Wisconsin

The power of school choice

05/03/2013
Meet Emilia Melendez – a mother of four from Milwaukee.  She didn’t finish high school and works at a private school where she earns just enough to take care of her family. She desperately wants her children to have the educational opportunities she never had, but realizes that she doesn’t have the means to help...

Getting Illinois moving … to 70 mph

By Brian Costin
03/31/2013
The Illinois Senate has overwhelmingly approved legislation to improve the state?s maximum speed limit to 70 mph. The legislation, Senate Bill 2356, was introduced by freshman state Sen. Jim Oberweis, R-Sugar Grove, and was approved by a 41-6 margin. Illinois currently has one of the lowest speed limits in the entire country. In the Midwest,...

Citizens deserve a seat in the room — it’s time to require open meetings for collective bargaining

By Chris Andriesen
03/20/2013
On February 28, 2013, Illinois’ largest government union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, which represents nearly 40,000 state employees, completed months of negotiations with state government over a new contract, yet taxpayers were locked out of the bargaining room during all of them. Since that time, taxpayers are still waiting to...

Wrong way Illinois: January 2013 unemployment worsens compared with neighbors

By Ted Dabrowski, John Klingner
03/18/2013
The latest BLS unemployment release once again highlights how poorly Illinois is faring compared with its neighbors and the nation as a whole. Illinois’ January unemployment rate jumped to 9 percent, a 0.4 percent increase over December’s rate. Illinois now has the seventh-highest unemployment rate in the nation, with nearly 600,000 Illinoisans unemployed. Meanwhile, the...

California’s fake reforms yield credit upgrade

01/31/2013
In January, Standard and Poor’s upgraded California’s credit rating to A from A-, an action the rating agency said resulted from the state’s “improved fiscal condition.”
Load More

Pathway to a Profession: How Apprenticeships Could Reshape Illinois’ Beauty Service Industry

Occupational licensing requirements present one of the steepest barriers to low-income Illinoisans starting careers in beauty services. Illinois requires anyone seeking to become a barber, cosmetologist, nail technician or hair braider to obtain a state license, essentially a permission slip to work. Unlike 45 other states, Illinois offers only one pathway to licensure for each...

View Report

Report Archive

Diana Graham

Process for unionizing non-state workers raises red flags

By Paul Kersey
06/19/2014

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students

By Ted Dabrowski
05/02/2016