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• As Wisconsin’s workforce ages and universities nationwide see fewer traditional college-aged students, UWGB is trying several unorthodox efforts to attract older learners. 

• The university offers short-term certificates that advance workers’ job skills, ungraded courses that keep older people socially engaged and classes in local nursing homes. 

• Leaders hope the initiatives will keep the region’s growing retirement-age population sharp and socially engaged — and potentially in the workforce for longer — while also bolstering enrollment.

Inside University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Christie Theatre, retired judge Mark Warpinski leads a discussion about how judges decide on the sentences they impose. Roughly 50 students nod along, take notes and eagerly wave their hands in the air to debate how they’d sentence someone for a hypothetical crime. 

The unusually lively audience betrays that this isn’t a typical sleepy morning lecture — most of Warpinski’s students are over the age of 50. 

“We pay attention. We ask questions. We’re not sitting on our cellphones and scrolling … like I guess most college students nowadays do,” said 76-year-old student Norman Schroeder. 

Classrooms full of older adults are becoming more common at UWGB.

As Wisconsin’s workforce ages and universities nationwide see fewer traditional college-aged students, UWGB is trying several unorthodox efforts to attract older learners. That includes more short-term certificates that advance workers’ job skills, ungraded courses that keep older students socially engaged and classes in local nursing homes. 

University leaders hope these moves will keep the region’s growing retirement-age population sharp and socially engaged — and potentially in the workforce for longer — while also bolstering enrollment.

“We’re not just an 18-year-old campus. We’re not just a campus where you live in the dorms and have a traditional experience,” said Jessica Lambrecht, UWGB’s continuing education and workforce training executive officer. “There’s hundreds of universities you can pick from that offer that type of experience. So how are we gonna stretch and serve more?” 

In fall 2025, UWGB joined the Age-Friendly University Global Network, an international web of universities that focus on including all ages. The college must follow the network’s 10 principles, which include supporting those pursuing second careers; expanding online education options; and promoting collaboration between older and younger students, among other tasks. Lambrecht hopes this commitment leads more community groups to help UWGB in its pursuit of older learners. 

UWGB’s focus on enrolling people outside the typical 18-to-24 age group has helped the college’s enrollment climb over the past decade, at a time when many universities are seeing the opposite trend.

University leaders hope to do even more to cater to retirees and other older adults in coming years, starting with more courses in assisted living facilities and building ways for older people to mentor younger students and workers. 

Addressing Wisconsin’s aging workforce

Wisconsin’s aging population has caused ongoing trouble for its workforce. 

For years, there haven’t been enough working-age people to fill the jobs left by those retiring. That trend is expected to continue into 2030.

Lambrecht said UWGB leaders are thinking about how they can “encourage and invite that pre-retirement age population to stay engaged in the workforce a little bit longer.” 

They think offering more short-term certificates can help. 

Perhaps more commonly offered by two-year colleges, short-term certificates show someone completed a handful of courses focused on a skill or topic. An increasing number of people in the U.S. are seeking these credentials, as they’re cheaper and less time-consuming than degrees. They’re also often marketed as a way for workers to gain knowledge that will help them advance in their career and earn more money, though studies and data have indicated a mixed payoff. 

UWGB offers 20 short-term certificate options, ranging from topics such as utilizing artificial intelligence to English-to-Spanish translation. 

“Your job is going to continuously change, and with the exponential growth of information, how are you going to stay relevant in the workforce?” Lambrecht said. “So that’s really where continuing professional education programs come into play. It’s giving you short-term, bite-sized programming that’s going to help you refine a skill set that you now are faced with.”

University leaders also want to create more opportunities for younger students and employees to learn from people reaching retirement age. Lambrecht said she’s thinking about how they can “marry those two audiences to be of continued value in our workforce.” For example, last summer, they debuted an “intergenerational” program aiming to connect older adults and youth through several educational workshops. 

‘Learning for its own sake’

The quest for more older students isn’t just about keeping them working. It also helps keep the region’s aging population mentally sharp and socially engaged.

UWGB’s Lifelong Learning Institute (LLI) is geared toward older adults who want to “enjoy learning for its own sake.” There are no tests, no grades and no prerequisites. The volunteer-led club offers between 150 and 250 courses each semester — the most popular including history, film and documentary classes, guest lectures and tours around the region. 

“When I retired, I realized I’ve got to keep doing things. You can’t just sit in the chair,” said Gary Lewins, a 10-year LLI student. Last semester, he took a class that taught him how to digitize all of his old photo albums. 

Norman Schroeder began taking LLI classes in 2018. The retired family doctor said it was good for more than just learning — he quickly made several friends. Today he helms LLI’s Board of Directors and tries to get more people to join.

“LLI is not only just the cognitive stimulation, the brain stimulation of the classes and learning — it’s also the social engagement,” Schroeder said. “Those are important elements for good health. Particularly in older patients, there’s a high incidence of depression, and some of that comes from social isolation … I kind of promote LLI as good for your health.”

The institute has over 800 members, who pay $150 for a year of access to classes. University professors often volunteer to teach classes related to their expertise, happy to teach to a highly engaged audience, Schroeder said. 

In early 2025, the Rennes Group, which operates assisted living facilities in northern Wisconsin, gave a $300,000 grant to the institute. UWGB has used the money to host classes at Rennes’ nursing homes, upgrade technology to livestream classes to residents living in them and take residents on outings, such as a tour of the Green Bay Correctional Institution. 

“Just because you live in an environment that provides maybe some extra help, doesn’t mean … you shouldn’t have access to things like lifelong learning,” Rennes Group President Nicole Schingick said. 

Enrolling ‘the bookends’

UWGB’s focus on older learners comes as the so-called traditional college student, aged 18 to 24 years old, makes up a smaller share of enrollment nationwide. 

In September, Chancellor Michael Alexander sent a letter to faculty and staff outlining how the university must “reinvent” to topple trends like these. To do so, he wrote, UWGB leaders must recognize “every person is a potential student over their lifetime, not just at 18 with stellar high school academic credentials.” 

In their quest to grow enrollment, college leaders have trained their focus on not just older learners, but younger ones, too. 

“(We’re) trying to think about the bookends of the population, knowing that the 18- to 24-year-old is a shrinking demographic,” Lambrecht said. “If we’re going to thrive as a university, we have to think outside the box.” 

In 2020, for example, the college launched a program for high schoolers to complete associate degrees through the university for free. High schoolers have comprised a growing share of the university’s student population over the years, from 16% in fall 2018 to more than a third of enrollment today. 

In 2024, 12% of UWGB’s students were over the age of 30, though that figure only includes students who are taking classes for credit and does not include students like those involved in the Lifelong Learning Institute. 

These approaches have helped UWGB’s total enrollment grow over 3,300 students in the last decade, while nearly every other UW school has seen a net decrease over the same time frame.

It’s common to see people of all ages on the Green Bay campus. In the summer, UWGB rents out its empty dorms as “snowbird housing” to older adults. But college leaders want to do even more in coming years to reach older people — particularly those who can’t come to campus. 

“The reality is, some of our members have mobility issues,” Schroeder said. “When you’re an 18- to 20-year-old college student, walking any distance is not a big deal. But if you’re on the campus at UWGB, sometimes it’s a long walk from the parking lot to get into the classrooms.”

UWGB leaders hope to offer more virtual classes for older students who are home-bound or have physical limitations. To assist those with hearing loss, they want to add “hearing loops” to classrooms, which transmit sound from a microphone directly into a hearing aid. Eventually, they want Rennes residents to have access to the full catalog of lifelong learning classes virtually, in real time, Schingick said.

“That would really be able to open the doors globally, if you will, to all of our residents and all of our communities, no matter where they are in the state,” Schingick said.

Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus.

As Wisconsin ages, UW-Green Bay looks to older adults to boost enrollment — and keep minds sharp 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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• ATECH opened over a decade ago to create a pipeline of students interested in advanced manufacturing careers. 

• Many students at the charter school like the hands-on classes, take advantage of paid apprenticeships and earn free college credits. 

• But school leaders say they struggle to attract students, fight a stigma that surrounds technical education and afford equipment and tools.

A cacophony of humming, drilling, banging and buzzing fills Appleton Technical Academy’s cavernous lab. 

In one corner, a student drills ventilation holes in a piece of metal that will eventually be a firepit ring. Another cuts through a thin piece of metal with clippers. Shrouded by red vinyl curtains, several students weld metal, sending blue sparks flying through the air.

As more schools embrace career and technical education, scenes like these are increasingly common in high schools nationwide: fewer students gripping pencils at desks; more wielding expensive tools and receiving hands-on training for their future career. 

Part of that trend, Appleton Technical Academy (ATECH) opened a decade ago to ease the region’s shortage of advanced manufacturing workers. Today, many of the students love their hands-on classes, enroll in paid apprenticeships and collect free college credit before continuing on to trade school. 

But it hasn’t been without difficulties. The school has struggled to attract students, combat a persistent stigma around technical education and afford the pricey equipment and tools it requires. Plus, it’s hard to determine if the school has met the original goal of producing local manufacturing employees. 

What’s happening at ATECH shows how preparing Wisconsin teenagers to eventually fill workforce holes, especially amid the state’s dearth of skilled trade workers, can be a tall task.

ATECH lead teacher Paul Endter spends his lunch breaks and free time trying to grow local support for the school and get more students interested. 

“I continue to tell people we’re the best-kept secret in the Fox Valley, and that’s not by design,” Endter said. “I wish I had more people who wanted to get involved.”

Born from industry needs

In the early 2010s, Jared Bailin, CEO of Appleton-based Eagle Performance Plastics, was struggling to find enough advanced manufacturing workers. The plastic manufacturing leader thought introducing high schoolers to the jobs would help. 

He took the idea to Greg Hartjes, who was principal of Appleton West High School at the time. Hartjes is now the school district’s superintendent and has always worried about students who don’t mesh with traditional high school education structure — students who, he says, “perhaps didn’t want to sit in English class and read Shakespeare,” but rather wanted “their hands in the work that they were doing.” 

Together, they built ATECH, a tuition-free charter school inside Appleton West that aims to prepare students for manufacturing jobs. They secured state grants to fund the launch, and Appleton voters approved a district referendum that put $2.4 million toward renovating labs and classroom spaces.

The school opened in the 2014-15 school year. Here’s how it works: Students can apply to the school at any point, but most enroll their freshman year. They choose to specialize in one of four growing industries: electronics and automated manufacturing, machining, mechanical design or welding. 

At first, students take a small number of classes that introduce them to the basics of manufacturing alongside the traditional courses required of all high schoolers, such as language arts and math. Students gradually take on more courses aligned to their specialization, such as programming for electronics students or blueprint reading for machining students.

Beginning their junior year, students take free college classes that earn both high school and Fox Valley Technical College credit. The classes chip away at a certificate in their focus area, which can shave thousands off tuition for students who enroll in technical college after graduation. Some juniors and seniors can work for local employers as paid youth apprentices during part of the school day, earning money and gaining work experience. 

“ATECH kids are kids that wanted to use their hands along with their brain in learning,” Hartjes said. 

That’s the reason senior Izzy Chappell enrolled. On an early December morning, she dipped into one of the lab’s eight welding booths wearing a helmet to protect from the harsh UV rays and flying sparks. She put the finishing touches on a welded metal skull sculpture she entered in a regional SkillsUSA competition that night. 

“Other classes are hard,” Chappell said. “This comes easy to me.” 

Getting students excited a struggle 

ATECH leaders hoped the school would be a magnet for students, but getting them interested has been a challenge.

The school debuted with 56 students. Enrollment has fluctuated a bit over the decade, never reaching the district’s goal of 120. In the 2024-25 school year — the most recent year with available state data — 68 students enrolled.  

Leaders chalk the lower-than-desired enrollment up to several difficulties: The district doesn’t provide transportation to charter schools, meaning these students typically have to find their own way to school. A jump start toward a career simply doesn’t resonate with many teenagers as young as 14, who Endter said are more motivated by sports or where their friends go to school. 

And most of all, ATECH leaders find many families still see college degrees as the gold standard. Despite growing investment in career and technical education programs nationwide and the critical need for skilled workers in Wisconsin, they say a stigma still plagues technical education, leading many to believe it’s for students who don’t perform well in school. 

“I think a misconception often is that it’s not rigorous, and it’s not for students that have an aptitude or are intelligent,” Hartjes said. “That’s not the case. We’ve given kids an opportunity to really learn using both their hands and their head.”

When ATECH was brand new, a state grant helped the school afford TV commercials and mailers. That money is long gone. Nowadays, Endter visits nearby middle schools to talk to students about career education. They organize tours and career fairs, where ATECH leaders try to entice students with the spacious labs and high-tech equipment.

“It’s not for lack of trying, you know?” Endter said. “But again, as an incoming eighth grader, charter schools represent something different. For some kids, different is good. And for some kids, different is not. So many kids don’t know what could or should be the best pathway for them.”

Meeting workforce needs?

Sophomore Noah Siong enrolled in ATECH because his brother graduated from the school and went on to open his own car repair shop. 

“That kind of opened the gateway to me,” Siong said. “It was like, ‘Oh, this stuff is pretty cool.’”

Siong wants to pursue a career in metal fabrication after graduation. Hartjes estimates hundreds of students like Siong have learned “skills that have prepared them for careers” over the last decade. But it’s difficult to know exactly how many students have gotten jobs that use the skills they learned at ATECH.

Wisconsin, like many states, doesn’t have a system connecting education and employment data, according to a 2024 Education Commission of the States analysis. The evidence ATECH leaders collect is largely anecdotal, but Endter said it indicates the vast majority either continue to technical college to finish their programs or turn their youth apprenticeships into full-time jobs after graduation. Endter estimates about 10% pursue a four-year degree. 

Bailin, the Eagle Performance Plastics CEO, said ATECH hasn’t produced as many local manufacturing employees as he hoped when he helped create the school.

“It didn’t really come out the way I would have hoped,” Bailin said. Eagle has hired between one and three apprentices from ATECH each year. He estimates roughly half have moved into full-time jobs, but it hasn’t been enough to produce the pipeline of machining employees he wanted. The company is no longer closely tied to the school, Bailin said. 

In a measure of its academic performance, ATECH’s state rating has averaged a score of 58, which the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) defines as “meets few expectations.” Hartjes said the hands-on skills students learn are not reflected in the state’s rating system. For example, the college classes students take, however advanced, don’t factor into the school’s rating.

“If they were … tested on their aptitude for mechanics, I guarantee you that they would outscore many other students across our state,” Hartjes said. “If they were being tested on those different things that we focused on, I guarantee you that their knowledge, their experience and their aptitude is going to shine through. But, you know, they don’t.”

‘Just can’t fund all of this’

“I’m going to teach you about different kinds of metal!” technology education teacher Carrie Giauque shouts so students hear her in the noisy lab. She pulls scraps out of a large trash barrel filled to the brim, identifying them to the students crowded around her: “Carbon! Steel! Aluminum! Galvanized steel! Copper!”

Behind them, sheets of metal are stacked floor to ceiling. The school goes through countless sheets teaching students the basics of welding and metal fabrication. It’s ATECH’s largest expense.

“It’s a lot less costly to have 30 students sit in math class,” Hartjes said. 

Despite needing costly materials, ATECH’s state funding is determined by the same formula as all other schools in the district, so it relies on grants and donations to make up the difference. To date, the school has received $266,000 in donations toward equipment and curriculum. 

“A lot of the learning exhausts materials, exhausts some of our resources,” Hartjes said. “(We’re) having to get support from our local manufacturing community, from a financial aspect, because as a school district, we just can’t fund all of this.”

Endter said ATECH also badly needs mentoring from industry employees, who can teach students and teachers how to use the complicated technology they receive as donations. In one classroom, a large robot sits untouched in a locked box after a college donated it. ATECH employees don’t have enough experience with the programming language to teach students how to use it.  

For their part, employers are often stretched too thin to offer up staff to mentor teachers and students. Eagle Performance Plastics used to send someone to ATECH to teach students about a pricey machine it helped buy, but there weren’t enough interested students to make the trip worth it, Bailin said.

Inside ATECH, a “sponsor wall” is decorated with the logos of organizations and employers that have invested in the school. Two-thirds of the spaces are empty — a visual reminder of the school’s need for added support. 

Endter jokes he wears “27 hats” trying to find it. 

“Every hour that I am not teaching, including working through my lunch hour, is dedicated to phone calls, emails, site visits, networking, cold calls,” he said. “You name it. I am doing it.”

The work could soon pay off. Beginning in 2024, Appleton students between kindergarten and fifth grade began taking weekly STEM classes. Endter hopes that will spark interest in career and technical education. 

“I’m on the precipice,” Endter said. “And I’m hoping that there’s going to be this giant surge of students who are looking for opportunities.”

The dilemma isn’t unique to ATECH. Many schools are eager to provide this kind of technical education, Karin Smith, a DPI education consultant, said. However, the equipment and tools are costly, and many schools are struggling to fund basic offerings. (Appleton expects a $13 million deficit this school year.) 

Wisconsin is one of five states that don’t designate state funding for career and technical education programs, relying solely on federal funding. Many states allocate more funding to school districts specifically for these programs because the federal dollars alone cannot meet the costs, according to Advance CTE, a nonprofit representing state career and technical education leaders.

“In Wisconsin, we have used (the federal funds) to, generally speaking, keep the lights on,” said Sara Baird, DPI’s career and technical education director. 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly requested the 2025-27 state budget include about $45 million in career and technical education grants to districts. Gov. Tony Evers suggested a pared-down version of $10 million, which was scrubbed by the Legislature’s Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee and not included in the final bill. 

“We’re seeing tremendous growth and tremendous interest in expanding CTE,” Smith said. Still, school district leaders are frustrated by the lack of funding for it. “They are feeling like their hands are tied behind their back,” she said. 

“We can’t do this alone … Every school has a tech ed teacher who is desperately trying to get kids excited about career pathways,” Endter said. “They need business support. They need donations. They need mentors in the classroom.”

