A run on disinfection robots

by Mark Lisheron

At the height of the initial COVID-19 outbreak, correctional and other public safety agencies in Wisconsin bought at least 55 disinfection robots at a cost of more than $2.2 million.

Few, if any, of the $40,000 purchases would have been possible without federal CARES Act funding, according to jail administrators, sheriffs and the people who sold the ultraviolet light cleaning machines.

While those who bought the robots credited them for helping prevent the spread of a virus they knew little about at the time, they did not relieve staff of manually spraying and wiping down jail cells, intake reception and common areas. Several jail administrators who said they were tempted to get a robot with the “free” federal money, said they thought they did just as well with traditional disinfection methods.

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Milwaukee Public Schools are closed again, further depriving students of the classroom instruction they desperately need. Many of the shuttered schools already have student language and math proficiency rates in the single digits. Meanwhile, parents like Starr Urban are forced to choose between paying the bills and staying at home to oversee their children’s education.

The other epidemic: Overspending

by Mike Nichols

Turns out, as it always does when you look at where federal tax dollars end up in this country, Wisconsin is bringing up the tail end in the scramble for COVID cash.

It’s not the way the number-crunchers put it but we, in other words, are the suckers, the dupes, the ones falling prey to the schemers and politicians and bureaucrats in the rest of America.

Sure, we have our share of people using COVID money for things that have nothing to do with making us healthier or getting back on our feet, the small-time cheats and grifters on the taking end of the con.

Read the full column here.

Should MPS allow students to return for classroom instruction?

"Ultimately, as a society, we need to develop more of a tolerance for free speech again, as in not being offended by everything that everybody else is saying all the time, and being willing to tolerate the fact that free people are going to say stuff we disagree with or that we think is false." –Josh Withrow, National Taxpayers Union Foundation

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“Never before have we seen this much federal money pour into our state - it is, I believe, a defining moment in our state’s history – to have one person alone make the decision for where the money is spent just isn’t good governance no matter the political affiliation.” – Rep. Robert Wittke, coauthor of a resolution that would amend the state Constitution to restore legislative oversight of funds the state receives from the federal government.

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• Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty: Madison, Milwaukee school performance overrated by DPI

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A standard bearer of conservative thought in the Badger State, our biannual Diggings magazine takes an in-depth look at policy and cultural issues that affect Wisconsin residents.