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The school shooting this week at Abundant Life Christian in Madison, Wisconsin, is tragic and senseless, but it’s not at all shocking. Deliberately planned school shootings happen multiple times every school year, mostly in smaller rural and suburban communities. The perpetrators of these attacks are almost always actively suicidal current or former students at the school they target.

Back in April, I wrote an article for the 25th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting. This trend line turned out to be sadly accurate. With the shooting at Abundant Life Christian, there have been five pre-planned attacks at schools this year.

Regardless of how you measure school shootings — guns fired, wounded, killed, active shooter, planned attacks, or near misses — the trend line is going up. While these planned school shootings have taken place since the 1960s, the frequency of the attacks is steadily increasing.

Like the other planned attacks this year in Perry, Iowa; Mount Horeb, Wisconsin; Apalachee, Georgia; and Palermo, California, these incidents have common patterns and connections to prior school shootings. The number of “near misses” where a school shooting almost happens are also going up.

Columbine connection

The father of the 15-year-old Madison, Wisconsin, school shooter posted a Facebook photo of his daughter at a shooting range in August. His cover photo shows Natalie Rupnow, who went by the name Samantha.

Natalie can be seen wearing a black shirt with the name of the band KMFDM. The German industrial rock band’s lyrics were thrust into the dark subculture of school shooters by the students who carried out the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School.

In the Columbine “basement tapes,” Dylan Klebold can be seen wearing the same shirt. It’s critical for parents to study prior school shooters, know their names and faces, and recognize symbols like KMFDM that represent idolization of prior attacks.

In January 2024 at Perry High, the 17-year-old student perpetrator entered the school with a shotgun, pistol, knife, and IED inside a duffel bag (important note: both planned attacks at schools in the spring of 2024 involved IEDs). He spent 22 minutes inside a school bathroom where he posted photos of himself with the gun, posted on a Discord “school shooting massacres” channel, posted the same KMFDM song played by the Columbine shooters, and started a livestream on social media.

Insider attacks

The Madison shooting follows the common patterns with planned attacks at schools. The perpetrator was a student (insider), committed a surprise attack during morning classes and died by suicide before police arrived.

Most school shootings are committed by current or former students who are “insiders” at the school and know the security plan/procedures.

Since an insider is someone who is allowed to be inside the school, most of these attacks are committed by current students.

Female school shooter

I co-published an article in the Los Angeles Times: Here’s what is so unusual about the Wisconsin school shooting — and what isn’t:

Inside during morning classes

Pre-planned school shootings usually take place during morning classes or at the start of the school day when the building is open before classes start.

Just like the shooting in Wisconsin this week, the most common outcome is the teenage student shooter commits suicide, surrenders or is subdued by students or staff before police intervene.

Begins and ends in the same room

While “active shooter training” videos produced by the Department of Homeland Security and ads by security tech vendors portray assailants roaming throughout a building while searching for every possible victim, most school shootings begin and end in the same room.

There isn’t much use for a ballistic chalkboard, drop bar lock on the door or panic button when the victims are all in close proximity to an armed assailant who is inside the same room with them.

Following this pattern, the shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, took place in a classroom during study hall, and the victims were in the same age group. The teenage shooter didn’t roam the building looking for the elementary school kids; she killed herself before police arrived.

Police usually don’t stop these single shooter insider attacks because they are very short duration incidents that are usually over within the first two minutes.

Concealed handguns

When a student is committing a surprise attack inside a school, the easiest weapon to sneak inside is a handgun. Most students who are arrested inside schools with guns have a handgun hidden inside their backpack. Because of that, it’s not a surprise that a handgun is the most common weapon used during a school shooting by an insider.

During just these deliberately planned attacks over the last 60 years (these victim counts in the chart do not represent all shootings on school property), there have been roughly twice as many victims killed or wounded with handguns versus rifles.

This doesn’t mean that rifles aren’t as dangerous. At Apalachee High, a student committed an insider attack by sneaking an AR-15 into the building inside a posterboard. Until the last decade, AR-15s weren’t cheap and easily accessible. As there continue to be more school shootings involving rifles, this chart will likely even out over time (unless we take meaningful action to stop these attacks).

Preventing the next school shooting

I spoke to NBC 5 Investigates on Monday afternoon right after the school shooting. I said that this shooting at Abundant Life Christian School followed a common pattern in that it was carried out by an “insider” — a student familiar with the school grounds.

“We need to understand the actual nature of this problem and apply solutions towards identifying the student who has a grievance, identifying a student who is talking about students and realizing that these are rarely random acts. All the opportunities to prevent it happen before they ever come to campus with a gun,” Riedman told NBC 5 Investigates.

Riedman said the focus should not be on fortifying schools with additional weapons detectors or metal detectors but focusing on the students’ behaviors that may help foretell a future incident — adding that there is a need to “dispel the myth that these school shootings are committed by scary outsiders,” when data shows that they are often committed by those who are familiar with the school and have a grievance that ends in violence.

“We will probably hear in the coming days about a series of missed warning signs, social media posts, a manifesto and so on,” he said.

Analysis: Six common factors in the school shooting at Abundant Life Christian 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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A 15-year-old student killed a teacher and another teenager with a handgun Monday at a Christian school in Wisconsin, terrifying classmates. A second-grade teacher made the 911 call that sent dozens of police officers rushing to the small school just a week before its Christmas break.

The female student, who was identified at a press conference Monday night, also wounded six others at a study hall at Abundant Life Christian School, including two students who were in critical condition, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said. A teacher and three students had been taken to a hospital with less serious injuries, and two of them had been released by Monday evening.

“Every child, every person in that building is a victim and will be a victim forever. … We need to figure out and try to piece together what exactly happened,” Barnes said.

Barbara Wiers, director of elementary and school relations for Abundant Life Christian School, said students “handled themselves magnificently.”

She said when the school practices safety routines, which it had done just before the school year, leaders always announce that it is a drill. That didn’t happen Monday.

“When they heard, ‘Lockdown, lockdown,’ they knew it was real,” she said.

Police said the shooter, identified as Natalie Rupnow, was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound when officers arrived and died en route to a hospital. Barnes declined to offer additional details about the shooter, partly out of respect for the family.

He also warned people against sharing unconfirmed reports on social media about the shooter’s identity.

“What that does is it helps erode the trust in this process,” he said.

Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school — prekindergarten through high school — with approximately 420 students in Madison, the state capital.

Wiers said the school does not have metal detectors but uses other security measures including cameras.

Children and families were reunited at a medical building about a mile away. Parents pressed children against their chests while others squeezed hands and shoulders as they walked side by side. One girl was comforted with an adult-size coat around her shoulders as she moved to a parking lot teeming with police vehicles.

A motive for the shooting was not immediately known, but Barnes said they’re talking with the parents of the suspected shooter and they are cooperating. He also said he didn’t know if the people shot had been targeted.

“I don’t know why, and I feel like if we did know why, we could stop these things from happening,” he told reporters.

A search warrant had been issued Monday to a Madison home, he said.

Barnes said Tuesday the first 911 call to report an active shooter came in shortly before 11 a.m. from a second-grade teacher — not a second-grade student as he reported publicly Monday.

First responders who were in training just 3 miles away dashed to the school for an actual emergency, Barnes said. They arrived 3 minutes after the initial call and went into the building immediately.

Classes had been taking place when the shooting happened, Barnes said.

Investigators believe the shooter used a 9mm pistol, a law enforcement official told the AP. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.

Police blocked off roads around the school, and federal agents were at the scene to assist local law enforcement. No shots were fired by police.

Abundant Life asked for prayers in a brief Facebook post.

Wiers said the school’s goal is to have staff get together early in the week and have community opportunities for students to reconnect before the winter break, but it’s still to be decided whether they will resume classes this week.

Bethany Highman, the mother of a student, rushed to the school and learned over FaceTime that her daughter was OK.

“As soon as it happened, your world stops for a minute. Nothing else matters,” Highman said. “There’s nobody around you. You just bolt for the door and try to do everything you can as a parent to be with your kids.”

In a statement, President Joe Biden cited the tragedy in calling on Congress to pass universal background checks, a national red flag law and certain gun restrictions.

“We can never accept senseless violence that traumatizes children, their families, and tears entire communities apart,” Biden said. He spoke with Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and offered his support.

Evers said it’s “unthinkable” that a child or teacher would go to school and never return home.

The episode was the 323rd shooting at a K-12 school campus thus far in 2024, according to researcher David Riedman, founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database. The database uses a broad definition of shooting that includes when a gun is brandished, fired or a bullet hits school property.

