A new analysis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Applied Population Laboratory shows that poverty is on the rise in Wisconsin. In 2014, the most recent data in the study, the poverty rate reached 13 percent, the highest rate since 1984. The rate increased 20 percent in just five years between 2010 and 2014.
Poverty in Wisconsin is at its highest level in 30 years, according to a trend analysis of U.S. Census data by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.
According to a recently published University of Wisconsin Applied Population Laboratory report, the state’s poverty level has worsened significantly in the last several years despite economic growth.
The lab’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data collected between 2005-09 and 2010-14 revealed poverty reached 13 percent — its highest level in 30 years — during the latter period, Malia Jones, assistant scientist at the Applied Population Laboratory, said.
Current members of the UW System Board of Regents have given more than $245,000 to political candidates over the past 25 years, according to campaign finance documents.
Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates Rebecca Bradley and JoAnne Kloppenburg are set to meet in a debate next month on the University of Wisconsin campus. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports it will sponsor the March 18 debate along with Wisconsin Public Television and Wisconsin Public Radio. The debate is set to begin at 7 p.m. at Wisconsin Public Television’s studio on the UW-Madison campus.
The ways the health care market would be affected if the state were to switch to self-insurance for its workers was a topic in focus at a University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty forum Tuesday.
After originally making plans to petition changes to Wiscards, a student government committee discussed whether they should focus on getting students registered to vote instead.
Noted: Kathy Cramer, director of the UW–Madison’s Morgridge Center for Public Service, says the university’s historic role helping policy makers solve state problems has shrunk due to suspicion on both ends of State Street. However, she says, some initiatives continue, including student internships and leadership programs, and embedding graduate students from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research in state legislators’ offices.
Noted: The debate will be held at Wisconsin Public Television’s studio on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
UW-Madison graduate student Amy Alstad released survey findings Friday about human influence on the rate of species change in Wisconsin prairies.
Self-insuring state employees might not affect workers’ benefits and premiums, and it wouldn’t pose much financial risk to the state, a UW-Madison business professor said Tuesday.But the move could disrupt the health care system — especially in Dane County, where several provider-owned HMOs compete for state workers, Justin Sydnor said during a UW-Madison faculty forum.
Last year, when Gov. Scott Walker’s administration tried to erase the “Wisconsin Idea”—a principle rooted in the progressive era of the early 1900s—howls of protest rose across the state.
The mission of the new facility is another example of the university’s commitment to bring its knowledge to the people of the state: training the next generation of meat industry leaders, supporting innovative research with collaborative interdisciplinary efforts, providing outreach education and supporting the economic development of the meat industry.
UW-Extension, which applies research and expertise across the state in myriad areas, has been forced to restructure due to a reduction of $3.6 million annually in state funding. It plans to cut $1.2 million from county-level programs, $1.7 million from campus programs and state specialists and $700,000 from administration, according to its chancellor, Cathy Sandeen. UW-Extension is a division of the UW System, which ordered the cuts after its state funding was reduced by $250 million.
The state Assembly has approved a broad package of legislation aimed at improving the services and care of those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Among the legislation passes is a bill to provide $50,000 in additional funding annually for Alzheimer’s research at UW-Madison
Noted: The 10-bill package includes proposals to spend $50,000 for virtual dementia tours, in which participants wear goggles to simulate dementia effects, and give the University of Wisconsin-Madison an additional $50,000 for Alzheimer’s research.
The state Assembly is set to approve a package of legislation designed to help people cope with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
The 10-bill package includes proposals to spend $50,000 for virtual dementia tours, in which participants wear goggles to simulate dementia effects, and give the University of Wisconsin-Madison an additional $50,000 for Alzheimer’s research.
The state Assembly passed a package of college affordability bills backed by Gov. Scott Walker during a late-night legislative session on Tuesday.
Assembly Republicans have passed Gov. Scott Walker’s college affordability package despite Democrats’ warnings that the legislation does little to actually help students.
The bills include plans to lift the cap on tax-deductible student loan interest; boost grants for technical college and two-year students at University of Wisconsin Colleges to help them deal with emergencies; create internship coordinators; and require colleges to update students annually on how much debt they’ve accumulated.