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

‘Can’t do this alone’: An Appleton school prepares students for skilled trades. It’s not easy. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit news organization that uses journalism to make communities strong, informed and connected, is seeking a Pathways to Success Reporter focused on southeast Wisconsin. This reporter will explore what’s needed for residents to build thriving careers in the future economy — and what’s standing in the way. That includes expanding coverage of postsecondary education and workforce training, focusing on how education and economic trends impact people’s lives. The role centers on solution-oriented journalism that serves the public, strengthens community life, and holds those in power accountable. 

This Milwaukee-based reporter will join a four-person pathways-focused team that includes an editor, Madison-based statewide reporter and northeast Wisconsin reporter in Green Bay. 

You can read our pathways coverage here, and read more about our approach to the beat here and here. 

About Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Founded in 2009, Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to producing nonpartisan journalism that makes the communities of Wisconsin strong, informed and connected. We believe that access to local representative news is critical to a healthy democracy and to finding solutions to the most pressing problems of everyday life. Under the Wisconsin Watch umbrella, we have three independent news divisions, a statewide investigative newsroom, a regional collaboration in Northeast Wisconsin called the NEW News Lab, and the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (NNS). All three divisions maintain their unique reporting areas and together are positioned to grow and serve our communities with greater efficiency and impact. 

About this position

The ideal candidate will have at least 2 years of experience researching, reporting, and writing original published new stories, bring a public service mindset and a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisan journalism ethics, including a commitment to abide by Wisconsin Watch’s ethics policies, and have experience working collaboratively to report stories that explore solutions to challenges residents face.

Click here for a full job description.

Location: The reporter will be based in Milwaukee. They will have space to work in the Milwaukee NNS newsroom (NNS is a division of Wisconsin Watch). 

Salary and benefits: The salary range is $45,500-$64,500. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, and higher compensation may be available for someone with advanced skills and/or experience. Wisconsin Watch offers competitive benefits, including generous vacation (five weeks), a retirement fund contribution, paid sick days, paid family and caregiver leave, subsidized medical and dental premiums, vision coverage, and more.

To apply: Please submit a PDF of your resume, work samples and answer some brief questions in this application form. If you’d like to chat about the job before applying, contact Northeast Wisconsin/Pathways Editor Jennifer Zettel-Vandenhouten at jzvandenhouten@wisconsinwatch.org. 

Deadline: Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Apply by Jan. 9, 2026 for best consideration.

Wisconsin Watch is dedicated to improving our newsroom by better reflecting the people we cover. We are committed to fostering an equitable workplace that reflects, understands, and listens to the people we serve. We are an equal-opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, or any other status protected under applicable law.

Wisconsin Watch seeks pathways to success reporter in southeast 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.

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• Prisoners say there aren’t nearly enough work release jobs to go around, and officials at the Department of Corrections say they’re not keeping count.

• Several neighboring states routinely track how many people have work release jobs or are eligible for them.

• One prisoner told Wisconsin Watch he believes less than a third of those eligible at his facility have work release jobs.

• Officials at the Wisconsin Department of Corrections say not everyone who is eligible for work release wants to work. Some are in education, therapy or substance use treatment programs that don’t allow them to work full time.

Most of the jobs available to Wisconsin prisoners are paid not in dollars, but cents. Minimum wage laws don’t apply behind bars, so some people scrub toilets for less than a quarter an hour.

But one type of job lets people leave prison for the day to earn the same wages as anyone else.

Wisconsin was the first state to offer this opportunity, known as work release. The century-old program matches the lowest-risk prisoners with approved employers, who are required by law to pay them as much as any other worker. In some cases, that’s more than $15 an hour. 

Through those jobs, prisoners boost their resumes, pay court costs and save up for their release. Employers find needed workers. And taxpayers save money, since work release participants must pay room and board. 

Ten of the state’s 16 minimum-security correctional centers are dedicated to work release. But prisoners at those facilities say there aren’t nearly enough of those jobs to go around, and officials at the Department of Corrections say they’re not keeping count.

One prisoner told Wisconsin Watch he believes less than a third of those eligible at his facility have such work release jobs. Prisoners routinely wait many months for the opportunity, he said, and many never get it at all. 

“Having that money saved up to, say, get an apartment or get furniture, or even money for transportation?” said Ben Kingsley, 47, who wrote to Wisconsin Watch in August from Winnebago Correctional Center, a work release center in Oshkosh. “These guys know what’s at stake … They want to go out to work.” 

Only prison officials can add more positions, and he questions whether they’re trying. This summer, he began lobbying prison officials and lawmakers to expand the opportunity.

“The DOC/State employees are doing the bare minimum in trying to put more people out to work,” he wrote to legislators in October.

Work release jobs are scarce, prisoners say

To qualify for work release in Wisconsin, a prisoner must be classified in the lowest custody level (“community custody”) and have permission from prison officials. In some states, eligible prisoners search for jobs on their own and can work in any role that meets Department of Corrections standards. In Iowa, for example, work release participants are barred from bartending or working in massage parlors. 

In Wisconsin, prison officials hold the cards. Here, people approved for work release can work only for one of the Department of Corrections’ partner employers.

“Placements cannot be guaranteed for all eligible inmates,” reads Winnebago Correctional Center’s official webpage. “Work release and offsite opportunities are a privilege, not a right, and are provided at the discretion of the center superintendent and warden.”

About 70% of eligible people incarcerated at Winnebago don’t have work release jobs, Kingsley estimates. 

Kingsley, who hopes to qualify for work release after his custody status is reevaluated next year, said he began advocating for more jobs after hearing from eligible prisoners waiting to be “put out to work.”

To find out how many people were working, he asked prisoners who work as drivers, shuttling work release participants to and from their jobs. 

Of the 295 people incarcerated at Winnebago at the end of October, 224 had the lowest custody status, which is required for work release, according to the Department of Corrections. By Kingsley’s calculations, just 67 have work release jobs. That’s less than one in three. 

“Oh gosh, it’s a huge concern,” Kingsley said.

Officials offer explanations. Not everyone who’s eligible wants a work release job, said Department of Corrections spokesperson Beth Hardtke. Some are in education, therapy or substance use treatment programs that don’t allow them to work full time. And those who seek work release must first work at least 90 days in a prison job, followed by a stint on a “project crew” supervised by Corrections staff, before getting permission from the warden or superintendent.

“The capacity of the work release program is not just about the number of jobs available,” Hardtke said when asked whether the department is looking to add more jobs. “The program must be limited to the number of individuals that DOC staff can safely support and in settings where we can safely support them.” As Wisconsin Watch has previously reported, the Department of Corrections has been plagued by crippling staff shortages in recent years.

Additionally, Hardtke said, some can’t do manual labor. “Some individuals may not meet the employer requirements or standards, and some individuals may not have the level of training or skills necessary to complete certain tasks or jobs … As the prison population ages, some individuals may not be able to succeed in those types of work or have an interest in doing work that can have a physical toll.”

Officials and prisoners tout benefits

Work release got its start in 1913 when the Huber Law, named for Progressive Republican lawmaker Henry Allen Huber, created the opportunity at Wisconsin’s county jails. It later spread to state prisons and to nearly every state in the country. 

More than a century later, Wisconsin prison leaders continue to extol the virtues of letting people leave prison and return at the end of their shifts.

“Work release gives the men and women in our care the opportunity to feel like they belong to something, to feel like they’re part of a positive contribution to the community, to feel like they belong in the workplace,” said Sarah Cooper, then-administrator of the Division of Adult Institutions, at a virtual presentation for prospective employers in 2022.

Research suggests people who participate in work release programs are less likely to return to prison. A study of former prisoners in Illinois from 2016 to 2021 found those who had held work release jobs were about 15% less likely to be rearrested and 37% less likely to be reincarcerated.  

“Work release really is a significant part of keeping our community safe,” Cooper said.

Work release also offsets some of the taxpayer costs of imprisonment. Each participating prisoner must pay $750 a month for room and board, about 20% of the roughly $3,650 a month the state pays to incarcerate each prisoner in the minimum-security system. They must also use their wages to make any legally mandated payments, including child support and victim restitution.

In 2010, for example, 1,726 work release prisoners collectively paid more than $2 million in room, board and travel costs; more than $320,000 in child support and more than $350,000 in court-ordered payments, according to a department report. 

Work release jobs aren’t without controversy. In Alabama, a 2024 investigation by the Associated Press revealed prisoners were being pressured to work and faced retribution if they refused. Some were denied parole, despite working for years in fast-food restaurants and other jobs in the community. Critics argue the program is a modern version of the post-Civil War practice of convict leasing, in which prisons rented incarcerated people out for forced labor. 

In many states, including Wisconsin, work release participants aren’t classified as employees and don’t have all the same workplace rights. But advocates for incarcerated workers told the AP that many people behind bars want to work and that eliminating the program would only hurt them.

For men in Wisconsin prisons, work release jobs are usually in manufacturing. For women, there are jobs in food service or cosmetology too. They’re “low-level, intensive labor jobs,” Kingsley said, but people are eager for the chance to start saving, especially since a criminal record and gaps in work history could make it tough to find work when they get out. 

“When you get locked up, you lose everything,” Kingsley said. “You lose all your possessions, your … credit score goes down, all your bills go unpaid … The benefit (of working) far outweighs the negatives.” 

No statewide data available

How many prisoners participate in work release statewide? Corrections officials don’t consistently keep track, Hardtke said. 

The department’s public data dashboards show prisoner demographics, recidivism rates and enrollment in educational or treatment programs, among other things. Employment numbers are not included.

Prison staff record each prisoner’s jobs and privileges in the person’s individual file but don’t routinely gather that data across the system, Hardtke said.

“What’s important from a correctional standpoint is that you know where everybody is,” Hardtke said, adding that such jobs data “would need to be compiled from multiple sources.” 

The latest numbers Wisconsin Watch could find are from 2024. Responding to a Legislative Fiscal Bureau request for a report on state prisons, the department’s research team manually calculated that 781 people had work release jobs in July 2024, Hardtke said.

Asked for a current figure, Hardtke said “that number is not something we have readily available nor is it something you could accurately pull from a single source or document.”

Officials also don’t track how many people are eligible for work release. As of Oct. 31, 2,778 Wisconsin prisoners were at the department’s lowest custody level.

Several neighboring states routinely track how many people have work release jobs or are eligible for them. Of the 11 other Midwestern states Wisconsin Watch asked, seven responded. 

• Four said they track the number of participants but not the number of people eligible: Minnesota (186), Missouri (202), North Dakota (13) and South Dakota (183).
• Iowa officials said they track eligibility (418) but don’t track how many people have work release jobs.
• Nebraska officials said they track both: 378 were eligible, and 374 were working.
• Officials in Michigan said they don’t offer work release.

Prisoner pushes for more jobs

In July, Kingsley wrote to Warden Clinton Bryant, who oversees the men’s minimum-security centers, asking him to add 100 more work release jobs. 

“By writing you first, I hope that changes can be made. Changes that not only benefit the guys here or at other centers, but also the DOC and the state as a whole,” Kingsley wrote. Adding those jobs would generate $75,000 a month in room and board payments, along with state taxes, he wrote. 

Bryant responded that Winnebago Correctional Center “collaborates with community employers on a daily basis” and that prison officials can’t require employers to hire anyone. 

Jobs aren’t particularly hard to find near Winnebago Correctional Center. Like the rest of the state, Winnebago County faces a growing worker shortage as baby boomers retire. Prisoners aside, the share of the county’s population that’s working or actively looking for work has fallen 7.4% since 2000, according to the Department of Workforce Development. 

Winnebago County’s unemployment rate — which excludes people in prison — was among the lowest in the state in 2024, according to DWD data. 

Wisconsin’s labor market has softened since last year but remains strong, said Dave Shaw, a regional director of the Department of Workforce Development’s Bureau of Job Service, which manages the state website that matches employers and job seekers. 

“It’s still fairly easy to find work, and there are a lot of jobs out there,” Shaw said.

It can be harder to find a job with a criminal record, but Shaw said his team works with a variety of companies that are “interested in giving individuals a second chance” to get back in the workforce. 

“There are employers all around the state who are willing to do that,” Shaw said, noting that the state offers tax credits and free insurance to employers who hire people with criminal records.

When Kingsley contacted Bryant again, urging the department to establish minimum job placement rates for work release centers, the warden ended the conversation.

“My office addressed these matters and provided you a response,” Bryant wrote. “No further correspondence on these matters will be addressed by my office.” 

So Kingsley took the issue to the State Capitol. In May, Republican lawmakers introduced legislation that would give bonuses to probation and parole officers who increase the employment rate among the people they supervise. Kingsley asked them to do the same for work release centers. 

All of the bill’s authors and cosponsors either declined Wisconsin Watch’s request for comment or did not respond. 

As of publication of this story, Kingsley has yet to receive a reply.

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

A century after pioneering work release, Wisconsin corrections officials don’t track how many prisoners participate 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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• Since its debut in March, the “Plaster + Patina” podcast has inspired excitement in Green Bay’s Astor neighborhood.

• Residents have pitched stories about their historic homes to the podcast team and opened their homes to them. 

• The first season focused on homes between Monroe Avenue and the Fox River.  

• The team does extensive research and searches for interesting stories about the properties they feature.

Inside Skip Heverly’s modified Dutch Colonial home, five people thaw from the near-freezing November evening by a green-tiled fireplace. Between them, a coffee table is littered with loose-leaf newspaper clippings, notepads and snacks. 

The group members, all residents of Green Bay’s Astor neighborhood, are preparing to spend the evening trading bits of local lore and hatching ideas that could make for an interesting deep dive. 

The neighbors run “Plaster + Patina,” a podcast series that digs up long-buried — and sometimes spooky — tales tied to the historic homes in Astor, one of Green Bay’s oldest neighborhoods. Through the project, they hope to create a shared sense of wonder and community among neighbors while memorializing the area’s history.

“Slowly but surely, I think we’re kind of seeing how this is really helping to bring the community together,” said Morgan Fisher, podcast chief editor and treasurer of the Astor Neighborhood Association. Each person on the podcast team is also a volunteer member of the association, which advocates for the area to local government and organizes events. 

After debuting in March, the series has inspired excitement around the neighborhood, with residents pitching their own houses to be featured and opening their homes to the team. At the mid-November brainstorm, the group invited longtime local civic leader Jim Gucwa to share stories he’s collected and spark inspiration for a future episode. 

The first season of “Plaster + Patina” uncovered a forgotten spring water bottling business; examined architectural changes that speak to larger societal shifts; and told tales of ghosts, among other topics. 

Each person has a unique role in the process, from digging through yellowed archives to splicing audio. Several enrolled in nearby community college to learn the skills they use. The project doesn’t currently have sponsors or advertisers to generate revenue, or plans to do so. The team pools resources, leveraging each others’ connections, interests and skills. 

“That’s what a neighborhood’s about,” said Paul Jacobson, the podcast’s historian.  

Bringing people out of their homes — and into others’

Between the 1830s and 1920s,  a high, dry slope running parallel to the Fox River — colloquially known as “The Hill” — was an attractive place for doctors, lawyers and other businessmen to build their homes. 

Today, the houses in the affluent neighborhood still reflect the period in which they were constructed. A 1980 historic district designation, championed with Gucwa’s help, preserves the homes’ exteriors from being substantially altered, among other protections. 

Astor’s design encourages social connection. Homes with large front porches sit close to the sidewalks lining each street. Parks host an ice rink, a wading pool and a shell where local bands regularly perform. 

Despite this, the area hasn’t been immune to the social isolation that’s swept across the country in recent years. 

“People have kind of gone into their (homes),” Fisher said. “They’re not on their porches anymore. They’re not out meeting their neighbors as much.”

When the Astor Neighborhood Association coalesced in 1974, it started as a way to improve the area and combat crime. It now focuses on maintaining a sense of community among residents, Fisher said. 

To do that, last summer several neighborhood association members discussed creating something where people could walk around the area, learn the stories behind the architecture they see and feel more connected to its past and present.

“What better way to do that than a podcast?” Jacobson said. 

Tales of ghosts, lost springs and … alligators?

At first, the group was nervous about how the endeavor would turn out. But once they started chatting about history and architecture, old stories of folks from the area, “everyone just lit up,” said Heverly, the producer of “Plaster + Patina.”

The first season focused on homes nestled between Monroe Avenue and the Fox River.  

“It’s nice to stay within an area, just to kind of really lay out that area,” host Al Valentin said. “We want to create a visual while you’re listening to it of what the neighborhood looked like at that time.”

Once they choose a home, Jacobson digs up the stories behind it. He dives into a slew of online resources, including newspaper archives, historical atlases and — his favorite — fire insurance maps, which include detailed hand drawings of buildings in the area dating back to the 1880s. 

After Jacobson goes “down a rabbit hole,” they zoom out and choose the most interesting event or detail he found. “Otherwise, you could spend five hours on one particular home,” Valentin said. 

The team then drafts a rough script, a bullet-point list of topics they want to hit during the show. Finally, they record the episode for free in a studio at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. They invite homeowners or people connected to the stories to appear as guests for a live interview. 

“We kind of shoot from the hip,” Valentin said. “When you hear us converse on the podcast, it’s pretty real, with our knowledge and expertise.”

Lastly, Heverly edits out “ums,” “uhs” and any mistakes made during recording. He learned the skill at NWTC, where he studied audio editing, video editing, social media marketing and how to use Adobe applications. 

Since March, the team has created eight episodes.

In one, Jacobson shared the story of a forgotten mineral spring he unearthed when scouring old hand-drawn maps. Residents bottled and sold the water, marketing it as a natural health remedy, he discovered.

In another, they explored how the neighborhood’s first backyard pool signaled the shift of leisure from front porches to more private backyards — and was once home to an alligator.

For a Halloween edition, Valentin interviewed a paranormal investigator who shared supernatural experiences at Astor’s Hazelwood House — including an apparition descending stairs, a baby cradle rocking on its own and echoes of drums played by the Native Americans who first called the area home.

Throughout the season, local support for the project has grown. 

Lawn signs advertising the show sprouted up in front yards across the neighborhood. People asked for their home to be featured. Residents opened up their homes to the crew, giving them tours to aid the podcast. 