“This shooting follows the common patterns with planned attacks at schools. The perpetrator was a student (insider), committed a surprise attack during morning classes, and died by suicide before police arrived,” Riedman wrote Monday on his website.

It was the the latest among dozens of school shootings across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.

The shootings have set off fervent debates about gun control and frayed the nerves of parents whose children are growing up accustomed to doing active shooter drills in their classrooms. But school shootings have done little to move the needle on national gun laws.

Firearms were the leading cause of death among children in 2020 and 2021, according to KFF, a nonprofit that researches health care issues.

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said the country needs to do more to prevent gun violence.

“I hoped that this day would never come to Madison,” she said.

Wisconsin Watch contributed information to this story.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup. This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.

Teacher and a teenage student killed in a shooting at a Christian school in 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.

Students gather outside the meeting Thursday of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. (Photo | CodePink)

On Thursday protesters disrupted a meeting of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, holding signs and chanting slogans including “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,” and “Free, free Palestine!” Numerous groups participated in the demonstration including CODEPINK, UW-Milwaukee Popular University for Palestine, Wisconsin for Palestine, Wisconsin Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) UW-Madison, Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) Wisconsin, and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)-UWM. 

Protesters gathered both inside and outside the room where the Board held its meeting. With chanting and speeches the protesters interrupted the meeting with one demonstrator at one point saying that protesters “will not be allowing” the Board to conduct business during the meeting, followed by loud chants from the group as officers flowed into the room to begin arrests. Activists say that 19 people were arrested during the demonstration. 

According to a CODEPINK press release, the demonstration stemmed from questions student activists sent the Board of Regents about the University of Wisconsin’s response after students joined a wave of encampment protests on college campuses. Students pitched tents on the grounds of college campuses nationwide last spring calling for institutions to sever their ties with the government of Israel. With U.S. support, Israel launched retaliatory strikes into the Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, which killed around 1,200 Israeli civilians and resulted in hundreds being taken hostage. Since then the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed over 44,000 Palestinians, with a United Nations Special Committee recently finding the IDF’s warfare tactics are “consistent with genocide”. Both Hamas and Israel have been accused of war crimes in the ongoing conflict. 

University of Wisconsin students involved in protests against the war in Gaza say they continue to face hands-on law enforcement responses. Arrests during demonstrations and threats of academic punishment targeting student activists are increasing tensions with school administration, activists say, after negotiations in May quelled the college encampment protests. 

UW students have demanded that the university divest from Israel, and disclose all of the investments made in the country to date. At UW-Madison, campus police and Dane County Sheriffs broke up the encampments last spring, arresting 34 people in May. Injuries were reported both among people in and around the encampments, and among law enforcement. No arrests were ever made at the UW-Milwaukee encampments, though police monitored the protests closely.  

By May, administrators at both UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee reached separate agreements with students to end the encampment protests. In September, CODEPINK said in its press release, the Board of Regents met with student activists, who had questions about the university’s handling of the encampment protests. Activists say that the Board deferred responsibility for the protest responses to university administration, prompting the demonstration on Thursday morning. 

The Board of Regents did not respond to a request for comment on the protests Thursday. Relaying a statement to Wisconsin Examiner on behalf of the protest group, a spokesperson for CODEPINK’s branch in Madison said that the Board’s use of police against student activists “reflects a troubling disregard for dialogue or transparency.” The spokesperson added that “instead of engaging in a one-minute statement from peaceful protesters, they chose to shut off the recording and summon a heavy police presence. This response escalated to harassment by university police and arbitrary arrests of individuals who were peacefully exercising their right to participate in a public meeting.”

CODEPINK questioned why the Board won’t engage with student activists, and said that the Board is responsible for “a significant portion of the UW-Madison endowment money” and should explain how it can use that money to support Israel when the Board’s own guidelines prohibit it from knowingly providing gifts, grants, etc, to “any company, corporation or subsidiary, or affiliate” that practices or condones discrimination against particular groups. 

“The police’s use of force against peaceful protestors underscores a disturbing trend of prioritizing secrecy over public trust,” reads CODEPINK’s emailed statement to Wisconsin Examiner. “Transparency and accountability should not be met with violence, especially in spaces meant to serve the public and promote education.”

Such sentiments aren’t exclusive to UW-Madison. In late October, UW-Milwaukee student members of SDS-UWM held a press conference claiming to have faced continued intimidation by campus police. UW-Milwaukee student Robby Knapp recounted being awoken to someone banging on his door one June night at 2:30 a.m. Initially, he thought that the police car parked outside was from the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD), but the officers were actually from UW-Milwaukee. They’d driven over 20 minutes from campus to Knapp’s home in Milwaukee’s Washington Heights neighborhood. Addressing him by name, they asked about an alleged vandalism incident near campus. Knapp said he didn’t know anything about it, stepped outside, and was immediately arrested. 

Knapp told Wisconsin Examiner that the officers took him back “the long way,” taking side streets instead of the freeway. When they got to the campus, “they photographed me, booked me, the whole nine yards with that,” Knapp said in the October press conference. “They gave me a letter saying the DA [District Attorney] might give you a call, which I haven’t gotten a call from the DA since that night.” Knapp was never taken to the county jail, but was released after an hour, he recalled. 

After Knapp was taken in, officers visited the homes of SDS members Audari Tamayo and Kayla Patterson. “They went to my house at least twice,” said Tamayo. “And we found this out through the police report that they went to my house twice, but I didn’t open the door. They needed to get to the third floor, they needed to get through three different hallways.” Tamayo said that after the officers failed to get into the apartment, “they started calling me repeatedly saying that I had to come down for an interview or else.” 

A spokesperson for UW-Milwaukee was unable to comment on any aspect Knapp’s arrest due to federal laws protecting student records. The spokesperson also said that UW-Milwaukee cannot comment on the ongoing investigation related to the alleged vandalism incident, nor comment on what exactly the vandalism was. “SDS recognition as a UWM student organization is suspended due to student organization misconduct, and only officially recognized student organizations are permitted to use UWM’s name in their organization’s name,” spokeswoman Angelica Duria said. 

A Milwaukee PD spokesperson told Wisconsin Examiner that the department is, “aware that Students for a Democratic Society UWM have engaged in protest activity in Milwaukee. We monitored the tent city situation at UWM to ensure there was no impact to emergency services in the City of Milwaukee. We do not have requests from UWM to conduct any investigations related to the group. We do share when we are aware of a planned protest for the sake of public safety.”

SDS says that its members have also faced academic sanctions, directly related to their protests. Besides Knapp, whom SDS says is facing academic sanctions due to protest activity, Patricia Fish is also facing sanctions due to an occupation protest in February. Additionally, both Patterson and Tamayo were unable to enroll in time for the fall 2024 semester after holds were placed on their student accounts. 

The stress has  affected Knapp’s academic performance. “Since then I’ve been behind … I have to kind of  go to school, and go to class every day understanding that  any work, any midterms, any quizzes, any papers, any exams, any credit, as soon as that suspension becomes effective, then all of that is out the window,” said Knapp. “I have about four courses left until I graduate. I was going to take two this semester, and two that semester. So not only is my education up in the air, but my ability to graduate is now up in the air … It’s the energy, it’s the money, it’s the time, it’s the effort that I’ve put into getting this close to graduating and just this semester in general after having to deal with them holding me back to be able to take these classes in the first place.”

Duria said that “no student is subject to the misconduct process based on considerations other than their own behavior.” Duria said that the Dean of Students Office assesses “reports it receives to determine whether there are potential nonacademic misconduct violations.” Duria went on to say in a statement to Wisconsin Examiner that “UWM has communicated protest guidelines and behavior expectations in several previous emails sent to faculty, staff and students. UWM has also updated its free speech website to make behavior expectations and expressive activity policies easily visible. Protests and expressive activity must abide by state law and university policy and UWM will take appropriate action to enforce the law, and its policies and codes of conduct.”

Patterson feels negotiations between students and the administration were mainly “to save face,” and to also learn more about student activist groups in preparation for more crackdowns. She told Wisconsin Examiner, “It’s very heavy monitoring. They’re going both at the organizational level, and the individual level, in order to crack down.” 

This article has been edited to correct the last name of Robby Knapp, not “Napp”. 

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School nutrition advocates say universal free meals could help improve the diets as well as the academic performance of more students. (Getty Images)

Wisconsin School Nutrition Association President Kaitlin Tauriainen says her goal has always been to feed every student.

“It seemed impossible for years, and then COVID happened,” said Tauriainen, who has worked in school nutrition for about 14 years and is also part of the Wisconsin Healthy School Meals For All Coalition. During the pandemic, the U.S. Department of Agriculture implemented waivers that allowed schools across the country to serve free meals to all children. “Basically, we were forced into doing it, which was fantastic, and really proved that we were capable and that it was better — like we thought it was going to be.” 

