Botched report cards, lowered standards, licensing and finance scandals erode faith in DPI

Accused of gutting academic standards, manipulating report cards, slacking on fiscal oversight and bungling oversight of sexual misconduct among teachers, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is facing a crisis of confidence — and new questions about whether it is capable of handling myriad key functions.

The latest blow to Wisconsin’s chief regulator of schools and teachers came with this month’s release of its widely panned new “report cards” on school districts’ performance.

The new report cards rate 94 percent of Wisconsin school districts as either “meeting,” “exceeding” or “significantly exceeding” expectations in a state where, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos pointed out this week, only half of students are proficient in “English language arts” — that is, reading. There is a school in Milwaukee that “exceeds expectations,” according to the new report cards, despite the fact only 13 percent of its students meet or exceed expectations in reading, for example.

Badger Institute has argued for more leeway to lay off professors

Republican candidates for governor are joining politicians across the country who are increasingly skeptical of tenure guarantees for professors.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who was part of a state Senate majority that helped put across the last major tenure reform in Wisconsin in 2015, told the Badger Institute this week that tenure would be a big part of a review of UW System spending and operations if he is elected governor.

The Badger Institute contacted all other Republican and Democrat candidates.

“We reformed tenure a decade ago,” Tiffany said. “It’s worth going back and reviewing whether it did what it was supposed to do. At the end of the day, there has to be accountability.”

The Wisconsin State Assembly voted Wednesday to pass AB602, a measure which would require Gov. Tony Evers to opt the state into a federal scholarship tax credit program created by passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

Gov. Evers previously expressed disinterest in the program, calling it “catastrophic” for public schools — an inexplicable characterization given its complete lack of impact on the state budget or school funding formula.

Why was Gov. Tony Evers so swift in rejecting a big stream of money from private donors for Wisconsin children’s education?

Asked the other day about whether he’d wave his hand to let Wisconsin taxpayers use a new federal tax credit for education-related donations, the governor slammed the door. He told a reporter it would be “catastrophic” for public schools, even though the new program allows donations to go to public school students for, say, tutoring, technology, books or other extra help.

New York State is putting its looming ban on new natural gas hookups in homes and commercial buildings on hold, and at least some observers are blaming fears about costs.

Incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul, running for re-election, delayed the start of the All Electric Buildings Act, set for January, citing a court challenge. But other observers said the cost of banning gas stoves and gas heat is a factor.

“Green energy is on the back burner and bringing prices down is on the front-burner,” said Evan Roth Smith, a Democratic pollster, told the New York Post. A Politico analysis credited “near-term pocketbook concerns, including high energy costs,” and a group of 19 New York Democratic lawmakers cited “cost impacts.”

Such fears about the cost of banning natural gas are well founded. The likely all-electric alternative for home heat is a heat pump. Such reverse-refrigeration devices work efficiently in milder climates, but they perform poorly in freezing temperatures.

How poorly? Economists Andrew Hanson and Zackary Hawley modeled for the Badger Institute the effect of requiring all new Wisconsin homes to use heat pumps instead of furnaces.

How costly would it be if Wisconsinites were told they couldn’t heat their houses by burning fossil fuels in a furnace, the way about 4 out of 5 Wisconsin homes do now?

The model shows a statewide average of $20,000 in added costs to heat a home over the 15-year lifespan of a heat pump, about doubling the cost of heating a home. The figure soars to nearly $30,000 in added costs in Superior.

The rental vacancy rate in Wisconsin reached its lowest level in over 30 years last year, dropping by one full percentage point between 2023 and 2024, figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show.

Rental vacancy measures the percentage of total rental units, including both houses and apartments, that are listed as “for rent.” Decreasing levels of vacancy mean that the rental market is tightening, while increasing vacancy means that supply is more readily available.

According to the Wisconsin Technical College System, graduates across all degree types earn a median salary of $55,636 six months after graduation.

While undergraduate enrollment in most University of Wisconsin System schools trends downward, there has been a dramatic increase in students choosing the state’s technical colleges since the pandemic.

The 16 schools in the Wisconsin Technical College System are benefiting from a re-evaluation of the cost and value of four-year colleges and the turn away from two-year colleges.

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