“Especially in today’s world, we’re all looking for that connection. We want to be a part of something that’s bigger than ourselves,” marketing and writing director Maddy Szymanski explained in the podcast’s first episode. “When you live in an old neighborhood — or a new neighborhood, really anywhere —  you’re a part of something that is bigger than you. You’re a part of a community and you can build that connection.”

The team is currently producing a final episode before moving onto the podcast’s second season. Find the episodes here. 

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

Green Bay podcasters dig up long-buried tales in their own neighborhood 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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• Undergraduate students can major in public policy starting in fall 2026.

• Officials say that it’s the first public policy major in Wisconsin and that it may be the only one in the country focused on teaching students how to engage in civil dialogue and find common ground. 

• More and more students were interested in undergraduate certificates from the La Follette School of Public Affairs, which caused leaders to investigate whether there would be demand for a major. 

• Students will learn how to use curiosity to connect with people, as well as how to evaluate the effectiveness of policies.

At a time when American politics are increasingly polarized and partisan, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is launching a new undergraduate major focused on working across those divides to create evidence-based public policy. 

The public policy major, debuting in fall 2026, is the first undergraduate major from the La Follette School of Public Affairs. The Wisconsin Legislature created the school in 1983 to educate future public servants for state and local government. In 2019, after decades of offering only graduate programs, the school added undergraduate certificates — UW-Madison’s version of a minor — in public policy and later in health policy.

Today, they’re among the most popular certificates on campus, said La Follette School Director Susan Webb Yackee. The animosity and gridlock that plague American politics hasn’t discouraged students. In fact, she thinks it’s only made them more interested. 

“This could be a time when our young people are running away from our policy problems, but many of them are running toward them,” Yackee said, noting that she’s seen particular interest in policies about health, environment and climate change. 

With the new major, those young people will have the option to make public policy their primary focus. School leaders say that it’s the first public policy major in Wisconsin and that it may be the only one in the country focused on teaching students how to engage in civil dialogue and find common ground. 

Those are the skills society needs today, Yackee said.

“In a 50-50 state like Wisconsin, in a 50-50 country like the United States, we won’t be able to solve our big public policy problems by simply taking the point of view that one might agree with,” Yackee said. “We will have to work across the political aisle to make real change.”

Yackee spoke to Wisconsin Watch about how she hopes the new program will transform students, campus and the future of policymaking in the United States.  

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

What exactly is public policy, and how is it different from political science?

Public policy is the study of government institutions as well as decision making that affects everyone’s lives. That differs from political science in the sense that we’re interested in not just the politics of how those decisions get made, but also whether public policies that go into effect work or not. Evaluating what works and what doesn’t in existing public policy, as well as predicting what kinds of policies may work and why, is a terrifically important part of our faculty research, as well as the classes that students take….

I’m a political scientist, but most of our faculty at the La Follette School are economists. They’re oftentimes much more focused on … Does that policy work? How is it different than policies in other states? If there’s a policy change, did that change actually match what legislators or practitioners wanted to see happen? 

Why did the faculty decide to focus the new curriculum on civil dialogue and finding common ground?

Our mission is evidence-based policymaking, and we quickly identified that to get to our mission, people had to be able to sit down in the same room and talk about it. You have to be able to talk before you can talk about evidence … That was a need we felt we could serve particularly well within our major … That’s also a skill that a lot of our undergraduate students on campus, who might not be public policy majors, could also benefit from. 

For some people, this feels like a sort of dismal time for politics or public policy. What are you hearing from students about why they’re interested in public policy and what kinds of problems they want to solve?

It’s absolutely true that politics and our current public policy atmosphere turns off a lot of people right now. But very interestingly, we’re seeing huge student engagement in public policy on campus …

A lot of UW-Madison students are interested in working in the nonprofit sector. Many nonprofits need to be able to evaluate their programs to see if they work or not … We teach classes in: How would we understand the goals of the program? How would we quantify them? … So the kind of skills-based classes that we teach have a lot of translation into other fields beyond just government service. 

Do you hear students expressing frustration with politicians today? 

I think there’s a lot of frustration with inaction, and I think that’s normal for traditionally aged college students. Is that any different today than it was in the 1970s or the 1950s? They’re impatient for change, and good for them. I am too, and I love their impatience. 

Let me give you a concrete example of a class I taught … It was for students to do applied policy analysis with real-world clients. This class happened to have three real-world clients, and they were all sitting Wisconsin legislators…

The first day of class was me saying, “Some of you are going to get assigned to work with a Republican (client), and some of you are going to get assigned to work with a Democrat … and if that’s a problem for you in this class, then you ought not to take it, because we are going to provide the best nonpartisan analysis that we can possibly provide to these elected members so that they can make the best decisions they can make for our state.” 

It was sort of like a pin drop when I said that. Nobody dropped the class. Those students did a fabulous job … A lot of those students were bio majors or chem majors — they weren’t political science majors. They did these reports on these topics, and some of them have now been passed into state law. So they were part of the ecosystem which created real change. 

The students … (also) testified in one of the Senate committee rooms in the Wisconsin Legislature… They presented. They were asked questions. Afterwards, one of the students came up to grab me and said, “Dr. Yackee, this is the professional thrill of my lifetime” …

That class is sort of a nutshell of what we’re hoping to accomplish in this undergraduate major.

What do we know about how to promote civil dialogue and find common ground and about how to teach people to do that?

One of the things that we know about teaching classes on talking across the political divide is the importance of establishing ground rules in terms of how those conversations are going to take place. One of our current faculty members, Associate Professor Amber Wichowsky, very much emphasizes curiosity. One of the ground rules for her classes is you need to be curious about how and why people feel differently than yourself … 

It’s innate human behavior to put people in different camps of “us” and “them” … If we come into conversations with that framing, we will not be successful. If we come in with a framing of curiosity and an openness to new perspectives and ideas — it is not that we’re looking to change people’s values, but we are looking to humanize the other because that is one step toward being able to listen to other people’s points of view and work across the political divide.

Free speech on campus is a hot topic these days. How do you hope the major and the skills that you’re providing students might create the kind of environment that you’d like to see on campus? 

Great question. I think of it like my bicep: I don’t work out as much as I should, but the more I work out that muscle, the stronger it gets. I think we don’t have enough opportunities for students to engage with people that are different than them and think differently than them.

Let me submit that a university is a place of ideas, so the most important kind of diversity is the diversity of ideas. It should be a fundamental job of ours to encourage those interactions … We’re going to do that in our classes, but we’re also going to do that by hosting politicians and practitioners and journalists that have different points of view. We’ve done that now for years, and we will continue to do that. 

So if this major is successful, how do you picture the campus will be different?

We hope that it would provide an outlet for students who are interested in applied politics and policy and careers in that space to have a fuller and richer UW-Madison educational experience … 

If we can position students with (these) skills … and they can be trained and ready to go when our country arguably needs them more than ever, then we will have done our job as educators, but we’ll also have done our job in promoting the Wisconsin Idea in a really important way. 

Have a question about jobs or job training in Wisconsin? Or want to tell a reporter about your struggle to find the right job or the right workers? Email reporter Natalie Yahr, nyahr@wisconsinwatch.org, or call or text her at 608-616-0752‬.

Yahr reports on pathways to success statewide for Wisconsin Watch, working in partnership with Open Campus.

New UW-Madison major will teach students to bridge partisan divides is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• Wisconsin leaders want more high school students to have the opportunity to take college-level courses, called dual enrollment. 

• However, teachers need the same qualifications as college instructors, and those teachers are in short supply. 

• For many, teaching dual enrollment would require them to enroll in graduate school, even if they already have a master’s degree. 

• The state offers graduate credit reimbursement to educators interested in teaching dual enrollment classes, but school leaders say it’s a hard sell.

It’s fourth period in the auto lab at Madison’s Vel Phillips Memorial High School, and a dozen students maneuver between nearly as many cars. 

At one bay, a junior adjusts the valves of an oxygen-acetylene torch and holds the flame to a suspended Subaru’s front axle to loosen its rusty bolts. Steps away, two classmates tease each other in Spanish as they finish replacing the brakes on a red Saab. Teacher Miles Tokheim moves calmly through the shop, checking students’ work and offering pointers.

After extensive renovations, the lab reopened last year with more room and tools for young mechanics-in-training. What visitors can’t see is the class recently got an upgrade, too: college credit. 

Through a process called dual enrollment, high schoolers who pass the course now earn five Madison College credits for free and skip the class if they later enroll. Classes like these are increasingly common in Wisconsin and across the country. That’s allowed more high schoolers to earn college credit, reducing their education costs and giving them a head start on their career goals. 

Wisconsin lawmakers and education officials want more high schoolers to have this opportunity. But these classes need teachers with the qualifications of college instructors, and those teachers are in short supply. 

That leaves many students — disproportionately, those in less-affluent areas — without classes that make a college education more attainable. 

“What’s at stake is access to opportunity, especially for high school students at Title I, lower-income high schools, rural high schools … It’s really been an on-ramp for so many students,” said John Fink, who studies dual enrollment at Columbia University’s Community College Research Center. “But we also know that many students are left behind.” 

To teach the auto class, Tokheim had to apply to become a Madison College instructor. As a certified auto service technician with a master’s degree, the veteran teacher met the college’s requirements for the course. 

But for many teachers, teaching dual enrollment would require enrolling in graduate school, even if they already have a master’s degree. 

That, school leaders say, is a hard sell, despite the state offering to reimburse districts for the cost. Teachers in Wisconsin often don’t make much more money teaching advanced courses the way they do in some other states, and adding these courses doesn’t raise a school’s state rating.

“You’re asking people who are well educated to begin with to go back to school, which takes time and effort, and their reward for that is they get to teach a dual credit class,” said Mark McQuade, Appleton Area School District’s assistant superintendent of assessment, curriculum and instruction. 

High standards, short supply

Nationwide, the number of high schoolers earning college credit has skyrocketed in recent years. In Wisconsin, the tally has more than doubled, with students notching experience in subjects ranging from manufacturing to business. 

Most earn credit from their local technical college without leaving their high school campus. In the 2023-24 school year, 1 in 3 community college students in the state was a high schooler.

Education and state leaders have welcomed the trend, pointing to the potential benefits: Students who take dual enrollment classes are more likely to enroll in college after high school. They can save hundreds or thousands of dollars on college tuition and fees. If they do enroll in college, they spend less time completing a degree.

“It also proves to the kids — to some of our kids that are first-generation — that they can do college work,” McQuade said.

But not all students get these advantages. Many Wisconsin schools offer very few dual enrollment courses, or none at all. A July Wisconsin Policy Forum analysis showed small, urban or high-poverty schools are least likely to offer the classes.

Wisconsin Watch talked to leaders in five school districts. All said the shortage of qualified teachers was one of the biggest barriers to growing their dual enrollment programs. 

In 2015, the Higher Learning Commission — which oversees and evaluates the state’s technical colleges — released new guidelines about instructor qualifications. The new policy required many of Wisconsin’s dual enrollment teachers to have a master’s degree and at least 18 graduate credits in the subject they teach, just like college instructors. 

In 2023, the Commission walked back the new policy.

By then, colleges across the state had already adopted the higher standard.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin schools have struggled to hire and retain teachers, even without college credit involved. Four in 10 new teachers stop teaching or leave the state within six years, a 2024 Department of Public Instruction analysis shows.

The subject-specific prerequisite is much different from the graduate education K-12 teachers have historically sought: the kind that would help them become principals or administrators, said Eric Conn, Green Bay Area Public Schools’ director of curricular pathways and post-secondary partnerships.

“To advance in education, it wasn’t about getting a master’s in a subject area. It was getting a master’s in education to develop into educational administration or educational technology,” Conn said. For teachers who already have a master’s degree, he said, going back to school just to teach one or two new classes is “a large ask.” 

Funding tempts few 

When the Higher Learning Commission announced the heightened requirements in 2015, leaders of the Wisconsin Technical College System sounded the alarm. They warned 85% of the instructors currently teaching these classes could be disqualified, whittling students’ college credit opportunities.

Wisconsin education leaders called on the Legislature to allocate millions of dollars to help teachers get the training they’d need — and they agreed. In 2017, lawmakers created a grant program to reimburse school districts for teachers’ graduate tuition. 

But of the $500,000 available every year, hundreds of thousands go unused.

“Nobody’s ever, ever requested this funding and been denied because of a funding shortage,” said Tammie DeVooght Blaney, executive secretary of the Higher Educational Aids Board, which manages the grant.

Tuition and fees for a single graduate credit at a Universities of Wisconsin school can cost over $800, putting the total cost of 18 graduate credits around $15,000. For teachers who don’t already have a master’s degree, the cost is even steeper. The state grant requires teachers or districts to front the cost and apply for reimbursement yearly, with no guarantee they’ll get it.

A handful of Green Bay teachers have used the grant, Conn said, but many just aren’t interested in returning to school, even if it’s free.

The district offers 50 dual enrollment courses, but he’d like to offer classes in more core subjects, which help students meet college general education requirements. There just aren’t enough teachers qualified to teach college sciences and math to offer the same options across the district’s four high schools. 

Teachers are busy, and not just in the classroom, said Jon Shelton, president of AFT-Wisconsin, one of the state’s teachers unions. Many already spend extra hours coaching, grading or leading after-school activities. Those who do go back to school typically enroll in one class at a time, he said, meaning they could be studying for several years.

Pros and cons

The financial perks for teachers returning to school for dual enrollment credentials are dubious at best. 

Some teachers get a salary bump for obtaining a master’s degree, and some earn modest bonuses for teaching dual enrollment. But many teachers make no more than they would have without the extra training. 

“There’s no incentive,” said Tokheim, the Madison auto instructor, who receives a $50 yearly stipend for teaching the college course. In contrast to his standard classes, his dual enrollment class required him to attend two kinds of training.

There’s little incentive for schools either. They receive no extra state funding to offer college-level courses. Plus, the classes don’t factor into their state report card score, which measures students’ standardized test performance and graduation preparation, among other things.

Leaders at Sheboygan’s Central High School wish it did. At that school, where the majority of  students are Latino and almost all are low-income, 1 in 3 students took dual enrollment courses in the 2023-24 school year. Still, the state gave the school a failing grade. 

“It’s an afterthought in our report card, and it’s always the thing that we can celebrate,” Principal Joshua Kestell said. 

So why would a teacher take on the added schooling? 

“It’s good for kids,” Tokheim said. “That’s why they get us teachers, because we care too much.” 

Other potential draws: the challenge of teaching more rigorous courses or the opportunity to collaborate with college instructors. 

Heather Fellner-Spetz retired two years ago from teaching English at Sevastopol High School in Sturgeon Bay. She taught college-level oral communication classes for 10 years before she retired. When the Higher Learning Commission set the heightened requirements, she was allowed to continue teaching dual enrollment while she studied for more graduate credits.

“There wasn’t much I didn’t enjoy about teaching it. It was just fabulous,” Fellner-Spetz said. 

She especially liked having a college professor observe her class, and she said it was good for the students, too. “When they had other people come into the room and watch the lesson or watch them perform, it just ups the ante on pressure.”

Rules remain controversial

Meanwhile, the jury is still out on whether it’s necessary for dual enrollment teachers to have the same credentials as college professors.

“Folks running these programs generally would say that teaching a quality college course to a high school student requires a unique skill set that blends high school and college teaching, and that is not necessarily captured by the traditional (graduate coursework) standard,” Fink said.

Wisconsin educators are divided on that question. Fox Valley Technical College has kept the higher standard, limiting the number of Appleton teachers who qualify. McQuade, the Appleton leader, questions those “restrictions,” saying he believes his teachers are well qualified to teach college-level courses. A different standard tied to student performance, for example, could let his district offer more classes across each of its schools. 

Schauna Rasmussen, dean of early college and workforce strategy at Madison College, said the answer isn’t to lower the standard, but to help more teachers reach it. 

In October, a group of Republican Wisconsin lawmakers introduced a bill aimed at making it easier for students to find dual enrollment opportunities. It would create a portal for families to view options and streamline application deadlines, among other changes. 

It doesn’t address the shortage of qualified teachers.

“Separate legislation would likely have to be introduced addressing expanding the pool of teachers for those programs,” Chris Gonzalez, communications director for lead author state Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Appleton, wrote in an email.

As of Monday no such legislation has been introduced.

Correction: This story has been corrected to note that the Higher Learning Commission revised its policy on faculty qualifications in 2023. The current policy requires that colleges have “reasonable policies and procedures to determine that faculty are qualified” but it states colleges can consider “a variety of factors, including academic credentials, progress towards academic credentials, equivalent experience, or some combination thereof.” Wisconsin Watch regrets the error.

Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, and Natalie Yahr reports on pathways to success statewide. They work in partnership with Open Campus.

Wisconsin high schools want to offer more college classes. First, teachers must go back to school. 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 founders of Ebb & Flow Connections Cooperative host emotional CPR training to community members and run a community living room in downtown Appleton. 

• Lynn McLaughlin and Karen Iverson Riggers have trained more than 2,500 people in ECPR in roughly seven years. 

• Their approach to teaching social connection has proved successful enough that groups in several other counties want to replicate it, and several state entities say the model is a method for building connection to prevent suicide. 

• The effort is grant-funded, and the community living room requires space and volunteers.

Karen Iverson Riggers scrawls on a giant notepad as the 12 people around her call out rules they think should govern the next two days they’ll spend together: “It’s OK to cry.” “Authenticity over correctness.” “Judgement-free zone.” “Say it messy.”

The group — a mix of mental health professionals, children and family workers and curious residents — is kicking off an “emotional CPR,” or “ECPR,” workshop, a community public health training teaching how to assist someone in crisis or emotional distress.

Training leaders Iverson Riggers and Lynn McLaughlin have dedicated the last several years to encouraging northeast Wisconsinites to deeply connect with one another — and giving them a free community space to do so — in hopes they can combat the social isolation many feel today. 

“This is not an individual problem. It’s not like you are doing something wrong because you’re lonely or feeling isolated,” Iverson Riggers said. “This is a community design issue … Lots of folks are being forced to work themselves to death without having any free time to engage in any kind of community or connection.”

The pair founded Ebb & Flow Connections Cooperative, which runs a Community Living Room in downtown Appleton. They describe it as an “unconditionally welcoming” space, where community members can socialize, play games, hang out or confide in certified ECPR practitioners. 

