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• Social media videos started popping up earlier this year with users complaining about the cost of living in Green Bay, other cities in Wisconsin and other battleground states. 
• The people posting the videos make claims that run the gamut – some factual, some misleading and some totally false. 
• Wisconsin Watch and Sunlight Research Desk looked into the trend, but couldn’t determine who – if anyone – was paying the creators to make the videos. 
• If the videos were paid for, creators not disclosing that paid relationship could be in violation of federal prohibitions on deceptive advertising, one political advertising expert said. 
• Republicans and Democrats are increasingly paying for user-generated content, raising questions about the future of election campaigning in the digital age.

In May, TikTok user @lifewithjacob1 uploaded a 20-second video blasting Green Bay’s rent prices. 

“Why is rent in Wisconsin so expensive right now?” he said. “I’m on a website looking for a new spot. I can’t find anything under $4,000 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.” 

He went on to post more than 100 more, bemoaning skyrocketing prices for gas, housing and even dinner at Culver’s. Almost every video on the account, which was created in May, focused on how expensive life is in Green Bay. 

The problem? Many of the videos seem to be pure fiction. 

It’s not just that the average rent in Green Bay is a quarter of what he claims, according to July figures from Zillow. It’s also that his name isn’t Jacob, and it’s unclear if he’s ever lived in Wisconsin. 

Through a reverse image search, Wisconsin Watch and Muckrock’s Sunlight Research Desk identified the man in the videos as Connor Printz, a self-described “user-generated content creator” who gets paid by brands to make social media posts that don’t look like ads. It’s a burgeoning industry, and one that many Americans may never have heard of — though they’ve likely seen these kinds of posts. 

This model is spreading nationwide as dark money groups try to sway voters stealthily by hiring social media creators to push their agendas. Wisconsin Watch and Sunlight Research Desk identified more than a dozen users publishing near-identical messaging about the cost of living in battleground states — claims that oscillate between factual, misleading and downright false. 

The videos targeting Wisconsin don’t mention specific political parties or candidates, but they’re strikingly similar to videos where creators in other states supported or knocked certain candidates — part of what MS NOW called a “secret paid influencer campaign.” 

It’s unclear who, if anyone, is funding the videos about Green Bay and Wisconsin, or what the goal is. Printz declined to answer questions, and the videos and biography on his account have since been deleted, a phenomenon common with short-term social media campaigns.  

The videos themselves do not indicate whether they were paid for. If they were, one political advertising expert said, creators not disclosing that paid relationship could violate federal prohibitions on deceptive advertising. The trend raises questions about the future of political campaigning and the reforms needed to protect elections in the modern age.

Meanwhile, though many of the statistics the creators shared are false — Green Bay is often hailed as a particularly affordable city — the posts speak to a question increasingly on Americans’ minds, one that could prove pivotal in upcoming elections: Why is everything so expensive?

Making money on misinformation?

To try to understand who is behind the Green Bay videos, Wisconsin Watch and Sunlight Research Desk researched creators using public records databases, scoured campaign finance records, conducted reverse image searches, interviewed elected officials representing the city and compiled more than 5,000 videos.

Among the findings: The person shaking his head disapprovingly over the high cost of living in northeast Wisconsin is a former college basketball player turned social media creator whose LinkedIn profile says he’s based in Los Angeles. 

While @lifewithjacob1’s TikTok bio said he was “Green Bay born and raised,” his Claremont McKenna College basketball webpage says he’s from Waterbury, Connecticut, and attended high school in Connecticut and Massachusetts. 

Printz claimed to live in Green Bay and sometimes referred to moving from California to Wisconsin in TikTok videos posted under the @lifewithjacob1 account. Wisconsin Watch and Sunlight Research Desk found no evidence he has ever lived in Wisconsin.

Today, according to his LinkedIn, Printz works as a user-generated content creator through SideShift, a platform where organizations hire content creators. His account states he manages between six and 10 social media accounts at a time, “completing campaigns for brands.” SideShift did not respond to Wisconsin Watch’s questions. 

According to the American Marketing Association, user-generated content is “sponsored content that looks and feels like genuine customer posts.” While the person on screen has likely received payment or free products, the videos are meant to feel like they’re ranting or raving about something of their own accord. It’s typically a cheaper way to advertise than making sponsorship deals with high-profile influencers or celebrities. 

When those posts endorse or recommend brands, products or services, federal law and platform policies require they be labeled as ads or sponsored content. TikTok did not respond when Wisconsin Watch asked if its policies require such disclosures for videos like Printz’s.

Political organizations are increasingly buying this form of content, eager to leverage its authentic — and often undetectable —  feel. 

Both political parties are hiring influencers to build online enthusiasm for their candidates. Democrats have poured tens of millions of dollars into these secret influencer campaigns since their 2024 election defeat, according to a New York Times report. The influencer firm Creator Grid, which has received funds from the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, boasts connecting “Republican candidates with the internet’s most powerful conservative influencers,” the Times reported.  This election cycle, MS NOW reported that influencers received payment to post favorable content about politicians in California and Michigan and attack a candidate in Illinois.

Wisconsin Watch and Sunlight Research Desk found similar videos about the cost of living in cities across the country: La Crosse. Milwaukee. Madison. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Charlotte, North Carolina. Atlanta, Georgia. Many of the users creating these videos have similar usernames, including @rantswithsaum, @rantswithcarlyy or @rants.with.k. Wisconsin Watch contacted several of the users behind the accounts but none responded.

It’s unclear who paid for the videos Wisconsin Watch identified. The Sunlight Research team searched spending records for registered political action committees and political candidates in key swing states but found no evidence of payments to the influencers or influencer platforms tied to these videos. And while Wisconsinites will elect a new governor in November, spokespeople for candidates David Crowley and Tom Tiffany both said they had not paid for or even seen the videos in question. 

What is clear is that this type of political content is in demand: Wisconsin Watch found a listing on SideShift from “Project Bullhorn” offering creators $1,500 monthly to “speak on the rising crisis of affordability in the United States ahead of the 2026 midterms.” Project Bullhorn is one of several influencer efforts the New York Times reports Democratic donors are funding. A leader of the initiative declined to answer questions from Wisconsin Watch on the record. 

‘More expensive than NYC’

From May through July, Printz posted roughly two videos a day about Green Bay’s cost of living.

In May, he claimed gas prices in Green Bay soared to almost $7 a gallon. While the Iran war has driven fuel prices up, prices at local pumps peaked this spring around $4.50 a gallon. 

“Is Green Bay, Wisconsin, actually more expensive than New York City?” Printz asked in a June video, recounting the experience of a friend who purportedly moved from the Big Apple to Packerland, anticipating a lower cost of living. 

“Guess what? It was just as expensive. Rent prices were crazy. Gas was crazy. Culver’s is so expensive, more than almost every restaurant in New York City,” Printz said.

In another video, he said tuition at Wisconsin colleges now cost $70,000 annually. 

“Just makes you question if it’s worth it now,” reads text on the video of Printz repeatedly shaking his head. According to CollegeBoard data, Wisconsin’s public universities charged in-state students $10,600 on average in 2025.

@wisconsinwatch

💵$4k rent? $7 gas? More expensive than NYC? A deluge of TikTok and Instagram videos are making outlandish claims about Wisconsin’s cost of living. In some cases, the people behind them – self-described “user-generated content creators” — are using fake names or don’t even appear to live in Wisconsin. The videos seem to be part of a growing trend of paying influencers to post on political topics, often without any disclosures. Here’s why it matters. Read more at the link in our bio.

♬ original sound – Wisconsin Watch

In addition to the overblown numbers, locals might spot other faux pas. In one video, Printz asks for feedback from his “fellow Wisconsiners,” a term that would make any self-respecting Wisconsinite cringe. 

Green Bay resident Allyson Brunette started seeing the videos pop up in her TikTok feed around May. The inaccuracies were obvious, she said, especially the part about $4,000 rent. 

What was less obvious was where all these videos came from. She clicked on the creators’ profiles and discovered that not only did they often follow each other, but some of the users following them were making parallel videos elsewhere. 

“It seemed that there was almost this network of these avatars with similar usernames and almost identical content in different cities and states across the U.S.,” said Brunette, who wrote to Wisconsin Watch in May about her suspicions. 

“I was like, am I nuts? I think this is a coordinated effort,” Brunette said in a July interview. “What immediately struck my mind, as someone who’s 38 and lived through the Facebook misinformation of the last few elections, was: Is this gearing up to shift political (opinions) before the gubernatorial election?”

Brunette isn’t the only TikTok user raising the alarm about these types of claims. On many of Printz’s videos, commenters called out misinformation and offered the facts. 

“Obvious rage bait,” wrote one user in response to the claim that Green Bay is more expensive than New York City.

“Literally nothing you said is true,” wrote another.

Is it legal?

Experts say this novel influence model seems to test the limits of laws governing campaign finance and advertising. 

Christopher Terry is an associate professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Minnesota who studies political advertising. He told Wisconsin Watch these types of videos could potentially violate state and federal law, even if they don’t mention candidates, parties, elections or products.  

Paid posts are a form of commercial speech, which is not subject to the same First Amendment protections as standard political speech, Terry said. If creators don’t disclose that they were paid to create posts, that could violate the Federal Trade Commission prohibition on deceptive practices, Terry said, though he noted the agency has not enforced that policy against social media influencers to date.

“It has warned a bunch of them. It has threatened a ton of them, but it has not actually brought an enforcement action against any of them,” Terry said.

Any posts that mislead voters about candidates or referendums could also potentially violate a Wisconsin statute barring “false representation … intended to affect voting in an election,” Terry said. 

“Any chucklehead in any northern Wisconsin bar will give you an opinion on a political thing … That’s fine,” Terry said. “If he’s paid to think that and paid to sit in the bar and talk to people about it, that’s something else, right?” 

Meanwhile, democracy advocates have called on the Federal Election Commission to clarify laws to explicitly require that influencers post disclaimers indicating who paid for their political content.

Prices, misinformation on the rise

While many of these videos are riddled with false information, they channel popular frustrations over real spikes in prices.

“Gas is not $7 a gallon in Green Bay, and average rent is not $4,000. But they’re both more expensive than they used to be … It’s simply true that people are anxious and concerned about the cost of living,” said state Sen. Jamie Wall, D-Green Bay. “And I hear that from people across the political spectrum.”

Across the country, consumers have been sour on the economy for years, said Joanne Hsu, who oversees the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers. The monthly consumer sentiment survey, first conducted in 1946, asks Americans how they feel about the economy and where it’s headed. 

