called “Balanced Literacy.” Instead of memorizing sounds and […]
Chad Aldeman: Besides, thanks largely to the state’s investments in free community college for everyone and tuition- and fee-free public four-year college for students from low-income families, the number of students attending public colleges and universities has jumped by about 24,000 since 2022. That’s a gain of 16 percent in three years, reversing years of declines and […]
Wall Street Journal Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is supposed to be the great moderate hope for Democrats in 2028, but on Friday he revealed himself as a captive of the left’s most destructive interest group. He vetoed a bill to opt his state into the federal tax-credit scholarship program, taking dictation from the teachers union. “The answer […]
Steven Walters: “Between the 1999-2000 and 2022-2023 school years, statewide fourth grade reading proficiency dropped from 78% to 44.8% (a 43% decline…) and statewide eighth grade math proficiency dropped from 42% to 30.5% (a 27% decline..).” If the governor and Legislature don’t respond to a ruling that the current system is unconstitutional, the suit asks […]
Erin Gretzinger: As Mosner Feltham and Vander Meulen underscored their track records and ongoing endeavors to improve the Madison Metropolitan School District, Molle and Colussi-Lynde spotlighted their ideas and what differentiates them from their opponents. The candidates share many overarching priorities, such as advocating for changes to the state funding formula for public schools and addressing salary compression for […]
Dave Cieslewicz: Now, to be sure, I will happily vote for both of them because any change to this dismal board has to be a step in the right direction. Incumbents Blair Mosner Feltham and Nicki Vander Meulen have been part of a board that is leading the district to new depths each year. Year […]
Bipartisan Policy Center Calls for federal alignment, clear career pathways, removal of barriers to keep U.S. competitive WASHINGTON, DC—The Bipartisan Policy Center today released a comprehensive blueprint for tackling one of America’s most important domestic challenges: preparing America’s workforce for the jobs of today—and into the future. In a newly released report, “A Nation at […]
Steve Gordon: Blue state high earner taxes aren’t organic, bottom-up events. They’re being forced on states controlled by unions like the WEA thru their compliant Dem puppets. Delaney outlines all the other progressive funding dreams that have NOTHING to do with teachers here.Same radicals that want boys in girls’ sports and to continue keeping secrets […]
David Blaska: The UniParty rules this roost because its too few challengers are afraid to pin the tail on the donkey. Too polite to rip the bark off progressive incumbents who pose as friend of the taxpayer and tribune of public safety — but only at election time. Once elected, the ruling classdefunds the sheriff’s department, refuses police body […]
Frederick Hess After all, it was 26 years ago this spring that the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development issued its National Reading Panel report, which made the case for the science of reading and emphasized the need for explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and systematic phonics instruction. Those recommendations were the foundation of the […]
WILL: Wisconsin continues to lead the nation in the racial achievement gap between white and African American students. According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in fourth grade reading, Wisconsin’s 45-point gap is the largest in the country—13 points greater than the next grouping of states such as Louisiana, Michigan, and South […]
By Jeffrey S. Solochek A bill to make it harder for public sector unions to establish or renew their certification passed the Florida Senate despite arguments that it would impinge on workers’ constitutional rights. The legislation, SB 1296, which is strongly backed by the anti-union Freedom Foundation, drew hundreds of union members from across the state to Tallahassee […]
Dave Cieslewicz: Maia Pearson, the chair of Madison’s police oversight board and a Madison school board member, has been charged with criminal misdemeanors related to her resisting arrest in an incident in downtown Madison in December. In a criminal complaint, it is alleged that she and her friend, Urban Triage executive director Brandi Grayson, verbally […]
Scott Alexander California lets interest groups propose measures for the state ballot. Anyone who gathers enough signatures (currently 874,641) can put their hare-brained plans before voters during the next election year. This year, the big story is the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, a 5% wealth tax on California’s billionaires. Your views on this will mostly […]
Chris Rickert: Pearson and Grayson were arrested after Grayson refused to move her vehicle — in which Pearson was a passenger — out of a theater’s no-parking area and argued with theater employees, according to police and the Dane County District Attorney’s Office. A source with knowledge of the event has said that the theater […]
Matthew Yglesias The growing progressive interest in exotic new tax-policy ideas — like Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna saying they can raise trillions in revenue from a base of around 1,000 billionaires — shows a left that has lost faith in the idea of asking Americans to pay higher taxes in exchange for more and better public services. And […]
Harvard Harris Poll: More, from Neetu Arnold. ——- WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators “An emphasis on adult employment”
Will Flanders: We also look at Wisconsin’s largest school choice program–open enrollment. Here, you see the marketplace working as families move to school districts with better academic outcomes and graduation rates. The Report: WILL’s Apples to Apples report provides a rigorous, side-by-side comparison of academic performance across Wisconsin’s public, charter, and private choice schools. Because […]
Preeya P. Mbekeani, John P. Papay, Ann Mantil & Richard J. Murnane: Improving education and labor market outcomes for low-income students is critical for advancing socioeconomic mobility in the United States. We use longitudinal data on five cohorts of 9th grade students to explore how Massachusetts public high schools affect the longer-term outcomes of students, […]
Jason Riley: Far too many children are still assigned to substandard schools, and too many remain unable to read or do math at grade level. Meanwhile, educators and policymakers seem preoccupied with nonsense like helping students “transition” behind their parents’ backs or indoctrinating impressionable youngsters with social-justice poppycock to promote trendy political causes. American kids […]
Dan Lennington: Note that the plan tells teachers to actively deceive parents by referring to students one way in school & another way in front of family. WILL: “The Supreme Court reinforced that parents have enforceable rights to be involved in major decisions affecting their children’s health and wellbeing. Because of this clarification, WILL is […]