Also: Jay Nordlinger event June 15, unaccountable federal spending, WI private college ranking Celebrating 35 years of advancing freedom in Wisconsin Killers and Thieves Walking Free Criminals are emboldened if they think they won’t get caught By Mike Nichols The politicians and pundits are wringing their hands and sharpening their tongues again, trying to provide some sort of solution for the devastating and (speaking as a resident of downtown Milwaukee) frankly frightening spiral into lawlessness. There are lots of reasons beyond the most obvious one, a lack of morality and self-control. Kids are growing up without fathers, without degrees, without jobs, without respect for police or authority. Guns are everywhere. But how about a more basic explanation? Common sense says criminals commit a lot more crimes when they know there is very little chance they’ll get caught. We all know crime is exploding in Milwaukee. There were 194 homicides last year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, more than twice as many as there were as recently as 2019. Already this year, there have been more than 80. It’s not even warm yet; it’s May. Murder gets the headlines. But that’s just a small part of the general mayhem in the city. There were, for example, 12,304 vehicle thefts in Milwaukee in 2021 – more than three times as many as 2019. Troubling as that is, here’s the really stunning part: In 2021, only 353 vehicle thefts were “cleared by arrest” by the police. That’s less than 3%. Almost nobody who stole a car in Milwaukee got caught. Continue reading the Viewpoint. June 15 Event with Jay Nordlinger of National Review: Does Journalism have a Future? Jay Nordlinger, senior editor of National Review and a book fellow at the National Review Institute, joins the Badger Institute to keynote a June 15 luncheon in Madison. A native Midwesterner, Nordlinger will share his thoughts on the issues of the day – from politics to policy, from foreign affairs to freedom – related to the current state and likely future of American journalism. Reserve your seat (audience Q&A will be encouraged!) Register to attend This event is co-sponsored by The Badger Institute and the National Review Institute. Dire need of accountability By MARK LISHERON | Spring 2022 At the time the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its first major assessment of federal COVID-19 spending in March, more than 400 people had pleaded guilty to defrauding the programs and another 550 had been charged with felony fraud. The Internal Revenue Service followed with a report that it had conducted 660 investigations revealing loan, credits and payment fraud totaling $1.8 billion over the past two years. Expect many more disclosures like those, according to the GAO report, which amplified the message delivered for a year by the Badger Institute. In the scramble to distribute trillions of dollars in a declared emergency, government at all levels sacrificed transparency and accountability to the taxpaying public. The cost is only beginning to be realized. Continue reading the article. Bang for the private school buck By SCOTT NIEDERJOHN | Spring 2022 With retail price tuitions at several of Wisconsin’s private universities topping $50,000 a year, it might help those paying the bills to know which schools do the best job of moving students up the economic ladder. Using tax data collected in an earlier study, we have for the first time ranked the state’s private schools for their graduates’ success in moving from the lowest to the highest income bracket, their median incomes at age 34 and their likelihood of moving up at least two income brackets. The question of upward mobility is more urgent at this time of surging tuition and increased attention to economic and social inequality. Tuition rates at Wisconsin’s most expensive private colleges, Beloit College and Lawrence University in Appleton, exceed $50,000 per year. The average tuition at Wisconsin's 21 four-year private schools is more than $36,000 per year. While the Milwaukee School of Engineering has the sixth-highest tuition in the current school year ($43,284), it ranked first in all three mobility metrics. Half of MSOE graduates from low-income families went from the poorest bracket or quintile to the wealthiest quintile by age 34, not surprising for a school that produces primarily engineers (see Table 1). By this measure, Herzing University in Milwaukee, Lakeland University in Plymouth and Northland College in Ashland were the weakest performers, with fewer than 10% of their low-income students moving from the bottom to the top income brackets by age 34. Continue reading the article. Badger Institute in the News WISN/WIBA: Badger Institute Policy Director Patrick McIlheran discusses with Vicki McKenna the traumatic impact that school lockdowns have had on Wisconsin kids (segment begins around the 23-minute mark). Weekly Survey: Does anti-police messaging contribute to lawlessness in a community? Answer below! Yes No Last Week's Results At A Glance “In states that have Right to Work laws … aggregate employment is now roughly 880,000 higher than it was in February 2020, the last month before the COVID-19 lockdowns began, according to the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) household survey. “In the 23 remaining forced-dues states as a group, DOL data show employment is still nearly 1.5 million below what it was pre-COVID-19.” Source: Forced-Dues States Have Yet to Recoup COVID-19 Employment Losses What We're Reading Discourse: The YIMBYest City in America Foundation for Economic Education: Could Employer-Based Microschooling Be the Newest Workplace Perk? Washington Examiner: Latino families want school choice Reason: Facing Education Crisis, Biden Admin Seeks to Restrict Charter Schools Center of the American Experiment: Biden’s New Charter School Rules Prioritize Teachers’ Unions Over Children Empower Wisconsin: Healthcare Lockout City Journal: Price Controls?! World: Parents demand school choice Invest in the Badger Institute For 35 years, the Badger Institute, formerly known as the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI), has 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 $35, $350 or $3,500 today. Your support will help the Institute continue to advocate for conservative principles for the next 35 years – and beyond! The Institute never has, and never will, accept government funding. We gratefully welcome your online donation or email Angela Smith, Vice President of Development. The Badger Institute is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization. Support Freedom Top Picks is our weekly update. 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