Politics
WILL offers roadmap to return Wisconsin back to charter school leader
The Wisconsin Institute on Law and Liberty has released a new proposal aimed at reforming state charter school authorization and funding to boost growth.
By Benjamin Yount · 2026-08-15T08:15:59.607Z
The Center Square – There is a plan to return Wisconsin to the front of the pack when it comes to charter school innovation.
The Wisconsin Institute on Law and Liberty on Thursday released its proposal, Charting a New Course https://will law.org/wp content/uploads/2026/08/CharterSchoolStudy .pdf , that it says would make Wisconsin among the leading states for charter schools.
“Just like we were a leader in private school choice for the first school choice program in the country, we were the second state in the country with charter schools,” WILL’s Will Flanders said during an interview on News Talk 1130 WISN. “But just like we fall on private school choices…we've seen increased skepticism on the left towards charter schools, and many of our authorizers are sort of doing everything they can to limit their authorization.”
WILL’s first suggestion in the plan would be to move charter school authorization away from local school districts and the University of Wisconsin and toward a “non political” board or organization.
“One thing we'd like to see is an authorizer that isn't really subject to the winds of political change because when you're planning a school particularly if you're an out of state group that wants to come in and start a school you want to know that you're going to have solid support and you're not going to lose your school just because the governorship changes,” Flanders added.
The plan also calls for some funding changes, primarily decoupling charter school funding from the state’s regular school funding system. Flanders said that could help end the perception that charter schools “take” money away from traditional public schools.
Flanders also said Wisconsin needs a formal appeals process for charter schools that get denied, as well as state money for charter school buildings themselves.
While Wisconsin was once a leader in charter school innovations, WILL's report said the state is now in the middle of the pack. The state’s law was rated as a B by the National Center for Education Reform.
There are more than 12,000 students enrolled in Wisconsin’s charter schools, and that number is growing. WILL notes that enrollment in charter schools increased nearly 35% since 2015, while enrollment in Wisconsin’s public schools has fallen.
This story originally appeared on thecentersquare.com https://www.thecentersquare.com/wisconsin/article 3165a4d9 8a36 4678 8ead a2d433d55e47.html .