The answer in recent months: still not good. When survey workers asked Americans in June about their personal finances, 56% brought up high prices without being prompted. 

In Green Bay, where the average home value is about $290,000, the cost of living remains relatively low. But local residents are feeling the strain of rising prices too, state Rep. Amaad Rivera-Wagner, D-Green Bay, said.

Still, he fears the misinformation could stifle Green Bay’s future. 

“That’s one of the most frustrating things about social media is that we are now fighting an army of misinformation, sometimes by innocent bystanders, but sometimes by bad actors,” Rivera-Wagner said.

“This is where that confusion can actually cost or have real impact,” he said. “There might be people in and around our community or businesses thinking about moving or working in our community, and they’re seeing a larger narrative that is not only inaccurate, but doesn’t actually talk about how much work we’ve done to make Green Bay still one of the most affordable places to live in the state or the country.”

Meanwhile, rising costs could shape the outcome of midterm elections across the country this fall. American adults ranked inflation and the high cost of living as the most important issue in every Marquette University Law School Poll national survey this year. President Donald Trump has drawn criticism for largely dismissing concerns about high prices.

“It doesn’t feel good to be told the economy is doing great when you feel like you’re stretching to make ends meet,” Hsu said. 

Anna Massoglia, Michael Nolan, Jason Dearen and MuckRock’s Sunlight Research Desk provided research and data analysis for this story.

$4K rent? $7 gas? Inside the internet campaign insisting Green Bay is ‘more expensive than NYC’ is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 7 minutes

This story is part of a collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Door County Knock, exploring the factors that make pet ownership in Door County a pricey challenge. Read Knock’s story here. 

Click here to read highlights from the story

• Rural residents, like those in Door County, bear the brunt of the veterinarian shortage, which leaves local clinics overbooked and unable to offer emergency services. 
• The nearest emergency veterinarian is in Appleton, though one will soon open in Bellevue. 
• The demand has placed increasing pressure on veterinary professionals, with burnout a common problem and high suicide rates among veterinarians. 
• UW-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine is the only training program for vets in the state. It only accepts 100 students annually due to a lack of physical space. 
• UW officials hope to renovate the vet school’s facilities to expand the class size.

Right after Wisconsin’s historic snowstorm in March, Jessica Chase’s dog started seizing on the floor of her Sturgeon Bay home. In five-minute intervals, the episodes grabbed control of Capri, a shepherd, husky and Rottweiler mix.

Panicked, Chase called the nearest emergency veterinary hospital: BluePearl in Appleton. The 24-hour vet is roughly a 90-minute drive for Chase on a good day — and likely much more that day, given more than 2 feet of snow blanketing the streets. 

Chase couldn’t fathom driving that far while her dog lay seizing in the back seat. She also didn’t know if she’d survive that long. Then, staff warned she could be waiting several more hours upon arrival, as the hospital was at full capacity. 

Less than 12 hours after her first seizure, Capri died on the kitchen floor. 

“It was the most mortifying experience ever,” Chase said. “It’s basically like my baby.”

For Door County pet owners like Chase, options are slim when crisis hits. The nearest emergency veterinarian is between one and three hours away, depending on how far north on the peninsula they reside. 

The dearth of options means residents must forgo care or make nail-biting drives with sick pets. Sometimes they arrive too late. 

Thanks to veterinarian shortages and Wisconsin’s limited capacity for training new vets, the problem is getting worse. And it’s not just an issue in emergencies: Many rural pet owners must also look far or wait long for routine vet care. 

There’s no easy solution. Existing Door County vet clinics are too overwhelmed to offer emergency services, and there are likely not enough doctors or patients to justify opening an ER facility. 

“I feel like if we had a clinic near us, even a half-hour away, it would have been much more reasonable to have someone look at her, than just having to sit there with our dog dying and there’s nothing we can do,” Chase said. “There was nobody to really call and talk to. Nobody walked us through it. No one gave us advice.”

Overwhelming demand

Peninsula Veterinary Hospital in Sturgeon Bay receives at least five calls a day from people who need emergency care. Staff work patients into the schedule if they can. But often, they’re not equipped to treat the issues, lacking the proper tools or staff.

“It’s like going to your family doctor with a broken leg,” said Amy Hults, a certified veterinary technician at the clinic. 

It was easier for residents to get by when BluePearl operated a facility in Green Bay, about 35 miles closer than Appleton. But the facility closed in early 2025. The company never offered a reason why. 

Nowadays, residents regularly complain about the issue to one another and on social media. The discourse gets louder in the summer months, when an influx of vacationers arrive, many unaware of the limited care options.

The chorus of complaints just may not be large enough. Research has shown that it takes a population of 100,000 people to have enough clients to sustain a round-the-clock facility, Door County vet Dr. Sherry Billett said. Door County is home to 30,000 year-round residents and welcomes more than 2.5 million visitors annually.

Other barriers stand in the way: Specialized equipment is pricey. The facility would need enough doctors and support staff to cover the clock — a notoriously difficult thing to find. 

Peninsula Veterinary Hospital has been trying to find a new vet for “a long time,” to no avail, Hults said. With high housing costs serving as a barrier — the average home value is nearly $440,000 according to Zillow — it’s challenging to get new hires to move to the county.

“Because of the overwhelming demand, we need to schedule appointments several weeks in advance, and sometimes even months in advance,” Billett said. “We hear from callers on a regular basis that other clinics are not taking any new patients, which adds to our case load.” 

They’ve gotten creative to fit in more patients, including overlapping bookings and having owners drop their pets off for the day, so they can work them in between appointments.

Burnout is a constant battle, Billett said. It’s stressful to juggle treating different species daily and handle the emotions of animals’ caretakers, she said. Suicide rates among veterinarians are high.

“That said, it is also an incredibly emotionally and psychologically rewarding profession for the right people,” Billett said.

Where are the vets?

So where are the right people?

There’s only one training program in the state: the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine, where roughly 2,500 students vie for 100 open seats yearly. About half of the graduates will stay and practice in Wisconsin. 

The school isn’t churning out enough graduates to make a serious dent in the state’s shortage.  And its lecture halls and laboratories don’t have enough physical space to expand enrollment.

“We are capped out at the number of students we can admit because … the facilities just literally cannot fit any additional folks,” said Dr. Jonathan Levine, dean of the vet school.

“More and more people want to do this career, which is wonderful. It’s a terrific career,” he said. “The challenge is having enough spots to accommodate qualified, excellent applicants.”

To someday change that, UW-Madison is beginning to examine how it can renovate buildings and “expand our class size to meet the needs of Wisconsin and the region,” Levine said. 

Student debt also plays a role in where veterinarians choose to practice, said Dr. Jen Quammen, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association. AVMA data shows veterinarians’ average student debt upon graduation climbed to nearly $175,000 in 2025.

“Food-animal, rural and public health careers typically pay less than companion-animal practice in metro areas, so many graduates find themselves balancing where they feel called to practice with where they can realistically afford to practice,” Quammen said. 

Not all of these graduates work in emergency facilities or pet clinics. There’s demand for vets in many fields, Levine said, including research, at drug development corporations or in pathology. 

“It’s all those things that have sort of combined over the last decade to drive very high demand, and the supply of veterinarians is limited,” Levine said. “In rural communities it’s been particularly challenging, and that is not a new story. It’s … a decades-old story.” 

Solutions elusive

JoAnne Rosenfeld believes her Boston terrier, Butch, would still be alive if Door County had an emergency vet. 

In April, Butch began seizing while he slept, spinning his body in “jerky spurts” and yelping in pain. Rosenfeld and her son scooped up Butch, limp and struggling to breathe, and brought him to the car for the 90-minute haul to Appleton. 

Butch, almost 4 years old, died 18 miles from the destination. Rosenfeld pressed on, hoping CPR could save him, to no avail. 

“Heartbroken, despondent, anguished, heartsick and sad beyond belief,” Rosenfeld wrote in a letter with other local advocates, asking that county leaders and vets come together to find a solution. 

She offered one: Door County vets rotating weekends to be on-call for emergencies. 

“If there are 10 vets willing to help, their duties would be just once every 10 weeks, about five times a year, only nights and weekends, which would not interfere with daily activities,” she wrote.

Local clinic workers say such an arrangement isn’t realistic, as they’re already fighting burnout. 

“There is no way that a doctor or nurse could work their full 40- to 50-hour workweek and still be capable and fresh for after-hours or weekend emergencies,” Billett said. “This would add to the stress and the burnout that it is already a constant battle.”

While emergency care inside county limits seems unfeasible, closer help could soon be on the way. National chain Veterinary Emergency Group (VEG) will soon open a new 24-hour emergency location in Bellevue, about 40 miles closer than BluePearl in Appleton. Its website says the Brown County location is “coming soon,” and a ribbon-cutting will be hosted on Aug. 27. 

VEG’s site offers no contact information for the new branch. The company did not respond to a request for comment. 

But closer care would be a welcome relief for Sister Bay resident Nancy Treleven, who has driven a six-hour round trip to get care for her French bulldog, Winston. 

“It’s just scary when you’re in the car with a pet that’s not well,” Treleven said. “I’m focused on driving, but I’m completely stressed because I’m worrying about how my dog is doing, and if I’m gonna get there in time, and what happens if everything’s not OK, and I can’t make it back home tonight. Where am I staying? What am I doing?” 

Nationally, legislation addressing the problem is in the works. AVMA is advocating for Congress to pass the Rural Veterinary Workforce Act, which would offer $120,000 in student loan relief to veterinarians who commit to three years of service in rural shortage areas. 

Editor’s note: A caption in a previous version of this story misspelled the name of Brienna Derbique.

Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus. Find her on Instagram and Twitter, or send her an email at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org.

Vet shortage overwhelms clinics, leaves owners to drive hours for emergency care is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• Labor and employment attorney Victor Forberger offered several tips for people who are filing for unemployment during a recent webinar.
• He advised people to know the difference between an initial claim and a weekly certification; to know that mistakes can be used against you; to make sure you’re searching for work; to document and retain records of your work search actions; to report all job offers; and to know if the reason you left your job is valid.

In Wisconsin, filing for state assistance after becoming unemployed can be an odyssey. 

A long list of mistakes can derail your claim, jeopardizing your benefits and even opening you up to legal trouble. 

Wisconsin Watch attended the State Bar of Wisconsin‘s unemployment filing seminar, where labor and employment attorney Victor Forberger presented on the mechanics of the winding filing process. 

We used that information to compile this list of tips and common mistakes to avoid when filing your unemployment claim. Here are some things to know. 