Tauriainen, who works as the child nutrition coordinator for the Ashwaubenon School District in Brown County, said there were less behavioral issues for the district then. She had observed earlier in her career at another school district how improved behavior could be the result of ensuring kids have access to food. She recalled a student who was eating free breakfast and free lunch, but still reported being hungry. Attending a different school that gave him more flexible access to food helped improve his situation, she said.

“He was so hungry all the time that he was just angry and causing disruptions. When they moved him to the charter school that gave him a little more flexibility and freedom to go make himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich whenever he was hungry, he turned into a completely different kid,” Tauriainen said. “That’s what some of the teachers were seeing during COVID as well.”

The federal universal school meals program expired in June 2022 after Congress decided not to extend it. Ashwaubenon School District now charges students who don’t qualify under current guidelines for lunches, but it is able to provide breakfast to all students.

Limiting behavioral problems is just one potential benefit of adopting universal school meals that Tauriainen and other advocates detailed to the Examiner. Other benefits include filling in gaps for students who may need the meals but don’t — or can’t — participate. Advocates say universal meals would level the playing field for students and ensure everyone has access to nutritious meals. 

Last month, Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Jill Underly visited Kenosha Unified School District to propose that Wisconsin join the eight states that provide school meals to all students.

Under her proposal, Wisconsin would dedicate an additional $290 million per biennium so students, regardless of their families’ income, are eligible for free breakfast and lunch. Her proposal includes an additional $21 million to support other aspects of school nutrition. Those include funding to expand participation in the school breakfast program to independent charter schools, residential schools and residential childcare centers; creating a program to encourage school districts to buy directly from local farmers and producers; and funding for programs to support access to milk.

“Access to food is one of the most basic human needs, and yet many Wisconsin kids are telling us they don’t know when — or if — they will have their next meal,” Underly said in a statement. “When we make sure all our kids are properly nourished, we are nurturing the leaders of tomorrow.”

Hunger and grades

Across Wisconsin, 45.4% of enrolled public schools students — or 782,090 students — participate in the USDA Child Nutrition Programs and 52.1% of enrolled students at private schools participating in the USDA Child Nutrition Programs, according to the state Department of Public Instruction.

The current guidelines outline that students in a household of four, with income of $40,560 per year or less, qualify for free school meals. If a household’s yearly income is between $40,560.01 and $57,720, children can receive reduced-price meals. Families are also required to fill out an application annually in order to receive the benefit.

According to the 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, one in four Wisconsin students reported experiencing hunger due to lack of food in the home and 2.6% reported going hungry “most of the time” or “always.” Students with low grades of D’s or F’s also reported going hungry at a higher rate — 10.3% of students — when compared their peers with higher grades of A’s or B’s — 2.3% of students.

Universal school meals would help fill in the gaps that the current system allows for, advocates said. 

Kenosha Unified School District currently provides school meals to all kids free of charge.

“When we had to return to our traditional system of serving meals in the 2022-23 school year, we heard from families that they missed the simplicity and security of free meals for all,” KUSD Chief Communications Officer Tanya Ruder wrote in an email responding to questions from the Examiner.

This year every school in the district is able to provide lunch and breakfast to all students through the federal Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). The policy allows some high-poverty schools and districts to provide school meals to all students regardless of income and without having to fill out an application.

When meals were not universally free, the Kenosha district’s breakfast participation was 23.9%, and lunch participation was 43.8%, Ruder said. Since moving to CEP, those numbers have risen significantly, with breakfast participation now at 29%, and lunch at 55%.

Some families who qualified under the current system may find the application process an obstacle. “The application process is very daunting for some families,” Tauriainen said. “It’s a very simple form to fill out, but it’s just another thing that families have to do to get food to their kids when they might already be struggling.” 

Higher incomes, but still hungry

The income requirements also mean that some families that may be struggling financially may not qualify, Tauriainen said, because the application doesn’t consider other circumstances that families may be dealing with.

 “It doesn’t take into account anything other than your gross wages, so whatever your income is before taxes, doesn’t take into account any medical bills you may have, or other issues that you might have going on financially at home,” Tauriainen said.

Jennifer Gaddis, an associate professor at UW-Madison who researches food systems in schools, said a gap still exists for some students. “There are actually a lot of children and families, who are food-insecure, but who don’t actually meet the federal threshold for eligibility for free or reduced school meals,” Gaddis said. 

Gaddis and Tauriainen said providing school meals for free would benefit students in many ways.

“School meals are literally the only thing that is economically means tested,” Gaddis said. “Everything else kids participate in, regardless of their household income status — like math class, English class, busing — they’re not being charged a different amount or getting a different service necessarily that is tied to their household income status.” 

Providing meals to all students would reduce the stigma that the current system can create, she added. 

School meal debt has also become an issue again as schools have gone back to requiring students to pay for lunch unless they qualify for free food. In Wausau, a pastor recently raised $26,000 to help pay off students’ unpaid meal debts. Madison Metropolitan School District in May reported that school lunch debt in the district stood at almost $230,000.

Ruder of Kenosha Unified said that providing meals free to all students would prevent them from being denied lunch or breakfast when their account funds run out.

Nutritional and academic benefits

Universal school meals could also allow many students to eat more nutritious food since school meals follow the federal dietary guidelines. Some studies have found that participation in school meals has been linked to healthier diets. 

“We get a bad rap, because people think of what school lunch used to be like back when they were in school, and things have changed so much since 2010,” Tauriainen said. “We’re offering whole grains, fruits and vegetables, multiple options every day, so that students pick something that they like to eat — low fat, low sodium, low sugar entrees.” 

Tauriainen also noted that many school districts are trying to serve more food prepared from scratch and use more locally sourced foods for meals. Some school districts in the state serve food grown by the students, including Ashwaubenon School District, which has a 34-unit hydrophobic garden to grow lettuce.

Ensuring that kids are fed helps create a foundation for students to focus, study and be present in the classroom, producing stronger academic outcomes as well, Gaddis said. 

Gaddis takes a historical and international comparative approach to studying school nutrition. Other countries with universal school meal programs, including Japan and Finland, have integrated school nutrition and home economics, she said, so students are “learning about, not only how to think about food and nutrition, but how to prepare things for yourself and how to do so in an economical way, and why you should also have respect for the people who are doing work in the food system.”

It’s an approach that addresses all students.

“It’s not seen as this anti-poverty program in those countries, it’s seen as a really integral part of the school day and an opportunity for people to learn really important life skills,” Gaddis said.

The Wisconsin proposal is part of Underly’s larger budget request, which would invest an additional $4 billion in schools. 

It could face a tough road to becoming a reality given Wisconsin’s split government, where Republican lawmakers, who remain in the majority in the Legislature, have said they oppose growing “the size of government” and want to use most of the state’s budget surplus to cut taxes. 

Tauriainen said she hopes universal school meals can gather bipartisan support, however. 

“Being hungry shouldn’t be something that’s on one side or the other of the aisle,” Tauriainen said. “I really hope that the Legislature can come together and realize that this is something we really need to do for our kids.”

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As rays of setting sun striped the hill at Madison’s James Madison Park, Arthur Kohl-Riggs practiced handstands on his favorite tree. 

“I never really planned on handstanding but it’s proven very meditative,” he said. 

Kohl-Riggs, 36, a native of Madison’s west side, said he initially started exercising at the park to regain strength in his shoulder following an injury. Now it’s his “third space” — a familiar spot to connect with others. 

“The idea of being a regular at a park is nice,” he said. “There’s no cost, you don’t have to buy a drink an hour, it’s just a free space to be.” 

As fellow park-goers walked by, some stopped to watch as Kohl-Riggs wrapped his hands around the old oak’s branch, brought his feet near his hands, hooked the branch with his feet, then dropped his arms to the ground, dangling upside down.

“I’ve been trying to find ways to reintegrate intentionally into the community,” Kohl-Riggs said.

Routines developed earlier in the pandemic kept him cooped inside for months at a time, he said. But now, between using his friend’s laundry machine in exchange for handyman work and attending karaoke nights at the Gamma Ray Bar just off the Capitol Square, Kohl-Riggs said he’s forcing himself into community — resisting the forces of complacency to avoid reisolation.

Kohl-Riggs has lived eclectically.

As an activist and citizen journalist in 2012, he ran a protest campaign against Scott Walker in the Republican primary for governor, touting the values of Republicans like Robert La Follette and Abraham Lincoln and growing a Lincoln-like beard. He received nearly 20,000 votes, 3% of the tally, despite spending less than $2,000. Over the next five years, he and a friend produced a tongue-in-cheek YouTube travel series about Dane County called Dane & Dash. He said he now works as a legal investigator for a private law firm that works on public defense overflow cases, helping to “ease the congested public defender rolls,” he said.

