Wisconsin Policy Forum president discusses top five findings of 2021 | WUWM 89.7 FM

The new year often invites reflection on the previous one, and one of the traditions of the Wisconsin Policy Forum is to take stock of the five main research results of the past twelve months. Many of the 52 reports, policy briefs and data tools produced by the Forum were related to the COVID-19 pandemic, but other topics were also explored.

“What we’re looking for in our top five is primarily things that are really new and that would get people thinking about issues or challenges in a different way,” said Wisconsin Policy Forum President Rob Henken. . “Also findings that really require a fairly immediate response, or at least think of a response from policy makers.”

He shares the importance of the top five takeaways of 2021:

Drop in enrollment at UWM
In a 2020 follow-up report, the Wisconsin Policy Forum found that the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is experiencing a significant drop in enrollment. Henken says the school plays a very important role in Wisconsin’s workforce and education ecosystem because it is a research university.

“Dropping enrollment, stagnant income, impacts in terms of faculty, both the number of staff and the ability to retain staff have all painted a pretty concerning picture. Again, not just for the ‘state of higher education, but for the local economy.’
Police spending was down before 2020
The Wisconsin Policy Forum found that “police funding” was down even before 2020 and the killing of George Floyd. According to Henken, this could be due to a variety of factors, such as state revenue limits, which really forced city leaders to cut police spending as a budgetary rather than an ideological need.

“Specifically, we found that all 253 municipalities in Wisconsin, large and small, and every corner of the state cut police spending between 2018 and 2019 — the year before anyone heard of it. George Floyd.”
Alcohol consumption has increased in Wisconsin since the pandemic
Not surprisingly, another major finding from the Wisconsin Policy Forum includes an increase in alcohol consumption since the start of the pandemic – a jump of 16.6%. Henken also points out that Wisconsin has some of the lowest alcohol taxes in the country.

“The increase went from 63.3 million to 73.8 million in fiscal year 2021. So that’s July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021. Now a 16.6% jump was really unprecedented We looked back to 1972, and that was the only year that came close, that turned out to be a year where the tax rate on wine and spirits was increased, and in fact , the drinking age has been lowered, so you would expect an increase.
Fewer students apply for financial aid
Henken notes that the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a clear indicator of the percentage of high school students going to college.

The Wisconsin Policy Forum report shows that completion of such requests increased from 52.7% in 2019 to 46.4% in 2021.

“We also found that there have been particular declines among students from historically underserved groups. In fact, before the pandemic, we saw quite a bit of progress. these days we’re back to normal.”
Milwaukee County parks operated on less money in 2019 than 30 years earlier
The latest major finding of 2021 from the Wisconsin Policy Forum shows Milwaukee County parks were operating on less money in 2019 than 30 years earlier. It’s no secret that county parks have faced fierce financial and staffing challenges for decades, Henken says.

He speculates that the change is very unlikely to happen anytime soon. If so, it would require partnering with the Sewer District, Milwaukee Public Schools, and other school recreation departments with nonprofit groups.

“Just to think that, you know, nothing has changed in terms of the responsibilities and the volume of parks in the county had increased over that 30-year period. Yet, without accounting for inflation, the fact that the same amount of money was spent maintaining the parks, I think it really illustrated the challenge.”