
Jerry Hanson: GOP phonics programming bill is too restrictive
Not all students learn in the same manner and to limit reading instruction to just one method will not allow for supplementing instruction for those whom phonics is not totally effective.
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Not all students learn in the same manner and to limit reading instruction to just one method will not allow for supplementing instruction for those whom phonics is not totally effective.

According to the Milwaukee Community Journal’s Mikel Holt, North Division is the worse performing school in Wisconsin, rated by every state and national assessment group and it’s the only school where proficiency rates for math, reading, science, and gym is stuck at zero.

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism produced an important report last month on how private schools in Wisconsin can legally discriminate against disabled and LGBT students even if they receive taxpayer dollars to subsidize their operations.

As Juneteenth approaches Monday, a recent controversy in Greenville, South Carolina, shows we’re still learning how to fully honor an event that was only made a federal holiday two years ago.

Many of these environmental proposals are slated for removal from the state budget bill by Republicans, but final votes won’t occur until the end of the month. Before they vote, legislative Republicans should consider a recent statewide poll that shows overwhelming public support for conservation measures.

Wisconsin’s criminal courts face a constitutional crisis that has been decades in the making. The culprit? The state’s refusal to adequately compensate the lawyers who make fair trials and the right to counsel a reality.

Please, Dane County, stop using that racial equity lens.

Even after Walker was swept from office in 2018, his Republican allies retained control of the state Legislature and prevented Democratic Gov. Tony Evers from undoing much of the damage. But after Evers won a second term in 2022 by a comfortable margin, things began to loosen up.

Did Governor Evers or Republicans win the negotiations? Who is looking out for the taxpayer? What happened to transformative tax reform?

The Chicano pioneer in Madison mentored hundreds, helped create and lead vital organizations.

Nature acknowledges and respects no borders. What happens hundreds or even thousands of miles away will reach us, will affect us, may afflict us.


Helping Wisconsin adopt Medicaid expansion could be Thompson’s crowning legacy.

Stingy numbers for hospitals in the state and county. Should state require more charity care?

If Wisconsin can add to the significant progress apparently about to be made in education reform, enact lower taxes, reduce regulation, and hang on to right-to-work and Act 10, among other things, we will be in a good position — even as a purple state — to continue to gain from our neighbors’ wrong-headed embrace of progressive governance.

Just as June is used to observe Pride Month, it is also the celebration of Juneteenth. Hate and oppression knows no bounds. Pride comes in many forms, races and ethnicities.

Even if Democrats cannot.

DPW Chair Ben Wikler has taken the party’s operation out of the backrooms and into the streets.

Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee voted down the long-anticipated and much-needed new engineering building on the UW Madison campus. Not so long ago that would have been a slam dunk Republican priority.

Some legislators are doubling down on a non-competitive position that “only fiber” will bridge the digital divide in Wisconsin.

Not all students learn in the same manner and to limit reading instruction to just one method will not allow for supplementing instruction for those whom phonics is not totally effective.

According to the Milwaukee Community Journal’s Mikel Holt, North Division is the worse performing school in Wisconsin, rated by every state and national assessment group and it’s the only school where proficiency rates for math, reading, science, and gym is stuck at zero.

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism produced an important report last month on how private schools in Wisconsin can legally discriminate against disabled and LGBT students even if they receive taxpayer dollars to subsidize their operations.

As Juneteenth approaches Monday, a recent controversy in Greenville, South Carolina, shows we’re still learning how to fully honor an event that was only made a federal holiday two years ago.

Many of these environmental proposals are slated for removal from the state budget bill by Republicans, but final votes won’t occur until the end of the month. Before they vote, legislative Republicans should consider a recent statewide poll that shows overwhelming public support for conservation measures.

Wisconsin’s criminal courts face a constitutional crisis that has been decades in the making. The culprit? The state’s refusal to adequately compensate the lawyers who make fair trials and the right to counsel a reality.

Please, Dane County, stop using that racial equity lens.

Even after Walker was swept from office in 2018, his Republican allies retained control of the state Legislature and prevented Democratic Gov. Tony Evers from undoing much of the damage. But after Evers won a second term in 2022 by a comfortable margin, things began to loosen up.

Did Governor Evers or Republicans win the negotiations? Who is looking out for the taxpayer? What happened to transformative tax reform?

The Chicano pioneer in Madison mentored hundreds, helped create and lead vital organizations.

Nature acknowledges and respects no borders. What happens hundreds or even thousands of miles away will reach us, will affect us, may afflict us.


Helping Wisconsin adopt Medicaid expansion could be Thompson’s crowning legacy.

Stingy numbers for hospitals in the state and county. Should state require more charity care?

If Wisconsin can add to the significant progress apparently about to be made in education reform, enact lower taxes, reduce regulation, and hang on to right-to-work and Act 10, among other things, we will be in a good position — even as a purple state — to continue to gain from our neighbors’ wrong-headed embrace of progressive governance.

Just as June is used to observe Pride Month, it is also the celebration of Juneteenth. Hate and oppression knows no bounds. Pride comes in many forms, races and ethnicities.

Even if Democrats cannot.

DPW Chair Ben Wikler has taken the party’s operation out of the backrooms and into the streets.

Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee voted down the long-anticipated and much-needed new engineering building on the UW Madison campus. Not so long ago that would have been a slam dunk Republican priority.

Some legislators are doubling down on a non-competitive position that “only fiber” will bridge the digital divide in Wisconsin.