Wisconsin received a $23 million “performance bonus” today from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the state’s success in improving access to health insurance for low-income children by simplifying BadgerCare enrollment and renewal procedures. The bonus payment for Wisconsin is the second largest among all the...
There was a heated debate last Thursday at a meeting of the State Building Commission regarding the need for more dentists and possibly also a new dental school in Wisconsin. The commission was considering a $10 million grant to Marshfield Clinic to set up a center to train rural dentists. The current plan is not for a new dental...
All too often, the gap between what research tells us what works with youthful offenders and what actual practice is seems too hard to close. Evidence based programs, while useful, are often viewed as too costly or too limited to significantly alter the course of a jurisdiction’s practice. And evidence-based practices, less rigorously...
The Governor’s Juvenile Justice Commission has recently released its final report for its work under the administration of Governor Doyle and leadership of Dave Steingraber at the Office of Justice Assistance. The report highlights substantial achievements in the areas of disproportionate minority contact (DMC), reducing the number of...
The Wisconsin Budget Project has released an analysis on the subject of the number of manufacturing and public sector jobs in Wisconsin. It examines how our state compares to others in the percentage of jobs in manufacturing, the portion of the state population in the public sector, and the change in the ratio of manufacturing and...
The Joint Finance Committee meets on Tuesday, December 14, and will vote on whether to approve the Department of Children and Families’ five-year sustainability plan for the child care quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) called YoungStar. Click here for the summary of the request by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. The meeting is...
Although the deal President Obama has brokered with Congressional Republicans is disappointing in many respects, the President won some significant concessions for low-income households. In addition to reviving the extended federal unemployment benefits, the proposed deal includes a two-year continuation of Recovery Act improvements to...
Youth advocates gathered in WashingtonD.C. on December 5th to rally for more investments in delinquency prevention and treating youth appropriately in the justice system. Vicky’s simple message on behalf of her son Kirk is that children should not be treated as adults – subject to confinement as adults, subject to the lifelong negative...
Ronald Reagan called the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) "the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress." Wisconsin's EITC, like the federal credit, has enjoyed broad bipartisan support, and it was signed into law by Governor Thompson. Nevertheless, a columnist speculates in the...
A recent study by the AmericanAcademy of Pediatrics, titled Criminal Justice and School Sanctions Against Nonheterosexual Youth: A National Longitudinal Study, found that nonheterosexual youth were disproportionately represented in police contacts, school expulsions, juvenile arrests and convictions, and adult conviction. The research...
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