Skip to main content

Category: State news

Attending college in Wisconsin and unsure how to vote? Here’s our Election 2024 student voter guide

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

College students can play a pivotal role in a swing state like Wisconsin, where elections are often won by razor-thin margins.

Voting rules can be confusing to navigate — and even more so for college students, most of whom live at a new address each school year. Here’s a guide on what to know, where to register and how to vote:

2 years after fall of Roe, Democrats campaign on abortion rights, ‘freedom’

Wisconsin Public Radio

During an interview with WPR, UW-Madison Professor of Sociology Emerita Myra Marx Ferree said when Roe fell, “it was like this bucket of cold water poured on the public consciousness” and Americans began seeing the abortion issue as far deeper than simply having a choice.

“It’s fundamental, it’s freedom, it’s rights. It’s respect for you as a human being. It’s justice,” said Marx Ferree. “Freedom is not about buying coats or shoes or taking a vacation or not taking a vacation. Freedom is about determining the course of your life.”

Survey: Demand for child care outpaces providers’ capacity

Wisconsin Public Radio

Hilary Shager, author of the report and associate director of the University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty, said not having enough staff was a primary reason for not expanding capacity, mostly among group providers. She said providers pointed to low compensation as one of their top issues.

Voter frustration fueled by lack of policy details on issues like health care, climate

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The town hall meeting featured a panel discussion with two faculty members from the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison who focus on climate change and health care policy, Morgan Edwards and Yang Wang, and Laura Olson, chief business development officer at Eneration, a subsidiary of Gundersen Health System that helps health care companies reduce their energy costs.

Chancellor Mnookin reflects on free speech, student housing, protest violations during media roundtable

The Daily Cardinal

A lot has been on University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin’s plate since the spring.

Between a 12-day pro-Palestine encampment and juggling the university budget process, she’s had to carefully tread an upcoming election with a student body that has divided perspectives. Mnookin and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Lori Reesor sat down with campus media Tuesday to discuss free speech efforts, the affordable housing shortage and protest culture.

Wisconsin students failing reading exams, and so are future teachers

The Capital Times

In 2020, UW-Madison and the Madison Metropolitan School District created a task force to study effective ways to teach literacy. Around that time, test scores showed about 80% of the school district’s students were failing to read proficiently.

Beverly Trezek, a UW-Madison professor who specializes in reading, said university administrators used the research to adjust courses. They added more instruction on topics like spelling and writing, and added opportunities for prospective special education teachers to teach reading in schools, she said.

Higher prices are burden for Wisconsin families. Senate candidates outline their remedies.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A scientific survey of nearly 4,000 Wisconsin residents by the UW Survey Center helped identify the top issues heading into the fall election. Throughout the year, we’ve been publishing opinion pieces from faculty at the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison, our partner in the Main Street Agenda, exploring the public policy behind those issues.

State lawmakers remain divided on UW-Madison encampment

Daily Cardinal

While Rep. Lisa Subeck, D-Madison, told the Cardinal she acknowledges protest is a tool for change, law and regulations remain an important principle for protesters to follow. “You can certainly exercise your right to free speech and right to assemble without tents in a camp… there is protest and then there’s civil disobedience,” Subeck said. “Actions have consequences, so whatever it is the protest is about when they choose to set up an encampment such as these students did, there are consequences that can come with that.”

Wisconsin’s low-wage workers have seen gains in recent years, but challenges remain

Wisconsin Public Radio

Wages for the lowest-paid workers in Wisconsin have risen faster than pay for higher earners in recent years, but workers still face challenges.

That’s according to the new “State of Working Wisconsin” report from the High Road Strategy Center, an economic think tank at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The report is released annually around Labor Day to provide insights into how workers are doing in the economy.

UW tuition promise programs finding success, but need funding

Wisconsin Public Radio

For years, national surveys of students and families have shown the cost to attend college heavily influences where high school students choose to enroll. Educators in Wisconsin have taken that seriously.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison launched Bucky’s Tuition Promise in 2018. The program covers a student’s tuition for four years if the family has a household income of $65,000 or less.

Wisconsin’s prison population swells as other states limit incarceration

PBS Wisconsin

Extended periods of supervision after release from prison do little to improve public safety, according to Cecelia Klingele, a University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School professor of criminal law. The long terms “may interfere with the ability of those on supervision to sustain work, family life and other pro-social connections to their communities,” she wrote in a 2019 study examining 200 revocation cases.

“Fewer, more safety-focused conditions will lead to fewer unnecessary revocations and more consistency in revocation for people whose behavior poses a serious threat to public safety,” she added.

Main Street Agenda is hitting the road to hear from Wisconsin on issues that matter to you

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Main Street Agenda is here to help you navigate these times. It is an election-year project designed to provide information and civil conversations about the issues Wisconsin voters care most about. The topics come from a UW Survey Center survey, WisconSays, that asked residents about the top issues they face.

Wisconsin voter ID law still causing confusion, stifles turnout in Milwaukee, voting advocates say

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“It’s a small factor compared to not liking the candidates or not caring about the outcome,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the Elections Research Center. His university colleagues published a 2017 study on the effect of the law.

Wisconsin’s inmate population swells as other states limit incarceration and close prisons

Wisconsin Watch

Extended periods of supervision after release from prison do little to improve public safety, according to Cecelia Klingele, a University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School professor of criminal law. The long terms “may interfere with the ability of those on supervision to sustain work, family life and other pro-social connections to their communities,” she wrote in a 2019 study examining 200 revocation cases.

“Fewer, more safety-focused conditions will lead to fewer unnecessary revocations and more consistency in revocation for people whose behavior poses a serious threat to public safety,” she added.

UW System funding ranks 43rd nationally. A big budget request would move it to middle of pack

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The state public university system is leaning heavily on a low national ranking in a bid seeking $855 million from the Legislature.

Wisconsin ranks 43rd among 50 states in funding its public four-year universities, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. The advocacy group represents the UW System, as well as other state university systems.

Wisconsin DOT Secretary Craig Thompson to step down; deputy secretary to take over

Wisconsin State Journal

Thompson, who took on the role as Wisconsin DOT secretary five years ago as one of Evers’ first department head appointees, will leave the agency on Sept. 11 to take a position at UW-Madison, Evers said. On Sept. 16, Thompson will begin his new role as vice chancellor for university relations at UW-Madison, university officials announced Friday.

Wisconsin voters reject ballot questions restricting governor’s power over federal funds

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Either the messaging from Republican and conservative leaders did not fully penetrate or the confusing legal language led some Republicans to vote ‘no’ rather than enact something they were unsure about,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center. “Democrats did put some money into the campaign to defeat the amendments and their message appears to have reached their primary voters.”

Wisconsin project digs through records and dirt to find MIA soldiers

The Capital Times

Eighty years later, Stevens was finally buried in Florida National Cemetery. His daughter attended the service in March, along with Ryan Wubben and other members of a University of Wisconsin-Madison group who helped find Stevens’ remains.

“It’s an interesting feeling that the success of your project results in a funeral,” said Wubben, the field physician for the University of Wisconsin Missing in Action Recovery and Identification Project.