“There’s no requirement to belong,” McLaughlin explained. “You just do.”

Their approach to teaching social connection has proved successful enough that groups in several other Wisconsin counties are now trying to replicate the resources they offer. Plus, several state entities say their model is a method for building connection to prevent suicide. 

With funding from the Medical College of Wisconsin, the pair spent two late-October days in Oshkosh training Winnebago County residents and workers. 

Attendees practiced how to effectively listen to and assist people who are struggling, as a means to prevent self-harm and further distress. After the workshop, they’d be considered an ECPR “practitioner” and could go on to eventually work as a listener in a living room.

A place to ‘just be’

The pair’s idea for bringing more northeast Wisconsin residents together was born several years ago, when they were sitting in Iverson Riggers’ living room, discussing the unhelpful ways people typically respond to those struggling with mental health issues. They also lamented the general loss of “third spaces,” or places outside of home or work where people casually connect with their community without a cost barrier.

“So we said, ‘You know, what if there was a space where folks could go and could just be?’” Iverson Riggers said. 

That question led them to devise the idea of the Community Living Room, where people could do just that. 

In 2023, they received a grant from the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, which they used to launch the concept as a pop-up event in different places — the local library, community gatherings, the children’s museum. There was always food and several ECPR-certified listeners in attendance. 

Thanks to the relationships they built hosting pop-ups, a local developer gifted them space to open a permanent downtown Appleton location in October 2024. They pay just $1 in rent annually. 

“It was created to break down all the barriers that people find to seeking support,” Iverson Riggers said. “There’s no appointments and no forms. There’s no requirement of a certain kind of identity or diagnosis. There’s no requirement about how you engage.”

Inside the space, which resembles a large apartment, several cozy couches invite visitors to get comfortable. There are tables to sit at or partake in board games or puzzles. A small kitchen area with a fridge is stocked with fresh snacks. A poster on the wall permits people to take what they need — clothing, food, safe sex tools, hygiene supplies and even Narcan. 

“It just says something about creating a space … where we can go and connect and feel welcome without having to buy anything, without having to be a certain way, without having to conform to whatever the rules of the space are,” Iverson Riggers said.

How people use the space varies. Some simply pop in for a snack or a drink or to use the bathroom. Two visitors regularly come in and practice playing the guitar. Others want to connect one-on-one with the “listeners” trained in ECPR — at least two people who have taken the training are paid $50 per hour to be present. 

While the staff are trained to help people who are experiencing emotional crises and are more than ready to assist if needed, the living room aims to be a “prevention space,” they said. They believe that if people feel less lonely and isolated, or know they have somewhere where they can get support, they may not reach the point of crisis.

“You know, it’s not just this joy-filled, ‘everything is peaceful’ (place),” McLaughlin said. “We’re learning how to navigate conflict in community. We’re learning how to support people in distress, in community.” 

Since they started offering community ECPR workshops roughly seven years ago, they’ve helped train more than 2,500 people. 

For years, they felt they were “pounding the pavement” to spread the word about their ideas for connecting neighbors. Now, they’ve turned a corner and have seen a steady increase in demand. 

Community members across Wisconsin, including in Winnebago, Brown, Sauk and Sheboygan counties, have shown interest in replicating their approach. Prevent Suicide Wisconsin also shared Ebb & Flow’s approach in its 2025 Suicide Prevention Plan as a model for using peer support to reduce deaths by suicide.

Thanks to this, Iverson Riggers and McLaughlin expect they’ll soon be “overwhelmed” with interest. The increased attention has come with its own challenges — they had to cut back on meetings with people who want to replicate their approach in other counties. It’s also been hard to keep up with the demands of “chasing down funding” and keeping the downtown Appleton space in shape, Iverson Riggers said. 

Lanise Pitts, a practitioner certified in ECPR, said she was drawn to the warmth of the cooperative and kept returning to events after she attended the training. The Community Living Room allows her to connect with people from different circles and different career paths that she would likely never meet otherwise, she said. 

“When people just come in, it’s just like being welcomed to somebody’s house. Come in, find something to do, kick your feet up,” Pitts said while curled up on a couch in the living room. “When they leave, after we’ve done puzzles or colored or played card games or music games or had a 30-second dance party, it’s just like the weight gets lifted. Like you might come in with a lot of baggage, but when you leave out, you’re leaving some of that behind, and it just kind of dissipates.”

The Community Living Room currently has funding to be open two days a week. See a schedule here. 

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

Feeling lonely? Appleton’s Community Living Room offers an antidote to isolation is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last week, my colleague Joe Timmerman and I published a story about a group of teenagers who run their rural village’s only local newspaper. For over 80 years, as other local news has dwindled, students at Pulaski High School have kept their community informed by publishing the weekly Pulaski News.

“You’ve seen other local papers close and their communities really don’t have anything,” said Bob Van Enkenvoort, the school district’s communications coordinator and the paper’s editor. “So the district sees this as a valuable community service.”

It’s the (unfortunately rare) kind of story that shines a light on people making a real difference in their community by connecting with their neighbors. And it began by listening to readers like you. 

Before I was hired last summer, our team conducted listening sessions, surveys and interviews with people across northeast Wisconsin to hear what kind of news they want as we prepare to tell more stories in the region. In one of those interviews, a director at the Pulaski Chamber of Commerce mentioned that Pulaski High School’s newspaper is the only source of consistent local news in the area. 

That fact came across my desk several months ago and piqued my interest. As a reporter tasked with writing about how Wisconsinites are preparing for the workforce, I really wanted to meet the students who are carrying out an important job typically left to experienced adults. 

Joe and I spent several months learning how Pulaski News has become a trusted fixture of the community and a workforce development tool, which included several visits to the classroom the paper runs out of and a trip to Pulaski’s local museum. 

We have reason to believe the final product resonated — as of Monday afternoon, people spent nearly 10,000 minutes with it, and over 80 accounts have shared the story on Instagram.

Listening to our readers in this way has helped me better understand the northeast region. As time goes on, you’ll continue to see more stories from this part of the state. So consider this an invitation to keep the ideas and feedback coming. What stories should be told? We’re listening. Email me at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org, or fill out my form.

How reader ideas fuel Wisconsin Watch reporting 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 average Wisconsin farmer is nearly 57 years old, and farmers are increasingly finding that their children don’t want to take over their operations. 

• Legislation introduced by Wisconsin lawmakers would create a state-run farmland link program to connect farmers who are interested in selling or renting out their land to beginning farmers. 

• Eight states, including Minnesota and Michigan, have land link programs run in whole or in part by government agencies. 

• While advocates say the need for this type of program is real, some feel the legislation needs to include funding to be successful.

Joy Kirkpatrick spends much of her time thinking about the future of Wisconsin’s farmland. 

As a farm succession outreach specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, she helps farmers figure out what to do with their farms when they’re ready to retire. 

A flood of farmers will soon face that question. The average Wisconsin farmer is nearly 57, and a growing share are 65 or older.  

For generations, the answer was simple: Hand off the land and operations to their kids. But farmers are increasingly finding their grown children have other plans. 

To fund their retirement, today’s farmers will often weigh whether to rent or sell their land to larger agricultural operations, real estate developers, energy companies or even private equity firms. 

Meanwhile, a new generation of aspiring farmers is struggling to get started. Many didn’t grow up on farms and don’t have the land they need. In surveys, beginning farmers nationwide say their biggest challenge is finding affordable farmland. 

Nationally, nearly 70% of all farmland is expected to change hands in the next 20 years, whether through inheritance or sale, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. What happens to that land will determine whether Wisconsin’s farmers can retire comfortably, and whether small farms have a place in the state’s future. 

“If we want land to be available to new or beginning farmers, figuring out ways that the land can be affordable for them and still provide the income that the owner generation needs is key,” Kirkpatrick said.

Experts say meeting those two goals will require a combination of strategies including tax incentives, conservation easements and loan assistance. But a group of Wisconsin lawmakers is looking to make a dent in the problem with a simple step: a website to connect those with farmland for sale or rent to those looking to start new farms.

A group of Republican lawmakers introduced Assembly Bill 411 and its Senate counterpart, SB 412, this summer. The legislation would direct the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection to create a “farmland link” program to assist farmers with transferring property. Central to that effort, the bill instructs DATCP to build and maintain a website where farm owners could post land for sale or rent, and beginning farmers could inquire about the opportunities they’re looking for, including the chance to be mentored by an experienced farmer before taking the reins.

The legislation’s lead author, Rep. Clint Moses, R-Menomonie, grew up on a dairy farm and now runs a roughly 50-head beef operation. He’s watched farmland prices rise, much like home prices. 

“It’s much, much more challenging than it was even five to 10 years ago,” Moses said. 

It’s not just a cost problem, Moses said. In the past, farmers looking to pass on their land would talk to their neighbors to see who was interested. Today, those communities are often less connected, so prospective farmers need other ways to find land, Moses said. That’s the purpose of a farmland link website.

“It kind of allows them to not have to go out and sift through all the other real estate listings,” Moses said. 

Eight other states, including neighboring Minnesota and Michigan, have land link programs run in whole or in part by state or local governments. In Wisconsin, where the previous state-run program shut down around a decade ago, only regional nonprofit organizations now offer the service.

While some Wisconsin farm advocates are optimistic the bill could chip away at a tough problem, others say it lacks the funding and specifics to make it work. 

Pair finds farm of their dreams

Les Macare and Els Dobrick of Racing Heart Farm in Colfax found their 36 acres in the Farmland Clearinghouse listings, published by the Minnesota-based nonprofit Land Stewardship Project. 

It was 2016, and the two lived in Minneapolis and rented farmland in Stillwater, where they grew vegetables for Minneapolis farmers markets and a CSA.

But they were getting tired of commuting 40 minutes every morning and evening. 

“We knew either we were going to start looking for land, or not farm,” Macare said.

From the listing, the former sheep and vegetable farm in Dunn County sounded like a dream. The owners, a pair of sisters and their young families, were looking to move somewhere less rural. When Macare and Dobrick visited, the rolling hills and rocky outcroppings reminded Macare of their home state of Connecticut. 

“We got back in the car and we looked at each other like, can we make this happen? Because it was absolutely the perfect thing for our farm business, and for us,” Macare said.

Getting financing took more than nine months, but the sellers waited. That, Macare said, is one benefit of this kind of listing service: The buyers and sellers know the farm business and its particular challenges.

Many landowners who advertise through the Clearinghouse are motivated by more than money, said Karen Stettler, who oversees the listings for the Land Stewardship Project. Many have cultivated their land organically for years and want to see their farms continue the same way.

“People have a lot of connection to land and to what they’re doing on farms and so are very good stewards and caretakers of their land, and they’re wanting to make sure that the next generation also has that same sort of value and vision around stewardship,” Stettler said.

Today, Macare is grateful for the opportunity to raise their vegetables and sheep on their own land. 

“The cost of land has just gotten really astronomical,” Macare said. “I feel so lucky that we bought when we did because I don’t know that 10 years later I would be able to even consider spending what I think the value of this land is now based on seeing prices around us change.”

How would the program work?

If the proposed legislation passes, Wisconsin will offer a similar service to the one Macare used, but the one-page bill offers little detail on how it would work. 

That might be a good thing, said Dan Bauer, program supervisor for the Wisconsin Farm Center at DATCP. His office would oversee the program if the Legislature passes the bill and it’s signed into law. 

The broad nature of the bill could allow his team to create what they think will be most effective, Bauer said. 

He first heard about the bill around the time it was introduced in August, when his department was asked to estimate its cost. They budgeted $66,800 in one-time costs for building the website and $100,300 a year for a full-time staff person to help design and promote it, as well as to provide “shoulder-to-shoulder, on-the-ground, wraparound farmland access services” to site users. They added another $5,000 for initial education, outreach and marketing efforts. 

For the plan to work, Bauer said, staff will need to reach out to farmers who are preparing to transition out of farming and encourage them to advertise their land. Farmers will also need expert help before, during and after any land transfer. 

“A website by itself is not going to deliver the desired outcomes as a stand-alone,” Bauer said. “To really design and launch a program that the state would be happy with, I think it has to be a combination of the website and then also that on-the-ground coaching and advising and mentorship.”

The bill doesn’t include any appropriations, so if it passes, Bauer said the department “would have to explore its options” to cover the $172,100 total. 

While Wisconsin’s two nonprofit-run farmland link programs primarily serve farmers who use organic or “sustainable” practices, the state-run program would serve all kinds of farms and farmers, Moses said. 

Bauer and an agency spokesperson said they knew the Farm Center previously administered a similar program, but they did not know how it worked, when it operated or why it closed. Ryan LeCloux, a Legislative Reference Bureau analyst, said the prior program began in 1993 as part of DATCP’s Farmers Assistance Program and existed until at least 2015, before it was removed from the agency’s website.

In any case, Bauer said, his team would likely create the new program from scratch. “Even if we had really good information on how the last program was operated, I’m not even sure how relevant it would be when you consider just how much technology has advanced in the last 10, 15, 20 years.” 

Need is real, advocates say

Before the bill was introduced, representatives of a handful of organizations that support farmers and aspiring farmers were already discussing such a possibility. A working group convened by the Farmland Access Hub began meeting last year after members identified the idea as a top priority.

“The big elephant in the room is that Wisconsin doesn’t have a (state-run) Farm Link program,” said Mia Ljung, a member of that working group and a community development educator for Outagamie and Winnebago counties through UW-Madison Extension. 

“Not to say that it’s going to be a quick fix, but if you don’t have a Farm Link program in your state, it’s going to be much harder to make those connections between current land holders, land owners and land seekers.”

The group has been studying how such programs work in other states. That research is especially important as legislators consider the bill, Ljung said, calling the proposed budget “very slim.” 

“If the initiative will be supported by enough infrastructure, funding and outreach, I am supportive because there’s a big need,” Ljung said.

The state’s biggest farm lobby has officially backed the bill. Jason Mugnaini, executive director of government relations at the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, said supporting Wisconsin’s current and future farmers will take a variety of strategies, from creating conservation easements to helping farm families get health insurance.

Creating a land link program would be a key step, Mugnaini said. “It’s a challenge for those young folks, so finding access to land is one of the easiest ways that they can start farming full time,” Mugnaini said.

Still, the proponents agree it will take much more to get land into the hands of a new generation of small farmers.

“It’s a good tool in the toolbox, but it’s just one part of a very difficult and challenging discussion that has to be had, not only just in Wisconsin, but throughout the United States: Who are the next generation of farmers going to be? Where are they going to find the ability to continue farming, and how are we going to continue to feed the United States of America?” Mugnaini said.

Among the other challenges to address are the reasons farmers may be reluctant to list their land. Many farmers invest nearly everything they have into their farms. This means that some don’t pay enough in Social Security taxes to qualify for payments, or the payments they receive are minimal.

Farmers often need their land to pay their bills after they retire, said Kirkpatrick, the farm succession outreach specialist.

Fearing a hefty capital gains tax bill, many farmers opt not to sell during their lifetimes. But the idea of renting to someone just getting started in a tough business may sound risky, and beginning farmers may not be able to pay as much as bigger players can.

“If the owner generation is dependent on the sale or some sort of income coming from farmland or other assets for their late years, they’re going to be making decisions that they perceive as less risky to them,” Kirkpatrick said, explaining that many will choose to rent to an established farm operation that’s looking to expand. 

Beginning farmers need affordable land, Kirkpatrick said, “and we also need to make sure that that owner generation is able to live and age gracefully.”

A land link program won’t change the economics of the market, but Kirkpatrick thinks such a website, combined with proactive succession planning, could help farmers achieve their own goals for their land.

“I think there are a lot of farm owners that would love to see their farm used in a similar way of, you know, raising a family on it … And to be honest, it would be great for rural communities to still have those farms,” Kirkpatrick said. “If this linking program helps them realize that that’s possible, that’s great.”

“I think that we need to really think about what that generation of owners need and how we can help them plan in a way that feels right for them, and also give opportunities to others,” Kirkpatrick said.

Critics call bill ‘incomplete’

Meanwhile, several other farm lobby groups in the state have taken a neutral stance on the bill. That includes state associations of producers of cattle, corn, pork and vegetables, as well as Wisconsin Farm Credit Services and the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, a nonprofit that researches and promotes sustainable farming practices. 

“This bill is incomplete as written and requires funding to be successful,” read the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute’s comments on the legislation. “However, we encourage the idea and want to explore this option further.”

Chuck Anderas, the institute’s policy director, said he’s worried that the bill doesn’t include any appropriations. 

“That doesn’t mean that there’s no plans ever to include funding for it, but it needs to be funded enough to be successful,” Anderas said. “Otherwise, it could just be like a website that doesn’t really get used all that much.” 

That could discourage farmers and land seekers who come to the site hoping for help, Anderas said.

“We’d rather see it not happen than happen in a way that sets it up to fail.”

Neither the Senate nor Assembly versions of the bill have any Democratic co-sponsors. Sen. Brad Pfaff, D-Onalaska, serves on the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Revenue, which is currently reviewing the bill. 

Pfaff said creating a farmland link program is “an excellent idea” but the bill is “incomplete.”

“Let’s hope that we can get some more meat on the bones here and be serious about the piece of legislation, and hopefully we can get it passed before the legislative session comes to an end.”

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

Dream of buying a small farm in Wisconsin? New legislation aims to make the process easier 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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• Pulaski High School students have kept their community informed through the Pulaski News for more than 80 years.

• As local news has dwindled nationwide, the Pulaski News has become a fixture in the community.

• The publication’s niche is positive news on community members, but some wish it included independent, critical coverage. One thing it’s missing is coverage of village board meetings, for example. 

• Educators say students learn soft skills, like how to communicate with others, through their work on the paper.

“The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn’t introduce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead.”

Three weeks into the school year at Pulaski High School, six teenagers sit around a cluster of desks, listening intently as journalism instructor Amy Tubbs taught them the mechanics of writing a news story. 

While Tubbs knows it might sound harsh, the task of hooking readers carries weight for the students. For more than eight decades, Pulaski High School’s student newspaper has been the community’s newspaper of record, as the only news outlet consistently covering the rural village. 