Kohl-Riggs said he feels optimistic about the state’s future, despite a range of challenges people face — from housing and financial instability to a lack of health care.  

“Despair only hinders progress,” he said. “We’re more capable now than we were before of seeing more of the faults in a lot of the systems that have always existed. It’s harder to be complacent when everything’s obviously not working how it’s supposed to work.” 

“People are motivated to make their communities better and to protect from potential threats to the people in their communities and around them,” Kohl-Riggs added. “That energy is contagious… we can build strong, resilient local strategies to combat national threats.”

Arthur Kohl-Riggs finds comfort in Madison’s ‘third spaces’ 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.

The UW-Madison Police Department. (Corey Coyle photo)

University of Wisconsin-Madison campus police made a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Friday regarding racist text messages being sent to students. “UWPD is aware of reports that Black UW-Madison students have received racist text messages as part of a nationwide wave of messages that began on Thursday,” the department posted.

Racist text messages were sent to Black Americans across the country following Donald Trump’s presidential election victory. Many of the text messages told  recipients they had been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation, and that they should be prepared to be collected by a van to be taken there.. The texts were sent to people in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Alabama, Virginia, and elsewhere.

The police department post said the department  is “committed to the safety of the UW-Madison campus and community, and we take all reports seriously.” The department has encouraged anyone who feels unsafe or threatened to call (608) 264-2677. The department said callers should dial 911 in an emergency. 

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Vice President Kamala Harris joined a bevy of popular music stars in Madison Wednesday night at the Alliant Center to encourage University of Wisconsin students to vote. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

Vice President Kamala Harris joined a bevy of popular music stars in Madison Wednesday night at the Alliant Center to encourage University of Wisconsin students and other young people to vote for her over former President Donald Trump.

Wisconsin is a key battleground state and both presidential campaigns are spending a lot of  time here with less than a week to go before Election Day. The last two presidential elections were decided by fewer than 20,000 votes in Wisconsin and the vote is expected to be close again this year. The same day Harris appeared  in Madison, one of the largest Democratic hubs in the state, Trump held a rally in Green Bay. Both candidates will return to Wisconsin Friday to hold dueling rallies in Milwaukee.

College students, including those from out of state, are eligible to vote in Wisconsin and could play an important role in deciding the results of the presidential election. Harris spoke directly to them.

“You all are rightly impatient for change. You who have only known the climate crisis are leading the charge to protect our planet and our future. You, who grew up with active shooter drills, are fighting to keep our schools safe. You who now know fewer rights than your mother or grandmothers, are standing up for freedom,” Harris declared from the Alliant Energy Center stage, speaking in front of a massive “Badgers for Harris-Walz” sign. “This is not political for you,” Harris added. “This is your lived experience.” 

Harris encouraged people to use the last six days before Election Day to vote, knock on doors, make calls and reach out to family and friends. Early in-person voting in Madison goes through Sunday and Election Day is Tuesday.

Some of the students at the rally had already voted early for Harris. Maya Wille, a UW-Madison senior who had Harris’ face temporary-tattooed on her bicep, said she’s excited by the prospect of  electing the first woman president of the United States and said Harris is “for the young people.”

“I want to be able to buy a house. I want to be able to raise a family and I think that she has policies that are going to make that a lot easier. I want gun control. I want better funding for public schools,” Wille said. 

The potential impact of voting in a swing state is what encouraged Hannah Tuckett, a UW junior from New York, and Lucy Murdock, a junior from Colorado, to vote in Wisconsin this year.

“I’m from Colorado, a historically blue state. My parents are always like, it’s so much more important for you to vote here than there,” Murdock said. “Both of us voted here, rather than in our home state, because we understand that, like, this is where we’re gonna make a way bigger splash.”

Murdock said human rights issues, including protecting women’s and transgender people’s right to health care, people’s right to marry whoever they want and addressing climate change, are the “guiding forces” behind her politics. 

“I think in this election human rights are more prevalent than they have been in several years,” Murdock said. 

Tuckett said voting in Wisconsin is “empowering” and she has been “inspired” by Harris and her campaign. She said the rally was also an opportunity to be in community with like-minded people and served as a “breath of fresh air” away from campus. She said certain events and political messaging on campus, including a visit from conservative radio host Charlie Kirk, have created a polarized environment.

The campaign brought a line-up of popular musical artists, including folk band Mumford and Sons, singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams, Aaron Dessner and Matt Berninger of The National and singer-songwriter Remi Wolf, to perform ahead of Harris at the rally, in front of more than  13,000 attendees. The campaign is betting the artists can serve as a trusted voice, delivering the message to fans to vote for Harris and to increase enthusiasm.

Tuckett said Mumford and Sons is her dad’s favorite artist. 

“I’m here, listening to them for him. He said he would have flown from New York to be here for this. I’m super excited,” Tuckett said. She said the endorsements from “not just artists, but actors, athletes, any person with some sort of platform coming out and endorsing Harris for president just shows that this election really does mean so much.”

Abrams, who has grown a loyal fanbase and who has opened for artists including Taylor Swift, spoke directly to young people while making the case for Harris. She called Harris “the right leader at a very tricky time.” 

“For many of us, here on this stage and in the crowd tonight, this is only the first or second time that we’ve had the privilege of voting in a presidential election, and as we know, we’ve inherited a world that is struggling and it’s easy to be disconnected and disillusioned. Between the advent of social media in our childhood and COVID and relentlessly targeted disinformation, we’ve been through some things and it’s easy to be discouraged, but we know better,” Abrams said. 

“We know unless we vote and keep our democracy intact there will be nothing we can do to fix it when it is our turn,” Abrams continued. “We have values and ideas that deserve a platform. We know that a better, greener, more fair, equitable and just future is possible. We understand that community matters, that character matters, that basic decency matters. That dignity matters. That democracy matters.” 

Even before the rally began, attendees tapped into the current pop culture moment. A station was set up inside the venue to make friendship bracelets (a trend popularized by Swift fans) and attendees wore ‘Kamala is brat’ t-shirts — a reference to a post by musician Charli xcx. Many in the audience also wore Harris-Walz camo hats.

Emma Heisch, a freshman at UW-Madison and Wisconsin native, was making a bracelet before the start of the rally when she told the Examiner about a conversation she had with her roommates last week about the importance of celebrities joining Harris on the campaign. 

“A lot of people have been saying that they think it’s unprofessional and it’s a silly tactic but I don’t think that at all,” Heisch said. “Their support reaches out to a lot of Gen Z and it can make a lot of young people, who may not have originally been interested in politics, start to show interest. And even people who may not have been very interested in coming to the rally specifically for politics in the first place might come just for a celebrity and then show interest in what Kamala has to say.”

Heisch voted for the first time this year. She said reproductive rights is one of her top issues. The issue was another big point of the night with Harris receiving thunderous applause and cheers during the rally as she committed to signing a bill to restore protections for reproductive health care access if one is sent to her by Congress.

“I’m a woman and I want control over my body and I don’t think anyone should have that control except for me,” Heisch said.

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Bucky Badger | Photo by James Gould

With early voting underway and only six days until Election Day, on the streets around the State Capitol and on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, we asked people who they want to become the next president of the United States and what are the issues that matter to them.

Wisconsin is one of the key swing states that could determine whether former President Donald Trump returns to the White House or Kamala Harris makes history to become the first woman to hold that office.

 At one end of the iconic State Street is the Capitol and at the other lies the UW-Madison campus, home to nearly 50,000 students.

On your way down State Street, you can see shop windows with posters of Kamala Harris while around the Capitol on Monday a “Japan supports Trump” demonstration carried Trump flags.

At the Farmers Market on Saturday there were campaign tables set up with leaflets and flags. The election is hard to escape.

In a series of vox populi interviews, voters who gave only their first names spoke with reporter James Gould.

Jim, a middle-aged man who stopped to talk, said he was voting for “Trump, definitely.”

Asked why, he said former President Donald Trump “has proven he can do the job” and is “hands down” a more capable candidate than Kamala Harris.

The main issues in this election for Jim are the “economy and immigration.”

UW student  Zoe said her top concerns as she casts her vote will be “abortion rights, women’s rights and housing.”

She said women anywhere in the United States should have the “ability to get our help.”

Zoe said it is “truly difficult” for anyone in the “middle class to get affordable housing and live comfortably,” adding that Madison “has recently got so expensive.”

With all that in mind, she is voting for Kamala Harris.