On the UW-Madison campus, few students were taking the time to cast ballots. At the Red Gym, 15 people had voted by 12:30 p.m. while across the street at Memorial Library just five people had voted by midday. Poll workers at both sites said directing students to the correct polling place was more time-consuming than checking IDs. “Everything’s worked out fine. Everybody’s prepared and has their ID and we haven’t had any issue at all,” said Jim Fortner, who has been the chief inspector at Ward 48 since 2000. The polling place is normally at Memorial Union but was moved to the Red Gym because of construction.
The LAB identified “significant weaknesses” in information technology security policies, procedures and controls for several computer applications at several UW institutions, according to an audit report released Monday.
Note: Dane County and City of Madison election officials want to know exactly how much longer [it will take]. That’s why they are working with the UW Political Science Department to time out every part of the process Tuesday. That data will then be entered into a computer model.
Madison voters might notice that they’re being timed when they visit the polls on Tuesday. County Clerk Scott McDonell said in a Facebook post that voters shouldn’t be alarmed. He said the city is working with the University of Wisconsin political science department to collect data on the effect of the voter identification law on lines at the polls.
Democrats have complained that the package amounts to crumbs for struggling students. Republicans have countered that they have frozen University of Wisconsin tuition for four years straight and some of the concepts in Walker’s package came from UW System officials themselves.
On Monday, Associated Students of Madison, the campus student government organization, dropped off 450 paper valentine hearts at Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’ office to represent the 450 UW–Madison students registered to vote by special registration deputies this year.
Noted: Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell and Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl are collaborating with the UW-Madison Political Science Department to time the vote at Tuesday’s nonpartisan primary so adjustments can be made prior to the April 5 presidential primary and spring election, the fall primary in August and the general election in November.
Gov. Scott Walker has appointed three new University of Wisconsin regents. The governor’s office announced Friday that he had appointed Tracey Klein, Bryan Steil and Lisa Erickson to the board.
English students at Southern Door High School are beginning to experience a Chinese literary classic in advance of this year’s Great World Texts In Wisconsin Conference. More than 1,200 students statewide including those at Southern Door High School have begun reading Journey to the West, Wu Cheng’en’s novel of sixteenth-century China.
Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling and other Democrats hosted a listening session on student loan debt at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Monday. Some at the meeting said both parties aren’t doing enough to solve the problem.
Noted: SB 276: Allow the UW System to use parking fines and fees to help pay for campus safety. Now, that money can be used only for parking and transportation facilities and enforcing parking regulations. The measure would also bar the UW System from building new parking facilities using bonds backed by general taxes.
Noted: AB 808: Prevent law enforcement from issuing underage drinking tickets to sexual assault victims and those assisting them. It would also bar the University of Wisconsin System from suspending them or taking other actions against them.
UW students protested on Friday at the UW system’s Board of Regents meeting. They say they’re tired of the regents declining to meet with them about tenure for faculty and racial justice for students.
The bill, which would provide $450,000 for emergency loans to students in state technical and UW System colleges, is headed to the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, having been endorsed by Gov. Scott Walker in the State of the State address last month.
Noted: The bills would lay out $50,000 in additional funding annually for Alzheimer’s research at UW-Madison. The committee adopted all the bills Thursday. The only legislator to cast a “no” vote on any of them was Sen. Leah Vukmir. She voted against the UW-Madison bill.
Noted: The bills would lay out $50,000 to purchase licenses for a virtual dementia tour; $50,000 in additional funding annually for Alzheimer’s research at UW-Madison; and $1 million in additional money annually for the state’s Alzheimer’s family and caregiver support program.
Noted: UW-Madison Prof. Majid Sarmadi helped with research and is featured in photo.
The Legislature’s budget committee is set to vote on five bills to help people cope with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.The bills would lay out $50,000 to purchase licenses for a virtual dementia tour, a program that simulates dementia; $50,000 in additional funding annually for Alzheimer’s research at UW-Madison; $1 million in additional money annually for the state’s Alzheimer’s family and caregiver support program; $465,000 in ongoing funding to support four more dementia care specialists spread across counties with fewer than 150,000 people and a state specialist trainer; and an additional $250,000 in fiscal year 2016-17 for state grants for training county and regional crisis teams on providing help to dementia sufferers.
