Badger Institute

08/12/2026

Consumer debt owed by Wisconsinites is reaching all-time highs in nominal terms.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Wisconsinites’ debt reached $49,210 per person in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Consumer debt owed by Wisconsinites reached $49,210 per person in the fourth quarter of 2025.

08/11/2026

With respect to income taxes, Wisconsin is being pulled in differing policy directions.

The choice our next leaders make about which path to follow will have important implications for the state’s future competitiveness and prosperity.

Badger Institute : The choice Wisconsin leaders make about income tax policy will have important implications for the state’s future competitiveness and prosperity.

08/10/2026

Candidates often adopt a phrase favored by teachers’ unions: “Public dollars belong in public schools.”

But when kids in alternative schools are up to a full grade farther along, the phrase should be, “Education dollars belong in schools that educate.”

Badger Institute : Why do Wisconsin politicians want to close schools providing measurably great education for working-class kids?

08/07/2026

Last year alone, the federal bill for Medicaid was $668 billion, more than 2.5 times the program’s total 30 years ago, Sen. Ron Johnson said.

Total Medicaid spending, including states’ shares, last year was more than $910 billion.

Badger Institute : Overall spending by the federal and state governments on Medicaid has never once been reduced since Congress approved the program in 1965.

08/07/2026

Francesca Hong, the leading Democratic candidate for governor, identifies as a democratic socialist and has built her campaign around proposals that would substantially expand government’s role in the economy.

If Wisconsin’s economics standards are intended to teach students how markets work and why they matter, many of Hong’s signature policy proposals overlook the very tradeoffs students are expected to learn.

Badger Institute : Wisconsin’s own economics standards consistently teach the importance of prices, profits, competition, incentives and property rights, while one of the state’s leading candidates for governor campaigns without admitting or even seeming to understand their value.

08/05/2026

Wisconsin should implement a statewide legislative-sponsored gap analysis of development programs for principals and superintendents, evaluating their content, their coaching models, their effect on teacher retention and student outcomes.

Badger Institute : Nine policy recommendations for Wisconsin schools to keep teaching talent by correcting the conditions that lead to teacher loss.

08/03/2026

Other communities in Wisconsin have career-exploration programs for youth, but Deputy Chief Ben Frederick and Sgt. Mike Major of the Eau Claire Police Department know of no other city with a program as extensive and long-running as Eau Claire’s.

Badger Institute : One recent July morning in a riverside woods west of Eau Claire, 13 high-schoolers took turns firing practice versions of PepperBalls at an old steel drum and un-abolishing the police.

08/03/2026

Wisconsinites’ household debt, on average, is equal to 116% of their annual household income, recent data from the Federal Reserve shows.

07/31/2026

In an abolish-and-defund era, Eau Claire kids are getting to know their local law enforcement officers under friendly and informative circumstances.

Badger Institute : One recent July morning in a riverside woods west of Eau Claire, 13 high-schoolers took turns firing practice versions of PepperBalls at an old steel drum and un-abolishing the police.

07/29/2026

Gov. Tony Evers has declined Wisconsin’s participation in a new tax credit program for education expenses, suggesting it amounts to “vouchers” merely for private schools.

But public school district leaders beg to differ — and are thinking about what scholarships will do for their students as well.

Will Wisconsin’s next governor listen to local superintendents and make the right choice for students across the state?

Badger Institute : Public school district leaders are thinking about what scholarships from private donations through a new federal tax credit program the will do for their students.