Poor states outperform Wisconsin. How can we make people care?
Welcome to Quinton’s K-12 Corner, a series discussing the biggest education issues in a simple way. Wisconsin’s children deserve the best schools in America. This series provides solutions to the major problems facing parents, taxpayers, superintendents, and new state leadership. If you have suggestions, comments, or questions, email QK@ReformingGovernment.org.
Where We Are
Wisconsin is going nowhere. Test scores came out Thursday, and our state’s schools are stuck. Forward proficiency budged 1%. ACT averages have fallen from 20 a decade ago to 19 now. That performance caps among the worst pandemic recoveries in America.
Even the leading expert says more spending would not do much: every $1,300 per student buys just 1.4% in extra proficiency. Who wants to spend a billion bucks for a blip? (I can think of some.)
Meanwhile, it costs Mississippi $50 extra a kid to produce the best readers in the nation. Louisiana’s students do mathematics better than almost anybody. The Bushes built the prototypes in Texas and Florida that others copied later; today, Miami/Dade County’s students read better than Wisconsin’s, even when you remove Milwaukee.
We are losing families and firms to states that solve their problems.
Where We Could Go
Wisconsin must generate academic urgency and copy what works.
The Department of Public Instruction should start publishing the results for each question on the Forward Exam, and DPI should send each student’s answers home to their parents.
Is 53% proficiency good? Is it bad? What does “proficiency” even mean? Everyday parents have no idea.
But what if they knew their child was among the 1 in 3 Wisconsin 4th graders who cannot read a poem or identify odd numbers? How could lawmakers face taxpayers if they knew 25% of Wisconsin 8th graders do not know what an octagon is and 59% cannot define “fanciful”? All of these shocking statistics are true, and we know because the national Education Department publishes them.
Instead, DPI keeps questions secret, flummoxes parents with a mosaic of student stars, scale scores, and colors, and sends families a letter amounting to, “tests arent real dont worry abt it :).”
If DPI published results by district, school, and demographic and supplied every family a copy of their children’s answers, Wisconsin could combat grade inflation, poor teaching, parent complacency, and politician excuses.
Then, Wisconsin could help every school emulate leaders’ techniques. England now has top-flight schools. Mississippi, Indiana, Florida, and Louisiana all provide state models for success. And do not forget some incredible Wisconsin schools that scored even higher in 2026: Janesville, Beaver Dam, Slinger, Kimberly, Franklin, New Glarus, Mukwonago, Chequamegon, Wisconsin Dells, Northwest Lutheran Milwaukee, Saint Mary Catholic Neenah, The Lincoln Academy Beloit, Saint Andrew Catholic Delavan, and Immanuel Lutheran Wisconsin Rapids. These are the models to mimic.
These places have strong cultures, prepared teachers, direct instruction, proper curricula, and high expectations. The same can be true of every school in Wisconsin if we startle the sleeping into action.