Know the difference

To be paid unemployment benefits, you must file two main things:

1. File an initial claim, where you report that you separated from a job.
2. File a weekly “certification,” where you must continue to prove you meet each of the state’s criteria for benefits. 

Department of Workforce Development staff and judges use the word “claim” interchangeably while referring to each of these processes, Forberger said. Knowing the difference can help lessen mistakes. 

Know that mistakes can be used against you

The online system will repeatedly ask if all of the information you’re entering is truthful, as a method of protecting against fraud.

Thus, any mistake you make is assumed to be purposeful, unless you can point to a specific reason that might have caused the mistake, such as a disability, that shows you’re not at fault. That’s hard to do. 

Mistakes can — and often do — lead people to be charged with fraud, enabling the state to claw back unemployment benefits and charge penalty fees. 

Dates are tricky. Prepare accordingly

When you file your initial claim, you’ll be asked to select the first week you want to begin receiving benefits. That date may have nothing to do with when you actually lost your job. 

“You may have suffered a job loss, and the employer gave your vacation pay that you had accrued for 20 years, and so you’re being paid now for six weeks,” Forberger said. “You don’t file your unemployment claim on the week that the job loss ended. Start your unemployment claim when the vacation pay has run out.”

People often try to start the initial claims in the past, on the date that they lost their job. 

You are supposed to file your initial claim within seven days of the week you want to start receiving benefits. If it’s outside of that time frame, the state considers it a “late claim,” which is very difficult to prove and accepted under only what the state deems “exceptional circumstances.” 

Reporting the wrong date could disqualify you and derail the process of receiving benefits. 

Make sure you’re searching for work

The main way people disqualify themselves, Forberger said, is by not properly showing the state you are looking for new work. 

To receive unemployment benefits in Wisconsin, typically you must prove you’re seeking a new job by doing things like giving a resume to a hiring employer, interviewing for a job or meeting with a career counselor. 

You must conduct four new work search actions every week and upload the proof during the weekly certification process.

Forberger recommends doing five actions, to be safe, in the event that one action is disqualified.

Falsely reporting actions could be considered fraud, disqualifying your claim and opening you up to legal penalties.

Hang onto your documents

You should keep all of the documented proof of your work searches handy for one year.

The state randomly audits people’s work searches for accuracy, so you could be asked to submit proof of your work search actions for any particular week. Any issues could mean having to repay your benefits for that week.

Report all job offers

During the weekly certification process, you will be asked if you have turned down a “bona fide job offer” that week, meaning a legitimate job offer, complete with a pay rate and list of duties. 

“It can’t just be like, ‘Hey, come by tomorrow, I got a job for you,’” Forberger said. “It’s got to be like, ‘You’re going to get hired at $15 an hour to stock shelves at my department store, and your schedule is going to be in the evenings, part time.”

During the first six weeks of your job search on unemployment, you are allowed to turn down what the state deems suitable work without threatening your benefits if the offer involves lower skills or significantly lower pay than before. 

After those six weeks, you have to take any “bona fide” offer that comes your way, Forberger said. You must also report all of the offers that you’ve turned down, even if they weren’t suitable work. Failing to do these things could disqualify you from unemployment benefits. 

Don’t file your weekly certifications on Sunday

People often file their weekly certifications on Sundays thinking they’re being proactive by doing it early. But there’s no phone support available to call for help on Sundays. 

“There’s no need to rush because you’re going to get paid,” Forberger said. “Getting it one or two days earlier is not going to make all that much of a difference.”

Know if your reason for leaving your job is valid

When filing for unemployment, you will be asked to report why you separated from all of the jobs you’ve held within the last 18 months.

The onus is on you to understand if your reason for leaving a job is one Wisconsin considers “disqualifying,” and report it accordingly. Mistakes you make here will be treated as intentional.

Among the reasons that will disqualify you from receiving unemployment benefits:

• Left your job without good cause.
• You were fired for misconduct or substantial fault.
• You refused work without good cause.
• You work a job considered “excluded.” Learn more here.  

Among the reasons that are accepted:

• Were laid off or your work hours were reduced because your employer did not have enough work for you.
• Left your last job and can show it was for a good cause. Learn more about what is defined as “good cause” here. 

Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus. Find her on Instagram and Twitter, or send her an email at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org.

Filing for unemployment in Wisconsin is tricky. Keep these tips in mind. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 7 minutes

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• The Pulaski Community School District summer school program attracts more than 2,500 kids – 68% of the district’s enrollment. 
• The free program has become a lifeline for parents at a time when affordable child care can be hard to find. 
• Students can sign up for fun classes such as cooking and swimming lessons. Those who need academic support get it. 
• One of the biggest challenges officials ran into initially was – ironically – child care for educators. Now there’s “a babysitting room” where fellow teachers and students interested in early childhood education take care of a handful of babies.

On a Thursday in early July, more than 1,000 children flooded the halls of Pulaski Community Middle School. Heaps of backpacks were piled in corners of classrooms and hallways. Bikes crowded the racks outside. At lunchtime, lines of children snaked around the building as they waited for hamburgers. 

Summer school: a phrase usually wielded as a threat to keep students on task in the classroom.

Not in Pulaski. 

For six weeks each summer, the northeast Wisconsin village’s middle school transforms into the “place to be,” instead of a punishment.

More than 2,600 kids — 68% of the school district’s enrollment — sign up for summer classes ranging from knitting and cooking to swimming lessons and science experiments. Students who need extra academic help get it, but the focus is on exploring new interests, spending less time on screens and nurturing kids’ creative sides in a way classwork doesn’t always encourage.

At a time when affordable child care can be hard to find, the free program has become a lifeline for the community. Signing up for classes is as competitive as queuing to buy Bruno Mars tickets, staff said — the most popular classes fill up in minutes. 

“You get to see a lot of kids from other schools that you don’t get to see normally,” sixth grader Xiomara Lloyd said as she strung beads to add to the stack of bracelets on her wrist, each adorned with her nickname, “Xio.” “I love it.”

The classes help students build a positive association with school, explore new hobbies, get offline and into the real world — and, of course, learn. 

“There’s a lot of anxiety and different things as soon as they get close to those (school) doors because now they’re asked to do a lot of things that are difficult for them to do,” said Pulaski Area Community Education Director Mark Heck, who leads the summer school. “But when we can have them come in and have great success and really enjoy it, that’s a win.” 

‘A little different type of learning’

Walking through the halls is like stepping between different worlds. 

In one classroom, students dressed in Halloween costumes have a dance party. In another, students take turns using American Sign Language to describe emotions. Upstairs, students cook pizza from scratch in a home economics classroom. And in the gymnasium, shrieks and shouts echo as kids play an intense game of dodgeball.  

But the chaos is organized — every classroom has at least two adults, and kids wear a badge printed with their name and their schedule, so adults know where they belong if they get lost. 

“Summer school is stuff that you learn new, like swimming floats, or you learn how to make diamond art, or even make hearts made out of clay … Summer school lets you have fun in the summer, if you don’t know what to do at your house,” said elementary student Ava Lentz. 

And it’s not all fun and games. Those behind in classes or on tests take reading and math classes designed to catch them up. Several teachers also host tutoring sessions.

But generally, the classes take a more creative approach. That includes a science class where kids gleefully partake in a series of science experiments — on that Thursday, they combined soda and Pop Rocks and watched the fizzy reaction. 

“It’s really great learning, but it might not be exactly what they’re learning during the school year, where (educators are) worried about standards, and worried about the tests that they’re going to be getting kids ready for, and things like that,” Heck said.

“All of those things are very important, but during the summertime we can do a little different type of learning.”

That philosophy has guided the program for two decades.

When Pulaski leaders launched the summer school 22 years ago, it was a small program consisting of one or two classes at several schools because the state would only fund a few hours a day. 

Busy parents begged for a full-day program. Not long after Pulaski schools started offering afternoon programming at a cost, the state’s rules changed. Now, schools can get funding for eligible programs all day, all summer long. So Heck dreamed of something bigger.

“I just had this idea in my head that was going, ‘I think we could do something a lot better than this.’ … I want to make a program where your kids say, ‘No, I want to go to summer school,’” he said.

Nowadays, they do. 

Kids beg to sign up to be where their friends are. About 68% of the district’s 3,800 students will enroll in at least one summer school course. Signing up for classes is “an Olympic sport,” staff say. Parents take off work to refresh the computer. They post to Facebook the night before registration, wishing each other luck. The best classes fill up in minutes. 

It takes a village

Keeping such a behemoth summer school running smoothly takes a village. But in the tight-knit community, it works. 

The district employs roughly 130 teachers, 25 classroom aides, various high school and college students and other community members to keep over 2,500 students busy. 

“When we hire our teachers … The first thing I say is, if you weren’t here right now, what would you be doing?” Heck said. 

Those answers often become classes. For example: A local farmer teaches kids about horses, even bringing in equestrians as guest speakers and taking kids to visit the farm animals. Two food service workers teach students how to cook. A hobby fisherman took students to different ponds in the area during a previously offered course. 

Running such a major operation has also brought challenges. It was tough getting all of the departments — transportation, food, academics — on board. But that’s much easier to do in a small district like Pulaski, Heck said. 

Ironically, another major challenge: child care. 

Many educators have young children who are too young to attend summer school but still need care during the workday. Without viable child care, they couldn’t commit to working in the warmer months. 

The district’s solution: One classroom is transformed into a “babysitting room,” where fellow teachers and aspiring early childhood educators change diapers, make bottles and keep a handful of babies entertained. 

For aspiring educators like Cori Adelman, who studies early childhood education at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, the room offers hands-on experience working with young children. 

The program has become a workforce pipeline, too. Heck estimates about 15 young adults who first worked summer school have since returned as full-time educators either in Pulaski or in neighboring districts.

‘A lifesaver’

Affordable child care has become increasingly difficult to find, and securing spots in summer camps is notoriously competitive. For that reason, the free summer school that turns away no one has become a lifeline for local families.

Parent and Pulaski Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Stacey Von Busch said her kids have participated in the camp for years, calling its affordability a “lifesaver.” 

“To have something like this in our community, where we don’t have to drive 30 minutes to get our kids to (other camps), is huge,” she said. 

The district provides bus transportation for students who need it, and thanks to a federal grant, children can eat breakfast and lunch at school. 

While by law the school must be tuition-free, the district may charge modest fees for supplies, such as beads for making bracelets or yarn for knitting and crocheting. Course fees range between $0 and $40 for each two-week term. 

The school is funded by the state — Wisconsin schools can receive funding for summer school classes that meet certain academic requirements. Rather than paying schools a flat amount for each student, the state bases funding on the total instructional time students attend. Therefore, Heck is on a mission to keep enrollment high: More students involved equals more funding.

