Celebrating 35 years of advancing freedom in Wisconsin

Viewpoint: Eleven Years Later, Act 10 Takes Down a Onetime Union Stronghold

By Mike Nichols

June 23, 2022 - WEA Trust, the teachers’ union-created insurance company that once had a lock on hundreds of school districts in Wisconsin, just announced it is terminating its health insurance business by the end of this year.

Quite oddly, a spokesperson insisted in a story in a Madison newspaper that Act 10 had nothing to do with the decision.

No one with a memory or a calculator – or access to reports written by the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance over the years – believes that.

Act 10 killed the teacher’s insurance plan. But there are a few other subplots going on here, and an interesting story about how the plan lasted as long as it did.

Read more.

Video: Parents don’t have to settle for a race to mediocrity 

2022 Scarlett Johnson is a suburban Milwaukee mother of five and one of the organizers of an effort to recall members of the Mequon-Thiensville School Board – an effort that drew national attention but ultimately failed.

Johnson remains undaunted - she is still active in trying to reform the district. She sat down with Badger Institute Policy Director Patrick McIlheran to explain what drove her to act on behalf of her local schools, and why more parents should do so.



Watch the short video.

Podcast: Keeping People out of the Workforce

The decision by Gov. Tony Evers to maintain the federal unemployment bonus until September 2021 kept some 28,000 Wisconsinites out of a workforce that desperately needed them. Economist Ike Brannon discusses the findings of his latest report, Unemployment (Over) Compensation.

Listen to the podcast.

The State of Journalism

On June 15, journalist, author and critic Jay Nordlinger joined the Badger Institute and National Review Institute for a lunch event in Madison. Nordlinger discussed the current state of journalism, the decline of civility in the public square and the dangers of ideological tribalism. 

View the archived event on WisEye.

At a Glance

Source: State Policy Network, “11 Ideas to Improve Healthcare Price Transparency in Your State.”

Fund Students, Not Schools

“As schools break for summer, it’s a good time to review the return America is getting on its investment in education. The Census Bureau reports inflation-adjusted spending in K-12 education has tripled since 1970 to a record $751.7 billion. Yet barely a third of all fourth-graders across U.S. urban communities can read or do math at grade level. The time has come to reimagine the way we pay for education. Let’s stop writing blank checks to failing school systems.”

Jeff Yass, managing director of Susquehanna International Group, in the June 22 Wall Street Journal

Weekly Survey: Do you believe school funding should follow students regardless of what type of school they attend?

Last Week's Results

On the Air

Economist Scott Niederjohn will discuss his recent Badger Institute policy brief “Forgiving Student Loan Debt” with news/talk host Meg Ellefson on WSAU on Monday 6/27 from 7:40-7:50 a.m. Tune in!

What We're Reading

• American Enterprise Institute: Restoring Trust in Public Schools
• Public Discourse: An Aristotelian Defense of Ownership in the Age of the Sharing Economy
• Empower Wisconsin: Evers’ anti-gouging order is full of gas
• Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty: Oconomowoc Schools Issue Legal Threat to Parent for Criticizing Age-Inappropriate Material in Classroom

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