Celebrating 35 years of advancing freedom in Wisconsin

Choice Stories

“A child is a child is a child”

Why do politicians in Madison see children and parents at St. Thomas More in Green Bay – and at other choice schools across the state – as less deserving than their neighbors?

Wisconsin children can receive dramatically different education funding depending on where their parents chose to send them to school.

Some families in Green Bay use Wisconsin’s parental choice program to send their children to St. Thomas More, a school that helps them exercise the religious liberty they gained by coming to America. “It is a great opportunity that has been given to us,” as one mother said.

So, why are these children worth less to Wisconsin?

Watch the video

Viewpoint

Lessons in liberty

A Green Bay school welcomes immigrants, thanks to bedrock principles underlying our American constitution 

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. 

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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Badger in the News

“At the end of 2021, it took about eight months for felony cases to be resolved — about two months more compared to 2019 and over three months more compared to 2010, according to a Badger Institute analysis of Wisconsin Court System data.”

Wisconsin Public Radio, Nov. 2, 2022 

Free Exchange Podcast

Wisconsin’s School Choice Moment

Following November’s gubernatorial election, the tone and tenor of discourse in Madison is markedly different than it was four years ago. 

The Badger State is looking at a budget surplus of billions of dollars, and both the Legislature and governor’s office have great incentive to improve the lives of Wisconsin families by working together for meaningful solutions. 

School choice guru Jim Bender joins Badger Institute President Mike Nichols to discuss these post-election dynamics in the Capitol, including opportunities to invest in student success through accessible and equitable school choice funding in the next state budget cycle.

Listen in

At a Glance

Weekly Survey: Is it fair for the state to fund the education of Wisconsin children differently because of the schools they or their parents select?  

Last Week’s Results

What We’re Reading

• Foundation for The Business News: Initiative offers path to cut workforce shortages

• Heritage Foundation: Hello, “Medicare for All.” Goodbye, Doctor–Patient Relationship

• City Journal: The Decline of Higher Education

• Center Square: New lawsuit accuses Wisconsin DPI of making school choice more difficult

• Fordham Institute: Teachers Should Replace “the Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations” with “the Suspension of Disbelief”

• Empower Wisconsin: Another deadly record for Milwaukee

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