Monthly Archives: February, 2022

(The Center Square) – The plan to require high school students in Wisconsin learn about money and how to manage it in order to graduate from high school is running into opposition from the state’s education leaders.

The Department of Public Instruction is opposition to AB 899, which would require all high schools in the state to teach financial literacy.

“We need to find a way to bring our education into the 21st Century, and teach our students stuff they need to learn to be successful in our economy,” Rep. Alex Dallman, R-Green Lake, explained to The Center Square on Tuesday.

DPI is open to teaching financial literacy, but has concerns about making it a graduation requirement.

Dallman said he is not really surprised that DPI and other education bureaucrats are opposed to his plan.

“School districts often complain about the money they don’t have, or how funding has decreased,” Dallman said. “But right now with all of the federal funds they have, they are sitting on piles and piles of cash.”

Dallman said there are also outside groups that will partner with local schools. He said Next Gen Personal Finance is already working with Milwaukee Public Schools to teach financial literacy. Next Gen pays for the curriculum and training for MPS teachers to take the class.

Many schools in Wisconsin already teach personal finance. Dallman wants to make it a required class worth one class credit.

Wisconsin requires 15 class credits for high schoolers to graduate. That includes four English or language arts credits, three math, three science, and three social studies credits, plus one-and-half physical education credits, and a half-credit in health.

“We want to listen to the rising pressure from parents who say we need to be teaching our kids some actual life lessons, and teaching them to be able to take responsibility over what they are doing so they don’t have to depend on the government when they grow-up.”

The Assembly Committee on Education held a hearing on Dallman’s plan on Tuesday. He’s not sure when it could come-up for a vote in the full Assembly.

(The Center Square) – It’s the latest snapshot of just how many parents in Wisconsin want to explore educational options for their kids.

Tuesday was the first day for parents to enroll in the state’s Private School Choice Program. By midday, the state’s website crashed because of a flood of applications.

“Due to high volume, the system is temporarily unavailable,” read a note at the Department of Public Instruction’s website.

Jim Bender with School Choice Wisconsin is not surprised.

“We know from talking to schools that interest in the program is very high. Many new parents are seeking options,” Bender said.

Bender said it won't be known just how many more parents will opt their kids out of traditional public schools until the fall.

But the trend is that more parents will make a choice.

Enrollment figures from last year showed more students enrolled in Wisconsin’s four school choice programs.

While Tuesday brought a flood of parents to Wisconsin’s private school enrollment, next week could see even more parents apply for the state’s Public School Open Enrollment, which begins next week.

Bender said parents shouldn’t have to wait, either for enrollment periods or overwhelmed websites, to improve their child’s education.

“Open enrollment periods for both public and private schools are an outdated method for connecting parents with schools. Over the last two years, parents have looked for education solutions – but in real time,” Bender explained. “Having to wait to apply, and then even longer to enroll, doesn’t work anymore.”

The interest in school choice comes after another year when public schools in the state saw mixed reactions to the coronavirus, and saw a slide in test scores.

The enrollment periods come after former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson told a crowd at a school choice event in Green Bay last week that school choice in the state needs to be expanded.

“Why should there be restrictions on people having choice?” Thompson asked. “Why should we not have everybody have choice?”

(The Center Square) – The cost of living is skyrocketing in certain “migration destination” cities where those fleeing mostly blue states are landing, according to a newly released report.

Redfin released the analysis, which shows that cities like Atlanta, Phoenix and Tampa have seen higher rates of inflation than the country overall. According to the report, those increases are “double the inflation rates in San Francisco and New York, places people are moving away from.”

“Migration into those places is one reason for rapidly rising prices of consumer goods and services,” Redfin said. “Because of high inflation, including rising home prices, the financial advantage of living in what are now relatively affordable places is likely to diminish.”

Americans have moved in droves, particularly from states like Illinois, New York and California, to other states. Many of those migrants are settling in the same cities and drastically affecting the economies there.

“Atlanta, the 10th most popular migration destination in the fourth quarter, saw prices of goods and services increase by 8.9% year over year during the same period, the highest inflation rate of all the metros included in this analysis,” Redfin reports.

Another city, Phoenix, saw an 8.4% price increase in the fourth quarter of 2021, the second highest inflation increase and the second highest number of new arrivals from other states, according to the report.

“In Tampa – the fifth most popular destination – prices rose 8% year over year, the third highest inflation rate,” Redfin reports. “On the flip side, San Francisco, the number-one place Americans moved away from during the fourth quarter, had the lowest inflation rate (4%). New York, which had the second-lowest inflation rate (4.6%), ranked number three on the list of places people are leaving, and Los Angeles – number two on the list of places people are leaving – had the seventh-lowest inflation rate (6%).”

Inflation has become a major concern for Americans after a steady stream of data showing prices of consumer goods and services are rising at the highest level in decades. These factors have only added to Americans’ pessimism on inflation.

Gallup released a poll this month showing that 79% of surveyed Americans “predict inflation will go up." The poll also found that 50% of respondents expect inflation will go up "a lot." According to Gallup, those are the most pessimistic figures on inflation ever recorded by the pollster.

“In the past, Americans have always been more likely to say inflation will increase rather than decrease, but the current expectation is higher than usual – in fact, it is the highest Gallup has measured in its trend,” Gallup said. “The prior high was 76% in September 2005. In recent years, from 2007 through 2020, roughly six in 10 Americans have expected inflation to increase.”

Redfin compiled its report by looking at metro areas where inflation data is available along with migration data.

Home prices have been a major source of inflation in those cities, due in part to the large difference between home prices in the cities where migrants are leaving, compared to the substantially lower prices in the cities where migrants are settling.

“For instance, Atlanta home prices were up 22.8% year over year in December, compared with a 10.3% increase in San Francisco,” Redfin said.