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Milwaukee’s Jewish Community marshals resources, volunteers to aid Ukrainian refugees
The Jewish community in Milwaukee has deep and long connections to the Jewish population in Ukraine. And for Milwaukeeans involved in relief efforts at the Ukrainian border, recent experiences of assisting refugees and evacuating Holocaust survivors from Ukraine have been harrowing and “deeply personal.” “Keep in mind our immediate response to today’s staggering needs was […]
Sparks fly between Deborah Kerr and Jill Underly at online forum
The state superintendent candidate forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the Wisconsin Public Education Network (WPEN) was not a dull affair. Jill Underly had technical difficulties that served to illustrate one of her campaign priorities. As a candidate she has emphasized improving rural broadband access. During the March 11 forum, her internet […]
Joint Finance Committee announces four public budget hearings: Only one is virtual, and none in Milwaukee
Joint Finance Committee announces four public budget hearings: Only one is virtual, and none in Milwaukee
Environmental group files new lawsuit over F-35 decision
A group seeking to halt the siting of a squadron of F-35 fighter jets at Madison’s Truax Field filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. Air Force. After several years of contentious debate, in February 2020 the Air Force confirmed that it had chosen Madison’s Truax Field and a site in Montgomery, Alabama, from five […]
Republicans and Democrats agree on this: Teaching the Holocaust
Recent national events are now part of history: The man storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” shirt. The chants of “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2019. U.S. Congress member Marjorie Taylor Green and her “Jewish space laser” theory. Closer to home, incidents of antisemitism are on […]
Poetry for the people
On Inauguration Day, while the country was still on edge after the horrific violence of Jan. 6, Dasha Kelly Hamilton — Wisconsin’s newly inaugurated poet laureate — was half tuned in to the broadcast from Washington, D.C. She heard a poet’s name being announced, and her first reaction was that Joy Harjo, the nation’s first […]
‘A slap in the face’
Kelly and Eric Maday’s kindergartner, Abigail, has cried every day since Feb. 2 when she and her brother were pulled out of school in Ashland and moved into a district “isolation room” while they waited 45 minutes for a parent to pick them up. Eric Maday and their three children — Reggie, Howard and Abigail […]
Senate education committee debates sports eligibility
Debates over virtual education and charter schools resurfaced during a meeting Tuesday of the Senate Education Committee as the committee heard testimony on a bill that would require school boards to allow students enrolled in virtual charter schools to participate in extracurricular activities in the districts where they reside. Speaking in favor of the bill […]
Community health workers provide essential links for struggling communities
Community health workers provide essential links for struggling communities
Investing in rural schools
When Gov. Tony Evers announced his biennial budget on Tuesday, including a hefty $7.7 billion proposed for various education programs, Kim Kaukl felt like the concerns of rural Wisconsin were being heard. “I feel it’s a strong budget,” says Kaukl, executive director of Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance (WiRSA). “It has basically everything that our members […]
Kerr and Underly to vie for state superintendent position
Jill Underly and Deborah Kerr came out of a seven-way primary to advance to the April 6 general election for Wisconsin state superintendent of education. The two women, both experienced school district superintendents, will make their case to voters that they are the best person to lead Wisconsin’s more than 2,000 schools through a pandemic. […]
Evers proposes massive investment in education
“If we’re going to bounce back from this pandemic, then we have to start by making sure our kids are better off than when we started this pandemic,” Gov. Tony Evers told an online audience at his biennial budget address on Tuesday. The governor touched on key issues for public education advocates, including broadband access, […]