That includes everyone. Parents of children with disabilities often struggle more to find summer schools and camps that serve them, Heck said. He didn’t want that to be the case in Pulaski. 

Many of the district’s special education employees staff a classroom dedicated to children with disabilities. That includes those who require federally mandated “extended school year instruction,” an individualized academic program meant to stop students from regressing over break. 

“I look forward to this every year,” said special education teacher Tessa Badtke. “You just get to know them in such a different way because there’s not this academic pressure like at school, so you can just build these relationships.” 

And then, Badtke said, students have a better school year. Heck agreed. 

“What’s the win out of it for us? We got our kids to walk through the school doors and actually not be angry and upset when they came in,” Heck said. “They’re coming in and they’re happy. Our hope is maybe next year, when they come back in the fall, they’re coming in and they’re saying, ‘I’ll give it a chance.’”

Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus. Find her on Instagram and Twitter, or send her an email at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org.

This story was updated to correct the number of students who attend summer school. Wisconsin Watch regrets the error.

A Wisconsin school district made summer school fun. Now 2,600 kids show up. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• More than 108,000 Wisconsinites are in default on student loans, according to federal data analyzed by the Associated Press and shared with Wisconsin Watch. 
• The number of borrowers in default surged nationwide since 2024, when pandemic relief measures ended. 
• Advocates expect it to worsen, with borrowers facing higher monthly payments and longer repayment terms after the Trump administration ended existing relief options.
• Wisconsin student loan borrowers who attend for-profit colleges are twice as likely to be 90 days behind on payments compared to peers at public and nonprofit private colleges, AP data shows.

The number of Wisconsinites many months behind on student loan bills has risen by nearly 50% since last fall. 

That’s according to federal data analyzed by the Associated Press, which found that more than 108,000 people in Wisconsin haven’t made payments on their loans in more than 360 days.

Across the country, the number of students in student loan default has surged by millions since a four-year pandemic reprieve ended in 2024, and advocates say it’s poised to worsen as President Donald Trump’s administration has ended existing relief options. 

Borrowers are placed in default after missing payments for nine months. The status triggers a raft of devastating consequences. The entire balance becomes due at once, and the loan is sent to collections, crashing the borrower’s credit score. That can make it harder to borrow, rent or even find work.  

Around 34,000 Wisconsinites entered student loan default since September 2025, the AP found. Of the roughly 709,100 people in Wisconsin who hold student loans, one in seven is currently in default.

Here’s how we got here: As a pandemic relief measure, the federal government allowed borrowers to suspend student loan payments until 2023, and President Joe Biden’s administration then provided a one-year grace period. That ended in fall 2024, allowing loans to enter into default after nine months of missed payments. 

A surge in defaults followed, and today around 9.5 million borrowers nationwide — over 1 in 5 — are in default, including those whose loans were well past due before the pandemic, according to the AP analysis. The previous record for borrowers in default had been 8 million in December 2019.

Meanwhile, many borrowers are facing much higher monthly payments since the Trump administration ended the SAVE repayment plan, which offered more flexibility and lower payments than any other. In its absence, borrowers will see longer repayment terms and “unpredictable payment spikes,” wrote Michele Zampini, associate vice president of federal policy and advocacy at the Institute for College Access and Success, in a February blog post. 

“I am seeing despair and outrage and despondency and just a very wide mix of pretty extreme emotions, the likes of which I have not seen before,” Alan Collinge, the founder of grassroots advocacy group Student Loan Justice, told the AP. 

The federal government can garnish wages and Social Security payments from borrowers in default, but the Trump administration in January walked back plans to begin collections on their loans. A Moody’s Analytics report this spring said garnishments are likely to begin within the next year, warning of “an additional headwind in an increasingly fragile economy.” 

Governments and colleges may also impose additional penalties on borrowers in default, including restricting access to further financial aid, withholding transcripts and suspending professional licenses and driver’s licenses. 

“These measures are not only punitive, they’re also self-defeating: by undermining someone’s ability to cover basic expenses, return to school to finish a degree, keep their job, or even drive a car, the default system makes it harder for someone who is already struggling to secure their financial footing,” Zampini wrote in 2025. 

For-profit colleges, lower repayment rates

Students who attend Wisconsin’s for-profit colleges are far less likely to satisfy their loan payments than their peers at the state’s public and nonprofit private colleges, the AP data shows. 

AP reporters analyzed data from the Office of Federal Student Aid on students whose loan payments first came due between January 2020 and May 2025, typically because they either graduated or left school. The analysis does not include students at schools with fewer than 100 borrowers. 

The data shows students who have attended for-profit schools in Wisconsin are twice as likely as their peers to be at least 90 days behind on payments. At Wisconsin’s public and private colleges, one in seven of these borrowers had fallen behind on payments by May of this year. At for-profit schools, the rate was more than one in four. 

Nonpayment rates were highest for students who attended for-profit cosmetology schools.

Nearly half of the 300 borrowers in the sample who attended Tricoci University of Beauty Culture’s Janesville campus were at least 90 days late. 

The Paul Mitchell beauty schools in Madison — which has since closed — and Milwaukee have 40% nonpayment rates. The nonpayment rate for the Salon Professional Academy in Kenosha is 36%, and the rate at State College of Beauty Culture is 35%.

Elinor Mittlestat, owner of State College of Beauty Culture, found the nonpayment rate surprising. She noted that many people graduate from the school without any loans. 

“It has been a strained economy, and I do understand that newly graduated students sometimes struggle to make student loan payments,” she said. 

One reason for the low repayment rate could be that cosmetology graduates tend to have relatively low incomes. On average, graduates of the Paul Mitchell school in Milwaukee, the Salon Professional Academy in Kenosha and State College of Beauty Culture make $7,000 to $12,500 less than the median Wisconsin high school graduate, according to an analysis of earnings data from Open Campus and The HEA Group.

Meanwhile, student borrowers who don’t finish school have to make loan payments too, even though they don’t have a credential to help them get a better job. Those who don’t graduate are more than twice as likely to end up in default, according to research by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

“The most important thing that you can do to be able to repay any loans you take out is to finish your program,” Carole Trone, executive director of the Wisconsin Coalition on Student Debt, told Wisconsin Watch in January. People leave school for all sorts of reasons, including family commitments and job changes. “A lot of that can be really unavoidable … but those are the borrowers that often have the most difficulty in repaying their loans.”

Around 25,000 students who recently attended Wisconsin public colleges are at least 90 days behind on their payments too, though they represent a far smaller share (13%) of those borrowers.

Students who attended Gateway Technical College have the highest nonpayment rate of the state’s public schools, with three in 10 recent students not making payments. 

Gateway communications manager Lee Colony said the college needs to use a “personal touch” to see what’s driving people to not pay their loans.

“We will reach out to those students and see if there is any help we can provide to them for repayment options,” Colony said. “Some of that outreach will also include ways to educate them on finances and how to properly borrow money to pay for college.”

By comparison, the University of Wisconsin campuses in Oshkosh, Stevens Point, Superior and Whitewater all have nonpayment rates of 10%, while UW-Madison’s rate is just 3%. At all of those schools, most students receive some form of financial aid besides loans.

Nationwide, AP’s analysis found 133 schools where more than half of recent students are at least 90 days behind on payments. Nearly all of them are for-profit schools, and more than half of them are barber or beauty schools.

This story was reported in collaboration with The Associated Press through its Localize It initiative, which provides datasets, reporting and story ideas for local newsrooms.

Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus. Find her on Instagram and Twitter, or send her an email at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org.

Natalie Yahr reports on pathways to success statewide for Wisconsin Watch, working in partnership with Open Campus. Email her at nyahr@wisconsinwatch.org. 

Student loan defaults surge in Wisconsin, US after federal reprieve ends is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• Students from the age of 11 to 18 can enroll at career-focused summer camps at Lakeshore College. 
• The June camps focused on culinary arts, manufacturing and information technology careers. 
• The camps introduce students to high-demand careers when they’re young, which leaders hope will spark their interest and help fill worker shortages.

In mid-June, roughly a dozen young teens wearing white chef coats lined up at stations inside a classroom resembling a real industrial kitchen. 

They gingerly cut slices of avocado, cucumber and mamenori — soy paper — before finally using a bamboo sheet to roll the ingredients into a log of sushi. 

Their instructions, delivered by a Lakeshore College instructor, looked much like lessons given in a real college class. But the students weren’t getting graded — they were attending the college’s summer camp, designed to introduce them at a young age to high-demand jobs in the region. 

Across the Cleveland, Wisconsin, campus that week, students between the ages of 11 and 18 learned the basics of culinary, manufacturing and information technology careers. It’s all part of a growing push by education and workforce leaders to expose students to high-demand careers long before they graduate high school, hoping early exploration will help fill worker shortages. 

In just three days, Haiden Taylor learned to cook hummus, tzatziki, pizza, and, her favorite, doner kebab. It was her second year enrolling in the camp. As she heads into her senior year of high school, she’s now considering culinary as a career.  

“I like working with people. I like working with my hands. I really don’t see myself at a desk job,” Taylor said. 

It all offers kids much more exploration and hands-on learning than Electro and Maintenance Mechanic instructor Kaven Lewis had as a kid. Then, people discouraged skilled trade work, he said. Events like the summer camp feel like proof that this is changing today. 

“It was … ‘Go to college, get an education,’” Lewis said. “Now it’s like, ‘Trade school, that’s where all the money is going to be.’ It’s kind of cool to be in the middle of that transition … It’s cool to see these kids coming in and being more interested in that blue collar, hands-on type of career.” 

Opening students’ eyes

On the other side of campus, a group of children between ages 11 and 13 appeared dwarfed by the cavernous garage they gathered in. 

The children focused intently on assembling a mousetrap-powered car kit, hoping to build the fastest car to win the drag race that took place in the hallway. 

The activity involved trial and error — one student’s car detonated at the starting line — but in the process, they learned how different factors impacted speed, torque and the distance the car traveled.

Down the hall, in the welding and fabrication lab, students learned to shape metal into spatulas. When they were asked how many of them took it as an opportunity to engineer gifts for the upcoming Father’s Day holiday, nearly every student’s hand shot in the air. 

About half of the students who come to camp are already dead set on what they want to do when they grow up, said Ben Reynolds, chef and culinary arts instructor. The other half have no clue. 

“It’s really fun to see the ones that aren’t sure, and then by day three they’re like, ‘yup!’” Reynolds said. 

That was the case for student Claude Judd, a 10th grader who signed up for culinary camp just for fun. 

