Legislators passed several bills that affect public safety and the state’s corrections system, and they also missed several opportunities to make major improvements to those systems.
One of the positive developments in the Wisconsin legislature over the last several years has been the bipartisan work in a few areas of health care policy, such as behavioral health and dementia. Yet despite broad support for a number of bills in those two areas, the 2015-16 session ended with considerably less progress on those issues...
After enactment of the budget bill last summer, most of the legislative action on health care focused on three issue areas: behavioral health, dementia, and family planning.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) turns six this Wednesday, March 23. The young health care reform law has achieved some impressive accomplishments, especially since a couple of key parts of the law took effect in 2014. Nevertheless, public opinion about the law is divided, and many Republican politicians are intent upon repealing the ACA....
In Part 1 of this blog, we described the data on suspensions and expulsion by race/ethnicity in the United States. But, what about Wisconsin? Unfortunately, rates of suspensions and expulsions in Wisconsin are more disparate than they are nationally. According to 2013-14 data from the Department of Public Instruction: Only about 4% of...
Wisconsin state lawmakers wrapped up their legislative session this month, after passing several bills affecting education. Several proposals that received a significant amount of media coverage did not pass.
We’re all aware of racial achievement gaps that exist across the country and right here in Wisconsin, but there’s another racial gap in education worth noting: suspensions and expulsions. A nationwide look at suspension and expulsion rates, broken down by race and ethnicity, shows that black and American Indian students are more likely...
Last week the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) took an important step in recognizing the tremendous impact of child poverty and other social determinants of health in child development. They also recognized the critical role pediatricians can and should play in identifying and helping to address the needs of patients impacted by...
New data show that signups for Marketplace insurance plans took another significant jump in Wisconsin during the most recent open enrollment period, and the average monthly premiums are unchanged for people who qualify for premium tax credits. More specifically, the latest figures released by the Dept. of Health and Human Services for...
The recent Netflix documentary Making a Murderer unleashed a wave of scrutiny over procedures in the criminal justice system, including investigation and interrogation practices. In that vein, we posted a few weeks ago discussing what Making a Murderer shows about juvenile confessions—that false confessions by youth can be fairly easily...
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