Backing up that claim about the rising cost of living was another UW student, Austin. He added that anyone “working in the middle-class” is having a really hard time. Austin said he believes that “Kamala Harris has a plan to fix it” and doesn’t think Donald Trump has.

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Bascom Hall, University of Wisconsin-Madison. (Ron Cogswell | used by permission of the photographer)

A study committee on the future of the University of Wisconsin System considered a lengthy list of potential recommendations  Thursday that might go to the state Legislature, including separating UW-Madison from the UW System and putting more oversight and limits in place. 

The committee, which is made up of 14 members, was tasked with creating legislative proposals to help address ongoing concerns, including financial issues and enrollment, throughout the UW System. It’s been meeting since July. 

The current state of funding for the UW System framed Thursday’s discussion. Committee co-chair Rep. Amanda Nedweski (R-Pleasant Prairie) called the UW’s biennial budget request that the state provide an additional $855 million in the next state budget an “unrealistic” increase from the current $1.3 billion in general purpose revenue. 

The budget request, according to UW System leaders, would bring the UW campuses to the middle of the pack in terms of state support for public universities across the nation. The additional funding would support an array of priorities, including 8% wage increases for UW staff over the biennium; general operations to help universities meet rising costs through state support rather than additional tuition dollars; mental health services, academic and career advising and civil dialogue training; and investments in innovations. 

According to an analysis by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO), Wisconsin currently ranks 43rd out of 50 states in public funding to support its four-year universities. 

Nedweski said pointing to this information is “intentionally misleading” because it doesn’t consider the funding that the state puts into technical colleges. While Wisconsin lags when it comes to funding its four-year schools, the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS), where students can earn two-year associate degrees, one- and two-year technical diplomas, short-term technical diplomas and certificates, receives higher than usual funding per student compared to other public two-year colleges across the country. 

Nedweski said it was unfair to blame taxpayers for the System’s financial shortcomings.

Sen. Chris Larson said that Nedweski was trying to make the reality of Wisconsin’s funding look better by including the technical colleges. He compared the move to trying to average a runner’s  5k pace with a marathon pace to qualify for a race.

“You can’t throw in the technical college, just for the sake of trying to bump up your average,” Larson said. 

Larson noted that technical colleges also operate differently from the state’s four-year schools in that they report differently, have different levels of accountability, and local boards and can count on property taxes in part for their funding. 

The committee then turned to the proposed recommendations. Nedweski said recommendations by the committee would signal that the Legislature should explore the ideas further, not that the committee believes the Legislature pass the proposal.

Separate UW-Madison from other schools

The first proposed recommendation was separating UW-Madison from the twelve UW System campuses.

The proposal would create a new Board of Regents to oversee UW-Madison, while maintaining the separate Board of Regents to oversee the other comprehensive universities. Two separate state appropriations to provide general purpose revenue (GPR) funding specific to UW-Madison and for the other comprehensive universities in the UW System are also included in the proposal. 

Robert Venable, President and CEO of Miami Corporation Management, said that a Board of Regents that could “focus just on the comprehensive is actually more important in helping deal with those existential issues. Madison is not facing existential issues.”

During an earlier committee meeting last month, other committee members expressed support for the idea because it would help focus on declining enrollment and financial deficits of UW System schools.

This is not the first time that the idea has been discussed. Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker made the proposal  in 2011, but the idea never gained the traction needed to become law. 

UW President Jay Rothman and UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin expressed opposition to the proposal following a committee meeting last month. 

“Our universities are better together, in that they provide Wisconsin students unprecedented educational opportunities in every corner of our state,” Rothman said in a statement. “At a time when we need to address all the challenges in higher education comprehensively, adding more governance, complications and inefficiencies would not serve Wisconsin families and taxpayers well.” 

Some ideas focused on requiring more oversight of the UW System, including through requiring more approval from the Joint Finance Committee. 

One would instruct the creation of a Wisconsin Higher Education Coordinating Council, which would be appointed by the Governor and subject to Senate confirmation, to advise the UW System and the Wisconsin Technical College System. It would be responsible for establishing statewide higher education goals, making recommendations in furtherance of those goals, reporting data, studying areas for potential collaboration and providing required pre-approval before closure of any campus.

Two recommendations focused on how the UW System distributes its state general purpose revenue. 

One of those would require the Board of Regents to publish the formula it uses to allocate state funding to each UW campus and to review it every two to five years. It also included potentially having the Joint Finance Committee approve the allocations. 

Former Vice President for Administration at the UW System James Langdon described the allocation formulas system as a “black box.” 

“There’s been a stunning lack of transparency when it comes to the GPR allocation… The campuses have suffered from it over the years,” Langdon said, adding that the formula doesn’t get reviewed with the rigor that it should. 

The other proposal suggested funding be distributed proportionally based on a per-capita or per-FTE basis. It comes as some, including the UW-Green Bay Council of Trustees, have said the current way of allocating funding isn’t clear and transparent. 

Shauna Froelich, an associate professor at UW-Green Bay, said the current way of allocating funds has created an inequity in the system.  

“There can be solidarity in stating we want to understand the formula but we also want equality per students, who are taxpayers,” Froelich said. “Just because you live in one region of our state, should you receive double the amount of funding? I think that is clearly inequitable. I understand that research institutions will need a higher cost and that can come through tuition, that can come through a special amount granted possibly by the president.” 

Another proposal includes requiring the UW System to provide the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee with detailed information on the System’s expenses during the budget cycle and an annual report to the Legislature identifying all current employment positions and salaries. 

Another proposal suggests limiting the UW System’s position authority for positions and other non-academic positions that receive compensation of more than 200% of the state median income, and requiring approval from the Joint Finance Committee for each position description and salary prior to posting

Venable said that the final proposal is too close to micromanaging.

“This gets too tactical, too much into the camp of micromanagement,” Venable said. “We got to rebuild trust but I don’t think this is the right way to get at it.” 

Several of the proposed recommendations were raised by Nedweski. She said some of those were suggestions made by other people to her legislative office.

One of those proposed recommendations would create a “College of Applied Arts and Science” that would be meant to grant students a bachelor’s degree in three years.

“What if we had a single college that didn’t have every single offering, that had offerings that are in high demand and that are offerings that can fill gaps in our workforce skills, and there were no extras,” Nedweski said. “There’s no athletics. There’s no student services. There’s no instructional support.” 

Nedweski said the proposal would get at the “bare bones” of the cost of education, and suggested it could be a 10-year pilot program. 

UW La Crosse Provost Besty Morgan said she doesn’t see how the proposal would add value. 

“I’m not 100% sure. We’re not already doing this,” Morgan said. “A student who wanted to complete an online degree at the UW can easily do so and it’s much cheaper than doing Phoenix.” 

Morgan also said that the services offered at universities are like taxes. 

“We don’t often get to choose that we only want it to go to support this, not that. That’s a little bit what universities are like. I might not want to support athletics, but I sure want that mental health counseling center,” Morgan said. 

Another proposed recommendation by Nedweski would require the UW System and technical colleges to have universal course numbering to ensure credit transfer and require UW System schools to accept technical college liberal arts graduates and waive bachelor’s degree general education requirements.

Froelich, an associate professor at UW-Green Bay, brought up an issue that wasn’t included on the list of proposed recommendations. She said staff pay needs to come up to the median pay, and that the issue needs to come up in the next budget. 

Other proposed recommendations included: 

• Increasing tuition
• Giving the UW System and/or UW-Madison limited bonding authority
• Creating a formalized process for completing exit interviews with non-completing students
• Tasking the Board of Regents with reviewing and evaluating program offerings within the UW System on a regular basis
• Creating a Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Higher Education in Wisconsin
• Creating an Office of the Student Loan Ombudsman in the Department of Financial Institutions and requiring the office to license student loan servicers
• Centralizing UW-Madison and UW System Administration
• Creating a regional governance model for UW System

Members of the committee will vote on the proposed recommendations. Those that receive a majority vote by committee members will be included in a final report, which will be submitted to the Joint Legislative Council.

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Between laughs, Luis Montoto suddenly got serious. He leaned in closer, hands clasped and all business, yet still with a mischievous smile noted that radio station La Movida is about informing — not educating. 

“In the Latino culture, there’s only two places where you get education,” he said. “You get education at home, and you get education at school. We inform and entertain. That’s our job. We don’t educate anybody.”

La Movida on WLMV/AM 1480, Madison’s first Spanish-speaking, 24/7 radio station, now in its 24th year on the air, is an invaluable resource for the Latino community — providing reliable Spanish-language information and serving as their advocate. Focusing on information has allowed La Movida to stay relevant to its audience for nearly 25 years. The topics it discusses, guests it invites and resources it provides have evolved alongside listeners and changing political climates.