As local news has dwindled across the country, Pulaski News has become a fixture of the community, a tool to prepare students for the workforce and the last official source keeping residents informed about hyperlocal happenings. 

Through routine practice with writing, interviewing, photography and media literacy, the teenagers secure skills that prepare them for life after high school. Students say working for the paper helps them feel closer to their northeast Wisconsin community. 

“I joined last year because I really love writing, and I saw this as an opportunity to get to do that,” sophomore Dellah Hall said. “I’m now able to write not just for school and grades, but this is for the community.”

Along the way, the paper has secured a level of community buy-in that might feel foreign to some news organizations today, as trust in news declines. Students nurture this by regularly sharing feel-good stories.

For example, freshman Neville Nguyen is writing a profile on a well-known “legend of Pulaski”: an 84-year-old woman who runs the local McDonald’s drive-through every morning. Nguyen’s article is going to be published in the Pulaski News’ Thanksgiving edition, an annual feature that highlights someone who has something for which to be thankful. 

“Its own kind of niche … That’s not necessarily something that a bigger paper is going to pick up … There’s definitely very much a hometown kind of feel to it,” Tubbs said. 

‘Pulaski needs a newspaper’

Roughly 20 miles outside of Green Bay, the village of Pulaski sits amid an expanse of farmland. The modest 3,700-person town straddles Brown, Oconto and Shawano counties. 

The area has a turbulent history with local news. Residents saw a flurry of different papers stumbling to provide the headlines before Pulaski High School took the reins in the 1940s.

During the 1920s, residents relied on the Pulaski Herald. Archives of the Herald are sparse, but they show it ceased publication by the 1930s, when a resident launched the Pulaski Tri-Copa. In 1939, the Tri-Copa abruptly announced it would be rebranding, ambiguously citing “skirmishes” over the previous year.

“We don’t care to divulge what we have up our sleeve at this time,” the Tri-Copa’s farewell edition read. “It will be more pleasant to surprise you, but take our word for it, you are going to get more paper for your money.”

Two months later, the paper restarted as the Tri County News. It ran for three years before folding due to financial issues brought on by the Great Depression. 

Leaders at Pulaski High School saw an opportunity for their student newspaper, which was roughly four years old, to fill the gap left by the Tri County’s closure. Ahead of the 1942-43 school year, the paper debuted a new title: The Pulaski News. 

“Pulaski needs a newspaper,” the first edition read. “To fill that need; to provide a means of informing the parents and community on the progress of the school; to provide the community proper channels for information, news, and advertising; and give students experience in journalism the Pulaski Board of Education authorized the publishing of a newspaper.”

When Pulaski News began publishing, it was tabloid-sized. A team of students handled the enterprise’s business aspects, including selling ads across the community. 

Today, 83 years’ worth of newspapers — including those early editions — live on a classroom shelf in dozens of hardcover books. In its current iteration, the paper is lengthier and printed in color, but the model remains largely the same.

Although Pulaski’s students fit within a nationwide demographic that consumes much of their news online, the writers still find appeal in the print product’s legacy. Senior Madelyn Rybak said that while she reads the majority of her news online on her phone, writing for Pulaski News makes her want to consume more print stories. Her parents subscribe to the Green Bay Press-Gazette’s print edition, which she reads.

“I like the feeling of holding the newspaper,” Rybak said. “It kind of feels like I’m more connected to the stories… instead of just being behind my phone.” 

A ‘valuable service’

At the front of the Pulaski News’ classroom, a calendar governing the paper is posted on the whiteboard: Students turn in stories one week before the paper is sent to press every other Tuesday. It’s printed on Wednesdays and delivered on Thursdays. The school mails roughly 1,000 copies to subscribers, who pay $30 or $35 annually. Eight local businesses sell another 100 copies for $1 each.

Each semester, roughly a dozen students work on the paper for class credit. Course enrollment is fueled largely by word-of-mouth between friends or parents encouraging their teenagers to follow in their footsteps. In the summer, students vie for five part-time positions that pay $11 per hour. 

The operation has felt increasingly crucial as Pulaski feels the national trend of thinning local news coverage. 

Nearby papers once covered Pulaski more closely than they do today. Now, regional news outlets sometimes drop in for flashier stories, such as crime issues, but there’s no source of consistent information about local events beyond what the students publish.  

“You’ve seen other local papers close and their communities really don’t have anything,” said Bob Van Enkenvoort, the school district’s communications coordinator and the paper’s editor. “So the district sees this as a valuable community service.” 

Though the students fill a hyperlocal information gap, relying on a school-sponsored paper means the town still lacks independent, critical coverage — like an increasing number of places across the U.S. 

“It doesn’t really have a good feel for political issues in town, so the community is not all that well served, as far as coverage of local village issues like the village board meetings or growth in the village, so that’s sort of a negative,” said Steve Peplinski, a local resident creating a digital archive of Pulaski’s newspapers for the village’s museum. Peplinski wrote for Pulaski News himself when he was in high school. 

While the school district’s administration doesn’t decide what Pulaski News covers — “I’ve never really had anyone say ‘you can’t do this’ or ‘you can do this.’ That’s my decision,” Van Enkenvoort said — the staff generally doesn’t wade into hard news. 

Outside of the routine sports, local events and school news, the staff has carved out a niche creating more “positive stories”: They profile interesting community members and spotlight Pulaski alumni doing good deeds. 

While some might have trepidation when it comes to speaking with journalists, that “hometown” feel of the paper has resulted in a deep trust among local residents. 

“It’s well known in the community,” Van Enkenvoort said. “People understand what the mission is, so I think they are willing to work with the students.”

Though Pulaski News is district-funded, the paper isn’t immune to the turbulence plaguing journalism today. The subscriber base skews older, and every obituary that publishes is a possible patron, Van Enkenvoort said. 

Securing soft skills

The first time Morgan Stewart, a 15-year-old sophomore, picked up the phone to call a subject for her story, she was so terrified that she shook. But over time, those nerves dissipated, and she’s found herself growing into more of a “people person.”

“I think I want to pursue doing journalism,” Stewart said. “I didn’t have much of a plan coming into high school, but after doing this … (Van Enkenvoort) has helped me a lot to find what I love most about Pulaski News, and it’s opened my eyes a lot to the future and what it holds for me.”

There’s always a learning curve at the start of a semester. Students are typically scared to make cold calls. They sometimes try to text community members, only to realize they’re messaging a landline. For their first class assignment, students write profiles about one another to practice asking good questions. 

With a few notable exceptions, many students who participate in the Pulaski News aren’t planning to go into the journalism field. But through the routine — and sometimes uncomfortable — work, they learn many “soft skills,” or traits that allow them to communicate and work well with others, Tubbs and Van Enkenvoort said. 

“We tend to try to get them away from their phones and talk to people face-to-face, so they get used to talking to adults and having to think on their feet and have conversations, which will help them when they’re interviewing for colleges or interviewing for jobs,” Van Enkenvoort said. “A lot of them are just not that comfortable with it at the start, but they get better and they feel more comfortable once they do.”

On paper, the experience allows Pulaski students to complete a class that the state considers “post-secondary preparation,” or training for life after high school. In the 2023-24 school year, 39% of Pulaski High School students participated in a “work-based learning program” like Pulaski News, far above the state average of 9%.

Connecting students to community

While stories on sports games and district updates are commonplace in Pulaski News,  students also devise the creative stories that fill the paper. In the process, many become more closely engrained in their community. 

Rybak is from Hobart, a roughly 20-minute drive from Pulaski, so she isn’t as familiar with the area as some of her classmates. Working for the paper has helped change that. When there’s pressure to come up with a story pitch, she finds herself scouring the internet and local organizations’ websites for events.

“We encourage the students to try to come up with story ideas for two reasons,” Van Enkenvoort said. “We need everybody’s eyes and ears out in the community. But also, if they come up with a story and they’re excited about it, they typically do a really good job on it.”

At the end of the year, Tubbs asks students to share their favorite stories. Without fail, it’s always the ones centering community members. 

That’s true for Rybak, whose standout story last year was a front-page feature on Pulaski’s summer school program. She interviewed four teachers, the program director and students who attended classes. 

“Our summer school doesn’t really get recognition, even though there’s a lot that goes into it,” Rybak said. “I kind of liked the feeling that I was shining a light on the people who do a lot of work in our community.”

“(The paper) makes me more aware of what’s going on in the community,” she said. “Through interviewing people who I would literally never talk to otherwise, it just helps me get to know the people there that I wouldn’t have known.”

Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus.

Meet the teens keeping this northeast Wisconsin village from becoming a news desert 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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• Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton recently unveiled a $2.1 million expansion to its dental training program, part of $20 million set aside by the Legislature specifically to target the state’s shortage of dental workers. 

• Officials identified the shortage before the COVID-19 pandemic and explored the issue after an influx of dental workers retired during the pandemic. 

• The issue? The state’s dental training programs were at capacity with long waiting lists. 

• They took their findings to lawmakers and lobbied for funding to expand training opportunities. 

• It will be a few years before students earn their credentials and get into the workforce.

It took Allison Beining and Kaitlyn Weyenberg almost three years to get accepted into Fox Valley Technical College’s dental hygiene program. While they inched up the waiting list for one of the coveted 15 spots, they completed dental assisting training, which taught them to operate radiographic equipment and sterilize medical instruments, among other skills.

Now, as the two students prepare to graduate and begin working as hygienists, the Appleton-based college is debuting a $2.1 million expansion to oral health training — so future students won’t have to wait as long to enroll. Across the state, 13 more campuses are unveiling similar projects. 

Following a $20 million investment from the Legislature, Wisconsin’s technical colleges are trying to solve the state’s dental worker shortage by revamping their oral health programs, constructing upgraded labs and enrolling hundreds more students. 

“We know that this is a need, and this expansion allows us to serve more students in these programs than we had previously, which means more hygienists, more assistants into the community and into the workforce quicker,” FVTC Chief Academic Officer Jennifer Lanter said.

Wisconsin’s dearth of dental workers has been well documented in recent years. Forty-two of Wisconsin’s 72 counties are impacted by the scarcity, according to the Rural Health Information Hub. 

Dentists are poorly distributed across the state, with an uneven share practicing in metropolitan areas and too few in rural regions. Too few dental hygienists and assistants — largely trained by technical schools — have entered the field to replace those who have retired in recent years.

Officials at nearly every Wisconsin technical college are looking to respond by expanding their training capacity. The technical college system trains about 2,200 students in oral health professions each year, and the new state funding will allow colleges to increase enrollment by about 10%, System President Layla Merrifield said. 

An influx of students graduating and entering the workforce should make booking oral health care appointments easier, industry officials say. 

“Not only was it a workforce issue for our dentist offices, but it was starting to impact patient care — access to care — where patients weren’t able to get their cleanings and their routine work done,” said Wisconsin Dental Association Executive Director Mark Paget. “It became a health issue for us, and thankfully, the Legislature understood the problem.”

‘It always boils down to money’

Industry leaders began staring down the barrel of a dental worker shortage roughly seven years ago. Then, an influx of hygienists retired during the COVID-19 pandemic, “throwing gasoline on the fire,” Paget said.

The dental association created a task force with the state’s technical college system, the Office of Rural Health and the Workforce Development Association to discuss solutions. 

It quickly identified a major snag keeping new workers from entering the profession: The state’s eight dental hygiene training programs were all at capacity, with students stuck on waiting lists to participate. 

“We met with the technical colleges several times and said, ‘OK, what would it take to increase your class sizes?’ Because that’s obviously where the problem is. There’s just not enough capacity for the schools to teach the classes,” Paget said. “The technical college said the magic words. It’s always money, right? It always boils down to money.”

Merrifield said the steep cost of installing equipment, such as chairs and tools, was a major barrier to colleges educating more students.

In FVTC’s case, that meant some of the dental lab spaces were physically cramped, which allowed room for fewer learners and sometimes led to errors. 

“The sterilization room … it was so small,” Beining, the student, recalled. “Things would get lost, people would get frustrated.”

In 2023, the dental association’s advocacy team lobbied the Legislature for more money to increase training capacity. Lawmakers allocated $20 million in that year’s budget to expand the oral health care workforce, such as increased class sizes, new programs and investments in equipment.

The funds flowed to the technical college system, which dispersed portions to schools as grants. Fourteen out of 16 colleges received a share, Merrifield said. 

While roughly half of the colleges offer dental hygiene programs, some funding went to assistant training and creating Expanded Function Dental Auxiliary certificate programs, which give advanced training to dental assistants. FVTC used grant funds to introduce an EFDA certificate this year.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Inside Lakeshore College’s dental lab, it might be easy to forget you’re on a college campus and not inside a dentist’s office. The space is outfitted with a reception desk and waiting room, 11 sleek dental chairs and a locker room for students to dress in their scrubs.

The college, based in Cleveland, Wisconsin, used its $1.2 million in grant funds to renovate its dental lab, upgrade equipment and introduce a dental hygiene associate degree. 

Previously, Lakeshore College offered only a semester-long dental assistant certificate. Now, the college will increase to training 15 assistant students each semester and enroll 10 more in the hygiene program. 

“There’s definitely a need in this area,” said Christina McGinnis, Lakeshore’s dental program coordinator. “Often when you call the dentist, it takes a long time to get in. So having more chairs, more students can definitely help fill that void in the local community.” 

Inside a newly constructed classroom, three stations are equipped with mannequin heads with wide-open mouths. The students will practice using their suction and cleaning instruments on the dummies before they work on real people. The simulators are just one of the technology upgrades the college was able to purchase with the grant funds, and they will help students become familiar with the tools they’ll use in the industry.

“(We’re) trying to stay on top of what’s out there, for what our students are going to be seeing when they go out to the community, working as assistants or hygienists,” McGinnis said. “They know what they’re going to be exposed to here, and then they’ll also see that in the dental world.”

Almost all Lakeshore College dental assisting students have a full-time job lined up when they graduate, McGinnis said, and it’s typical for students to enter the field earning $20 per hour. The college is waiting for a dental program accreditor to approve the hygienist degree. Officials hope it will launch in the fall of 2026.

Other Wisconsin technical colleges are starting programs tailored to needs in their service areas. For example, Madison Area Technical College recently renovated its lab and added an EFDA certificate program. Northcentral Technical College in Wausau, surrounded by rural counties with severe shortages, is introducing the state’s first dental therapist training. 

“If you’re growing up as a kid on Medicaid in the Northwoods, you almost never see a dentist. It’s very, very difficult to even see a hygienist,” Merrifield said. “So the idea with that particular program is to produce these professionals — not that they’re gonna compete with dentists because they can’t do everything that a dentist can do — but they can expand that access and make it a little bit easier.”

In the meantime, the industry just has to get through the next year or two before the additional students start graduating from the programs and filling the many empty jobs, Paget said. 

“The system works exactly how the system was supposed to work,” he said. “The technical colleges, the Legislature, the governor, everybody came together to solve a problem.”

This story was updated with the correct name for Lakeshore College. Wisconsin Watch regrets the error.

Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus.

Long wait for a dental appointment? Wisconsin tech colleges are working to fix that 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 new analysis finds that Wisconsin ranks 46th in college affordability. 

• The report, published annually by the nonprofit National College Attainment Network, focuses on each state’s “affordability gap” – the difference between the cost of public college and what students and their families can pay.

• Spokespeople for the Universities of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Technical College System say leaders at their respective institutions know students have unmet needs and are working to support them. 

• As a result of Wisconsin lawmakers spending less on higher education, some experts think tuition promise programs will be part of the solution.

Public college is less affordable in Wisconsin than in nearly every other state, according to a new analysis of 2022-23 school year data. The nonprofit National College Attainment Network, which advocates for college access, reports annually on each state’s “affordability gap” between the cost of college and what students and their families can pay. 

The analysis included 28 Wisconsin colleges, finding that all of the state’s public four-year schools and nearly 90% of the technical colleges were unaffordable.  

Just four states ranked lower than Wisconsin in the share of their colleges considered affordable: Delaware, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Rhode Island. Nationwide, nearly half (48%) of all public four-year colleges and more than a third (35%) of community or technical colleges were affordable, the report found. 

“We saw (Wisconsin) stand out as particularly unaffordable as compared to our national average and to the other states in the region,” said report author Louisa Woodhouse, a senior associate for the organization.

To estimate what students could pay at each school, Woodhouse added up the average grants, loans and work study payments they receive, as reported in a federal database. She added that to an estimate of summer wages — based on full-time work at the state minimum wage — and an “expected family contribution” using average Pell grant awards. 

Woodhouse compared those figures with each school’s published cost of attendance. That included tuition, fees and estimated costs of items like housing, food, books and transportation. She added a flat $300 for emergency expenses. 

The report considers a college affordable if attendance and emergency expenses totaled less than income and aid.

The study included 13 Wisconsin public colleges or universities that grant bachelor’s degrees, as well as 15 of the state’s 16 technical colleges. It excluded Madison College, which belongs to the technical college system but is classified as a four-year school in federal data.

None of the four-year schools and just two technical colleges were affordable, Woodhouse found.

Wisconsin technical college students face an average affordability gap of $1,336, nearly triple the $486 national average, Woodhouse calculated. 

Students at Wisconsin’s four-year schools experienced a $3,549 gap, more than twice the national average of $1,555. 

Calling affordability and accessibility “cornerstones of our mission,” Universities of Wisconsin spokesperson Ethan Schuh noted that the system charges the lowest average tuition rates in the Upper Midwest. 

“We recognize there can be affordability gaps,” Schuh said in an email, adding that the report’s “novel datasets and methodologies” might “unintentionally disadvantage universities with low tuition and limited aid,” like those in the UW system.

Schuh attributed cost issues raised in the report to broader national trends, which “underscore the need for continued investment in financial aid and student support.” 

“While we are not immune to these challenges, we are actively working to address them,” Schuh said. 

Wisconsin Technical College System spokesperson Katy Pettersen said the report “raises important concerns about affordability.” But she questioned whether the study’s methodology accurately evaluated the state’s tech colleges, where students often attend school part time while working full time. Many earn above minimum wage in Wisconsin’s competitive labor market, Pettersen said. 

