Wisconsin Right Now

Texas Department of Public Safety troopers working through Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star, continue to arrest “special interest aliens,” primarily men from countries of foreign concern. That includes Iran, a U.S. State Department designated State Sponsor of Terrorism. Texas DPS first sounded the alarm about increasing arrests of SIAs last month, The Center Square first reported . In the past week, DPS troopers have arrested dozens of SIAs, Texas DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez said in a series of social media posts . SIAs are noncitizens who, based “on an analysis of travel patterns,” are “known or evaluated to possibly have a nexus to terrorism” who “potentially poses a national security risk to the United States,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security explains. Having an SIA designation does not necessarily mean the individual is a terrorist, but their travel pattern “indicates a possible nexus to nefarious activity (including terrorism) and, at ...

  Denver’s public school system has been taking in as many as 250 new students a week since the new year, which it attributes to the increase in the number of migrants arriving in the city. Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero called the situation an “unprecedented challenge” in a message to the community posted on the district’s website. The district said the influx of new students will cost an additional $837,000 “to support additional needs across the system.” From July 1, 2023 to January 2024, there were 3,221 new-to-country students with more than 1,300 coming to Denver schools since Oct. 1, 2023, the district stated. The district is hiring more staff to deal with the increase in students and focusing on hiring people who are bilingual, according to the superintendent. “The pace of new arrivals has remained steady since the start of 2024, with roughly 200-250 students joining us each week,” a report to the school board stated last week. On Feb. 5, ...

Public schools in Wisconsin have nine months left before the last of their COVID-19 relief cash expires, and there’s hundreds of millions of dollars still on the table. The Institute for Reforming Government has been tracking Wisconsin’s $1.5 billion in COVID relief money. Their latest update shows that $307 million of that haul remains unallocated. “Before districts spend money, they are supposed to get DPI’s approval. DPI confirms whether their allocations qualify for ESSER III reimbursement. So, districts either lack DPI approval for $307 million or are spending money without DPI approval with no guarantee of reimbursement,” IRG said in its report. “Thirty-nine districts have below 50% allocated, including Green Bay and West Bend. Thirty-five districts have over $1 million left to allocate, including Milwaukee and Fond Du Lac. Eight districts are at $0 allocated.” IRG first sounded the alarm about unallocated COVID cash in February. At that point , Wisconsin schools were s...

“As it stands, MPS has nearly $19,000 per student. This doesn't even take into account the increases Gov. [Tony] Evers has set the district up for the next 400 years with his partial veto last year.  Milwaukee taxpayers should carefully evaluate whether a district achieving less than 20% proficiency in reading and math should be rewarded with even more funding” -Will Flanders of Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty Milwaukee Public Schools are going back to taxpayers for a quarter-billion dollars. The city’s school board voted Thursday night to put a $259 million tax hike request on the April ballot. MPS leaders say they need more money to maintain operations and keep up with rising costs. "We can’t let our public school system fail," MPS Board vice president Jilly Gokalgandhi told the board. "How many years are we supposed to keep getting kicked in the face?" board president Marva Herndon asked. The tax hike request comes after state lawmakers...

The Green Bay Area Public School District is preparing for a "significant fiscal cliff" for the 2024-25 school year once federal emergency funding for COVID-19 dries up. Like school districts across the U.S., federal emergency funds have allowed districts to realize an increase in funding during the pandemic. Federal money for the district's general fund has increased from $12.2 million in 2019 to $33.5 million in 2022, a 175% increase. Total revenues for the district jumped from $275.6 million in 2019 to $304.6 million in 2022, an 11% increase. But the federal emergency funds are running out. The district is projecting $28.5 million in federal funds in 2023, far more than the pre-pandemic days but a $5 million decrease from the year before. While the district has had an increase in funding, enrollment has declined over the past six years, peaking at 21,937 students in 2016-17 and dropping to 19,828 in 2022-23. Green Bay schools' spokeswoman Lori Blakeslee ...

Public employee pension systems are some of the largest financial liabilities on state government balance sheets. The 50 states have over $4.5 trillion in cumulative pension liabilities combined, roughly double the amount all 50 states spent in fiscal 2020. For years, state pension systems were woefully underfunded in much of the country, but according to a recent report from the Pew Charitable Trusts , this trend may be reversing. Driven by higher investment from both employees and employers, state pension systems have largely stabilized as of 2020. Since 2007, states across the country have more than doubled annual pension contributions, often cutting funding for other programs to do so. Still, some states are better positioned to pay public sector employees in retirement than others. In Wisconsin, estimated pension liabilities totaled an estimated $118.7 billion in 2020. Meanwhile, the state's pension assets totaled $125.0 billion. Considering both assets and liabilities, Wi...

Wisconsin’s latest public school headcount shows fewer kids in traditional public schools and more kids moving into schools of choice. And school choice supporters say that shouldn’t be a surprise. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction released its headcount for the 2022-2023 school year last Friday. It shows a 1% drop in public school enrollment, plus a 7% increase in voucher-school enrollment and a 4% increase in charter school enrollment. “This shows that the momentum around school choice was not just a pandemic-related event, but rather that parents value the opportunity to choose the best school for their child,” Libby Sobic with the Wisconsin Coalition for Educational Reform told The Center Square. “Both private schools in the parental choice program and independent public charter schools saw an increase in enrollment over the previous year.” The numbers aren’t huge, but they are telling. DPI said public school enrollment fell by about 7,000 students, while vo...

Milwaukee Public Schools are now requiring students to apply for college financial aid before they can graduate from high school, but critics say the city’s schools should worry about basic reading and writing before leaders worry about college. MPS made Free Application for Federal Student Aid applications mandatory this month, and Milwaukee leaders celebrated the policy with news conferences this week. "I want every single young person in Milwaukee to be ambitious, to have big dreams," Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said. "I want them to take the steps that can lead to success. And filling out the FAFSA is an important part of that." MPS says about 50% of Milwaukee students applied for federal financial aid last year. Only about a third of 2020 graduates enrolled in college. Heather Smith, a policy director at the MacIver Institute told The Center Square that MPS’ numbers are worse than that. “[Newly released] numbers show that in MPS, 84% of students ...