Partisan rhetoric dominates Wisconsin’s talk radio landscape, sometimes spreading misinformation and distrust to certain audiences. But on La Movida, Luis and his wife and station partner Lupita Montoto eschew partisanship by focusing on their community’s general well-being.

Latinos in Wisconsin can feel isolated when partisan on-air figures focus on contentious issues yet leave out relevant details relating to their community.

Community radio — independent, nonprofit, short-range and often volunteer-run in service to defined local audiences — has long provided crucial information to minority communities.

“Community radio plays a really important role in creating the range of voices … from minority communities who wouldn’t have any voice in mass media at all otherwise,” said Lewis Friedland, an emeritus professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

But community radio typically lacks the resources and financial wherewithal associated with bigger, for-profit stations.

La Movida harnesses the spirit and engagement methods of community radio in service of Madison’s Latino community while operating as a sustainable commercial enterprise. It’s looking to meet the information demand of a growing population in Wisconsin that is increasingly gaining political power. 

Since La Movida started, the Hispanic population in Wisconsin has doubled.

“When we started the station 24 years ago, there were a few Latino businesses here and there, a few Latinos going to some sort of events. Now it’s thousands of Latinos, everywhere, and there’s businesses growing like crazy. I mean, we’re a very strong economic power in Wisconsin,” Lupita said.

Prioritizing community over politics 

While Luis, who is originally from Texas, has prior experience working for a radio station in McAllen, Lupita was new to the whirlwind that is talk radio. She previously worked for Mexico’s Department of Commerce, where the couple met in 1998. Shortly after, they moved to the Madison area and started leasing airtime on a rural station. 

La Movida launched on April 30, 2000, though its 24/7 programming didn’t come to fruition until Oct. 14, 2002, after the Montotos joined MidWest Family Broadcasting.

The couple then began running a variety of Spanish-language shows ranging from different music genres to the popular “El Debate” — a talk show where Lupita interviews community members, local politicians and leaders of organizations aimed at helping Wisconsin’s Latino community prosper.

Luis and Lupita feel responsible for disseminating credible information to their community without elevating any particular political narrative.

“The main thing is to provide accurate information and information that is coming from reliable sources,” Lupita said.

Allowing a variety of organizations and people to express themselves through “El Debate” on La Movida opens up the Madison-area Hispanic community to many different resources, perspectives and opinions, Montotos said. 

“Information is power, and that’s what we strive to do every single day — to empower our radio listeners,” Luis said.

Much of that information comes from program guests, whom the Montotos said they select for their commitment to Wisconsin’s Latino community — and for a commitment to accuracy.

Guests on “El Debate” have included representatives from Madison Gas and Electric, Centro Hispano of Dane County and Unidos WI, which helps domestic abuse victims, all of whom brought awareness to resources aimed at helping Latinos around Wisconsin.

Guests sometimes include local politicians, but the programs make sure to represent a variety of perspectives that reflect diversity within Wisconsin’s Latino community — shaped by diverse roots and national heritage. More Democratic guests tend to reach out than Republicans, but the station strives to reflect conservative viewpoints as well. 

“We are bipartisan, we’re not in favor of one party or another. We just want people to be informed and make the right decision,” Lupita said.

Nearly half of Wisconsin’s Hispanic population is eligible to vote, and such voters made up about 5% of the state’s eligible voters in 2022. Their votes matter in a state closely divided along partisan lines, where Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump by just 21,000 votes in the previous presidential election. 

“​​There’s a lot of people that are U.S. residents, but they are not U.S. citizens so they cannot vote,” Luis said. “We stress the importance of becoming a U.S. citizen so they can have the right to vote.”

The Montotos also see a role for La Movida in encouraging young Latinos who are citizens to use their voting rights. 

La Movida operates in Spanish, but it doesn’t allow language barriers to limit who shares perspectives on air. Lupita’s role on “El Debate” includes translating information from English-speaking guests into Spanish.

“If somebody wants to communicate or wants to promote something for the Latino population, not speaking Spanish is not a problem … I think that makes us unique as well,” she said.

Episodes of “El Debate” sound like a discussion between community members. When Lupita facilitates a conversation, she uses her curiosity to explore different viewpoints, rather than injecting her own. She and other hosts rarely interject when guests are speaking but steer the conversation through follow-up questions and by reiterating key points.

Hosts also connect with callers, allowing them to share their personal experiences on air. In those instances, the desks Lupita and her guests sit at — framed by a magenta and royal blue logo in the background — seem more like a dining room table.

Programs like “El Debate” help test the authenticity of politicians, said Melissa Baldauff, a Democratic communications strategist and a former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Tony Evers. Those who continually engage with the community will fare better than those who appear to show up only for political gain ahead of an election.

“How effective someone can be communicating on Black radio and Hispanic radio is going to be, ‘Am I just showing up when I want something and need something, or am I showing up all the time? Am I having respect for the community?’” she said.

Fortifying Latino community in Wisconsin

The Montotos’ radio footprint now covers more than just the Madison community. They also own a sister station in Rockford, Illinois: WNTA-La Movida, 1330 AM.

Other Spanish-language radio stations also have emerged in Wisconsin, including WDDW 104.7 in Milwaukee and Racine, which switched to Spanish-language programming focused on traditional Mexican music in October 2005. And WEZY 92.7 FM in Green Bay in 2013 introduced “La Más Grande,” which also provides Spanish-language music.

The Montotos see their program as playing an essential role in connecting people as local Latino communities continue to grow. 

La Movida is “more than just a regular radio station,” Luis said. “It’s a way of life for the Spanish-speaking community here in south central Wisconsin.”

Editor’s note: This story was corrected to reflect that WLMV/AM 1480 is Madison’s oldest Spanish-language station. In 1993, WBJX in Racine started broadcasting Spanish-language radio on AM 1460, though the station now plays smooth jazz.

Madison’s Spanish-speaking radio station gives ‘a way of life’ to the Latino community 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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Talking about politics can be stressful, even in the best circumstances — and moderating a class full of teenagers, all with different backgrounds, news sources and levels of political knowledge, in a historic election year is generally not ideal circumstances.  

Teachers across the country are facing decisions on how to talk about elections in an increasingly polarized world. In Wisconsin, there are a lot of factors that may influence that decision, from district policies to heightened division to teachers’ individual comfort with the subject.

Wisconsin standards require teachers to discuss voting. Starting in third grade, standards state students should learn about citizens’ role in government and elections. By sixth grade, they’re starting to learn about political parties and interest groups, and by ninth grade, students are putting together the pieces of partisanship, societal interests and voting. 

But with politics becoming increasingly contentious, the question remains: How should teachers address this year’s election in the classroom? 

In the Howard-Suamico School District, teachers don’t shy away from the debate. Having civil discourse in classrooms is a way for students to learn to think critically and engage with their community, said Howard-Suamico curriculum and development coordinator Krista Greene.  

“Our staff is always looking for ways to make sure that, regardless of what’s going on in American society, we’re equipped in our classes to deal with those things that may be perceived as contentious out there,” Greene said. “We make them not contentious. We boil it down to the facts.” 

Students learn to articulate their ideas in different types of discussion methods, such as Socratic seminars and fishbowl discussions. Some teachers provide sentence starters, which can make it easier for students to express complex viewpoints. 

The district wants to develop civically minded students, Greene said. While teachers contact parents before bringing potentially contentious issues into the classroom, they also explain why that discussion is important. 

“Students learn best when they know that the skills and knowledge that they’re learning are going to be applicable in their lives. And what could be more applicable than learning how to be a citizen?” Greene said. “There’s never a ‘why do I need to know this’ factor about government.” 

Jennifer Morgan, a 31-year teacher in West Salem in western Wisconsin, generally uses elections to teach about media literacy. But she avoids getting too in the weeds about politics: It’s not worth it, particularly now that people are so divided on historical facts, she said.  

The important thing to her is that students learn to support their opinions with facts. She talks to her students about using diverse sources and walks them through how propaganda and biased information have been used throughout American history. 

“You can say that candidate X is the best candidate, but they can’t say ‘because my mom and dad said so,’” Morgan said. “Don’t just tell me, ‘this is what Vice President Harris says.’ Say, ‘OK, where did you get that, and why is it important to your argument?’”

Morgan is president of the National Council for Social Studies. This year, she said, she and many council members may avoid discussing the election at all. For Morgan, it’s too early in the school year for her students to feel like her classroom is the safe space she’d need it to be for a topic like this, she said.  

Morgan’s school doesn’t have policies preventing her from talking about the election. But for other teachers, lesson plans may not be allowed to go beyond the basics, as some districts do restrict how teachers can discuss controversial issues like the election in the classroom. 

