Celebrating 35 years of advancing freedom in Wisconsin

Viewpoint

What else are they wrong about?

By Patrick McIlheran

Results for the latest “nation’s report card” tests were disastrous, with 4^th- and 8^th-graders’ performance in reading and math falling sharply since 2019 in every state, Wisconsin included.

But nothing fell so far as the moral claim to power that the public-education technocracy wields over parents and teachers: “Trust us. We know the one right way that things should be done.”

Clearly, no.

Do they — the state education bureaucrats, the schools of education, the consultants, the unions, the central offices — know the one right way to teach math?

That big test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, found that not once in the past two decades have Wisconsin’s public schools managed to make more than 41% of 8^th-graders proficient in math.

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An Uncompetitive State

Unless Wisconsin attracts new migrants on a large scale, the state’s prime working age population by 2030 could shrink by 130,000, according to a report released this week by Forward Analytics. Analyzing IRS data, the author found that over the last decade the state lost 106,000 income tax filers under the age of 26 to other states while attracting fewer than 89,000. One encouraging trend is that some who left the Badger State seem to return as they head into the family formation years (ages 26-54).

Two factors often weighed by families considering an interstate move are tax rates and the quality of schools in the states they’re considering. Research released by the Tax Foundation and the National Center for Education Statistics this week demonstrates the urgent need for Wisconsin to improve on both the tax and education fronts if the state wants to keep and attract talent.

Wisconsin remained in a less-than-inspiring 27^th position in the Tax Foundation’s 2023 State Business Tax Climate Index released on Tuesday. Other states are rapidly growing more competitive, with close to half reducing income tax rates in the past two years alone, and four transitioning to a flat tax structure.

“In an increasingly competitive tax landscape, standing still means falling behind, and Wisconsin’s 2023 index ranking reflects that,” Janelle Fritts, Tax Foundation policy analyst and co-author of the index, told the Badger Institute.

Wisconsin also had a dismal showing on the Nation’s Report Card released by the NCES on Monday. Badger State students’ scores and proficiency levels fell on both reading and math and in both of the two grade levels tested.

If forward-looking policymakers want to stem the loss of young people and make Wisconsin an in-bound state, they should start by adopting tax restructuring and education freedom-expanding reforms.

Free Exchange Podcast

The Current State of Crime and Justice (Part II)

Policy analyst Sean Kennedy, author of two recent Badger Institute reports on crime and policing, sits down with President Mike Nichols to discuss the shocking rise of crime in Milwaukee and the related thinning blue line that’s taking place in Wisconsin’s largest city. Part 2 of 2.

Listen in

Wisconsin didn’t ‘buck national trends’

By Patrick McIlheran

Results of the test dubbed “the nation’s report card” went public this week, showing the degree to which pandemic-era lockdowns affected American children’s learning.

Right after scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, came out, Wisconsin’s chief public school regulator, state Superintendent Jill Underly, issued a press release headlined, “Wisconsin elementary school students buck national trends in ‘National Report Card’ release.”

This is not true: Wisconsin’s scores fell by every measure since the last time children took the test, in 2019, just as scores fell for every other state. Wisconsin’s scores fell more than some states and less than others, and generally they remained a few points above national averages, but they fell — they followed the trend, rather than bucking it.

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Badger on Air

Badger Institute education consultant Jim Bender made the case for education freedom on WSAU Feedback with Meg Ellefson.

EVENT: Talking Taxes

Badger Institute President Mike Nichols is speaking at the University Club of Milwaukee on Nov. 3 at an enrichment breakfast meeting on tax reform. It is open to University Club members for $19.50 ++ and non-U Club members for a cost of $24.50 ++.

RSVP to Joe Coraggio at [email protected] or (414) 271-2222 x 1374.

Actions speak louder...

“Across the country, roughly 10% of students attend a private school while American public school teachers enroll their children at nearly twice that rate, 21.5%. In some cities, it is nearly four times the average rate.” 

Source: Public Teachers Send Their Own Children to Private Schools, Chalkboard Review

At a Glance

Weekly Survey: Should Wisconsin’s tax ranking and student test scores serve as a wake-up call to state lawmakers?

Last Week’s Results

What We’re Reading

• John Mackey: ‘Capitalism Is the Greatest Thing Mankind Has Ever Done’

• Commonwealth Foundation: Grading State Public Sector Labor Laws

• Chalkboard Review: NAEP Results Provide More Proof That Pandemic School Policies Caused Severe Damage

• Education Next: Catholic Schools Are a Rare Bright Spot in Nation’s Report Card 2022 Data

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