Research &
Commentary
WILL continues to drive the legal and policy conversations facing Americans in Wisconsin and across the country.
February 21, 2026
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
School debt repayment should be a priority, not deferred | Opinion
By:
January 29, 2026
National Review
Can the Feds Really Prosecute the Minnesota Church Protesters? Dan Lennington
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January 28, 2026
Washington County Daily News
Your ‘private property’ and their ‘public use’
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January 12, 2026
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
WI legislature’s authority over rule-making must be restored | Opinion
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January 12, 2026
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
WI legislature’s authority over rule-making must be restored | Opinion
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January 10, 2026
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Tax cuts for rich, Act 10 to blame for high property taxes | Opinion
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January 10, 2026
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Tax cuts for rich, Act 10 to blame for high property taxes | Opinion
By:
December 27, 2025
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
End of Act 10 would blow $2 billion hole in budgets | Opinion
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December 27, 2025
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
End of Act 10 would blow $2 billion hole in budgets | Opinion
By:
October 7, 2025
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
DPI changes on school report cards reflect moving goalposts, not better scores | Opinion
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October 7, 2025
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
DPI changes on school report cards reflect moving goalposts, not better scores | Opinion
By:
September 29, 2025
Wisconsin Right Now
Whistling Past the Graveyard for Wisconsin Public Schools
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August 9, 2025
National Review
Can Teachers Opt Out? What Mahmoud v. Taylor Means for Educators
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August 2, 2025
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Little known part of ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ supports students and empowers parents | Opinion
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August 2, 2025
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Little known part of ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ supports students and empowers parents | Opinion
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July 9, 2025
Wisconsin State Journal
Blame the governor for delay in literacy funds
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July 9, 2025
Wisconsin State Journal
Blame the governor for delay in literacy funds
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June 30, 2025
WisPolitics
End minimum mark-up | Opinion
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April 30, 2025
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Judge Dugan was wrong. Don’t use the courthouse to protest Trump’s policies.
By:
April 30, 2025
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Judge Dugan was wrong. Don’t use the courthouse to protest Trump’s policies.
By:
April 13, 2025
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Wisconsin needs fewer federal school bureaucrats. Local control works best. | Opinion
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March 18, 2025
Cato Institute
Protecting Economic Liberty under Both Article IV and the Fourteenth Amendment
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December 6, 2024
The Federalist
Four Ways Trump Can Scrap Biden’s ‘Equity’ Discrimination And Promote Real Equality
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November 17, 2024
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Your child may not be doing as well in school as you think. State lowered bar. | Opinion
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November 17, 2024
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Your child may not be doing as well in school as you think. State lowered bar. | Opinion
By:
October 14, 2024
Wisconsin Right Now
We’re Inviting Rich Lowry Back to Wisconsin. Here’s Why
By:
October 9, 2024
The Federalist
Democrats Claim Public Schools Mostly Run By Democrats Are Deeply Racist.
By:
October 9, 2024
The Federalist
Democrats Claim Public Schools Mostly Run By Democrats Are Deeply Racist.
By:
September 23, 2024
Milwaukee Journal Setinel
Arguments that Wisconsin schools are underfunded fall flat. Data shows otherwise.
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September 3, 2024
National Review
How to Combat Gender Ideology in Schools
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August 29, 2024
The Federalist
Mayo, Cleveland Clinic, And Other Major Hospital Systems Put White People At Back Of Treatment Lines
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August 23, 2024
National Review Online
The Biden-Harris Administration Won’t Leave Women’s Sports Alone
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August 21, 2024
WisPolitics
School choice is a life preserver, not an anchor
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August 8, 2024
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Wisconsin primary election referendum questions can help stop gravy train of spending
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June 9, 2024
National Review Online
Republicans Are Letting DEI in through the Back Door
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May 24, 2024
Christian Post
Rebuilding a safe, pro-learning culture at an inner-city school
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May 15, 2024
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Central count for absentee ballots problematic. There’s a better way Milwaukee. | Opinion
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May 9, 2024
National Review Online
Appeasing the Pro-Hamas Protesters Puts Universities in Legal Peril
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May 7, 2024
American Enterprise Institute
Schools and the Law: First Amendment US Supreme Court Decisions That School Board Members Should Know
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April 22, 2024
Wisconsin State Journal
Luke Berg fights for conservative values from state’s most liberal city
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March 24, 2024
National Review Online
DEI’s Achilles’ Heel
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March 18, 2024
Fox News
Here’s How Woke Banking is Deciding Your Loans
By:
February 27, 2024
Real Clear Education
How to Create Wins for Public and Private Schools
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February 11, 2024
National Review
Biden’s Title IX Affirmative Action Has No Place at Military-Service Academies
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October 24, 2023
American Enterprise Institute
What School Boards Need to Know About Title IX
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September 27, 2023
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Students of color events further division. Separating people by race is bad policy.