Do school policies restrict how teachers talk about elections?

The Madison Metropolitan School District allows teachers to discuss controversial issues as long as they do what they can to keep bias and prejudice out of the classroom. In the Kenosha Unified School District, teachers can discuss these issues if parents are notified. Milwaukee Public Schools has no controversial issues policy in place.  

Policies differ in the Green Bay area. In the Green Bay School District, teachers are strictly limited to the curriculum; while they can discuss elections, they’re not teaching about the 2024 election. The De Pere School District and Ashwaubenon School District both allow teachers to discuss controversial issues in the classroom, as long as they’re related to the subject being studied and appropriate for students. 

Wisconsin students aren’t required at the state level to take a government class. Some districts may have their own requirements, or government classes may be offered as an elective, but that lack of a state requirement can prevent students from learning about government itself, much less discussing and understanding current political events, said Jeremy Stoddard, a professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a researcher in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.

How Wisconsin schools handle the election is often based on the local community, Stoddard said. In these partisan local communities, teachers are more likely to focus on political theory or related issues like Morgan’s media literacy lessons than issues that may lean partisan. 

“They’re sort of avoiding some of the national political rhetoric, focusing it on, what are the issues that you know that folks stand on? Because in some cases, they’re not actually that far apart,” Stoddard said.

Helping teachers to address controversial subjects

Stoddard recently hosted a conference for teachers focusing on how to discuss election-related issues in the classroom, and where they can access outside resources to help.

One way that districts might skirt criticism while still discussing politics is by using university or PBS materials. One example of those materials is Stoddard and his team’s own PurpleState, a free curriculum where students simulate working in a communications firm for a state political campaign. It’s meant to help them understand politics and political communication at the state level, where students may be able to have more of an impact in their real lives. 

Engagement is what’s important, Stoddard said, and focusing on election partisanship can make people tune out. The challenge teachers face is to find their way around that — and to do so while balancing district policies, concerned parents and political misinformation. 

“(The goal is) to find ways to engage people meaningfully in something like an election, which should be an event that we revere as a democratic institution and peaceful transfer of power,” Stoddard said. “I think it shouldn’t be this challenging to do it, but that’s the current sort of partisanship that we’re in.”

Contact Green Bay education reporter Nadia Scharf at nscharf@gannett.com or on X at @nadiaascharf.

This story is part of the NEW (Northeast Wisconsin) News Lab’s series covering issues important to voters in the region.

Elections can be polarizing. How are Wisconsin teachers bringing them into the classroom? 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 mailing of about 2,200 duplicate absentee ballots in Wisconsin’s heavily Democratic capital city of Madison has led a Republican member of Congress to falsely suggest that the clerk was lying about the presence of barcodes on the ballots themselves.

Ballots in Wisconsin do not contain barcodes. Envelopes that absentee ballots are returned in do contain barcodes so the voter can track their ballot to ensure it was received. The barcodes also allow election officials to ensure that the same voter does not cast a ballot in person on Election Day.

An initial statement on Monday from Madison Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl did not specify that it was the envelopes, not the ballots, that contain the barcodes. The statement posted on the clerk’s website was later updated to specify that the barcodes were on the envelopes, not the ballots.

Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, a strong Donald Trump supporter whose northern Wisconsin district does not include Madison, posted a picture of an absentee ballot on the social platform X to show there was no barcode.

“My office has proof that there is no barcode on the actual ballots,” Tiffany posted on Wednesday. “Here is a picture of the absentee ballots – NO BARCODE.”

He also called for an investigation.

By Thursday morning his post had more than 1.6 million views.

Tiffany later took credit for the clerk changing the wording on her initial statement.

“Why do they keep editing their statements and press releases?” Tiffany posted.

Madison city spokesperson Dylan Brogan said Thursday that he altered the wording of the statement for clarity before Tiffany questioned it by “parsing apart sentences.”

“The city routinely updates its website to provide as much clarity as possible,” Brogan said.

He called the mailing of duplicate absentee ballots “a simple mistake that we immediately rectified and it will have no impact on the election.”

“There are safeguards in place,” Brogan said. “The system worked.”

Ann Jacobs, the Democratic chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, rebuked Tiffany on X.

“I can’t tell if this is just profound lack of knowledge or the intentional farming of outrage,” she posted. “Both, by the way, are bad.”

The clerk said in her response to Tiffany that 2,215 duplicate ballots were sent before the error was caught on Monday. No duplicate ballots have been returned, Witzel-Behl said. Once a ballot is received and the envelope barcode is scanned, if a second ballot is returned it will not be counted, she said.

“I would simply note that elections are conducted by humans and occasionally human error occurs,” she wrote to Tiffany. “When errors occur, we own up to them, correct them as soon as possible, and are transparent about them – precisely as we have done here.”

The dustup in battleground Wisconsin comes as there is intense scrutiny over how elections are run, particularly in swing states that are likely to decide the winner of the presidential election. Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020. Nearly four years later, conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 election and false claims of widespread fraud persist. Trump continues to insist, despite no evidence of widespread fraud, that he won that election as he seeks a return to the White House.

President Joe Biden’s win over Trump in Wisconsin survived two recounts ordered by Trump, including one involving the city of Madison, an independent audit, a review by a Republican law firm and numerous lawsuits.

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup. This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.

Wisconsin congressman falsely suggests Madison city clerk was lying about absentee ballots 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.

Madison is facing a $22 million budget deficit that city officials say is made more challenging to fix because of police and fire spending requirements imposed by the state. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

Finding a solution to the City of Madison’s $22 million budget hole has been made more difficult by a provision in the local government revenue law passed last year that requires the 41 municipalities with more than 20,000 residents to certify annually that funding amounts for police and fire departments have been maintained. 

Those maintenance of effort requirements, according to Sam Munger, the chief of staff to Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, have put a frustrating constraint on the city’s budget process by preventing any cuts to the two largest departments in the city government. 

The shared revenue law, Act 12, passed through both chambers of the Legislature with bipartisan support, was signed into law by Gov. Tony Evers last June. Prior to the law’s enactment, the budget situation for local and county governments across the state had gotten bleak. Milwaukee was staring down a fiscal cliff while much smaller local governments with less ability to rely on property taxes faced problems of their own. 

Shared revenue funding is uncategorized, meaning local governments can use it for anything. The money largely comes from sales and income taxes collected by the state. For decades, the amount of shared revenue provided to local governments had stagnated even while inflation increased the cost of government services. 

The problem had gotten so dire that the shared revenue negotiations dominated the legislative session. Despite Democratic attempts to pass a “clean bill” Republicans in control of both chambers succeeded in including a number of maintenance of effort requirements. Three years after protests against police violence had spurred activist calls to “defund the police,” Republicans included the provision to discourage any local government from cutting police budgets. 

“We have a maintenance of effort requirement, so that you can’t defund the police,” Vos said during the floor debate on the bill. “We have requirements to say that going forward we want everybody who works in local government to be focused on merits. We wanted to ensure that every single person who is involved in local government focuses on those core programs. That was done in negotiation.”

If a municipality fails to prove it has maintained its police and fire spending, it will receive a 15% reduction in shared revenue payments the following year. In July, local governments were required to prove their maintenance of effort to the state Department of Revenue. According to records obtained by the Wisconsin Examiner, every municipality in the state subject to the requirements maintained public safety spending. 

But while the Act 12 negotiations helped provide a sunnier financial outlook to the city of Milwaukee and smaller communities saw massive increases in the per capita amount of funding received from the state, Madison saw less benefit. The city’s shared revenue payment increased by $11 per resident, among the lowest in the state. After the law’s passage, Madison receives the second-lowest amount of state aid per capita, only the Village of Merton in Waukesha County receives less. 

As Madison city officials work through the budget writing process this year, they’re facing a $22 million deficit.

Munger says that Madison faces distinct challenges from Milwaukee. Madison doesn’t operate its own pension system and can rely on the taxes generated by the relatively higher property values in the area. But the state capital is still facing a dramatic budget shortfall because of the lack of support received from the state even as the city experiences rapid population growth. 

“Fundamentally, we are in the same situation as Milwaukee, which is the state is extracting money and not returning it, and [the Legislature] has gone out of its way to rig the state formulas on shared revenue, so that we get a really tiny amount. Madison, by most measures, gets the smallest per capita amount of shared revenue in the state by a pretty wide margin. So we’re a few years behind Milwaukee, but we’re getting there,” says Munger.  “We’re hitting a fiscal cliff, and it’s only going to get worse, because our costs continue to go up and our revenue continues to stay flat. So we’re going to have to go to the state and ask them for some version of what Milwaukee got, which means we are going to face the same devil’s bargain that they did.”

