Key Reads

As members of the State Assembly scramble to wrap up their legislative work for the year, we continue to scour the online offerings to bring you the news you need to stay informed, but not overwhelmed.

Several dozen bills will pass this week. A few will even make it through the process and be signed by the governor. We’re not a State Capitol press corps newsletter–but we will highlight a few items of interest. Including this bill, which we discussed last week.

Assembly passes bill to hold Wisconsin students back for truancy – WPR

The legislation, which now heads to the state Senate, would bar students from advancing to the next grade if they have more than 30 full days of unexcused absences.

It would apply to public schools, as well as to private schools that get state funding, starting in the 2025-26 school year.

The state’s attendance rate has been dropping since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching a low of 91 percent in the 2021-22 school year, the last available year of state data.

More than a fifth of Wisconsin students missed at least a month of school, and truancy rates were higher among high schoolers and in districts with higher percentages of minority students and students living in poverty, according to the data from Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction, or DPI.

The DPI opposes the bill.

You read that last line right. DPI, the Department of Public Instruction, the Madison bureaucrats tasked with implementing education policy, thinks a student who misses six full weeks of school without a medical excuse should advance to the next grade level.

The fact that this law is even necessary is pretty sad. Worse, the odds the Governor vetoes it if it gets to his desk is pretty high.

Here’s another education-related story we’ve been following.

Video of former Green Bay superintendent’s radio appearance released – WLUK

At several points in the recording, the radio host references the livestream, including at the beginning of the conversation. Tiller also later waves at the camera.

During one radio commercial break, the webcam captures Tiller talking about a subordinate.

“First they’ll say “oh me?” B-I-T-C-H of course it’s you,” said Tiller.

In another, Tiller and the host are talking about businesses in the Green Bay area.

“So do you have the support of those corporations and industries to help support in education?” the radio host asked Tiller during a commercial break.

“So, in here lies the rub, they want to keep the haves and have nots and they don’t know that I notice that,” said Tiller. “So they’ll rear their heads for a party. Oh, they throw gigantic summer parties for them and everything, but that’s about it. And that is their appreciation party, but they want to keep them at a certain level.”

The entire interview is linked in the story, above. Tiller was ostensibly in Atlanta to recruit black teachers to Green Bay. Or maybe he went there to get fired? Judging by his comments about Green Bay residents, members of his staff, and businesses in the community he had to have known this interview was going to be an issue.

We love the Wisconsin State Fair. The food. The showing of the animals. The food. The people watching. Oh, and the food. In recent years the fair has also upped their grandstand entertainment fare. While they don’t have the budget or the facilities to attract the large, hit acts, They have made a renewed effort to bring in a higher level of talent. So add these acts to the list of reasons to head to the Wisconsin State Fair in August

Four more Main Stage headliners announced for Wisconsin State Fair – WKOW

One final tidbit in today’s Key Reads:

Milwaukee is set to host the huge Republican National Convention this Summer. Every year it hosts thousands of Northwestern Mutual employees. Pre-COVID it was also going to host the huge Democratic National Convention.

However, it will never host and NBA All -Star Game, because the league doesn’t think the city can handle it.

While this year’s weekend events were held in Indianapolis the league just announced new criteria for host cities that several of their their team cities, do not meet. The host city must have

7,250 hotel rooms and a minimum of three five-star hotels.
Convention center of 650,000 square feet of exhibition space.
75 nonstop domestic flights and at least 20 international flights.

While the Baird Center is nearly twice the required size, the city does not meet the ridiculous hotel and airport metrics, and won’t any time soon. So unless the NBA relents, the Fiserv Forum won’t be hosting an All-Star game.

However, we’ll note the league can’t prevent the Bucks from hosting yet another championship parade.

That will show them!