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August 29, 2023
National Review
Renominating Trump Could Cause a Dangerous Chain Reaction
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August 9, 2023
National Review
How Trump Could Be Saved by the Right to Lie
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July 20, 2023
National Review
The Struggle for Legal Equality Isn’t Over Yet
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July 6, 2023
The Federalist
Want To Improve Public School Outcomes? End Teacher Licensing
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July 6, 2023
The Post-Crescent
Wisconsin education officials wrongly label Black students as ‘at-risk’
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June 26, 2023
Wisconsin State Journal
Will Flanders and Cory Brewer: Private choice schools treat all students fairly
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June 21, 2023
Fox News
MBDA Victory’
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June 12, 2023
The Federalist
By Tackling Imaginary Racism In School Discipline, The Biden Admin Is Making Classrooms Less Safe
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June 1, 2023
Fox News
Biden’s Title IX changes mean this locker room horror is coming to a school near you
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January 12, 2023
RealClearEducation
Blame Universities for High Student Default Rates
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October 21, 2022
National Review
Biden’s Student-Loan Action Is Obviously Unconstitutional. So Why Can’t Anyone Stop It?
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October 10, 2022
The Federalist
Another Racist Biden Program Looks To Help Anyone But Whites
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September 2, 2022
RealClearEducation
Education Schools Are Pushing the Classroom Leftward
By:
August 29, 2022
The Federalist
Gun Owners Are Racist, According To Academics Using Bad Science
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July 26, 2022
The Cap Times
Opinion | Universal school choice would help all Wisconsin families
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July 11, 2022
The Federalist
Excusing Misbehavior Is Bad For Kids And Schools, But That’s What Biden Admin Wants To Do For ‘Equity’
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July 5, 2022
National Review
Wisconsin Democrats Abandon the Rule of Law to Protect Abortion
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June 10, 2022
Oshkosh Northwestern
Opinion: WILL represented students in a Title IX investigation by the Kiel School District. We didn’t use the ‘chaos’ to bully anybody.
By:
June 1, 2022
Chalkboard Review
The Lasting Damage of School Lockdowns
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May 23, 2022
The Wall Street Journal
The Pronoun Police Come for Middle Schoolers
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May 21, 2022
The Cap Times
Opinion | Wisconsin not meeting demand for charter schools
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May 3, 2022
Oshkosh Northwestern
The problem that supporters of Roe v. Wade could never solve: There is no right to abortion in the Constitution.
By:
April 19, 2022
The Federalist
Teacher: I’m Watching Students And Colleagues Struggle To Recover From Lockdowns
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April 16, 2022
National Review
Why We Must Fight Biden’s Equity Agenda
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April 1, 2022
RealClearEducation
New Biden Rules Could Chill Charters
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March 23, 2022
Newsweek
Schools Must Stop Keeping Trans-Secrets From Parents
By:
March 14, 2022
AEI Report
How Schools’ Transgender Policies Are Eroding Parents’ Rights
By:
February 24, 2022
WILL
COVID-19 School Closures Did, In Fact, Hurt Student Proficiency
By:
January 7, 2022
RealClearEducation
What’s So Frightening about Parochial Schools?
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December 1, 2021
The Federalist
What’s Behind The Massive Spike In Violence Inside Public Schools Nationwide
By:
November 26, 2021
The Cap Times
Reckoning with school failures
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October 18, 2021
RealClearEducation
Biden Signals Return to Obama’s Misguided School Discipline Policies
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October 15, 2021
Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Reforming licensing policies will help alleviate teacher shortages
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September 30, 2021
The Cap Times
Opinion | State needs to reform licensing requirement to address teacher shortage
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August 18, 2021
Urban Milwaukee
Poll Shows Democrats Split On School Choice
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August 16, 2021
Washington Times
If a Black man cannot stand on his own two feet, let him fail
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August 12, 2021
The Federalist
The ACLU Has It Backward: Schools Should Worry About Being Sued For Teaching Critical Race Theory
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July 23, 2021
The Hill
Act 10 benefited education in Wisconsin — and may empower workers elsewhere
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July 20, 2021
WCLO
Interview with WCLO on Critical Race Theory
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July 13, 2021
The Cap Times
Evers’ school choice veto shows he doesn’t care about education
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June 20, 2021
National Review
The Biden Administration’s Threat to Equality under the Law
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June 16, 2021
The Federalist
Banning Critical Race Theory Is A Good Step, But It Doesn’t Go Far Enough
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June 14, 2021
RealClearEducation
Critical Race Theory Has No Place in American Schools
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June 3, 2021
USA Today
Joe Biden’s COVID debt relief for farms doesn’t apply to white farmers. That’s wrong.