Meanwhile, Pettersen said, Wisconsin’s technical colleges work differently than counterparts in other states, making them hard to compare. Wisconsin’s tech colleges emphasize hands-on education in technology-intensive labs, while many community colleges elsewhere prioritize lower-cost classroom education, Pettersen said. 

“We acknowledge that many students face unmet financial needs. Addressing these challenges is a priority, and we continue to explore ways to support students beyond tuition,” Petterson said in an email. “Affordability is a multifaceted issue, and while we recognize the challenges, we remain committed to providing high-value education and supporting students in every way we can.” 

Shrinking state funding for higher education

Wisconsin college costs are partially the result of state and federal policy decisions. Like many of their Midwestern peers, Wisconsin’s public colleges rely heavily on tuition, Woodhouse said.

Wisconsin’s state government allocates nearly 17% less funding per full-time student than it did in 1980, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association — a trend UW system leaders are closely watching.

Today, the state provides just 20% of the system’s budget, half the share it covered in 1985, Schuh said.

About 60% of university revenue now comes from tuition and fees, nearly triple the previous levels, Schuh added. 

“This shift has placed a growing financial burden on students and families, limiting access to the same educational opportunities that have long defined Wisconsin’s public universities,” Schuh said. 

Paying for college in Wisconsin could get more difficult in the coming years, Woodhouse said, pointing to recent federal cuts to food aid, Medicaid and other safety net programs. States often  fill the gap in those services by diverting money from education.

Colleges, in turn, may raise tuition to patch budget holes, putting college further out of reach. 

”That’s just another argument towards the importance of investing in higher education funding, both operational support for public institutions and also need-based aid in the years to come,” Woodhouse said.

Wisconsin tech college tuition over the last decade has risen no faster than inflation, Petterson said. At UW system campuses, tuition rose 4% to 5% this year, following a 10-year tuition freeze.

Political debates are swirling around the value of college, with Republicans increasingly asking whether pursuing a degree is worthwhile. Carole Trone, executive director of the Wisconsin-based Fair Opportunity Project, wants more bipartisan scrutiny of those high price tags.

“Are colleges doing everything they can do to keep the college costs down?” asked Trone, whose organization offers online counseling to help students nationwide apply to and pay for college. 

Some studies show inflation-adjusted tuition rates have plateaued or even declined, Trone said, but rent and other living costs are soaring. 

“The cost of college keeps going up because of all those other costs that, in some cases, are outside of a college’s control,” Trone said. 

Meanwhile, federal aid doesn’t stretch as far as it used to. Federal Pell grant awards, for instance, have increased more slowly than inflation. In 1975, they covered more than three-quarters of the average cost to attend a public, four-year university, according to the National College Attainment Network. That’s compared to just one-third of average attendance costs today.

UW ‘promise’ aims to fill gap for higher-need students

A growing number of Wisconsin students are eligible to have their full tuition and fees covered with the help of “promise” programs, which pick up remaining costs after eligible students use federal financial aid and scholarships. 

UW-Madison’s Bucky’s Tuition Promise, launched in 2018, helps students with household incomes of $65,000 or less. It covers most costs but excludes expenses like rent, groceries or textbooks.

The UW system expanded the program to other campuses in 2023 but cut it the next year due to budget woes. 

The system resumed the program this fall with private funding: Madison-based student loan guarantor Ascendium Education Group will cover costs for students in households making $55,000 or less. 

Until the program has stable funding, Woodhouse said, eligible students may hesitate to enroll in college for fear of being stuck with costs in future years.

Democratic state lawmakers want to allocate nearly $40 million to provide that stability. They introduced legislation on Thursday to extend the Wisconsin Tuition Promise program with state dollars, covering costs for students of all UW schools except UW-Madison whose families make $71,000 or less. 

“Higher education powers Wisconsin and cost should not prevent students from families in every income bracket in Wisconsin from having the opportunity to earn a degree,” Senate Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, said in an emailed statement.

Schuh said the proposal would allow Wisconsin to compete as other states take steps to lower college costs. 

“It would eliminate the affordability gap for thousands of students and restore the promise of higher education as a public good,” Schuh said. “It would ensure that the opportunities available to past generations remain accessible to all Wisconsinites today and into the future.”

Disclosure: Ascendium Education Group is a donor to Wisconsin Watch but has no control over its editorial decisions. A complete list of donors and funders, as well as donation acceptance policies, can be found on our funding page. 

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

Study: Wisconsin trails most states in college affordability 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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• Twelve years after the Kewaunee Power Station shuttered, wounding the local economy, owner EnergySolutions is seeking government approval to build a new nuclear plant at the site — and is trying to buy hundreds of acres of farmland around it. 

• EnergySolutions and gas and electric utility WEC Energy Group say they’re eyeing the station for a new build because they expect data centers, artificial intelligence and industrial growth to increase electricity demand in the coming decades.

• While local residents hope a new plant could bring economic growth, unanswered questions about use of the additional land are making some uneasy.

On a soupy September morning in northeast Wisconsin, a blue semi-truck arrives at Tisch Mills Farm Center in the tiny town of Carlton. Under the hopper of a massive grain bin, roughly 50,000 pounds of ground corn slide down a chute and into the truck’s open back. Within minutes, the driver pulls back onto the road to haul the feed to an Algoma dairy farm, where livestock will eat it. 

This process repeats roughly a dozen times each day, with some trucks transporting grain or fertilizer to customers in Illinois and Minnesota. Business is booming, but President Chris Kohnle worries the 80-year-old, family-run establishment could soon take a blow. 

The reason? The nuclear power plant a few miles up the road, which has sat lifeless for over a decade. 

Twelve years after the Kewaunee Power Station shuttered, wounding the local economy, owner EnergySolutions is seeking government approval to build a new nuclear plant at the site — and is trying to buy hundreds of acres of farmland around it. While local residents hope a new plant could bring economic growth, unanswered questions about use of the additional land are making some uneasy. 

“We’ll be losing land that people grow grain on, that people have fertilized, so that will be a detriment to us,” Kohnle said. 

EnergySolutions and gas and electric utility WEC Energy Group say they’re eyeing the station in the small Kewaunee County town for a new build because they expect data centers, artificial intelligence and industrial growth to increase electricity demand in the coming decades. The plans are in the early stages, and construction likely wouldn’t start until the early 2030s if approved.  

Though they’re attempting to purchase hundreds of acres from locals, the companies haven’t confirmed they intend to construct anything at the site beyond a nuclear plant. But residents are demanding reassurance that the land won’t be used for controversial projects dividing other communities, such as data centers. Officials haven’t ruled out the possibility. 

Town of Carlton Chairman David Hardtke says town officials have heard from data center companies interested in the site, which is making people nervous.

 “The people in Carlton don’t want anything to do with that,” he said.

Despite the nerves, many residents are eager for the economic boost a new nuclear plant could bring to the region. Nuclear energy experts in Wisconsin say communities often enjoy hosting a plant because it creates stable jobs and increases local tax revenues. The project would likely bring thousands of jobs across different sectors, according to WEC.

“The nuclear waste is sitting there anyway, so they can’t do anything else with the property,” Hardtke said. “I’d like to see it rebuilt. They never should have shut it down. … Just rebuild it and start producing power again and we can lower our taxes again.”

A bitter history 

Though the industrial 900-acre facility clashes with its picturesque Lake Michigan backdrop and the surrounding farmland, it once lived in harmony with Kewaunee County and the 1,000-person town of Carlton.

Opened in 1974, the plant was Carlton’s economic engine. The roughly $400,000 it paid in utility taxes funded most of the town’s budget. The station provided hundreds of jobs and employed hundreds of visiting workers who regularly traveled to the area and fueled the local hospitality industry.

But that symbiotic relationship turned sour in 2012 when Dominion, the plant’s then-owner, abruptly announced it would close the facility for economic reasons. 

“I was plowing my field over there on the corner, and channel two, channel five, channel 11, channel 26 — they’re all sitting down there at the end of the field waiting for me,” said Hardtke, gesturing to the land that stretches beyond his yellow house. “They wanted a sob story. That’s what they wanted. And, me, I said, ‘The sun’s gonna come up tomorrow morning, and life goes on.’”

Though the town official was nonchalant about the news, it wasn’t so easy. In the years that followed, the region’s economy took repeated hits. 

Residents recall a mass exodus of plant workers, whose sizable salaries once circulated through the county. Scores of employees put their houses on the market at once, causing prices to drop and sales to slow. Absent the tax revenue from the plant, Carlton officials were forced to raise taxes to close the roughly $400,000 hole in their budget. Kewaunee County introduced a sales tax that continues today. 

Finally, a legal battle between Carlton and Dominion ensnared several parties for years. 

In 2015, Carlton officials hired appraisers who assessed the shuttered plant’s property at $457 million. Dominion sued the town, claiming it was worth about $1.3 million. After years of clashing, they settled outside of court in 2017, agreeing to set the property’s value at $15 million and for the county, the school district and the technical college to repay the nearly $12 million in property taxes Dominion paid during the battle.

“They were big business. They didn’t care about Kewaunee, or the town of Carlton, or anything. All they wanted was dollar signs,” Hardtke said. 

Dominion sold the plant to Utah-based EnergySolutions in 2022. Since then, a smaller number of workers have chipped away at decommissioning the plant — a decades-long process of cleaning up nuclear waste.

But absent the big industry, the area has become “stagnant,” observes Kewaunee resident Dan Giannotti. He said there’s a major lack of development and no real economic draw for people to stay in the area.

“A lot of people drive on (state Highway) 29 into Green Bay for decent-paying jobs. Every day, back and forth. That’s a 30-mile trip, basically. … These poor kids that graduate high school,” Giannotti said, “they’re gonna have to leave to find good-paying jobs.”

Data center rumors spook Carlton

Several months ago, Carlton resident Glenn Mueller received unexpected mail: an offer from EnergySolutions to buy the 60 acres of land he owns neighboring the nuclear plant at $20,000 per acre. 

When several residents received such offers, rumors about the company’s intentions quickly swirled. 

Frustrated by EnergySolutions “buying up land behind our backs” and eager for answers, Hardtke organized a town hall meeting. Over 100 residents attended and demanded transparency about what the land would be used for. 

The next week, EnergySolutions announced it is seeking the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s approval to build a new nuclear facility at the site. 

“We are excited to partner with WEC Energy Group to explore the next generation of nuclear power,” EnergySolutions CEO Ken Robuck said in a press release. “With rising energy demand driven by data centers, artificial intelligence and industrial growth, the need for reliable, carbon-free power has never been greater.”

Nuclear energy has garnered increased support from state lawmakers in recent years, especially as data centers are planned to sprout up around the state. A bipartisan bill passed in July made it easier to construct nuclear power plants. 

“If you look around the country, different legislators and different legislative bodies and policymakers in general are trying to figure out how to position their states to benefit from that growth and not be left behind,” said Paul Wilson, chair of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics. 

“I think our state policymakers are keen to make sure Wisconsin doesn’t miss out on this,” Wilson said.

Kewaunee is an attractive location because it has hosted a nuclear reactor before, Wilson said. Plus, some infrastructure like transmission lines is still in place. If the site was to be pursued for a data center, the location’s proximity to fresh water is also ideal — data centers need cooling methods to prevent overheating, and Lake Michigan is a good source if used responsibly, Wilson said. 

At an August meeting, Hardtke said the town board heard from data center companies interested in the site. He feels EnergySolutions is “playing with a lot of people’s lives” by not being more transparent. 

“I’m dead set against (building a data center). I was born a farmer, and I’m always proud to be one,” Hardtke said. “I don’t like to see land wasted for that.”

EnergySolutions did not respond to multiple calls and emails from Wisconsin Watch. Asked if there are hopes to build a data processing center at the site, Brendan Conway, the WEC spokesperson, said, “We work regularly with companies across all industries looking to expand their operations. I do not have any specific information about any new developments but we expect electricity demand in Wisconsin to grow significantly and steadily in the coming decades.”

The nonanswers have left Mueller torn about whether to sell his acreage, which borders the nuclear site. He currently leases some of the land to a local family business that uses it to grow hay, and Mueller lets people hunt in the wooded areas. He’s always figured he’d pass it on to his kids. Now, he’s not so sure. 

To make an informed decision, Mueller wants to know what EnergySolutions would use the land for, but nobody has given him those answers. He’s spent hundreds of dollars to have a lawyer review the offer and has debated making a counteroffer. 

“There’d be a lot of people pissed off if I do sell it,” Mueller said. But he’s “not that young anymore,” he said, and the sale could allow him to fully retire and help his children financially.  

“I think everybody in the town is agreeable, happy that nuclear was here,” he said. “I don’t think anybody is upset that it would come back in, but we’re just all upset, as far as we don’t get any answers.”

Eager for an economic boost 

While nuclear power’s potential return to the county has sparked many questions, locals are still largely optimistic about the economic boost it would bring. 

“Jobs, economics, taxes — I think it’d be a great thing,” said Milt Swagel, a county board member who has lived on his Kewaunee farm since 1987. “We have lots of power. I don’t want to be like California or other places with brownouts or blackouts. No, I like my lights.”

Giannotti attends a weekly coffee group with eight other Kewaunee residents, and the nuclear plant has been a popular topic of discussion, including speculation about what will be built at the site. He’s eager to see if nuclear power’s return would help Kewaunee County grow. 

“If you bring in an employer like that who is paying, you’re going to see development,” Giannotti said. “You’re going to see new homes being built and more businesses move in. Because right now, we’re just stagnant. Nothing’s happening to speak of.”

“If that power plant gets going, I think that could ignite.”

WEC Energy Group estimated the project would employ thousands of workers in the region. This includes electrical, civil, chemical and mechanical engineering workers to design and operate the new reactor, plus skilled trades workers such as electricians, welders, pipefitters and construction workers to build it. 

“What you typically find is that communities that have hosted nuclear reactors quite like having them there, because it’s good jobs, it’s tax dollars,” said Ben Lindley, assistant professor at UW-Madison’s Department of Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics. 

The addition could also keep more young nuclear engineers in Wisconsin. The state only has one plant, located in Two Rivers, so nuclear engineering graduates often have to look for jobs in other states to break into the field, Lindley said. 

He added that the plant would likely require bringing in nonlocal workers for construction. Even then, the workers would spend several years in the region and “inject money into the local economy.” 

Andy DiMezza, who lives in nearby Denmark, said he would be eager to work at the nuclear plant. DiMezza studied nuclear chemistry in college, and his wife, Sarah, interned at Kewaunee Power Station when it was operating. She also worked on the Two Rivers plant’s emergency response plan — government-mandated preparation for radiological emergencies — and would want to contribute to Kewaunee’s. 

There are still “numerous steps to get through” to determine if the site is suitable for a new plant, Conway said, including the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s “rigorous” permitting process. It could take up to two years for the project to move forward. 

If a permit is granted, Conway estimated construction on the plant could begin in the early 2030s, and the plant could come online in 2038 or 2039.

Before that day comes, residents hope they can make their voices and concerns heard. 

“I’m trying to make as much noise as possible,” Hardtke said. 

“People in Carlton want to be informed,” he said. “They, I think, have a love for the town, just like I do.”

Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus.

Nuclear power could return to Kewaunee County. Some locals have reservations. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• Wisconsin Watch asked two professors in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics how a new nuclear plant in Kewaunee County would impact the local workforce and economy.

• They believe there is a ready pipeline of qualified workers in the state to keep up with that added demand.

• Electrical, civil, chemical and mechanical engineering workers will be needed to design and operate the new reactor. The project will also require many people in the skilled trades, such as electricians, welders, pipefitters and other construction workers.

• Many institutions could play a role in preparing workers for jobs at a nuclear power plant, including UW-Madison and Lakeshore Technical College.

In a small farming community off the shore of Lake Michigan, Kewaunee County’s nuclear power plant has sat lifeless for over a decade. But increased demand for power driven by artificial intelligence and data centers could change that. 

Plant owner EnergySolutions and WEC Energy Group are asking the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for approval to build a new nuclear facility at the site. If it is granted, officials expect construction could begin in the early 2030s and the plant could come online by 2040. The process would likely require labor from thousands of workers, WEC spokesperson Brendan Conway said.

Wisconsin Watch asked two professors in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics how this might impact the local workforce and economy. 

Here’s what to know. 

Does Wisconsin have enough nuclear engineers for a new plant?

Bringing a new power station online means Wisconsin would need more nuclear engineers to design and operate the plant.

Department Chair Paul Wilson and Assistant Professor Ben Lindley believe there is a ready pipeline of qualified workers in the state to keep up with that added demand. 

UW-Madison “pumps out” nuclear engineers, but Wisconsin has only one nuclear plant located in Two Rivers, Lindley said. This leaves some graduates to look for employment in other states. 

“A lot of them want to stay in the state, and so having more job opportunities would certainly help,” Lindley said. 

While there is increased interest in nuclear engineering professions today, Lindley said, the industry does have a gap that is harder to fill: workers in their 40s. 

Many people who flocked to nuclear engineering in the 1970s and 1980s are now retiring, leaving a gap between aging workers and those entering the workforce. The profession has the challenge of training up these younger workers while trying to hang onto older employees for as long as possible.

“When we stopped doing nuclear in the U.S. and elsewhere in the West, there’s that gap in skills of people who weren’t really trained up in the ’90s,” Lindley said. “That’s a trickier one to fill. And the whole sector has that problem.”

There were 78 nuclear engineers employed in Wisconsin in 2022, the most recently available state data shows, and the workforce was projected to shrink by seven jobs by 2032. Those in the occupation made a median salary of $106,740 in 2024. Nuclear engineers typically need a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering or a related field at minimum.

What other workers will be needed?

In the grand scheme, nuclear engineers are likely the minority of workers who will be needed if a new plant opens, Lindley said. The construction and the operation of the plant are distinct phases that will require a healthy mix of blue- and white-collar workers. 

While Kewaunee Power Station is still standing, EnergySolutions has been decommissioning it — cleaning up nuclear waste and radioactive materials to dismantle the plant — since 2022, meaning the old reactor will not be brought back online, Conway said. It would be a new facility, requiring the construction of a nuclear reactor. 