To fill the hole, the city has asked voters to approve a referendum that would increase property taxes. The average homeowner would see property taxes increase by $5 annually for every $100,000 of property value. State law institutes a levy limit that caps the amount of property taxes a municipality can institute unless residents agree to tax themselves more. The referendum would raise that limit. 

But if the referendum fails, cuts to city services will be necessary, city officials say. Rhodes-Conway has asked departments to submit proposals for 5% budget cuts, which could mean up to 250 city workers are  laid off. 

Proposed cuts have included closing the city’s Goodman pool and reducing transit services. 

Munger says that facing these cuts with the paltry amount of increased aid the city received through Act 12 and the additional constraint imposed by the maintenance of effort requirements have made budget decisions more challenging. Collectively, the police and fire departments accounted for about 41% of the city’s $405,368,750 2024 budget, but because of Act 12 the city can’t turn to those line items as it looks for services to cut. 

“Police is our single biggest department, and fire is our second biggest,” Munger says. “So broadly speaking, there’s no question that police and fire would be a more significant part of the calculus if not for the maintenance of effort requirements. So it really significantly ties our hands.”

Additionally, the penalties for not complying with the maintenance of effort requirements are just high enough to discourage the city from making cuts anyway because any additional room in the budget created by the cuts would be wiped out by the lost funding. 

The summer of 2020 in Madison did see protests against police violence and some activist calls for cuts to police spending, however those calls were never seriously considered as part of the city budgeting process and four years later, the calls have subsided. Munger says that Republicans in the Legislature included the maintenance of effort provisions without considering how they would influence future budget decisions. 

“I think it’s fair to say the political rationale [for MOE requirements] has been long forgotten,” he says. “It’s pretty divorced from the current budget debate. And I think the Legislature used it to score political points in that moment without real thought about what the consequences would be for cities and municipalities and towns, and for local governments now dealing with the consequences in a way that has nothing to do with that debate.”

Ari Brown, a researcher at the Wisconsin Policy Forum, says that in a hypothetical case in which a municipality were actually cutting police and fire budgets, that’s more likely to be evidence of genuine financial struggles than a sign that the city council is controlled by anti-police advocates. 

“So to the extent that we actually do see communities where there’s less police funding from year to year, especially in these larger municipalities that are subject to these reporting requirements … It is probably genuine budget pressures that are forcing, you know, forcing the issue in some way,” Brown says. “In a lot of these bigger communities, law enforcement is the No. 1, if not one of the top spending categories.”

In Wisconsin, where municipal governments have a lot of responsibilities, Brown adds, “all of these cross-cutting pressures are going to impact when you do see something like a police department that is genuinely spending less from one year to the next, there are other things going on than just ideological shifts.”

Aside from the property tax levy limits and the maintenance of effort requirements, municipal governments are also subject to expenditure restraint requirements — meaning they can have state aid cut if expenses increase by too much — and limits on revenue that can be raised through fees. Jason Stein, president of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, says that all of these cross pressures can make for a convoluted budgeting process for city officials. 

“These laws were not always sort of completely written in such a way that they always mesh well with one another,” Stein says. Complying with the  maintenance of effort requirement for police and fire under Act 12 can mean cities must increase  spending. But to finance a spending increase they might need to go to referendum, which in turn can run afoul of state-mandated expenditure restraints, threatening state aid. 

“As there are more and more requirements on local government, then it is just more for the local leaders to think about,” Stein says of this Catch-22, “not just in terms of, do they have the willingness, do they have the will and the funding to comply, but also, are they able to keep up to date and remember all the requirements?”

College students this past spring used on-campus encampments , including at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to protest Israel's prosecution of the war on Hamas. New Universities of Wisconsin and UW-Madison policies have place strict limits on institutional statements by the UW system, its universities and university departments, requring viewpoint neutrality about matters outside the university system. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

A new Universities of Wisconsin policy requires statements in the name of UW institutions to avoid expressing a point of view on political or social controversies.

On the heels of the new UW system policy, announced Friday, UW-Madison instituted a policy Friday that echoed the system document. The policy change was first reported on Friday by the UW-Madison student newspaper, The Daily Cardinal.

“Institutional statements issued by university leaders should be limited to matters that directly affect the operations and core mission of the university, and should maintain viewpoint neutrality in any reference to any matter of political or social controversy,” the UW System policy states.

The policy applies to statements issued through university channels and that “are likely to be perceived as speaking in the name of and on behalf of” the university system, any of the university campuses, or any particular department, center, division, program or other university entity.

It applies to UW System President Jay Rothman, system vice presidents, university chancellors or a variety of other academic officers.

The policy permits statements about regulations, legislation or court rulings that directly affect the university. But those statements are only allowed to share support or opposition when authorized by Rothman or a university chancellor.

Both the UW system and the UW-Madison policies include disclaimers emphasizing that they are not intended to infringe on university employees’ free speech rights.

“This policy does not apply to statements made by faculty or staff in exercising academic freedom with respect to scholarship, teaching, and intellectual debate, nor to faculty or staff acting on their own behalf in their capacity as individuals and not purporting to speak in the name of and on behalf of any university or unit,” the UW system policy states.

The UW system’s policy follows a statement issued in May by the UW-Milwaukee  expressing support for a cease fire in Israel’s war on Hamas in the Palestinian territory of Gaza. The statement also included a condemnation of the Hamas attack Oct. 7, 2023 that preceded Israel’s attacks. The statement followed negotiations between the university administration and student groups on the campus who protested Israel’s prosecution of the war. The statement and related actions at UWM prompted criticism from Jewish groups as well as Rothman at the time.

Asked Monday whether the UWM events prompted the change, Mark Pitsch, director of media relations for the UW system, told the Wisconsin Examiner in an email message, “The Universities of Wisconsin, along with peers across the country, for years have discussed how to handle institutional statements and President Rothman decided the time had come for a formal policy.”

In a message to students, staff and faculty Friday explaining the new UW-Madison policy, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin acknowledged she has been among campus leaders throughout the U.S. who have chosen “to make public statements about or take positions on major issues, events, and controversies.”

Mnookin wrote that “I have come to believe that this practice is problematic,” and that such statements delivered by an institutional leader “may, however inadvertently, discourage free expression among the plurality of voices within our university” and “risks crowding out other points of view.”

That applies to messages aimed at comforting and supporting people who are “hurting and suffering in the wake of something that has occurred in the broader world,” she wrote. “And yet, while some may feel comforted by a given message, others may feel excluded or unseen by what is said, and by what is left unsaid.”

As of Monday the American Association of University Professors Wisconsin chapter had no comment on the new policy.

One especially vocal opponent has been Nathan Kalmoe, who holds a staff position at UW-Madison and who sharply criticized the policy on the social media platform BlueSky shortly after it was announced.

Kalmoe is the executive administrative director at the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. In an interview Monday he specified he was speaking for himself and not for the center, the school or the university.

The disclaimers in Madison and UW System policies protecting the right to free speech of individuals are important, Kalmoe said. He contends, however, that the university as an institution and its departments and other units should be free to take stances on significant matters.

He cited as an example statements that the UW-Madison chancellor’s office as well as a number of university departments and programs issued in support of the Black community in the aftermath of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd in 2020.

The university’s declared commitment to equality “means recognizing that certain controversial issues are a direct threat to equality in our society,” Kalmoe said in an interview.

John Lucas, assistant vice chancellor for public affairs at UW-Madison, said in an email message that the new policy “requires a situation to have a direct impact on campus operations or the university’s mission for the university to take an institutional position.”

When that does not apply, the policy allows for an informational statement from the institution “to acknowledge the situation and provide support and resources,” Lucas said. “In all cases, it would also allow faculty members, in their individual capacity, to continue sharing their own views in all manner of ways.”

Asked whether the new policy would have permitted statements of the sort that followed Floyd’s death, Lucas said it was “hard to retroactively assess a George Floyd statement,” but added, “that was a situation that also had a direct impact locally and on campus operations.”

Nevertheless, Kalmoe said issues in wider society such as racism, sexism, antisemitism or islamophobia can have a direct effect on students and their wellbeing on campus and should prompt university support. By treating them instead as subjects of controversy requiring a neutral perspective, he said, it falls short.

Kalmoe also believes the university has a responsibility to set a moral example on such subjects.

“If the campus is muzzled on those kinds of things that are directly related to our mission and to the intellectual and moral values of the university,” he said, “then we’re removing from public discourse a vital voice that influences how people think about these issues, and forfeiting the opportunity for leadership on these issues that are directly related to our values.”

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