If the Brewers can compete why can’t our schools?
State school boss Jill Underly in her annual State of Education address last week asked Wisconsin voters to cough up more tax dollars and while we’re at it, stamp out competition to the government school monopoly. Because (the part she didn’t say), public schools can’t compete. Not on education results, not on price, not on parent satisfaction. At least, not all of them, all of the time.
Speaking in the Capitol Rotunda 09-24-26, Underly blamed “decades of below-inflation funding,” and attacked school choice as a diversion of public dollars into “unaccountable, private systems,” according to the Heartland Post.
Unaccountable? Except to the parents who CHOOSE those schools. As more parents are doing, especially in David Crowley’s Milwaukee. More money? The Wisconsin Policy Forum finds public school enrollment has plummeted 9.2 percent since 2011 even as overall staffing rose 7 percent.
Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce puts current statewide average funding per student at $18,592. That’s double the amount 25 years ago and 50 percent higher than a year of tuition at UW-Madison.
We quote again the Reforming Government Institute:
Madison’s district is squandering immense financial advantages. … middle-class Madison ranks in the 89th percentile among big districts nationally in school funding. They pay 1 adult for every 6 students, relying on local taxpayers to fund the lowest ratio [students to staff] of Wisconsin’s 15 biggest districts.
[While] Madison’s test scores are near the state’s bottom. Controlling for poverty … Madison ranks 13th of Wisconsin’s 15 biggest districts on the Forward Exam and 12th on the ACT.
How is THAT accountable?
If anything, universal choice — now limited to low-income families — should become available to everyone. The money follows the student. That’s what the Wi Institute for Law & Liberty recommends. WILL also advocates:
• A Teacher Bill of Rights to help educators maintain safe, orderly classrooms and to require parental notification after serious incidents.
• Decouple choice and charter funding from local property taxes, delivering nearly $400 million in annual property tax relief without reducing resources to public schools.
• Preserve Act 10. Repeal could cost school districts and local governments over $2 billion annually.
• Reverse Governor Evers’ “400-year veto”, which has already increased school district revenue authority by up to $1,300 per student for 2026-27 and is adding pressure on property taxpayers.
• Restore honest academic standards by reversing DPI’s recent proficiency changes, realigning the Forward Exam with NAEP, and replacing five-star report cards with clear A–F grades.
We add one of our own: Amend the state constitution to place education in the governor’s appointed cabinet alongside natural resources, highways, health and welfare.
School choice responds to unequal quality …
… it doesn’t cause it. The failure isn’t that some families can choose a good school, but that too many cannot. Trapping another family in a bad school [doesn’t help anyone.]” — Roland Fryer, professor of economics, Harvard University.
UPDATE on that $25,000 Corey Ruiz memorial: Supervisor Chawla, the sponsor of that resolution, “indicated that for various reasons he was moving to postpone the resolution indefinitely in committee and instead intends to submit a capital amendment to the 2027 budget.” The motion to postpone carried by a voice vote.
Gave up on the Badgers after QB Colten Joseph threw his second straight interception, gifting Penn State 14 points. Did a Danny Thomas coffee spray after opening our Sunday morning newsprint to find the Badgers prevailed 24 to 20! A lesser man than Luke Fickell would have performed the biggest Told You So in history. Now Badger fans will expect a berth in the post-season football playoffs.
If you’re not a Brewers fan yet, check out this montage of season highlights set to Aerosmith’s Dream On.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Speaking of expectations: anything short of a World Series is a bummer, right? Brewers and Badgers — both improved because of competition! It’s the genius of our federal system of 50 states. It’s Hertz v. Avis, Microsoft v. Apple, Walmart v. Costco. More money? The Brewers achieved the best record in Major League Baseball (103 wins!) with the only the 19th highest payroll of 30 teams.
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