Category: Experts Guide

When asked if she saw any potential benefits to universal school choice, UW-Madison education and law professor Julie Underwood, a public school advocate, was direct: “No.”

“My ideology is that public schools train people for democracy,” she said. “You have to have an educated public in order to have a democracy, and I would like everybody to equally have a chance to have a good education, and that’s not the way the private sector is set up.”

Quoted: “Becoming acquainted with a place’s supernatural beings, and becoming a transmitter of a place’s supernatural lore … is a way of further weaving ourselves into the stories of a place, and proclaiming our own belonging within it,” said Lowell Brower, a lecturer in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Folklore program, where he teaches, among other courses, “The Supernatural in the Modern World.”

“If you increase the state’s spending on special education through the reimbursements to school districts, it helps every child in every school district in the state,” University of Wisconsin-Madison law and education professor Julie Underwood said.

Seven months since Russia invaded Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has asserted control over a nuclear power plant and signed annexation laws for territories out of Russia’s control. Includes interview with Ted Gerber, Director of the Wisconsin Russia Project, Professor of Sociology

Quoted: “After every election, especially a presidential election, there is some sense among the people who voted for the losing candidate that the election was not quite fair,” Barry Burden, the director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told ABC News. “But 2020 is different,” Burden continued. “Republican voters have been stuck with very low levels of support.”

Quoted: Rosh Hashanah is often treated as a time to reflect on the previous year and focus on hopes for the coming year, according to Jordan Rosenblum, the Belzer Professor of Classical Judaism and Max and Frieda Weinstein-Bascom Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

“It’s the beginning of the Jewish calendar, and like all new years there are, it’s a time for sort of taking stock, right? … What do I want to improve? You know, the equivalent of joining the gym in January,” he said.

Rosh Hashanah is often treated as a time to reflect on the previous year and focus on hopes for the coming year, according to Jordan Rosenblum, the Belzer Professor of Classical Judaism and Max and Frieda Weinstein-Bascom Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Quoted: Warmer air can hold more moisture, and when the conditions are right — like they were last week — the atmosphere will “wring out that moisture,” said Steve Vavrus, a climate and atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Noted: The Canada goose population was so low that when the Endangered Species Act was passed in the U.S. in 1973, “honkers” were given serious consideration of being placed on the inaugural protection list, said Stan Temple, Beers-Bascom professor emeritus in conservation in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology and senior fellow at the Aldo Leopold Foundation.

The board is expected to continue its discussion of hourly wage increases next week. Jennifer Gaddis, a UW-Madison associate professor and expert on school food programs, suggested increasing pay is one place parents and staff disappointed with the food options so far should focus their energy.

“There’s not a whole lot that you’re going to see improve in terms of a reduction in prepackaged foods or greater freshness or variety unless MMSD can attract and retain the labor to prepare those kinds of meals,” Gaddis said. “There are things that the district could be doing if they had a fully staffed workforce, and I think that if they were able to invest and build out higher-quality jobs, that would really translate pretty directly into improved meals for kids.”

Quoted: David Canon, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said head-to-head races also provide more incentive for candidates to directly attack their opponents.

In an at-large race, candidates might hope voters will choose them alongside a variety of other candidates, so attacking other candidates could hurt their own odds.

“If you’re competing across all the candidates, it’s not as likely you’re going to be singling out one person for an attack; rather you’re more likely to be making a positive appeal to your voters about why you should vote for me,” Canon said.