The other day I found myself poking through the WPRI archives.  I couldn’t help but reflect on how very different Wisconsin is today than in 1987when WPRI was founded. This is a very different state than it was in the mid-1980s.  In so many ways, it was better then.  We have watched somewhat passively as the foundations of our quality of life have gradually eroded. 

Like the boy whistling past the graveyard, we have tried to reassure ourselves that things in Wisconsin are all right.  Yet there are big, daunting problems undermining our economy and our quality of life.

As recently as a generation ago, Wisconsin was the envy of the nation.   It was the birthplace of both the Republican Party and the Progressive movement.   It was a laboratory for government innovation; the place where federalism took root.  Our manufacturers built cutting-edge machinery sold around the world.   Our government was innovative and a source of pride.  Wisconsin was an affordable place to live with a solid economy and a bright future.  Above all, it had the values people sought out when looking for a place to raise a family. 

That was then …

Today we see a different Wisconsin.  On the economic front, we are not as healthy as we once were (compared to other states) and our economy is having great difficulty adapting to changing national and international economic trends.  In spite of the best efforts of government and business, we have yet to make Wisconsin a state of choice for job creation.  We have not seriously done what is needed to make Wisconsin a place where businesses and entrepreneurs will create thousands of good jobs each year.

On the education front, our K-12 schools, once a gem in Wisconsin’s crown, are falling behind other states and are well behind other developed nations. Most worrisome is that our state’s largest school system is in the process of failing its third generation of Milwaukee’s children. 

Finally, Wisconsin’s once innovative state government has become hidebound.  It has proven incapable of addressing the complex problems we are asking it to fix.   State government’s balance sheet is swimming in red ink and, not surprisingly, citizens are losing confidence in their government.  We have come to accept a mediocrity from state government that we would never accept from our sports teams. 

Who is to blame for our malaise?  We need only to look in a mirror to find the culprit.   We have surrendered one of our prized institutions, our state government, to a crowd of insiders. 

Fortunately, we have an opportunity to wrestle our government away from the insiders.  We will have a new governor and, owing to an outbreak of retirement fever, there will be dozens of new faces in the Legislature. 

But what will we ask of them?  That question has been vexing us at WPRI and, in the coming months, we will lay out a series of changes aimed at restoring Wisconsin exceptionalism.  Our list will make career politicians squirm because it is a list designed to take government out of its comfort zone.  We will spell out changes to the way government operates, changes in the way we run our schools and changes that will result in a brighter business climate.  Our list will address the tough issues that government has been avoiding.

We are not seeking to reclaim an era of rotary phones and 25 cent coffee, but we are seeking to once again make Wisconsin the envy of the nation.

-June 3, 2010