By:
May 21, 2021
The Federalist
Joe Biden Plans To Revive School Rules Punishing Kids According To Skin Color
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April 29, 2021
The Cap Times
Rick Esenberg and Daniel Lennington: Wisconsin’s race-based scholarships amount to state-sponsored race discrimination
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April 11, 2021
National Review
Why ‘Equity’ Is a Bad Fit for Our Legal System
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March 25, 2021
Washington Examiner
How Biden’s education pick could advance school choice
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March 7, 2021
Urban Milwaukee
MPS Should Offer In-Person Classes
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March 1, 2021
The Cap Times
Rick Esenberg and Daniel Lennington: Evers’ COVID-19 executive orders have highlighted flaws in Wisconsin law
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January 27, 2021
Urban Milwaukee
School Choice Important to Black Families
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December 28, 2020
The Hill
Closing classrooms may cost school districts thousands of students for years to come
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December 28, 2020
RealClearEducation
Will Students Return to Public Schools After the Pandemic?
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November 21, 2020
The Hill
Are teachers unions influencing virtual schooling more than pandemic science?
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October 30, 2020
The Cap Times
Will Flanders: If education is changing, so should the funding.
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October 16, 2020
Oshkosh Northwestern
Opinion: I have my issues with Donald Trump. Here’s why I’m sticking with him.
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September 18, 2020
Urban Milwaukee
Legal Group WILL Opposes Pandemic
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September 4, 2020
RealClearEducation
The High-Performing School Deserts of Rural America
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August 26, 2020
Wisconsin State Journal
Rick Esenberg: Gov. Evers’ emergency COVID-19 declaration violates the law
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July 24, 2020
The Cap Times
Will Flanders: Families deserve financial support for at-home schooling.
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July 11, 2020
The Hill
Whatever their intent, protests aren’t exempt from the laws of nature
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July 9, 2020
RealClearEducation
Trump Should Rescind Obama Guidance on School Discipline
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June 17, 2020
Urban Milwaukee
Extend Act 10 to Cover Police
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June 14, 2020
The Cap Times
Will Flanders and Cori Petersen: Extending Act 10 to police unions could make officers more accountable to the public
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May 28, 2020
The Cap Times
Will Flanders: We can ease the hardships of educating during COVID-19 with smart policy
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January 24, 2020
The Cap Times
Cap Times’ Esenberg cartoon takes political left to new lows
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May 22, 2019
The 74million
Analysis: What Wisconsin’s Governor Gets Wrong About How Much Milwaukee’s School Voucher Program Costs — and How Much It’s Helping Students in (and out of) the Classroom
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February 22, 2019
RealClearMarkets
With Tariffs, Presidents Must Defer to Congress
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February 22, 2019
The Federalist
Democrats Take Down Another Judicial Nominee Simply Because He’s A Christian
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January 18, 2019
RealClearPolitics
What School Choice Advocates Want Wis. Governor to See
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December 20, 2018
Urban Milwaukee
Liberals All Wrong on Early Voting Law
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September 24, 2018
Urban Milwaukee
More Regulation of School Choice a Mistake
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September 13, 2018
Fox News
Colleges should stop trying to ‘protect’ students from free speech in violation of the Constitution
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August 29, 2018
Washington Examiner
Spending more money on schools doesn’t help students learn
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July 8, 2018
RealClearPolicy
On Court Pick, Never Trumpers Should Give Trump His Due
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July 3, 2018
Washington Examiner
What will Janus do? Look at Wisconsin
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June 19, 2018
RealClearPolitics
Why the Supreme Court Punted in Redistricting Case
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June 14, 2018
The Federalist
The Masterpiece Ruling Is A Win For Free Speech, If Nothing Else
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May 16, 2018
The Weekly Standard
How Opponents of School Choice in Wisconsin Weaponized the Justice Department
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May 8, 2018
RealClearEducation
The Neglected Challenges of Rural Education
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April 19, 2018
The Federalist
Marquette Case Will Say Whether Colleges Can Break Contract To Silence Professors
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April 18, 2018
Washington Examiner
School choice works, but it could work better
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April 10, 2018
RealClearEducation
Education Reform Suffers When Politicians Put Careers Before Kids
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April 5, 2018
RealClearPolitics
Wis. Judicial Election: Signaling a Blue Wave This Fall?
