Celebrating 35 years of advancing freedom in Wisconsin

Viewpoint

Lessons in liberty

By Patrick McIlheran

Jaime Aguilar Morales is an eighth-grader at a Green Bay school that he likes very much, thanks to his own initiative and America’s founding fathers.

Through fifth grade, he attended a public school. “But then I was like, ‘Hmm, why don't I go to a private school and learn more about God?’” he said.

His mother, who grew up in Mexico and whom he describes as “very Catholic,” taught him the basics. But, he said, he learned those prayers in Spanish, the language of his home and not of the country he was growing up in. “So,” he reasoned, “like, if I go here, maybe they'll teach me how to do it in English and maybe I’ll learn more about God and Jesus.”

He prevailed on his mother to send him to his neighborhood’s other school, St. Thomas More Catholic School. He flourished: He loves math, he’s on the student leadership team, he lectors at school masses, and he’s learned a bedrock principle of America: Here you are free to practice the faith you choose.

What made it possible for Jaime’s family and for 90% of St. Thomas’ students is Wisconsin’s parental choice program, which lets some families direct their children’s state education aid to a school they choose.

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Free Exchange Podcast

Ensuring Opportunity by Altering Wisconsin’s Safety Net

“I do think people vastly underestimate just how large and robust the safety net is.”

For decades, the federal government has assumed a larger role in funding and running safety net programs, leaving states with little ability to address flaws such as employment and marriage disincentives or make other changes.

Poverty scholar Angela Rachidi — an American Enterprise Institute senior fellow, Badger Institute visiting fellow and Wisconsin resident who once led policy research at the New York City Department of Social Services — joins us to discuss why Wisconsin should demand more authority over federal safety net programs, including a willingness to take a larger funding role while assuming more responsibility.

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Education Freedom

School Choice Fact Sheet

The Badger Institute has a growing library of one-pagers highlighting facts, data, trends and recommendations on a variety of policy issues. 

Wisconsin has been a pioneer in the school choice movement.  

Milwaukee’s program to let parents direct state aid to the school of their choice is now more than three decades old and has produced remarkable results for tens of thousands of families. More recent expansions are spreading those benefits across Wisconsin.

Wisconsin’s school choice program is actually four different programs. Three main programs serve most choice families: one covering families in Milwaukee, another for families in eastern Racine County and a statewide program for families living anywhere else in Wisconsin. The latter is the newest, operating since 2013.  

These three programs all offer the same grant and operate under the same enrollment rules: Schools cannot select students, nor generally can they charge families any additional tuition, nor place any religious requirements on students.  

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“Unconscionable”

In his latest Wall Street Journal column (paywall), Jason Riley notes that early progressives played “an outsize role in promoting racism,” including the promotion of eugenics. The Badger Institute a few years ago published an article that highlighted the racist views of Wisconsin progressives, including prominent UW scholars, who advanced unconscionable theories and practices, including the forced sterilization of “human defectives.” 

Stronger Reforms

Earlier this week, Badger Institute Vice President Michael Jahr and Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty Policy Director Kyle Koenen jointly submitted comments on proposed occupational licensing reform legislation to the Legislative Council Study Committee on Occupational Licenses. The committee, made up of legislators and public members, is holding hearings and considering draft legislation designed to streamline and improve Wisconsin’s cumbersome and burdensome occupational licensing system.

Jahr testified before the study committee in September, offering an overview of Wisconsin’s licensing regime and proposals for making it more friendly to workers and consumers.  

At a Glance

“[E]ven though we’re on the other side of the pandemic, debt is still expected to remain at elevated levels, according to the Congressional Budget Office, eclipsing the World War II record over the next decade and soaring to a staggering 185% of GDP by 2052, when today’s children will be trying to raise families.” – Philip Klein, National Review, Nov. 10, 2022 

Weekly Survey: Does the size of the national debt cause you concern?

Last Week’s Results

What We’re Reading

• WisPolitics: LeMahieu, Vos list tax cuts, universal school choice among GOP priorities for next session

• NPR: A few small Wisconsin towns are rejecting federal coronavirus relief funding

• Fordham Institute: Public education is drifting from its founding ideals and public purpose

• Angela Rachidi: America Needs Prime-Age Men to Be Working

• James Capretta: Federal Unfunded Liabilities Are Growing More Rapidly Than Public Debt

• American Enterprise Institute: American Renewal: Launching a New Conservative Policy Book with Paul Ryan and Angela Rachidi

• National Review: The Conservative Case for Limited Government (Paywall)

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