Forum researchers published 48 reports and interactive data tools in 2025. The annual list of our top five findings features insights into how Milwaukee leaders might improve educational outcomes, trends in the value of Wisconsin’s imports, how the Milwaukee County youth justice system has changed since the pandemic, statewide school property tax increases, and the state’s apprenticeship pathways.
Our annual review of the Forum’s output shows the breadth of our work in 2025. We examined net migration patterns in our state, trends in recycling, and analyzed the debate leading up to – and the final outcome of – passage of the current state budget.
We unpacked trends in K-12 student homelessness, the condition of our state’s bridges, and options for preserving services at one of Wisconsin’s many local libraries. We added to our ongoing body of research on how collaboration could help our state’s fire and EMS agencies address their staffing and funding challenges.
Our top five findings for the year serve as a testament to both the hard work of our staff and the strong support of the Forum’s members, who helped to underwrite those efforts. It’s never easy to settle on just five items out of the dozens of in-depth reports, shorter research briefs, and interactive data tools that we publish each year. In making these selections, we tried to highlight findings that brought to light new and notable facts for elected officials and the public. Here is this year’s top five list in order of publication:
- Milwaukee leaders can look to high-performing schools in their city and around the country as a roadmap for improvement. Last year, Forum research found that despite a widening range of schooling options for families, educational outcomes for the average Milwaukee child have not transformed over the last decade, and in many respects have worsened after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our follow-up report in March 2025 identified and explored drivers of success for exemplary Milwaukee schools serving large shares of disadvantaged students. It also looked at themes shared by other large cities that have become national examples of improvement in student outcomes.
Studying educational improvements achieved in other cities makes clear that, while Milwaukee faces significant and, in some cases, unique challenges, poor academic outcomes for its children could still be improved. Based on this analysis, the report also identified five focus areas for potential action across Milwaukee school sectors.
- The value of goods imported to Wisconsin has increased significantly. Wisconsin consumers and businesses purchased $38.9 billion worth of imported goods in 2024, with machinery, pharmaceuticals, and vehicles among the top imports by value. Since 2016, the inflation-adjusted value of the state’s imports has grown 32.4%, our research found.
Increases to U.S. tariffs enacted in 2025 could affect that trend, however. Federal leaders say the tariffs are meant to boost domestic manufacturing, but their cost and the ensuing retaliation by some major trading partners raise concerns about potential inflation, decreases in product availability, and unintended impacts to state manufacturers who rely on many imported materials.
Local and state policymakers are starkly limited in the means by which they can address the impacts of federal tariffs on Wisconsin businesses and consumers. That said, they may wish to consider modest ways to help both consumers and businesses cope with this changing environment, even as they try to harden their own budgets against the risk of economic turbulence.
- The youth justice system in Milwaukee County now operates at roughly its pre-pandemic capacity, but it is seeing more severe offenses. From 2018 to 2023, felony offense referrals to Milwaukee County Children, Youth, and Family Services increased 13%. Growth was even more significant for certain violent felonies such as armed robbery or homicide, our research found.
For those who enter the criminal justice system, the final outcome is called a “disposition.” From 2018 to 2023, probation dispositions grew by 18% (103 dispositions), while dispositions in which prosecution was declined fell by 19% (72). This is consistent with referral data showing that court cases have become more serious in nature.
County officials point to a broader range of programming compared to prior years, including new alternatives to placing juveniles in state detention facilities. But the jury is still out on the effectiveness of such programs in achieving better outcomes, both for the youth themselves, but also for public safety. Two relevant metrics are program completion and recidivism rates, but data in these areas is limited. The report suggests that standardizing methods by which those data are tracked could improve the evaluation of outcomes.
- Gross property taxes levies across Wisconsin school districts in 2025 are increasing by the largest amount in three decades. As bills are mailed out to taxpayers in December 2025, school property tax levies are rising 7.8%, the largest increase since 1992, according to preliminary data from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. As a result, combined total tax levies for all local governments are expected to see their biggest jump since at least 2018.
Major drivers of the rise in K-12 taxes include increases to state limits on school districts’ per pupil revenues, as enacted in 2023 by Gov. Tony Evers’ partial veto, and the lack of additional general state aid to schools in the most recent state budget by lawmakers and Evers. Voters’ approval of school district referenda also contributed to the increase, as referenda can authorize districts to raise their property tax levies in excess of state-imposed limits.
As always, the Forum takes no position for or against the rise in taxes. However, it is likely that next year will see property tax increases of similar magnitude if state leaders do not take legislative action.
- Even with participation in apprenticeships at record levels, opportunities remain to further expand these programs in specific regions and occupations of the state. Apprenticeships are a critical tool for addressing Wisconsin’s workforce demand in many industries, and also an area where our state historically has been a national leader.
A report we released in December is the second in a series that looks at Wisconsin’s apprenticeship programs and pathways. It found that there may be opportunities to expand apprenticeship pathways in specific areas of the state, such as northwestern and west central Wisconsin, that have few apprentices relative to the projected demand for workers in those occupations.
Occupations with low ratios of apprentices to projected job openings, such as nursing or teaching, may also offer opportunities to strengthen programs. However, the programs would need to conform with state apprentice standards and generate adequate demand.
Because we limit our list to five, we’re forced to leave out other important 2025 findings. One honorable mention goes to our research on school districts’ policies on student cell phone usage during school hours. Shortly before Gov. Tony Evers signed a new law requiring all Wisconsin school boards to adopt policies that largely bar students from using their cellphones during instructional time, our research found that the overwhelming majority of districts already had adopted such policies. Of the 309 districts that responded to a recent Department of Public Instruction survey, about 90% already had policies on student cell phone use that were at least this stringent.
Additional insights ranged from a national look at states’ rush to legalize sports betting and the sports betting landscape in Wisconsin, to the potential impacts of federal funding cuts on Wisconsin institutions and programs. Others included a look at the state’s sharp increase in damage caused by flooding, which resulted in larger flood insurance claim payouts and federal and state disaster aid; and the growing number of Wisconsin teachers who hold emergency licenses.
We’re proud of the breadth and quality of our research portfolio for 2025. Our staff is also grateful that our work once again received awards from the Governmental Research Association, which recognized our two-part series on Milwaukee’s educational outcomes that included the first report cited on this list. The association also presented our Immediate Past President, Rob Henken, with its highest individual honor, the Frederick P. Gruenberg Award for Lifetime Achievement.
We want to sincerely thank our members and supporters for helping us to run one of the nation’s top nonpartisan policy think tanks for the benefit of Wisconsin’s residents. In the coming year, we look forward to holding more public events on state and local policy and to publishing many insightful — and sometimes surprising — findings. In particular, we hope to see many of our members at our annual meeting on Feb. 3!