The Republican leader of the state Senate says he expects the next state budget will be as difficult as the last one.
Efforts are already underway to help young people understand exactly what constitutes sexual consent, this as a bill to simply reporting assaults moves through the legislature.
Gov. Scott Walker says he thinks the state Legislature can afford to give the go-ahead to a few new programs during the spring legislative session, including elements of his college affordability plan.
County officials voiced concerns Tuesday about the impact of a $3.6 million cut in funding for county programs provided by the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank outlined the university’s efforts to educate students on voter ID information in a Friday blog post.
Blank said in the post that after the 2011 voter ID law was implemented, she and other administrative officials worked with legislators to ensure that students across the UW System could obtain voter ID cards.
While budget cuts are occurring on campuses across the University of Wisconsin System this year, the system’s own annual report released Monday said its financial standing “remained relatively strong” as of June 30, the end of the last fiscal year. That’s just a snapshot in time, UW System officials said, and it does not account for $250 million in state budget cuts that will come into play between this fiscal year and next.
MADISON — The University of Wisconsin System’s net worth has increased.
With the first statewide election of the year just two weeks away, state officials are ramping up efforts to make sure the public is once again ready to comply with the state’s voter ID requirement.
Wisconsin voters will have to show a photo ID when they go to the polls for the spring primary in about two weeks on Feb. 16.
University of Wisconsin-Extension officials want to absorb Gov. Scott Walker’s budget cuts by reducing the number of agents and researchers helping people with everything from growing crops to family finances.
While much of the nation is steadily boosting state funding for higher education, several recent reports suggest the opposite is true in Wisconsin, though the governor’s office argues that’s not the full story.
University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross has backed Gov. Walker’s plan as “a good first step,” and in an interview broadcast Sunday on “UpFront with Mike Gousha,” he addressed what he called a “delicate balance” between tackling debt and making college more affordable for future students.
University of Wisconsin-Extension officials are mulling consolidating services across counties to absorb a budget hit.
University of Wisconsin-Extension officials are mulling consolidating services across counties to absorb a budget hit.
The two-year state budget Gov. Scott Walker signed in July cut $250 million from the UW System. Extension’s share of that cut is $7 million over the biennium.
Noted: The Milwaukee County effort will include staff with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and researchers with the Urban Canid Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The bills include plans to lift the cap on tax-deductible student loan interest, boost grants for students and create internship coordinators. The Assembly’s universities committee passed the package on party-line votes, with all five Democrats on the panel voting against each measure.
The Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety unanimously approved the proposal from Rep. Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan, which has support from university officials, victim advocates and state and local law enforcement.
Quoted: Joseph Glass, an assistant professor of social work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in addiction and treatment, said expanding access to ADFs is not a panacea for the problem.
University of Wisconsin doctors said the bill will help break down barriers and could lead to more organ donors.
“We need to be cognizant of what subtle disincentives are out there and try to remove as many as possible and job security is really important,” said Dr. Dixon Kaufman, the Chief of the Division of Transplantation (and professor of transplant surgery).
The Wisconsin Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, Russ Feingold, spent Monday evening discussing college costs with the UW-Madison Chapter of College Democrats.
This is all part of a two-day tour of college campuses throughout the state of Wisconsin by the Feingold campaign. The candidate is addressing students at each stop on the burden of high cost of student debt.
Noted: The bill is supported by Attorney General Brad Schimel and University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank, who said avoiding citations for victims and their supporters is already policy on campus.
“We have been telling them if you are drinking but helping a friend we will focus on the sexual assault issue and not the drinking issue,” Blank said. “But I think being able to say under the law of Wisconsin this is not just our practice but this is the law does have a certain depth of convincingness to it.”
Victims of sexual assault in Wisconsin wouldn’t get in trouble for underage drinking under a bill introduced by Rep. Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan, backed by the University of Wisconsin and Attorney General Brad Schimel.
