Budget Blog – On Thursday, JFC held the third and final day of agency briefs. They heard from the heads of PSC, DNR, the Tech College System, UW, DPI, the Historical Society, DWD and the Labor and Industry Review Commission. Read More UPDATED: Budget Blog – First Week Twists and Turns
By Jerry Gonzalez – Empowerment Zones (EZs) began as a bipartisan effort in the early 1990s to fight economically blighted areas. Today, they are an opportunity for the Trump Administration to take the lead in restoring economic opportunity in impoverished areas. The question for the Administration now becomes, “what have you got to lose?” Read More Trump’s EZ Answer to Minority and Rust Belt Communities
By Ola Lisowski – One major component of Gov. Scott Walker’s 2017-2019 biennial budget proposal is the emphasis on different kinds of welfare reform. The Walker team began unveiling their “Wisconsin Works for Everyone” plan, also known as W-2, as early as January of this year. As continued preparation for the coming Joint Committee on Finance agency briefings and public hearings, let’s revisit the plan. Read More Wisconsin Works for Everyone: Welfare Reform in Walker’s Budget Proposal
Earlier this month, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau completed its analysis of the budget and released its 504-page summary of the governor’s budget recommendations. We break it down. Read More Governor Walker’s 2017-2019 Budget Overview
By Ola Lisowski – Now that the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau’s budget analysis is finally available to the public, let’s look back at Gov. Scott Walker’s K-12 education proposals for the 2017-19 biennial budget. Overall, the Department of Public Instruction sees a large increase of overall funding – $648.2 million more in total school aid than the last budget, a 6.0 percent increase. Read More K-12 Education in Walker’s Proposed Budget
By Chris Rochester – Speaker Paul Ryan and House Republicans rolled out their plan to repeal and replace Obamacare last week, making the legislation available for all to see – a stark contrast with the Democrats’ approach to Obamacare. To help cut through all the confusion, we decided to give both sides of the debate an opportunity to make their case side-by-side. Read More FULL REPEAL & REPLACE or OBAMACARE LITE?
By Jason Crye – The Trump Student Success Zones will support traditional public schools by providing a framework to turn around consistently underperforming schools, support poor families via wraparound services and neighborhood cooperation, and advance the principles of school choice while improving educational opportunities for all students. Read More Crye: An Idea for the President – Trump Student Success Zones
By Chris Rochester – The Republican grassroots expects Washington politicians to deliver on their campaign promises of a major tax code overhaul, a sentiment that’s backed up by a new poll by the American Action Network – as well as Republican leaders in an area of Wisconsin where Trump emerged the surprising victor. Read More Republican Grassroots Expects Washington to Deliver on Tax Reform Promises
MacIver News Service – Only one in five black students graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in six years, a new study from the Education Trust has revealed. The survey, which uses data from the national Center for Education Statistics, examined graduation rates among black students at 676 colleges and identified UWM as one of 21 universities with the worst academic outcomes for black students. Read More National Study: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Underserving Black Students
By Tyler Brandt – Mack, along with many others, share the common goal of providing better education to inner-city students. If we want to see promising results this must be targeted at the K-12 level. Free tuition at the university level is almost like fixing potholes by filling them with rainwater. Read More Reparations at UW-Madison: A Lesson On Real Diversity