The lessons “definitely opened my eyes a little bit,” she said, and she’d now consider a career in culinary arts. 

Workers needed

Initially supported by grants and now funded by the college, the summer camps have been put on by Lakeshore for years. The subjects and careers students explore vary annually based on feedback from college faculty and the campers themselves. 

The careers highlighted this summer — including manufacturing, culinary arts and information technology — are among those employers in northeast Wisconsin have struggled to fill.

For example, restaurant cook gigs are one of the fastest-growing in northeast Wisconsin, projected to add 740 jobs between 2022 and 2032, state data shows. 

Cooks and food preparation workers in the northeast region made an average salary of $34,550 in 2025. Data shows such academic programs have mixed results in actually setting participants up to make more money. According to an analysis of earnings data from Open Campus and The HEA Group, not all culinary programs in the state lead students to higher earnings than the average high school graduate. 

In contrast, welding and metal working jobs are expected to grow by about 10% during the same period, adding 430 jobs. Technical college job training programs for these careers usually set students up to make at least $15,000 more than the average high school graduate, and sometimes up to nearly $30,000 more. 

Even if students don’t leave camp committed to a particular career path, college leaders say they’re gaining confidence and communication skills. 

“At this point in their collegiate journey they’re getting that question of, ‘What do you want to do?’” Reynolds said.

The philosophy that drives the summer camp program is similar to what Reynolds tells his teenage son.

“I don’t expect you to know what you want to do your whole life. I just expect you to go experience things and try things and find out what makes you want to get out of bed.”

Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus. Email her at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org.

Lakeshore College summer camp introduces children and teens to hands-on, in-demand jobs is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• Congress authorized the new Workforce Pell grant program in 2025 and allocated About $1.5 billion in funding for it.
• The program will allow students to use the federal financial aid dollars for short-term career training. 
• But the funding comes with restrictions on what programs are eligible, and the federal government left it up to states to figure out which offerings meet the new guidelines. 
• Wisconsin officials say it could take years to fully implement the program.

A new kind of federal financial aid is set to become available this week, but it’s not yet clear when Wisconsin students can start using it. 

Authorized by Congress in 2025’s controversial budget bill, the new Workforce Pell grant program was widely hailed as a bipartisan victory, opening the door for students to use the largest federal undergraduate grant program for short-term career training.

The roughly $1.5 billion investment could cover the costs for low-income individuals to get training in fields like truck driving and plumbing, which proponents say will help people break into new careers or move up at work. 

But the funds also come with restrictions intended to ensure that students don’t spend their time — or the government’s money — earning credentials that don’t pay off. 

The federal government has left it up to states to decide which programs make the cut. In Wisconsin, officials say that process could take years, with aid initially available only to students in a handful of carefully scrutinized programs.

“Wisconsin is approaching the initial rollout thoughtfully, treating it as a pilot phase focused on a limited number of high-quality, high-demand workforce programs,” said Katy Pettersen, spokesperson for the Wisconsin Technical College System.

Wisconsin Watch asked state officials how the rollout will work. Here’s what we learned.

What is Workforce Pell? 

Workforce Pell is a new program that allows low-income Americans to use Pell grants — the federal government’s largest financial aid program for undergraduates — to pay for workforce training courses as short as eight weeks.

The grants will be available to people who don’t have a graduate degree. Those who already have bachelor’s degrees are eligible to apply, even though they aren’t eligible for traditional Pell grants. The Department of Education estimates the new grants will support about 190,000 students each year. 

The grants will be less than the maximum award for the traditional Pell grant program, according to the national education and workforce nonprofit Jobs for the Future. The exact amounts will be based on the amount of instructional time required.

What programs will be eligible?

That hasn’t been decided yet. Wisconsin colleges will need to submit programs to state officials for consideration. The Department of Workforce Development hopes to open that application in July. 

Before then, Wisconsin officials must set the criteria that will determine which programs will be eligible. That includes deciding what it means for a career to be “in-demand” or “high-wage.” One federal guideline: To be eligible, programs must show 70% of their students complete training in a timely manner.

Programs must also be the right length. Workforce Pell dollars can only be used for training that runs for eight and 14 weeks and 150 to 599 clock hours. Some programs that would otherwise be eligible will likely be excluded for this reason.

Several programs, including ones that train truck drivers, dental auxiliary workers and emergency medical technicians, are “strong early candidates, given their alignment with workforce demand and expected performance outcomes,” Pettersen said. 

Gov. Tony Evers and the Governor’s Council on Workforce Investment will determine which programs meet the criteria. They’ll submit their selections to the U.S. Department of Education.  

Another factor limiting which programs can qualify is a federal requirement that programs must have met the eligibility criteria for at least 12 months. That means that if a college creates or modifies a program to comply with the rules, it won’t qualify for the first year. 

“More options will come available over the next 12 to 24 months,” said DWD spokesperson Haley McCoy. “Wisconsin is moving deliberately to collaborate with stakeholders to optimize the opportunities the program offers.” 

When will people be able to use Workforce Pell grants in Wisconsin?

State officials have offered no official start date for when people will be able to utilize this financial aid. 

When the law passed last year, it said funds would be available “for the award year beginning on July 1, 2026, and each subsequent award year.” Jobs for the Future called that timeline “aggressive,” saying the Department of Education might need more time to implement the program.

Indeed, the department didn’t release the rules governing Workforce Pell until nearly a year later. That, McCoy said, has delayed the process.

“The final rule, which established eligibility and process requirements, was not published by the Department of Education until May 18, 2026, with Workforce Pell set to go into effect less than two months later,” McCoy said, adding that the department “continues to work diligently towards the July 2026 launch date.” 

Behind the scenes, college administrators are deciding which of their programs could qualify, said Scott Anderson, associate vice president of academic affairs and workforce development at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. 

Then, they’ll also have to spread the word to students. 

“At this point, our financial aid office hasn’t received many questions from students specifically about Workforce Pell,” Anderson said. “We expect awareness and interest will increase as more information becomes available and the program officially launches.”

In the meantime, Wisconsinites interested in these grants can complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which is required for all types of Pell grants. The application is available at www.fafsa.gov.

What’s happening in other states?

Other states are in a similar boat, sprinting to decide which training programs fit the bill. 

As of June 26, just 12 states have published an approval process, according to a tracker from the independent research platform Opportunity Data.

In California, state officials say the aid won’t be available for students for weeks or even several months. Lawmakers there are also weighing legislation that would place heavier restrictions on the kinds of programs that qualify, CalMatters reported. 

Some Texas college officials have warned that the vetting process may mean students won’t access the funds until 2027. 

How can people get help paying for workforce training in the meantime?

People who enroll in short-term certification programs in Wisconsin have options for financial assistance, even if their program isn’t yet eligible for Workforce Pell. 

The state offers other forms of tuition assistance, grants and scholarships. For example, students who enrolled in EMT training can now get reimbursed for some of their tuition costs. 

To learn about other options, visit the Higher Educational Aids Board website.

Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus. Find her on Instagram and Twitter, or send her an email at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org.

Natalie Yahr reports on pathways to success statewide for Wisconsin Watch, working in partnership with Open Campus. Email her at nyahr@wisconsinwatch.org.

Federal financial aid for career training is here. When will Wisconsinites benefit? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• The trend of older adults staying in the workforce is reshaping what retirement looks like in Door County. 
• Many retirees seek jobs in the county’s booming tourism industry, offering the chance for them to interact with people, as well as earn extra cash. 
• A local nonprofit organization matches older adults seeking work in Door County with employers. 
• Wisconsin Watch and Door County Knock spoke to several people over age 65 who continue to work for various reasons.

When James Carson, 72, retired to Washington Island a decade ago, he envisioned the next stage of his life as many do: leaving the workforce, volunteering, traveling, caring for his family. 

Instead, unexpected medical expenses and the rising cost of living soon forced him to pick up two service industry jobs to make ends meet. Today, he regularly clocks in seven days a week, logging 45 to 50 hours. 

Door County is home to one of Wisconsin’s oldest populations, largely thanks to its status as a serene retirement destination. But like Carson, more of those older adults and retirees are returning to work. Unwilling or unable to quit for good, they’re picking up jobs to afford the rising cost of living, to stay social and to become involved in the community. 

The trend is reshaping what retirement in Door County looks like today as people live longer and life becomes more expensive.

Carson wishes he would have saved more aggressively – he “was kind of naive” about retirement. He also thinks people have false ideas about what it looks like. 

“You cannot live on Social Security, and unless people have a very good retirement plan, they’re going to be hurting,” Carson said. 

Given Door County’s booming tourism industry, many retirees like Carson seek out hospitality and customer service jobs. Even for those not driven by finances, these gigs offer the chance to interact with others. But others simply continue their careers past retirement age or pivot fields.

To meet the demand from job-seeking older adults, local employment services nonprofit We Are Hope runs a program to match them with employers. Executive Director Kim Carley said the organization served more people in the first half of 2026 than it expected for the whole year.

“The need is definitely, definitely there. The majority of it is that social connection, but you do have that small population that financially they need to work still,” Carley said. “Not everybody in Door County is rich. The cost of living has really affected things right now, too.”

Wisconsin Watch and Door County Knock spoke with several workers over the age of 65. Together, their stories create a changing image of what retirement and aging look like today. Keep reading to learn more about their jobs.

James Carson

Age: 72

Job: Bartender

Former career: Amtrak conductor

Town: Washington Island

Why: Money

“Everyone wants to talk to the bartender,” Carson said. “I’m well-suited for the job.” 

Carson was not always a confident speaker. When he was younger, he stuttered badly. A fifth grade teacher helped correct it, he said, “and I haven’t shut up since.” 

Being well-suited for his job may be a good thing, but Carson did not think he’d still be working at 72 years old, especially not in Washington Island’s demanding summer service industry.

Carson and his wife, Stacey, bought a house there about 10 years ago, after he retired from a 20-year career with Amtrak. Stacey spent summers on the island growing up, and her parents live there now. 

He envisioned volunteering and traveling, and the couple would care for Stacey’s aging in-laws, he said. For the first year or so, that was what he did. Jim served on their church council, worked with a developmentally disabled young adult, volunteered for the island’s nonprofit Art & Nature Center, and gave back to a community he said welcomed them with open arms. 

“Until reality kicked in,” he said. The cost of living, including utilities, groceries and ferry travel, ate away at the couple’s savings faster than they anticipated. Jim needed eye surgery, then knee surgery. 

He quit volunteering and returned to the workforce, where he has remained for the last eight years. Between shifts as a prep and line cook at Nelsen’s Hall & Bitters Club and as a bartender at the Albatross Drive-In tiki bar, he works seven days a week during the busy tourist season.

