Parents Didn't Start the Fire

by Patrick McIlheran

Adrianne Melby wasn’t much interested in school board politics until she sent her sons to the public schools in Burlington and realized politics was very much interested in them.

“I kind of thought I knew what was going on with the school board, but I didn’t,” she said.

Now she’s leading the Racine County chapter of Moms for Liberty. Her husband is running for the school board.

Parents like the Melbys are paying a great deal of attention to school elections next week across Wisconsin. Left-leaning news outlets profess horror at this.

“Republicans eye new front in education wars,” panted Politico, the DC-insider website. “The gloves are off in school board elections,” warned Wisconsin Examiner. While once “school board elections were sleepy affairs,” now they’re “politicized,” the Examiner said. Boards that once passed raises for teachers now debate lessons in transgender ideology, an Oconomowoc man lamented in another Examiner story.

All this huffing treats the appearance of parents like the Melbys as an aggression upon Eden. Melby tells a different story.

Read the full column here.

Reforming Health Care

The Badger Institute today welcomed a health care expert and an economist to its Visiting Fellows Program: Dan Sem, Director of the Rx Think Tank at Concordia University Wisconsin, and Scott Niederjohn, economist and director of the Free Enterprise Center at Concordia, will provide research on ways to control costs and increase transparency in health care.

Sem, the author of “Purple Solutions: A Bipartisan Roadmap to Better Healthcare in America,” has a Ph.D. in biochemistry from UW Madison and an MBA and JD from Marquette University. He is vice provost for Research and Innovation, as well as a professor of Business and of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Sem has published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers and has 10 issued patents.

Niederjohn holds a Ph.D. in economics from UW-Milwaukee and an MBA from Marquette University. He has published more than 60 articles, reports and other content in professional journals and is also co-author of two books including, “Economic Episodes in American History.”

“We’re thrilled to have Scott and Dan join us as visiting fellows at the Badger Institute,” said President Mike Nichols. “We pride ourselves on finding the smartest people in the country to help us figure out the best way forward in this state, people who understand and believe in free markets and upward mobility. Sometimes, we get lucky and find the smartest people right in our backyard.”

To read the full press release, click here.

Inside the Beltway

President Joe Biden introduced his budget request for the fiscal year 2023. Some highlights:

• The budget calls for $72.7 trillion in spending over the next decade.
• Debt would increase from $30.2 trillion today to more than $44.8 trillion over the next decade.
• The president proposed $2.5 trillion in tax increases.
• All Americans’ tax rates would increase, and the standard deduction would be cut in half.
• A proposed 7 percentage point corporate tax rate hike would give the United States the highest corporate tax rate among the 38 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations.

Source: Heritage Foundation

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At a Glance

Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) Launches Virtual School Scorecard

WILL has just launched what they are describing as a 'one-stop-shop' for information about Wisconsin's schools. Visitors can see trends in enrollment, proficiency, and more information.

To view the scorecard and see how our schools are performing, click here.

• Fox News: Eau Claire school district might be the worst violator of parental rights

• NBC News: The looting of the COVID relief plan known as PPP

• Wisconsin Right Now: A Tony Evers' veto on school choice for all would be morally wrong

• Milwaukee Journal Sentinal: Teacher letters describe abuse, damage, lost hope at MPS school. Is this a signal for a broad reassessment?

• Public Discourse: Protecting parental rights, resolving curriculum wars, and reducing inequality

• FEE: Pushing back against classroom and campus propaganda

New Free Exchange Podcast: How Wisconsin's Minimum Markup Law Impacts Consumers

Are you fed up with soaring prices? Did you know that Wisconsin’s Depression-era minimum markup law arbitrarily inflates the cost of gas, groceries, pharmaceuticals, alcohol and more? Listen to State Sen. Duey Stroebel and Will Flanders, research director for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, explain how Wisconsin makes it illegal for retailers to sell certain products below cost and why this outdated law is costly to consumers and needs to be repealed.

Our work in advancing free markets, opportunity and prosperity in the Badger State is only made possible by generous donations fr. We never have, and never will, accept government funding. Donate online or email Angela Smith, Vice President of Development. The Badger Institute is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization.

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. Click here to read Diggings.