In the 2023-24 school year, after Milwaukee officials agreed to put police officers back into local high schools — something that still hasn’t happened — schools called police 1,245 times for help with allegations of everything from armed robbery to sexual assault to felony theft.

It was way back in June 2023 that Milwaukee leaders reached a deal with legislators allowing both the city and the county to raise sales taxes in exchange for putting officers back in crime-ridden Milwaukee Public Schools by Jan. 1, 2024.

Throughout the 2023-24 school year, high school officials made an average of 32.7 calls a week, or 6.9 calls a day, to police, according to Milwaukee Police Department data released to the Badger Institute this week after an open records request.

Quite the wonder this month when Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction released the latest results of state proficiency tests: Last year, only 37% of third-graders met the state standard for being able to read, a dismal performance little budged from previous years. But the 2023-24 figures showed a leap to 51% making the grade.

You asked for miracles, Wisconsin? I give you the DPI.

What really happened is that, when it comes to measuring students’ progress, the agency lowered the standards.

The DPI in 2023 began resetting the state’s “cut scores,” or boundaries for categories such as “proficient” or “basic” on the Forward exam that measures students’ (and schools’) performance.

The process came to widespread attention when in June 2024 the DPI announced that it was shifting to more emollient labels such as “developing” instead of “below basic.” The change was easily understood and mocked. 

But the DPI changed more than labels.

Wisconsinites are among the most likely Americans to stay in the state where they were born, analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows.

The American Community Survey gathers data on a wide variety of personal attributes, including the state where someone is born.

The data show that 72.3% of Americans born in Wisconsin have stuck around and are still living in the state, as of 2023.

The Badger Institute, formerly known as the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI), has long been at the forefront of the fight for school choice, right to work, welfare reform, tax restructuring, limited government, civil society and so much more. If you appreciate the Institute’s legacy and want to support free markets, opportunity and prosperity, please consider donating today. Your support will help the Institute continue to advocate for conservative principles now and in generations to come.

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