Southeast Wisconsin is grappling with a teacher shortage and COVID could prompt even more demand
Southeastern Wisconsin colleges and universities are not on track to graduate enough education majors to fill the projected openings for teachers in the region, according to a recent report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum. The 18 institutions in the Higher Education...
Fostering Democracy: America’s founders believed civic education would prevent tyranny
By Maurizio Valsania, Professor of American History, Università di Torino The majority of Americans today are anxious; they believe their democracy is under threat. In fact, democracies deteriorate easily. As was feared since the times of Greek philosopher Plato, they...
Wisconsin could host refugees from Afghanistan at Fort McCoy as U.S. troops speed up withdrawal
U.S. defense officials said on August 16 that they were considering locating Afghan refugees at Fort McCoy, a U.S. Army installation near Tomah. Thousands of refugees are attempting to flee Afghanistan as Taliban fighters have completed toppling the Afghan central...
Justice after War: Why the United States still has a moral obligation to the people of Afghanistan
By Michael Blake, Professor of Philosophy, Public Policy and Governance, University of Washington Chaotic scenes in Kabul accompanied the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The fundamentalist Islamic group was able to retake power after President Joe...
Pentagon’s budget for one year of the Afghanistan War is enough to fund resettlement for 1.2M refugees
As the Biden administration faces criticism for not doing enough to assist those fleeing Afghanistan, an analysis released on August 16 showed that the roughly $19 billion the Pentagon budgeted for the U.S. occupation of the country in 2020 alone could cover initial...
The Post-9/11 Era: More American fatalities are due to bathtub accidents each year than by jihadist terrorism
The 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks is a natural time to assess our nation’s response over the last two decades and chart a course for the future. Our single-minded focus on defeating terrorist groups claiming to act in the name of Islam over all other...
Public health vs. individual rights: Why the debate on COVID vaccinations is reminiscent of smoking bans
This notion that one’s “rights” are more important than the health and well-being of others has a long history. Our problem with the unvaccinated is just the latest manifestation. Americans are belatedly lining up in impressive numbers to be immunized against...
From Saigon to Kabul: Historical lessons on when America decides to stop fighting
By Thomas Alan Schwartz, Professor of History, Vanderbilt University; and Catesby Holmes, The Conversation US “While they are very different, many are looking at the 1975 fall of Saigon to try to understand what is happening in Afghanistan. Walter Cronkite...
A “National Security” Excuse: Why it is time to retire the 9/11 policy of racial and religious profiling
As we approach the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it is past time to reckon with “war on terror” approaches that have cast too many Americans as national security threats. Two decades of permissive rules for intelligence collection, coupled with...
ProPublica Report: Ron Johnson finagled $200M tax break for Uihleins and his other wealthy benefactors
Billionaire business owners deployed lobbyists to make sure Trump’s 2017 tax bill was tailored to their benefit. Confidential IRS records show the windfall that followed was due in large part to assistance from Senator Ron Johnson. In November 2017, with the...
Lawmakers who tried to end unemployment benefits push to reward employees that reject vaccine policies
A GOP-authored proposal to grant unemployment pay to employees who quit their jobs to avoid a COVID-19 vaccine has exactly the wrong end of the stick, a small business lobbying group says. “The best thing that can be done to help address labor shortages and help small...
Release of official 2020 Census data kicks off redistricting battle in Wisconsin to save democracy
The partisan battle over Wisconsin’s next round of redistricting officially began on August 12 with the release of 2020 U.S. Census data to states. Though high-level numbers were released in April, the data released on August 12 included the numbers necessary for...