The companies will need electrical, civil, chemical and mechanical engineering workers to design and operate the new reactor. They’ll also need many people in the skilled trades, such as electricians, welders, pipefitters, and other construction workers to carry out the project. 

“What you’ve seen in other plants like this is, it’s a blend of training local people, sourcing from firms that are already in the state, including construction firms, and then also they’d probably need people coming in from outside in the building phase, as well,” Lindley said. “That’s just because of the amount of people you need, and it’s also the skills that you need. Ideally, you want construction firms involved who have been involved in other nuclear construction projects.”

This is where Wisconsin’s skilled labor shortages may be felt the most. The state has struggled to meet the demand for labor in such professions.

“You need a lot of people in the skilled trades,” Wilson said. “This is a national concern – of whether we can keep up the pipeline of workers.”

That’s why employers have sought to push more prospective workers into apprenticeships, or programs that combine paid, on-the-job training with employer-sponsored classroom learning at a technical college. Apprenticeship participation hit an all-time high in 2024, with construction apprenticeships topping the list. However, Wisconsin still lags neighboring states in apprenticeship participation.

The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development includes construction workers, welders and electricians on its  “hot jobs” list — which names well-paying, high-growth jobs. It estimates the occupations have a combined 6,000 jobs open annually. 

Who trains people for this work? 

Many institutions could play a role in preparing workers for the roles needed at a nuclear power plant. 

Roughly 30 students graduate annually from UW-Madison’s nuclear engineering program.

Lakeshore Technical College in Cleveland has been training workers who have hands-on experience at the Kewaunee Power Station, despite it being nonoperational. The college partners with EnergySolutions to supply workers for the decommissioning process. Company officials have said the partnership allows people to work at the plant for several years and then take their skills to other nuclear facilities. 

Beyond this, there’s been a “chicken and egg” problem when it comes to expanding nuclear energy job training, Wilson said. Without a growing industry in the state, it’s been difficult to justify having more programs at higher education institutions. But that could change once Kewaunee Power Station’s future becomes clear. 

“If we were to have signals that these things would be growing, then I think we could do a lot of work,” Wilson said. “We would be eager to engage, from the University of Wisconsin here to some of those technical colleges to help them stand up and set up programs to make sure those people are prepared.”

Some skilled trades workers would also likely undergo further on-the-job training, Wilson said, because there are usually nuclear- and site-specific requirements beyond the typical union-based training to work at a power plant.

Here’s what the return of nuclear power to Kewaunee County means for Wisconsin’s workforce 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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• Incoming undergraduates to UW-Madison will have to fill out the CSS Profile to apply for institutional financial aid.  

• The form is available starting Oct. 1. 

• The CSS Profile will not replace the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which means new freshmen and transfer students will have to fill out both forms. 

• Wisconsin Watch and the Cap Times spoke to UW officials about why they are adding the form, as well as nonprofit leaders who have concerns about the move.

Students applying to the University of Wisconsin-Madison will soon need to complete a second, longer financial aid application if they want a share of the millions of dollars in financial aid the university gives out each year.  

Starting this fall, UW-Madison will require applicants to fill out the CSS Profile, an online application used by around 270 colleges, universities and scholarship programs to award institutional aid, separate from a different form used to apply for federal financial aid. Students can start working on their CSS Profile Oct. 1. 

Many colleges that use the CSS Profile are private. Others are highly selective public universities, such as the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia. In Wisconsin, two private schools also use the application: Beloit College and Lawrence University.  

UW-Madison says requiring the application will help direct funds to students who are most in need, but some student advocates worry the extra step could hinder the very students the university aims to help.  

Wisconsin Watch and the Cap Times teamed up to find out what students and their families need to know about this new requirement.

Who needs to complete the CSS Profile?  

Only incoming undergraduate students at UW-Madison who are U.S. citizens or eligible noncitizens must complete the CSS Profile to be considered for institutional financial aid. This group includes both new freshmen and transfer students.  

Continuing students and new graduate students don’t need to complete the form. The university encourages them to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, which guides eligibility for federal assistance.   

Does the CSS Profile replace the FAFSA? 

No. The FAFSA is used to apply for financial aid awarded by the U.S. government, including Pell grants and federal student loans. That form was simplified in recent years to make it easier for families to fill out, despite hiccups during the rollout process. Students who want to apply for federal aid still need to complete the FAFSA each year.  

The CSS Profile is a supplement to the FAFSA, said Taylor Odle, an assistant professor who studies education policy at UW-Madison. The application is run by the College Board, the not-for-profit membership organization that makes the Advanced Placement exams and SAT college admissions test. 

The CSS Profile helps colleges decide how to allocate their own financial aid and scholarship funds by gathering a more detailed picture of a student’s finances than the FAFSA offers. For instance, the application asks about medical debt and about businesses an applicant’s family may have.  

“If you’re a low-income student, while completing the CSS Profile is an additional step for you, it is often potentially in your best interest because it paints the truest picture,” Odle said. 

How much does it cost to complete the CSS Profile? 

UW-Madison applicants will be required to pay a $25 fee to complete the form. But that fee is automatically waived for applicants with a household income below $100,000. 

What’s the deadline for UW-Madison applicants to submit the CSS Profile? 

UW-Madison recommends students applying for the 2026-27 school year submit the CSS Profile by Dec. 1, 2025. Students may submit the form after that date, but December is the deadline for priority consideration for funds. 

Why is UW-Madison now requiring the CSS Profile? 

UW-Madison previously used the FAFSA to allocate all types of financial aid, said Phil Asbury, executive director of the university’s student financial aid office. The CSS Profile will allow UW-Madison to more specifically target university resources toward certain students, especially after the FAFSA recently got shorter, he said. 

“We’re really fortunate in that we have more students coming from low-income families or lower-income families each year. Those are really good things, and we want that to continue,” Asbury said. “But we also want to help as many families as we can, and so this will help us to better focus those funds on the families that need it the most.” 

Asbury worked with the CSS Profile in his previous positions at Northwestern University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While he doesn’t expect the form will be a struggle for UW-Madison applicants, he recognizes it’s an additional step. 

“If families know they will only qualify for a federal loan, or maybe they know they’re Pell Grant eligible and that’s all they need to go to school, then they can continue to only do the FAFSA,” Asbury said. 

UW-Madison provided roughly $200 million in institutional support last school year to undergraduate students, Asbury said. About $150 million was need-based financial aid. 

Students received on average about $17,000 in aid from the university last school year, Asbury said. Nonresident students may receive a bit more since their tuition rates are higher, he said. 

UW-Madison is requiring more information from families amid efforts to game the country’s financial aid system. For example, a Forbes article in March advised parents to use investments or businesses to generate losses that would reduce their adjusted gross income and then qualify them for financial assistance. 

People trying to hide assets on financial aid applications is “an open secret,” said Carole Trone, executive director of Fair Opportunity Project, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit that offers online counseling to help students across the country apply to and pay for college. She worries abuse of the financial aid system is increasing barriers for students who otherwise couldn’t afford to attend college. 

Why are some concerned about the newly required form? 

A 2021 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education called the CSS Profile “The Most Onerous Form in College Admissions.” Since then, the application has been shortened and now uses “skip logic” to bypass parts based on students’ answers to previous questions.  

UW-Madison is using a “lighter version” of the CSS Profile, which has fewer questions than the full version, Asbury said. 

Wisconsin Watch and the Cap Times asked the College Board for the maximum number of questions on the form and for a copy of the application in advance of its Oct. 1 launch. The College Board declined these requests. 

Unlike the FAFSA, the CSS Profile won’t pull financial information directly from an applicant’s tax returns, Trone said.  

Trone remembers completing the CSS Profile years ago when her three kids applied to college. The form asked the value of her 401(k) retirement account and her home and the balance on her mortgage.  

She is worried about students whose parents are unable to help sort through these kinds of questions. That’s why, when UW-Madison announced the new requirement, her team at Fair Opportunity Project started preparing to help students with the CSS Profile, too. 

“I’ll admit, even when I was filling out, I was like, ‘I think that’s the right answer,’” Trone said.  

“There’s no way a student’s going to know that. … Whereas with the FAFSA now you really don’t actually have to have a lot of stuff with you to be able to complete it anymore, with the CSS Profile, it’s going to be a work session.” 

Another key difference: On the FAFSA, students whose parents are divorced or separated need to provide information about the parent who provided more financial support over the last year. The CSS Profile requires information from all living biological parents, step-parents and adoptive parents, with exceptions for a handful of special circumstances, including when a parent is incarcerated, abusive or unknown.  

There are also differences for families who speak other languages. The FAFSA is available in English and Spanish, and families can read guides or request an interpreter in 10 other languages, including Korean, Arabic and French Creole. The CSS Profile is available only in English, with help available by chat, phone and email in Spanish.  

Some who advocate for college access worry UW-Madison’s new requirement will be an additional barrier for students who already struggle to get on the college track. 

“FAFSA itself has been a hurdle for some students applying to college,” said Chris Gomez Schmidt, executive director of Galin Scholars, a Madison nonprofit that coaches a handful of high school seniors through college admissions each year. “I think adding an extra, complicated financial application could potentially disproportionately affect students with fewer resources for applying to college, so students from urban or rural areas across the state of Wisconsin.” 

Galin Scholars plans to teach its participants about the CSS Profile during an October financial aid workshop but many students won’t be so lucky, Gomez Schmidt said.  

Trone at the Fair Opportunity Project isn’t convinced the new requirement will pay off for the university. She noted the vast majority of U.S. colleges don’t use the CSS Profile. 

“I’m curious to see how long UW does this,” Trone said. “Maybe they’ll do it for a couple years and realize they’re not actually getting that much better results.” 

What help will be available? 

As students work through the CSS Profile, they can click on help bubbles for more information. The College Board’s website offers additional guidance, too.  

As with other steps in applying for college, students can also seek help from their high school counselors. UW-Madison informed counselors across the state about the new application at a series of workshops in September, and its financial aid office is available to help applicants. 

“We do workshops on a monthly basis, and traditionally we’ve called those FAFSA Frenzies,” Asbury said. “We might have to rethink that name now, but we tend to do those throughout the year.” 

Applicants seeking more help can find a variety of videos and articles online about filling out the CSS Profile, made by government agencies, nonprofits and entrepreneurs across the country.  

Fair Opportunity Project will offer help with the CSS Profile at its one-on-one virtual counseling sessions, which are free to low-income and first-generation college students. Other students may access these sessions for a fee.   

The organization is hoping to make help even more accessible by launching a free chatbot that answers questions about the CSS Profile, but that task has proven more complicated than anticipated.  

The nonprofit built its existing FAFSA chatbot by training it with the hefty guides and updates the federal government releases each year. The CSS Profile is created by a private entity that isn’t required to make its documentation public. 

“We will need to spend more time converting available webinars and presentations into AI training materials. We need to raise more funds to get this extra work done,” Trone said. She hopes the chatbot will be available to the public by November.  

Meanwhile, she’s also looking into the “potential risks” of creating a chatbot specific to a privately owned application. 

“They are very proprietary about their products, like SAT and AP, so this is a real concern that we need to look further into,” Trone said. 

Why do other Wisconsin schools use CSS Profile? 

Beloit College is a private liberal arts school near the Illinois border that enrolls about 1,000 undergraduate students. The school started using the CSS Profile about six years ago, but only for international students, said Betsy Henkel, the college’s director of financial aid. 

“We also have an internal application,” Henkel said. “But as you can imagine, if students are applying to 10 schools for admission, the thought of doing one application and sending it to 10 schools is much more appealing than doing multiple financial aid applications with each of them.” 

When access to the federal government’s simplified FAFSA was delayed in recent school years, Beloit College temporarily used the CSS Profile to give domestic students a financial aid estimate while they waited, Henkel said. 

Lawrence University — a private liberal arts school in Appleton with roughly 1,500 students — has used the CSS Profile for over a decade, Ryan Gebler, the university’s financial aid director, said in an email.  

Similar to UW-Madison, Lawrence University uses a “lighter version” of the CSS Profile, with fewer questions, Gebler said. Overall, the application process has gone smoothly at Lawrence, he said. 

“Simply put: Compared to the FAFSA, the CSS Profile provides a more accurate calculation of what a student and their family can pay for college,” Gebler said.   

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

Becky Jacobs is an education reporter for the Cap Times. Becky writes about universities and colleges in the Madison region. Email story ideas and tips to Becky at bjacobs@captimes.com or call (608) 620-4064.

UW-Madison is changing its financial aid process. Here’s what to know. 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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• Alverno College, Herzing University, Gateway Technical College and Mount Mary University could lose millions of dollars in aid after the U.S. Department of Education announced plans to end grant programs it deemed unconstitutional.

• The grant programs offer federal aid to colleges and universities where designated shares of students are Black, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Asian American or Pacific Islander. 

• The Wisconsin colleges that would see the greatest impact are Hispanic-serving institutions, which means at least 25% of their students are Hispanic, among other requirements. 

• Experts say the grant programs were meant to level the playing field, and colleges often created supports with the federal funding that affect students of all demographics. 

• In addition, several Wisconsin colleges that could soon become Hispanic-serving institutions told Wisconsin Watch they plan to continue to pursue the designation.

Wisconsin colleges and universities with significant Hispanic and Latino populations could lose millions after the U.S. Department of Education announced that it plans to end several long-standing grant programs it says violate the Constitution. 

In Wisconsin, the change would affect Alverno College, Herzing University, Gateway Technical College and Mount Mary University. 

The seven grant programs in question award money to minority-serving schools for things like tutoring, research opportunities, counseling or campus facilities. 

The funds are available only to schools where a designated share of students are Black, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Asian American or Pacific Islander, though the money can be used for initiatives that serve students of all demographics at those schools. 

“Discrimination based upon race or ethnicity has no place in the United States,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. “The Department looks forward to working with Congress to reenvision these programs to support institutions that serve underprepared or under-resourced students without relying on race quotas.”

The $350 million previously allocated for grants for the 2025-26 school year will be “reprogrammed” to programs that “advance Administration priorities,” the department said.

The department will also discontinue existing grants, meaning schools that were previously awarded multi-year funding will not receive any remaining payments. 

The largest share of the affected schools are Hispanic-serving institutions, including four in Wisconsin. More than 600 colleges hold that designation, which the Department of Education has awarded for about 30 years to colleges that meet several qualifications including having an undergraduate student body that’s at least 25% Hispanic.

The announcement does not affect funding for tribal colleges or historically Black colleges. The Department of Education announced $495 million in additional one-time funding for historically Black colleges and for tribal colleges.

It’s unclear how much funding Wisconsin’s schools stand to lose in total. The newest on the list, Gateway Technical College, applied for funding for the first time in July, seeking $2.8 million over five years, spokesperson Lee Colony said. The school was still waiting for a decision when the department announced it was canceling the program. 

Wisconsin’s other three Hispanic-serving institutions did not answer questions from Wisconsin Watch. 

When Herzing University became a Hispanic-serving institution last year, Wisconsin Public Radio reported that the Kenosha school had received a $2.7 million five-year grant.

The list also includes both of Wisconsin’s women-only schools, Mount Mary University and Alverno College, the latter of which has recently faced money troubles. Its board of directors declared a financial emergency in 2024. After cutting 14 majors, six graduate programs and dozens of staff and faculty, the school and its accreditor say it’s now in a stronger financial position, but the school did not respond to further questions.

The cuts could be especially consequential in Wisconsin because the state’s minority-serving institutions are smaller schools with smaller budgets, said Marybeth Gasman, executive director of the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions.

“If they lose funding, it will hurt students — especially low-income and first-generation college students,” Gasman said.

But the announcement doesn’t necessarily seal the fate of these grant programs. Gasman anticipates lawsuits over the funds that were already awarded to institutions, on the grounds that the administration can’t rescind funds that Congress has allotted. 

“My hope is that Congress will step in and support these important institutions,” Gasman said.

Meanwhile, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities released a statement calling the decision “an attack on equity in higher education” that “erases decades of progress and hurts millions of students.” 

The organization said it would “continue to fight alongside students and institutions to defend these essential programs and ensure that opportunity, equity and investment in higher education are not rolled back.”

The case for HSIs

More than two-thirds of all Latino undergrads attend a Hispanic-serving institution, according to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. Proponents of the grant program say it helps a group of students who haven’t always been well supported in U.S. schools and colleges, and that, in turn, helps the economy.  

“There are communities that have been excluded from educational opportunity, and they deserve the right to a high-quality education. That’s what democracy looks like,” said Anthony Hernandez, an education policy researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies Hispanic-serving institutions.

“By concentrating these federal resources, we can help them gain momentum to get into white-collar pathways and imagine that they could become nurses, they can become doctors, captains of industry, they can become scientists,” he said.

Hernandez disputes the Department of Education’s claim that it’s discriminatory to set aside funds specifically for minority-serving institutions. 

“For most of U.S. history, minority students were either explicitly excluded from higher education or funneled into segregated, underfunded schools,” Hernandez said. 

Minority-serving institutions were created to level the playing field, which remains slanted by bias, economic inequality and disparities in funding across K-12 schools, he said.

“This policy change presents itself as a defense of fairness, but effectively punishes institutions that were created to repair unfairness,” Hernandez said. “It withdraws critical support from communities still facing barriers and undermines the very schools helping to expand opportunity and strengthen the economy.”

He argues the program should be grown, not dismantled. The number of Hispanic-serving institutions has soared, he said, and the available funds haven’t kept up. 

“They’ve constantly had to fight for funding,” Hernandez said. “They’ve never been adequately funded.”

If the Department of Education succeeds at cutting these grant programs, he anticipates that graduation and transfer rates at these schools will drop. 

The cuts so far don’t affect grants issued to minority-serving institutions by other departments, including the Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation. But Hernandez worries more cuts could be coming.

“We imagine that that is eventually going to encompass all of the different arteries of the federal government that dole out monies to the minority-serving institutions,” Hernandez said. “I don’t think it’s finished.”

Gasman agrees. “I think the Trump administration is challenging the entire MSI framework, which has had bipartisan support in Congress,” Gasman said.

Wisconsin colleges serve growing Hispanic population

Watching from the sidelines are eight other Wisconsin colleges that have spent years trying to become Hispanic-serving institutions. At those schools, designated by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities as “Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institutions,” at least 15% of full-time undergrad students are Hispanic. 

