Like practically everyone else in Wisconsin, state Senate President Mary Felzkowski praises the idea that started the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program: In 1989, the Legislature greenlighted $250 million over a decade to buy up land for outdoor recreation.

“Totally in favor of that,” said the Tomahawk Republican.

“But then it got, in my opinion, out of control.”

Specifically, the still-running program, now up to $720 million spent on acquiring land, has $16 million a year allocated to buying still more through the fiscal year ending next June 30. Its reauthorization after that is an open question.

As some of America’s most prominent conservative voices push the pronatalist movement, there’s been a dramatic decrease in pregnancies and births among one particular subset of Wisconsin females that should get more attention — and praise.

Births to teenage girls in the Badger State have plummeted.

In 1990, there were 43 births per 1,000 females aged 15 through 19 in Wisconsin. By 2023, the last year for which data is available, there were only 10 births per 1,000.

Births to girls under the age of 18, moreover, are in many Wisconsin counties either rare or non-existent. At least one county that had recorded births in a hospital — Taylor — had none of them to mothers under the age of 20 in 2023, according to Wisconsin Department of Health Services statistics. Another 16 of our 72 counties had no births at all to girls under the age of 18.

The number of licensed drivers in Wisconsin has risen from 1.76 million in 1949 to 4.4 million in 2023, the most recent year in the U.S. Department of Transportation Statistics’ figures.

The increase, 151 percent, outstrips the increase in Wisconsin’s population, 73 percent, over the period.

“Government subsidies turn journalists — usually leftist ones — into lackeys for politicians, undermine the true value of the so-called Fourth Estate, and create unfair, subsidized competition for privately funded media.

“These funds should have been cut years ago.”

— Mike Nichols

Quoted in Center Square, Wisconsin public broadcasting set to lose $6M annually from federal cuts.

Government should not be paying journalists and the people who manage and edit them, especially in a day and age when there are so many other media outlets and podcasts and social media platforms and government-funded books and writers and universities and artists.

Tony Evers has had enough and that’s not a good thing for Democrats.

Forty-seven percent of Wisconsinites have an unfavorable opinion of Evers, but that’s a lovefest in comparison to their view of the Democratic Party.

Fully 61% of Wisconsin registered voters polled by Marquette last month have an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party — 14 percentage points higher than the unfavorables for Evers and 10 percentage points higher than the unfavorables for the Republican Party.

The Badger Institute 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.

The Institute never has, and never will, accept government funding. We gratefully welcome your online donation or email Mike Nichols, President.

The Badger Institute is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization funded solely by the generosity of foundations, companies and individuals.

Badger Institute
700 W. Virginia St., Suite 301
Milwaukee, WI 53204