“I’m working more aggressively this summer to bank against having to continue to work this much next year,” Carson said. But with the fluctuating economy, higher grocery bills and gas prices, that might change. Ideally, he would like to only work for another two years, he said. 

Mentally, Carson enjoys talking to people and has formed good relationships with the island’s youth — the Albatross is a popular hangout spot — but physically, the work takes its toll. The knee surgery made it harder to be on his feet all day and he falls into bed exhausted every night, he said. 

“I’m doing better than most. I hear about folks splitting or foregoing their medications and going to food pantries,” Carson said. “I’m not there yet.” 

Cindy Good 

Age: 71

Job: Retailer

Former career: Software and business consulting

Town: Sturgeon Bay

Why: Keeps her busy

Cindy Good plopped down on the chartreuse furniture clustered at the front of her store, The Naked Sheep Yarn Shop & Gift Boutique. At 2 p.m., it was her first time sitting that day. 

Good, nearly 72, is exhausted. But she said she’ll continue working “as long as my body will hold out.”

She retired at 70 after a career in software and business consulting. She once thought that she’d work part time at most at her age and take advantage of having more time to read books or catch up on knitting. But before she could do that, she and her sister opened a second venture: a yarn store on the west side of Sturgeon Bay. 

The store sells yarn, knitting tools and other tchotchkes. They also host classes, social knitting groups and crafting events. Good regularly bounces between handling orders for inventory, checking what’s in stock and helping customers with their knitting projects.

“There are days when I wake up and I think, ‘Oh God, why didn’t I just fully retire?’” she joked.

But in reality, she knows why: She feels the need to keep busy. 

If she quit working, her Social Security payments would provide enough money for her to live on. But she recognizes the rising cost of living that influences other working retirees in the area. For instance, no houses in the area are for sale at the price she and her sister bought theirs for. 

“We have friends that have money and they travel and do all that kind of stuff,” Good said. “That was sort of my goal, but I don’t have that kind of money. I was thinking I would do a trip a year or something, but now I’m here.”

Good loves Sturgeon Bay’s tight-knit feel and the downtown location of her business. In mid-June, business had just started picking up as tourism season began. By July, the street will bustle for their busiest month.

Maybe, she considered, once business is where she wants it to be, she might take those yearly trips.

Charlene Keith

Age: 68

Job: Door County Maritime Museum associate

Former career: Grocery distribution

Town: Sturgeon Bay

Why: Social interaction

Charlene Keith never envisioned herself retiring. 

Five years ago, she technically did. But she went right back to work. After two and a half years, she decided to finally slow down — but not fully. 

“If I sat home, I would just drive myself crazy,” Keith said. “I have to be doing something.” 

She reached out to We Are Hope, where MatchUp program leaders recommended a part-time opening at Door County Maritime Museum in Sturgeon Bay. 

Here, she works the front desk, welcomes visitors, sells tickets, stocks the gift shop, keeps tours running on schedule and closes the museum at night. 

It’s a far cry from her grocery distribution career, where she navigated difficult roles and recalled everyone around her being unhappy. Nowadays at work, “everybody’s happy to be where they’re at,” she said. Most of Keith’s co-workers are retirees, too.

“It’s just fun. It makes me believe that it can be done. I thought everybody was unhappy in (their job),” Keith said. “You hear people say if you have a job you love, then it’s not really working, and I thought, ‘Yeah, that doesn’t happen.’”

Keeping busy brings her joy. She enjoys seeing guests’ excitement over the museum’s exhibits.

Keith lives and shares expenses with her sister, so she doesn’t necessarily need the part-time wages to get by. But she sees why finances motivate other people her age. 

“It’s expensive to live, but people are living so much longer,” Keith said. “Unless you’re a millionaire and can travel, what would you do with yourself? I mean, I guess there’s people that sit around and fish for hours every day, but I’m not that kind of person.” 

Lee Engstrom

Age: 87

Job: First responder

Former career: Factory quality control

Town: Washington Island

Why: Keeps him busy

At 87 years old, Lee Engstrom is almost certainly among the oldest in Door County, according to county Emergency Services Director Aaron LeClair. He may be the oldest first responder in Wisconsin. 

Engstrom is a fourth-generation member of the family that owns and operates Sunset Resort on Washington Island. He grew up in Michigan and spent summers helping his grandparents at the resort. He always dreamed he would end up there full time.

That dream came true when he and his wife, Janet, moved to the island in the late 1980s after he retired from a 30-year career in a factory’s quality control department. 

Engstrom was not ready to stop working completely. He got a job with the local hardware store and did some plumbing work on the island. When he turned 62, he started getting Social Security and quit those jobs, but still needed something to keep busy. 

He became an emergency medical responder, then got certified as an emergency medical technician and joined the island’s volunteer fire department. Today, he spends 80 to 100 hours every two weeks on call as a first responder because he enjoys it. He also does maintenance and odd jobs around the resort.

At 87, he did not think he would still be working, he said. 

“I didn’t think I’d be alive,” Engstrom said. “When is it going to stop? As long as I feel good like this, I’ll just keep going. I have slowed down some, though … I’ve got fake ears, fake eyes and fake teeth. Everything else is original.” 

Unless there’s a rescue call, being on standby doesn’t take much time. Engstrom just needs to be dressed near the emergency services facilities in case a call comes in — easy enough on an island. He’s happy to be one of the responders on call during the day because many of the younger volunteers are working their regular jobs during that time. 

Engstrom focuses on patient care when he goes on calls. His primary objective is to make them feel comfortable and cared for once their medical condition is stable, he said. 

When there is a fire, Engstrom’s primary job is to fill the tender truck — a mobile reservoir that supplies water to hose trucks when fire hydrants aren’t available. Rural departments often use them. 

“I’m too old, and not as agile, to be going around dragging hoses and that kind of stuff,” he said. 

For a while, fewer and fewer new recruits became island first responders as agencies statewide saw dire staffing shortages. But a recent influx of younger people has changed that, he said. 

Financially, he and Janet are doing fine, and they have family who support and help them. But he enjoys his work — especially interaction with patients and knowing he provides a valuable service to his beloved island community. 

When he does stop for good, Engstrom said he might golf more, keep working in his shop and do what he can to help at the resort. He would also continue his daily cruise around the island with Janet, he added. 

“Whatever I’m doing, I enjoy taking the ride with my wife for a cup of coffee,” he said. 

Jeff Gildersleeves

Age: 65

Job: Door County Parks Department maintenance staff

Former career: Manufacturing plant management

Town: Gardner

Why: Money

Jeff Gildersleeves is no stranger to physical labor. The 65-year-old works for the Door County Parks Department’s “mow crew.” The part-time gig lasts from May to October, and he spends his days hauling equipment, mowing, trimming trees, planting grass seed, picking up trash and tackling other tasks to maintain the county’s parks. 

Gildersleeves’ first job as a teenager growing up in Door County was picking cherries and strawberries during summer. He loves the outdoors, and the work suited him well, he said. He went on to obtain a degree in biology and wildlife management, which he used to work for the Department of Natural Resources.

When Gildersleeves and his wife were expecting their first child, he switched careers and took a job at a chemical production and manufacturing plant in Milwaukee. He retired in 2021 and returned to Door County with his retirement benefits and a plan. 

According to Gildersleeves, a local company was offering an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. If he worked there for at least three years, he would receive his full investment and returns, enough to supplement his retirement savings from the Milwaukee job. 

Three months before his three-year anniversary, Gildersleeves got injured on the job. He needed surgery to repair a torn left rotator cuff, and that was it, he said. “I only got 20% of my investment back.” 

Today, the mowing job is replacing that lost income.

“We thought at 66, 67 we’d be able to sit back and enjoy life, but with the economy the way it is, and health insurance costs?” Gildersleeves said. “My wife has some hefty prescriptions. Social Security is not enough to live on.” 

The physical part of the job can be hard, he said. “You think you are physically fit until you’re out there doing it.” 

Beyond the manual labor, Gildersleeves guides younger employees. His supervisors value his experience, and he has a good rapport with the teenagers on his crew, who listen to him, he said. 

Doing something valued and worthwhile is good for his mental health, he said, but he is not sure how long he’ll continue. 

 “Until I’m unable to work anymore,” he said. 

He has a small IRA put away and a pending lawsuit against the Door County company where he was injured, but he said he doubts he will see any settlement money. He knows one thing for certain: He would like to remain in his own home for as long as possible. 

“I don’t want to sell off and go to a nursing home,” he said. “I watched my in-laws do that, and it’s not a good way to live.” 

Kathy Bandstra

Age: 76 

Job: Therapist

Town: Sturgeon Bay

Why: Is fulfilled by her career.

Kathy Bandstra returned to school in her 40s to become a licensed clinical social worker. Her sixth decade began before she paid off her student loans. At 68, she started considering retirement. 

“I retired in June of 2018 because my financial person said, ‘Don’t ever retire in the winter, because that’s too depressing,’” she said. “I followed his advice.” 

By the next month, though, she already returned to work part time for a private practice. A year later, she shifted to volunteer as a hospice worker during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then she moved from Racine to Door County and began volunteering at the area’s Aging and Disability Resource Center.

“I still felt like something was missing … It just felt like I could do more with the skills I had,” Bandstra said. “And I still had the energy to do it. And volunteering doesn’t pay you anything. I like making some money.”

People had told her that it was hard to find affordable mental health services in her new home county. She rented an office in Sturgeon Bay, opened her own business and offered services on a sliding scale to help people afford care. She couldn’t offer her services for so cheap if she wasn’t retired and receiving Social Security, she said. 

Now, at 76, Bandstra regularly sees several clients a day in person and through telehealth. She helps people through distress and trauma with cognitive behavioral therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy.

Continuing to work gives her the freedom to go out to eat, get a new car if needed and cover expenses that pop up outside of bills. If she stopped working, she might have more time for her hobbies — making clay pots, writing her memoir, doing open mic readings. But she would miss feeling helpful to others. She also feels her physical and mental health has improved because she keeps going. 

Bandstra believes people largely have false ideas about what retirement looks like. She thinks “it’s unrealistic to look to retire,” period. If clients continue to see her, she’d like to work into her 80s.

“I don’t know if some people would want someone that’s old enough to be their great-grandma,” Bandstra said. “But the people that stopped coming to me didn’t say that they thought I was too old or anything.”

Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus. Find her on Instagram and Twitter, or send her an email at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org.

Emily Small is a reporter for Door County Knock and a Report for America corps member. Contact her at esmall@doorcountyknock.org.