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March 16, 2018
NY Daily News
The negative effects of Obama’s ‘positive’ school discipline policies
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March 7, 2018
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Donald Trump’s tariffs: Conservatives say they are a bad idea in every way
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February 2, 2018
The Daily Signal
New Study Finds Some Licensing Laws Do More Harm Than Good
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February 1, 2018
Education Next
A Story, Not a Study
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January 15, 2018
Wisconsin State Journal
Commentary by Rick Esenberg of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty
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November 27, 2017
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Obama school discipline policies hurt Wisconsin kids
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November 21, 2017
Washington Examiner
School choice: A path forward out of failure
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November 2, 2017
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Lucas Vebber: Wetlands legislation is good for Wisconsin
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October 5, 2017
Washington Examiner
On redistricting and Gill v. Whitford, the best course of action for the courts is no action at all
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September 29, 2017
National Review
Wisconsin Voter-ID Study Has Statistical Flaws and Mistaken Assumptions
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August 22, 2017
The Cap Times
Will Flanders: School choice opponents’ arguments against voucher schools ring hollow
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August 22, 2017
National Review
Define ‘Gerrymander’ Precisely: The Supreme Court Tackles the Impossible
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August 16, 2017
Washington Examiner
Parental choice is kicking bad schools out of school choice programs
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July 28, 2017
Post Crescent
Municipalities ignore lead pipes, scam taxpayers
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July 25, 2017
National Review
School Vouchers Are Not a Form of ‘Welfare
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July 21, 2017
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Flanders, Esenberg: Money isn’t the problem facing Wisconsin schools
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July 14, 2017
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Curtis, Vebber: Change EPA’s nonsensical rule that hurts Sheboygan County
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July 3, 2017
The Federalist
New Research Reverses Negative Findings About Biggest School Voucher Programs
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May 31, 2017
The Federalist
Kids In Rural Areas Need School Choice, Too
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May 30, 2017
The Federalist
Yes, Scott Walker Did Back Wisconsin’s Economy Away From A Cliff
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May 30, 2017
Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty: Mark Pocan is flat-out wrong on school choice
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May 24, 2017
Right Wisconsin
Celebrating Tommy Thompson and School Choice
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May 21, 2017
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Flanders, Brannon: Repeal minimum markup law
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May 16, 2017
Right Wisconsin
NPR’s Claudio Sanchez Teaches Bad Lesson on School Choice
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May 4, 2017
Urban Milwaukee
Rural Areas Need Voucher Schools
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May 2, 2017
Right Wisconsin
Five Things Everyone Should Know About the State Budget
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May 1, 2017
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Esenberg: State Supreme Court was right to reject change in recusal rules
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April 3, 2017
National Review
Our Fight for ‘Butter Freedom’
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March 22, 2017
Right Wisconsin
Green Bay Students Would Benefit from Educational Options
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March 10, 2017
Right Wisconsin
Campus Intolerance at Middlebury an Educational Failure
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March 8, 2017
National Review
New Evidence on School-Choice Successes in Wisconsin
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February 27, 2017
Right Wisconsin
WILL Responds to Wisconsin Supreme Court Ruling in Voces de la Frontera v. David A. Clarke, Jr.
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February 24, 2017
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Esenberg: Principles for a sound immigration policy
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February 17, 2017
Right Wisconsin
Rural Wisconsin Needs School Choice
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February 8, 2017
Right Wisconsin
Attacks That Opponents of School Choice Will Be Making – Before They Make Them
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February 6, 2017
Right Wisconsin
A Debate to Come: Education Funding
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January 31, 2017
Right Wisconsin
Judge Gorsuch will carry on Scalia legacy of textualism, originalism
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January 30, 2017
Right Wisconsin
Response to Three-Judge Panel Order to Legislature to Rewrite District Lines
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January 26, 2017
Right Wisconsin
Failure of Federal SIG Program Has Lessons for Wisconsin
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January 17, 2017
Right Wisconsin
Expanding the School Choice Forward Exam Results
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January 12, 2017
Right Wisconsin
Overhaul School Funding Formula? Policymakers Should Consider Three Facts First
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January 6, 2017
Marshfield News Herald
Environmental extremists mislead public
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January 6, 2017
National Review
A Word of Caution to the Trump Administration on School Choice
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