In the 2023-24 school year, there were 425 such schools in the U.S. In Wisconsin, the group includes a mix of private colleges, public universities and technical colleges.

They say they’ll keep up working to better serve Hispanic students even if the federal funds disappear.

The Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design joined the Emerging list in 2021, and its Hispanic enrollment has risen each year since, President Jeffrey Morin said. 

About 19% of the incoming freshman class is Hispanic, and the city of Milwaukee is 20% Hispanic.

“For us, it is a natural reflection of the community that we serve,” Morin said, though he notes that the school selects students based on their academic record and a portfolio of their work, not their demographics.

“We are not sculpting a freshman class. We are serving the people who want to join our community,” Morin said. “And when a … noticeable portion of our population comes from a particular background, we want to make sure that we meet the needs of that population.”

Being designated as an Emerging Hispanic-serving institution hasn’t brought new funds to the school, but it “puts us in a community with other regional higher ed institutions so that … we can discuss and discover best practices and trends,” Morin said.

Hispanic students are the fastest-growing group in higher education. As their numbers boom, more Emerging schools could meet the 25% benchmark and become full-fledged Hispanic-serving institutions.

That’s the plan at the institute, Morin said, adding that the funds would help non-Hispanic students too. For example, he said, many Hispanic students are also the first in their families to go to college. The grant funds could be used for programs that would support first-generation students, regardless of their race or ethnicity.

“A rising tide lifts all boats,” Morin said. “The funding support that would come in to help one population will help other populations as well.”

‘Emerging’ schools not deterred

Despite recent news, MIAD officials say the school isn’t changing its plans. Supporting Hispanic students is particularly important now, Morin said, as the national rhetoric around immigrants grows increasingly hostile.

“What changes is that we’ll lose particular opportunities to partner (with the federal government) in service to the Hispanic community,” Morin said. “What doesn’t change is our commitment to serving the Hispanic community. We will simply look for new partners in that work.”

Several other Emerging institutions expressed similar sentiments.

The mission of the federal program “aligns with our Catholic, Jesuit mission to keep a Marquette education accessible to all,” said Marquette University spokesperson Kevin Conway. The university announced in 2016 that it intended to become a Hispanic-serving institution. Since then, the Hispanic share of its student body has grown from 10% to about 16% in fall 2024.

“Like all colleges and universities, Marquette is monitoring changes in the higher education landscape and the resources available to help the students we ​serve,” Conway said. “One thing that will not change is Marquette’s commitment to its mission and supporting our community.”

A spokesperson for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where about 15% of students are Hispanic, said the school “remains steadfast in its access mission, ensuring higher education is attainable for all, regardless of background or income.”

Milwaukee Area Technical College, meanwhile, announced last year that it was “on the verge” of achieving full HSI status with 23.4% of its full-time students identifying as Hispanic.

“We’re very, very close,” MATC President Anthony Cruz said at the time.

Asked about the latest developments, spokesperson Darryll Fortune said the school “will continue to pursue HSI status regardless.”

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

This story was updated to include an announcement made by the Department of Education that the agency will award historically Black colleges and tribal colleges $495 million in one-time funding.

Wisconsin colleges vow to keep supporting Hispanic students despite federal funding cuts 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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Every time third-year Milwaukee Area Technical College student Devin Hayden comes to the Office of Multicultural Services, student service specialists welcome her with open arms.

“It’s literally just nothing but ‘hi Devin, how are you doing? How’s your parents?’ ” she said. “I felt like I could talk to them about anything that was going on.”

Now, students like Hayden are wondering where they’ll find support once the office closes on Sept. 18. 

In August, MATC announced it is restructuring the office into a new Office of Community Impact and eliminating four student service specialist positions to comply with federal recommendations to end race-based practices.

Some are questioning whether the decision aligns with the message the college sends regarding inclusivity and diversity. 

‘Safe space’

Walter Lanier remembers students walking through the doors of the Office of Multicultural Services saying, “this is different when I walk in here.”

Lanier, who ran the department until 2020 and left MATC in 2022, said many students of color consider the office their “home base.” He thinks it will be almost impossible to fill the gap left by eliminating four student support specialists.

They specialize in serving the needs of Black, Indigenous, Asian and Hispanic students but also work with students from other backgrounds.

The office also rescued leftover food from the cafeteria and gave it out to students free of charge, Hayden said. She said some students came to the office for food every day.

“I would cash in on that because sometimes I don’t have enough money for lunch,” Hayden said.

Crystal Harper, a student who’s taken classes at MATC for nine years, said the office is her “safe space.” She credits the office for supporting her growth in school, even connecting her with an internship and supporting her candidacy for MATC governor.

“When eagles fly, they don’t have to move their wings. They’re just soaring. So they told me to be like the eagles — continue to soar,” Harper said. “That’s what my plans are, to continue to soar.”

Hayden, who identifies as a Black queer woman, said she didn’t just feel like a number at the Office of Multicultural Services like she does in other spaces on campus. 

Eliminating that space contradicts the college’s message of “community and inclusivity,” Hayden said. 

“The message that (the college is) spreading that yes, we promote students, we promote students of different walks of life but then at the same time we’re going to eliminate this entire department is ridiculous to me,” Hayden said. “None of us are trusting that. None of us think that that decision is right.”

MATC to ‘champion holistic support for all students’

The four student service specialists received an email on Aug. 19 informing them that the Office of Multicultural Services will be restructured into the Office of Community Impact and their positions would be eliminated.

The office will “champion holistic support for all students,” MATC told NNS in a statement.

The decision comes amid the Trump administration’s efforts to revoke federal funding from colleges and universities that use “race-conscious practices” in programs or activities. 

MATC leaders said they restructured the office to align with the administration’s guidance because the office solely serviced students who identify as a specific race or ethnic group. 

“Fulfilling our mission to serve all students in our community while adjusting to this guidance from the U.S. Department of Education has been challenging,” read the statement from MATC. “We want to continue to stress our commitment and focus on supporting each and every one of our students, providing them with the resources they need to succeed.” 

In August, U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland determined that the way the Trump administration attempted to threaten revoking Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs was unconstitutional. 

MATC leaders said they are equally committed to supporting the employees whose positions were eliminated.

In the email, Michael Rogers, vice president of student engagement and community impact, invited support specialists to apply for two new positions within the Office of Community Impact: one that focuses on “specialized training and student events” and another for “mentorship programs,” if they wished. 

Additional concerns

In an Aug. 26 MATC District Board meeting, student service specialist Floyd C. Griffin III, who worked in multicultural services for four years, asked the board why the college eliminated his position. 

“I’m living through the indignity of working day after day knowing that my service, my dedication and my livelihood have already been dismissed by leadership,” Griffin said. “After years of commitment, this is how the college treats its employees of color — rushed, silenced and discarded.” 

The four service specialists are people of color. 

Tony Baez, the former MATC vice president of academic affairs, implemented bilingual programs at MATC in the 1990s. He said MATC President Anthony Cruz should rethink eliminating support specialists.

“MATC is an institution that is so large that with each (support specialist), you can ease them into other kinds of positions to help those students that need the support systems,” Baez said. “He had options.”

Milwaukee tech college’s multicultural service cuts prompt pushback 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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• Some of the state’s fastest-growing jobs are in the health care and green energy fields. 

• Jobs projected to have the most openings tend to have high turnover and pay lower wages, according to state and federal data. 

• Many jobs that are shrinking the fastest are based on outdated technologies or practices. 

• Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development keeps a list of the “Hot Jobs” statewide – jobs that pay above the median wage, are expected to grow faster than average and have the most projected openings.

When Wisconsin Watch this spring launched a new pathways to success beat focused on jobs and job training, we set out to learn how Wisconsinites are building family-sustaining careers and what’s standing in their way. 

Doing that required knowing how the job tides are changing in Wisconsin. What jobs are growing the fastest? Which are shrinking? What will be the most common jobs in the coming years, and what do they pay?  The six charts below use state and federal data to answer those questions.

To learn more about any of these jobs, including what the work entails, how much it pays and how to get trained, click on the links in the article or visit a website like careeronestop.org, onetonline.org or skillexplorer.wisconsin.gov.

We’re planning follow-up coverage related to some of the growing fields on these lists. Which job or jobs would you like to learn more about? What questions do you have? Fill out this short Google form to let us know.

Which jobs are growing the fastest in Wisconsin?

Some of Wisconsin’s fastest-growing jobs are jobs in health and green energy fields, as you might expect. That includes the top four: 

• Wind turbine service technicians, projected to grow by 75% in Wisconsin from 2022 to 2032, adding 30 jobs.
• Nurse practitioners, projected to grow by 51%, adding 2,530 jobs.
• Computer and information research scientists, projected to grow by 44%, adding 40 jobs. 
• Data scientists, projected to grow by 43%, adding 1,230 jobs.

Others on the list seem more surprising. Despite the prevalence of online booking platforms and travel influencers hyping up their favorite spots, the ranks of travel agents are growing as Americans resume travel post-pandemic and want someone else to do the planning. In Wisconsin, the number of travel agents is projected to increase by 350, or 38%. The state is also projected to add 430 jobs for animal trainers, a 36% increase that comes as Americans own a growing number of pets and spend more on them.

Six of the jobs that ranked in the top 10 fastest-growing have median salaries of $85,000 or more. Seven of the top 10 typically require a college degree, and four typically require a graduate degree.

Of the jobs that ranked in the top 10, just two (nurse practitioner and data scientist) are projected to add more than 1,000 jobs. Several are projected to add fewer than 200. By comparison, the state’s most common job, home health and personal care aide, is projected to have 14,150 annual openings, in part because of high turnover among those workers. 

Three jobs were tied with physician assistants for 10th place. One is rail yard engineers, also known as hostlers or dinkey operators, who inspect train equipment and drive small locomotives to move railcars. The others are aircraft service attendants, who re-fuel planes and service them between flights, and administrative law judges or adjudicators, who rule on government matters. But while all three are projected to grow by 33% in Wisconsin, the number of physician assistants is projected to grow by 970, and the ranks of aircraft service attendants are projected to grow by just 50. Administrative law judges and rail yard engineers are projected to grow by just 10. 

One note: These projections may not account for the latest developments in the job landscape, including how artificial intelligence might change the way Americans work, or what kinds of workers are needed. Gov. Tony Evers in 2023 appointed a task force to study how AI might transform Wisconsin’s labor market. The group found that bookkeepers, data entry keyers, credit analysts and insurance claims processors are among those whose work most overlaps with AI capabilities. They note that that doesn’t mean those workers will necessarily be replaced by AI; they could instead end up using AI tools to make their jobs easier or more efficient.

The task force also did the same analysis for the state’s 10 most common jobs. It found all had “middling” levels of AI exposure, suggesting they may not experience as much change with AI as some occupations will. 

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s administration has taken steps to reverse renewable energy initiatives, a move that could threaten the projected job growth for wind turbine service technicians. Twice this year the federal government halted construction of offshore wind farms.

Which jobs will have the most openings in Wisconsin?

Some occupations have lots of openings each year not because the industry is growing but because turnover is high. The jobs projected to have the most future openings in Wisconsin also pay some of the lowest wages. The top four have median annual salaries of less than $35,000 a year, and all of the top 10 have salaries under $46,000. None require education beyond a high school diploma, and most don’t require any formal education.

One in 10 Wisconsin workers holds one the top five jobs on this list, all with a 2022 median wage under $46,000. About 215,000 of those people work in jobs with a median wage under $35,000.

Of the 10 most common jobs, two stand out for higher average wages: registered nurse ($86,070) and truck driver ($57,380). 

The state’s most common job involves caring for older adults or people with disabilities in their homes, helping with tasks like bathing, medication and grocery shopping. Across the country, demand for these workers is growing as more Americans choose to age in their homes rather than in assisted living or nursing facilities. In Wisconsin, the number of residents over 65 is expected to almost double by 2040, increasing demand. Industry leaders and disability advocacy groups say they already struggle to hire and retain enough workers as wages in other entry-level jobs rise, and they’ve called on the state to raise the Medicaid reimbursement rate, which pays for most of this care. The 2025-27 state budget allocates $19 million to raise that rate, less than half of what Evers requested.

Declining employment

Many of the jobs shrinking the fastest are ones you might expect: those based on outdated technologies or practices. About one in four positions held by telemarketers, switchboard operators, couriers, door-to-door salespeople and street vendors is projected to vanish by 2032.

Of the top 10 fastest-shrinking jobs, nine don’t usually require a college education. 

Secretaries and administrative assistants are expected to lose the most jobs (2,420), followed by couriers and messengers (1,990), customer service representatives (1,550) and tellers (1,290).

Nursing assistant ranks are projected to shrink, too (by 720, or 3%), though that field will remain big in Wisconsin, with estimated 26,510 nursing assistant jobs in 2032.

‘Hot Jobs’

Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development keeps a list of the “Hot Jobs” statewide and in each of 11 regions. These jobs pay above the median wage for the state or region, are expected to grow faster than average and have the most projected openings. Visit this website to see the data and sort it in various ways. 

One major caveat about this data: It compares 2032 to 2022, when COVID-19 was still disrupting the economy, so it favors jobs that have rebounded after shrinking during the pandemic. 

For example, registered nurses don’t appear on the “Hot Jobs” list. The job pays well and it’s growing quickly, but few nurses lost their jobs in the pandemic. That means the field isn’t growing as much as those that saw major pandemic layoffs, said DWD Senior Research Analyst Maria del Pilar Casal. She expects registered nurses will make the list next time.

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

The future of work in Wisconsin, in six charts 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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• Northeast Wisconsin’s fastest-growing jobs span a variety of industries, including health care and logistics.  

• Jobs in the region with the most openings tend to have low barriers to entry and tend to pay relatively low wages. 

• While the paper industry has a strong foothold in the northeast, paper goods machine operators are expected to lose the most positions.

What are the roughly 450,000 workers in northeast Wisconsin doing for a living? And how will that change in the next decade? We pored over state workforce data to find out. 

Below are six charts you can use to make sense of which jobs are growing and shrinking across the region. 

Wisconsin Watch also published a version with data that encompasses jobs across the entire state.

This article is solely focused on job trends in northeast Wisconsin. As we continue to build our new northeast Wisconsin bureau, you can expect us to provide more stories tailored to the region. 

Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development — the state agency from which we sourced this data — defines the “Bay Area” as Brown, Door, Florence, Kewaunee, Manitowoc, Marinette, Menominee, Oconto, Outagamie, Shawano and Sheboygan counties. 

To learn more about any of these jobs, including what the work entails, how much it pays and how to get trained, visit a website like careeronestop.org, onetonline.org or skillexplorer.wisconsin.gov.

Jobs growing rapidly

Home health and personal care aides are the fastest-growing occupation in the region, expected to add nearly 1,200 jobs by 2032. Wisconsin will need more workers to assist older adults as the state’s population continues to age significantly, with the number of residents over the age of 74 expected to increase 41% between 2020 and 2030.

Several of the occupations on this list are already some of the most popular in the region, so the hundreds to thousands of jobs they’re expected to add represent a smaller share of the area’s overall workforce. When looking at growth by percentage, some other occupations are expected to add a smaller number of jobs, but they will constitute a larger share of the workforce.

The occupations expected to grow most percentage-wise include:

• Nurse practitioners, projected to grow 62% by adding 450 jobs.
• Data scientists, projected to grow 47% by adding 148 jobs. 
• Physician assistants, projected to grow 41% by adding 128 jobs.
• Actuaries, projected to grow 41% by adding 49 jobs.
• Information security analysts, projected to grow 41% by adding 115 jobs.

Jobs with the most openings

Some occupations have lots of openings each year — not necessarily because the industry is growing but because there are more people leaving their roles.

Many of the jobs projected to have the most future openings have low barriers to entry, meaning they don’t require formal education or certification to obtain. They also pay relatively low wages — for example, topping the list is fast food counter workers, who made an average salary of $27,890 in the region in 2024. 

Most common jobs

Many of the jobs that have the most openings each year are also the most common jobs for northeast Wisconsinites to hold. 

The 10 most common occupations in the region span largely essential jobs, including the workers who treat you at the hospital, those keeping the region’s restaurant industry alive and the people who make sure your packages are safely packed and delivered. 

The most rapidly shrinking jobs

While the paper industry has a strong foothold in the northeast, paper goods machine operators top the list for anticipated job loss. This includes workers who tend paper goods machines that convert, saw, corrugate or seal paper or paperboard sheets into products.

Other industries are expected to lose fewer jobs, but those losses will make a larger dent in the profession. Some of the occupations expected to lose the most percentage-wise are:

• Broadcast technicians, expected to lose 35 jobs, a 60% decrease. 
• Word processors and typists, expected to lose 10 jobs, a 37% decrease. 
• Nuclear engineers, expected to lose eight jobs, a 23% decrease. 
• Pressers, textile, garment, and related materials, expected to lose 18 jobs for a 20% decrease.
• Data entry keyers, expected to lose 72 jobs, a 19% decrease. 

Most of these occupations — telemarketers, typists and data entry keyers — are based on outdated technologies or practices, so the fact that they’re shrinking quickly may not be surprising. 

Northeast Wisconsin’s ‘Hot Jobs’

Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development keeps a list of the “Hot Jobs” in every region of the state. To be classified as such, the occupation must pay above the state’s median salary, have an above-average growth rate and top the list of projected job openings.

Use the table to explore what education and training northeast Wisconsin’s “Hot Jobs” provide, what they pay and how they’re expected to grow. 

Note: This data may be slightly skewed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The department says it accounts for pandemic impacts “as accurately as possible.” Some occupations that regularly have large growth rates didn’t make the cut if they didn’t show a significant decline in 2020 followed by a notable recovery, the department notes.

See how any job is expected to change

Is there a job you’re curious about that didn’t make one of our charts? Use this searchable database of hundreds of occupations to see how each is expected to change in the northeast region by 2032. 

We’re planning follow-up coverage related to Wisconsin’s fastest-growing fields. Which jobs would you like to learn more about? Fill out this short Google form to let us know.

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

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

Job hunting in northeast Wisconsin? Check out these charts 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.