Door County is a retirement destination. So why are more older adults still working? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• Wisconsin officials launched a teacher apprenticeship program in 2024, offering students an alternative route to the profession. 
• But the program’s future is unclear. 
• Leaders are struggling to find students who are interested in joining the program and public school districts to sponsor them.

Matthew Jacobson found his calling in middle school history class.

As a sixth grader at St. John Vianney Catholic School in Brookfield, he voluntarily completed additional research projects and jumped at the chance to present to his classmates. He never saw the extra assignments as work — he was having fun. When Jacobson’s teacher told him he’d make a great educator himself, he set his sights on the profession. In high school, he participated in Elmbrook School District’s future teachers program and planned to enroll in university for his teaching degree. 

But life had other plans. Several weeks before his high school graduation, Jacobson was forced to move out on his own. He picked up a cooking job to “pay the bills and survive.” The gig didn’t leave extra money or time for college. 

“I didn’t really know how to get back into college and go meet my dream,” Jacobson said. 

Two years later, he heard about a novel apprenticeship program, where future teachers earn money working in schools as they obtain their education and certifications. 

“I was like, ‘That’s my way back in,’” he said. 

State officials launched the program in 2024 to ease the educator shortage by offering students an alternative route to the profession — one where they don’t have to put their careers on pause while racking up student debt. Jacobson is one of the first eight teacher apprentices. 

Today, Jacobson has returned to Elmbrook to serve as a classroom aide. In two years, he’ll have the proper training for the district to hire him as an elementary or middle school teacher.

But as participants reach the program’s halfway point, its future beyond this initial “pilot” phase is unclear — raising questions about whether apprenticeships will become a viable solution to Wisconsin’s struggle to find and keep educators. 

While the route has been life-changing for students like Jacobson, program leaders are having trouble enticing school districts to take on more apprentices. Enrollment has ground to a halt; the two technical colleges involved don’t have any new students signed up to begin in the fall. 

Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development officials say whether the program continues or grows depends on if districts get on board and sponsor trainees to join up. But district leaders say a major hurdle is the cost — a key appeal of an apprenticeship is the employer paying them for the time they spend learning, but many public schools are already strapped for cash. Some want more funding tied to the program. 

“(It’s) stalling a little bit,” said Trent Sorensen, a Fox Valley Technical College dean. “We don’t have any (students) coming in for the fall. … There’s plenty of time, but it’s not taking off like it did in other states, and it’s simply because of the funding.”

A new way to train teachers

Wisconsin schools struggle to find enough teachers needed to lead classrooms — a problem largely fueled by poor retention and new workers moving to other states after graduating.

In 2024, Congress came through with some assistance: $570,000 in federal funds earmarked for establishing a teacher apprenticeship program in Wisconsin. 

Officials from DWD, the Department of Public Instruction, the Wisconsin Technical College System, and two universities teamed up to debut the pilot in January 2024. They praised the “earn-while-you-learn” approach to establishing a pipeline of workers: Districts could guarantee they’d have future teachers, while also filling lower-skilled jobs in the meantime. 

Typically, aspiring teachers work a shorter classroom internship while studying for their bachelor’s degree and then complete a semester of student teaching after graduating. The apprenticeship is “taking that entire approach and flipping it on its head,” said Nick Abbott, senior program and policy analyst at the Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards — creating a potentially more accessible path to the profession. 

“Traditional educator preparation programs can be expensive, as they often require unpaid student teaching, which might not be feasible for low-income students, nontraditional students, or individuals looking to change careers,” Gov. Tony Evers said when the program launched. “The new teacher apprenticeship pilot program will help address issues in turnover and retention, reduce barriers, and encourage young people to enter the field.”

Apprenticeships are becoming more common in Wisconsin in fields ranging from plumbing to nursing. Participation has hit record highs for the last four years. These gigs are far more common for hands-on jobs in the skilled trades than fields like education and health care, but that’s changing with initiatives like the teacher apprenticeship program.

Here’s how it works: A school district hires an apprentice, who enrolls at Fox Valley Technical College or Waukesha County Technical College for two years to complete a Foundations of Teacher Education associate’s degree. When finished, the student transfers to Lakeland University or the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater at Rock County to finish a bachelor’s degree.

Throughout those roughly four years of schooling, the apprentice works inside the classroom as an assistant for 32 hours each week and spends eight hours a week learning at college. The school district the person works for pays an hourly wage for those 40 total hours. When apprentices finish the training, they’re qualified to work as a classroom teacher.

“Nothing prepares you for doing this job, other than doing the job,” Jacobson said. “Being at a school working with kids is easily 10 times more important than any of the classes I’ve taken, and I get way better experience and much more value out of just doing it and learning through failure.” 

As a way of incentivizing the program during its infancy, the eight students get half of their tuition costs reimbursed with federal grant funds. 

Four districts participate in the pilot: Wauwatosa, Greendale, Elmbrook and Appleton. The districts are not required to pay for the remainder of the apprentice’s tuition — Elmbrook, a relatively wealthy district, was the only one that did. 

State leaders also hope the apprenticeships might help with teacher retention. Teachers will start with four years of classroom management experience already under their belt, far more than usual. Plus, other teachers mentor them on the job. That essentially eliminates the difficult experience of being a first-year teacher, said Appleton Area School District Chief Human Resources Officer Julie King. 

“Managing a classroom and the curriculum and all the demands of the job is very overwhelming after having maybe 18 weeks of student teaching experience,” King said. “To learn alongside a professional that has been in the career, knows all the ins and outs, has skill sets and strategies to work with students – to have that benefit of working alongside somebody like that for four years, you’re much, much better prepared.”

Given these promises, teacher apprenticeships have recently exploded nationwide — 45 states have brought programs online in the last few years. They vary widely in their funding approaches and in the costs to districts and students. States have often looked to Tennessee, the country’s first program, as a standout model. The state’s program, launched in 2020, now helps fund 600 new teacher trainees annually at no cost to the apprentices.

Enticing schools a challenge

In his Foundations of Reading class last fall, Jacobson learned about phonological and phonemic awareness, or the ability to recognize distinct parts of a word — a key skill for learning how to read. Using what he learned, he started running his own reading support group for students needing extra help. 

“The second you learn something, I don’t have to wait two years before I actually apply that knowledge to my job,” Jacobson said. “No, I’m applying it that same day or the next day, which then makes it stick a lot more.”

The program gets high marks from trainees and schools. So why aren’t more signing up?

Money. Both school districts and apprentices are struggling to afford it. 

The four districts that already have apprentices are waiting until their current students graduate to decide whether to add more, Abbott said. 

“I want to stress that the apprenticeship model itself remains available to all school employers in the state who wish to adopt it,” Abbott said. “It comes down to finding partners.”

But getting more of Wisconsin’s 400-plus districts to bite has been difficult. 

Sorensen, the Fox Valley Tech dean, said the college isn’t seeing interest from districts because many are contending with too-tight budgets. School leaders have long argued the state’s funding system hasn’t kept up with rising costs, which, as Wisconsin Watch recently reported, has resulted in a recent wave of school closures, layoffs and budget cuts. 

That’s made it hard for districts to pay for the hours when trainees are in college, and not working in the classroom. 

“It’s challenging for school districts to be able to build in that release time. We did hear that, and that’s really understandable,” said Dena Constantineau, Waukesha County Tech’s associate dean of education and human services. “I mean, they really rely on their people, and so they need them in the classroom.”

Even with the discount from the federal grant, tuition can be costly. For example, the average annual tuition costs at least $5,900 for the technical college portion and about $6,000 for UW-Whitewater at Rock County. That means the leftover cost to apprentices could still be upwards of $12,000. 

Plus, the federal funds that helped launch the pilot run out next March, so there could be even less tuition assistance for future apprentices.  

The Appleton Area School District would love to put more students into the program, “if there was funding” to entice participants, King said. The district couldn’t afford to give students more tuition assistance, which hampered participation. 

“The unknown for us moving forward is there is no state funding. If there’s other opportunities for that tuition relief for the individual, that’s really what entices people to engage in that program,” King said.

“The question on the future really is, ‘Where is the funding and the structures going to be in the future to make sure that it’s a viable option moving forward?’” King said. “‘That it reduces the financial barrier? That it’s accessible?’” 

Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus. Find her on Instagram and Twitter, or send her an email at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org.

An apprenticeship aiming to ease Wisconsin’s teacher shortage is ‘stalling.’ Will it catch on? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• Oshkosh resident Nikolas DeGroot started Groundfloor Democracy after seeking an informal place where community members could gather to discuss politics and local issues. 

• Run entirely by volunteers, Groundfloor Democracy hosts Politics in the Park events several times per month. 

• Organizers focus on fostering respectful discussions in person, which they say helps people connect with their neighbors and find what they have in common. 

• However, it’s been a struggle to attract participants to their gatherings. 

• The group plans to become a nonprofit organization and hopes to eventually host events in more Wisconsin cities.

On a late April evening, in an Oshkosh park bordering the shores of Lake Winnebago, Nikolas DeGroot and Elaine Koch arranged four fabric lawn chairs in a circle. They unfolded a small table and used it to prop up posterboard reading “POLITICS IN THE PARK” in bubble letters. Then they sat down and waited for curious passersby to notice. 

During a time when Americans are increasingly polarized and politics can feel too tense a topic to broach in conversation, Oshkosh resident DeGroot wants to inspire his neighbors to tackle the topic head on — and handle disagreements thoughtfully. 

“There’s a disconnect in the way that we relate to one another, on many different levels. I think that the internet has kind of become the public commons, and it does it really badly,” DeGroot said. “We all know it’s terrible. We all hate it, and yet that’s still like the place where the most discussion is happening.”

The antidote, he thinks, is simple: bring conversation about shared issues back in the flesh, in a public place neighbors frequent, and make sure it stays respectful. 

That’s the gist of “Politics in the Park,” an event series where DeGroot and several helpers invite people to have civil conversations about politics and local issues at a public park. Through this, he hopes his neighbors can learn to connect again and chip away at the polarization driving people away from each other. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, getting people to take part in the initiative has proven difficult. Still in its infancy, the twice-weekly events this spring mark the series’ second year. Turnout has been sparse — typically, a handful of people stop by each event. The group, dubbed Groundfloor Democracy, hosted about 10 attendees at once at its peak. 

But the conversations they’ve had have been encouraging, and they hope it’ll catch on soon. 

“I want people to see that there is a big difference between debate and just regular conversation, and that we can get back to conversation,” said Emmy Carrick, who helps put on the events. “We want people to take away that regular conversation without yelling, without debate, without cameras — it’s possible.”

‘We’ll pull up some chairs, and we’ll just see’

As a political science student at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, DeGroot was eager to attend political and academic events on campus. But when he looked around the room at donors, university administrators, professors or students required to be present for a class, he felt out of place. 

“As somebody who comes from a working-class background, I don’t see any people like me at events like this,” said DeGroot, who works two part-time jobs.  

He started looking for other community organizations he’d be more aligned with. But he didn’t see any addressing his biggest concern: “How do we get people off of their devices and speaking in person again?” 

He decided to take matters into his own hands. 

“I was taking my son to the park every day after school anyway, for like two hours. So I was like, … ‘We’ll just set up a sign, we’ll pull up some chairs, and we’ll just see. We’ll just see what happens,’” he said. 

He made Facebook posts to tell people when he was going to be outside and wanted to facilitate conversation. He let people talk about what was on their minds. A few visitors came the first couple times, but they sometimes struggled with what to discuss. 

He started asking questions to guide discussion: 

“If you could change one thing about your government (local, state or federal), what would it be?”

“What’s something you think we could fix if we just talked about it more honestly?”

“What’s one thing you’d like politicians to stop doing?”

“What gives you hope when it comes to politics or your community?”

“What do you think people get wrong about folks who vote differently than them?”

Meanwhile, DeGroot posted a callout for people to help him with the endeavor. Four board members now help him organize events, post on social media and try to grow Groundfloor Democracy’s turnout. 

That includes Carrick, who discovered the project while surfing Reddit. She wanted to get involved because she feels like “we’ve never been more disconnected from our neighbors.”

“I like the premise of it because it was just something so low-stakes,” Carrick said. “With how polarized things are, it feels like any political conversation that you have is very high-stakes. I liked that this was just informal and welcoming.” 

By the end of last spring, they’d had enough turnout to feel encouraged to continue. This year, the events are guided by a one-word prompt, such as “local,” “education” or “justice.” They ask participants what topics the words bring to mind and let attendees steer the conversation.

Continuing the conversation

Carrick’s favorite Politics in the Park event took place on an early April evening, when about 10 people attended. Two teens on their way to the bus stopped briefly to learn about the initiative. Another man wanted to discuss the Trump administration’s policies — an exchange that ended with him and Koch praying together. 

“Nobody ever said whether they were a Democrat or Republican. We just talked,” Carrick said. “That was so refreshing to me. We didn’t talk about parties at all. We just talked about us and our lives and local issues and more of what brought us together.”

While discussion at the events has stayed civil to date, conversations about politics can often slide off the rails. 

Their goal isn’t to avoid debate, but to encourage handling disagreements respectfully. For that reason, DeGroot took a 40-hour mediation training at the Winnebago Conflict Resolution Center to learn how to handle and dissolve conflict. 

“A big part of that training was getting from the thing that somebody is saying to the underlying feeling that’s connected to what they’re saying,” DeGroot said. “It’s just trying to get to that little crumb at the center of like, why does this person feel so strongly about this particular thing?”

If needed, he will intervene to help the person see how those “big feelings” at the root of their argument overlap with the values of the people sitting with them, to help them see the similarities they share. Though he’s prepared, he hasn’t yet needed to interrupt a conversation.

Since it is a nonpartisan organization, DeGroot and other members are careful not to advocate for specific candidates, parties or policy positions. That’ll become especially important as they look to become an official nonprofit. The federal government prohibits these types of organizations from engaging in political campaign activity. 

As time goes on, they also want to grow the initiative by hosting conversations in more Wisconsin cities or partnering with other local civic organizations. 

They also want to find ways to raise funds — right now, everyone who helps out is a volunteer. 

Mostly, though, they want more people to come talk about politics with them in the park. 

“We can’t delete social media from the world, heal our nation’s politics overnight or anything like that,” Carrick said. “But we can set up some lawn chairs in a park and have a couple neighbors come out and just chat and get to know each other more.”

Learn about Groundfloor Democracy’s upcoming events here.

These Oshkosh residents want you to log off and talk politics — in real life is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• In the 26 school districts where voters prioritized lower property taxes over more school funding, their decisions spell brisk change. 

• Leaders in at least 11 districts have shared plans for cuts since the election, and those from three other districts are considering closures. 

• Several are preparing to put another referendum on the November ballot, or hoping state legislators allocate more funding to K-12 public schools. 

• The pace of the sweeping changes highlights how district leaders rely on referendums to balance their budgets — and how, for many, the ask to voters was a final effort before resorting to significant changes.

Parent Jackie Lindsey voted in favor of the Fond du Lac School District’s $30 million referendum earlier this month because she thinks past budget cuts have created a poorer classroom experience for her two children. So when voters shot down the proposal, she ached with frustration. 

Now, just three weeks after Election Day, district leaders said they’ll close two schools and cut 30 more employees. Lindsey worries the resulting larger class sizes will leave teachers even less equipped to help struggling students, like her seventh and ninth graders who have disabilities.

“We’re going to see a lot of worn-out teachers who are doing their very best with what they’re given, but have such a high workload that it’s going to affect them mentally and physically,” Lindsey said.

In the 26 districts that, like Fond du Lac, failed to pass referendums, school leaders have quickly turned to hacking away at their budgets. They’re cutting staff, making plans to close schools and shutting down programs after residents rejected their pleas for more revenue. At least three of these districts are considering closing altogether. 

The swift pace of the sweeping changes highlights how districts are relying on referendums to keep their budgets balanced — and how, for many, the ask to voters was a final effort before resorting to significant changes.

Many Wisconsin district leaders have bemoaned the state’s public school funding as inadequate and are increasingly solving budget imbalances with referendums, which ask voters whether school districts can increase property taxes beyond the limits set by state law to generate more revenue. 

“With the cost of everything, and the fuel prices going up and all of that type of stuff, I think it just played a kind of a perfect storm to put our community in a spot where they just had to say no this time around,” Augusta Area School District Administrator Reed Pecha said. “Hopefully that’ll change next time.”

In districts where voters prioritized lower property taxes over more school funding, their decisions spell brisk change. 

Several school districts are already drawing up plans to put another referendum in front of voters, or hoping lawmakers will bail them out by designating more school funding. 

“If this stuff doesn’t change, the funding formula doesn’t change, state aid doesn’t change, this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Ellsworth Community School District Superintendent Brian Nadeau said. “(Cuts are) going to become an annual thing that we have to deal with until something changes.”

Rocky paths forward

Over $1 billion in referendums from 73 school districts were on the ballot earlier this month. Districts had the tall task of appealing to voters who are increasingly weary of increased property taxes. Ahead of the election, a Marquette University Law School poll warned that a record high 60% of registered voters said they would rather reduce property taxes than increase spending on public schools.

Voters approved 37 of 63 operational referendums, which ask to raise taxes to fund the cost of running schools, such as educational programs, salaries and transportation services. The 12 other proposals asked for revenue for capital construction projects, like building upgrades, nine of which passed.

At least 11 of these districts have shared plans for budget cuts since the election. For example, Monroe School District cut 22 positions. Southern Door County School District plans to slash 16 jobs and freeze pay. The Necedah Area School District will cut staff and put off purchasing new school buses. Dodgeville School District will lay off 13 people. 

Nadeau, the Ellsworth leader, said the district already had cost reductions ready to go in case its $8.7 million referendum didn’t pass. Now it’s rolling out the changes, including cutting roughly 15 staff and redesigning its 4K program. The changes must total $1.9 million to plug next year’s budget hole.

“It’s getting to the point where it’s extremely painful,” Nadeau said. 

Several other districts are drawing up budget cuts or presenting them for a vote at upcoming school board meetings. 

That includes the Augusta Area School District, where voters rejected a $750,000 proposal. The western Wisconsin district is now drawing up cuts to staff, and officials plan to announce reductions in academic programs and extracurricular activities in spring 2027. 

“It was a fairly modest ask, but with the community not supporting that, it definitely means that we have handed out non-renewal (notices to staff),” Pecha said. “We are reducing staff and trying to absorb positions as people have resigned, but we don’t have a lot more to cut.” 

No way forward?

Without much more to whittle from their budgets, some school districts are considering closing altogether. 

After its $3.75 million referendum failed, Hustisford School District in Dodge County lacks “sufficient funding to continue operations beyond this school year,” leaders wrote in a letter to families. The 240-student district canceled its upcoming summer school classes. 

Hustisford could partner with a local district to provide classes next school year while it works to fully dissolve by the following year. The school board will make a final decision by July 1. 

Leaders at Gillett School District in Oconto County find themselves in a similar predicament. District Administrator Nathan Hanson said the district’s budget deficit will deplete its savings by the end of this school year. 

The district is already understaffed. Cutting any more to lower expenses would create class sizes of over 40 students, Hanson said. Schools generally aim to keep classes under 30 students.

“Cutting enough positions to break even next year would be beyond what we believe would keep a viable education for our approximately 549 students,” Hanson said.

Hanson has reached out to the state’s education department and the school attorney to learn more about closing or merging with another district. He confirmed the district will remain open through at least the 2026-27 school year, but would need to “borrow money and pay interest to keep our doors open.” 

“We are learning what we need to know regarding the process of dissolution and consolidation,” Hanson told Wisconsin Watch. “These are not options our board wants to use, but our board is committed to finding the best possible solution for our community’s children.”

If at first you don’t succeed …

Some leaders already have their sights set on the next election cycle, eager to ask voters for more revenue and secure a different outcome. 

School District of Winter Superintendent Craig Olson asked the school board to return to voters with another referendum this November. 

The four-year, $8 million referendum voters rejected earlier this month was Winter’s first operational referendum since at least 2000. Olson attributed the failure in part to a short preparation period that left many residents unaware of the district’s financial situation.

Olson said the district runs an annual deficit of about $1 million. Without a successful referendum, the district could run out of funds within a year and face the risk of closure. He hopes the voters will approve the next referendum if the district has more time to communicate the details with them.

Hanson also said Gillett’s school board will be “very strongly looking at running another operational referendum in the near future.” 

Data indicates districts might have better luck next time. In the 20 districts that went to referendum this year after voters rejected their proposals, 16 passed.

Several district leaders said they’re hopeful the Legislature will help ease their financial woes. 

“I’m just hopeful that our community can see the importance that our schools have,” Pecha said. “And I’m hoping that the state can maybe come through with some funding and hopefully give a little bit of a reprieve to some of us.”

Data reporter Hongyu Liu contributed to this report. 

Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus. Find her on Instagramand Twitter, or send her an email at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org.

Failed referendums trigger school cuts, closures and new funding pushes across Wisconsin is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.