Alan J. Borsuk – Page 60 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Kettle Moraine Kids, Compared to the World

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:June 30, 2015
Post category:Education & Law Public

You could expect students in the Kettle Moraine school district to do well. The communities served by the district in western Waukesha County are generally doing well economically, parents are involved and expect good results, and the school leaders and staff are talented professionals.

But what does “do well” mean? Compared to whom? Neighboring districts? Wisconsin? The nation?

How about the world?

Kettle Moraine has been an eager participant in a small, but growing movement that involves samples of 15-year-olds taking a test called the OECD Test for Schools. It yields comparisons of individual schools to students in nations around the world. The test also includes a set of questions that yield potentially insightful information for school leaders on the perspectives of students about the learning environment they find, both at school and elsewhere.

I was asked by editors of Education Next, a widely-followed national magazine and Web site, to write about Kettle Moraine’s involvement with the OECD Test.

The story can be found by clicking here and will be in the issue of Education Next to be published in coming weeks.

And the answer to the question of how Kettle Moraine kids are doing? The answer, in short, is quite well, but there’s room for improvement.

Law School and Public Policy Forum Offer Web Site on Future of Cultural Assets

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:June 17, 2015
Post category:Marquette Law School Milwaukee Political Processes & Rhetoric Public

Set aside the hot subject of a new basketball arena for downtown Milwaukee – that’s a horse race that’s already far down the track – and we still face a lot of major policy questions about the future of the Milwaukee area’s cultural and recreational assets.

Museums, the zoo, parks, playgrounds, the convention center, cultural organizations– these are important assets to the community and keys to the overall quality of life of people living in and visiting the Milwaukee area.

What should do to keep them vibrant and how should we pay for what we do?

Marquette Law School and the Public Policy Forum, a non-partisan local research organization, are partnering in an effort to help educate people on the issues surrounding these important aspects of our community. The two institutions have created a Web-based tool for learning about the issues and developing your own thoughts on what should be done and how it might be financed.

After Forty Years, Axelrod Still Sees the Good Side of Politics

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:June 2, 2015
Post category:Political Processes & Rhetoric Public Speakers at Marquette

David Axelrod’s new book is titled “Believer: My Forty Years in Politics.” If he had had his way, the title would have been “Believer: How My Idealism Survived Forty Years in Politics,” he told a packed Appellate Courtroom in Eckstein Hall during an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” program Tuesday.

That option was too wordy in the eyes of the publisher, said Axelrod, the chief strategist for President Barack Obama’s successful runs for president in 2008 and 2012.

But in his visit to Marquette Law School, Axelrod emphasized his belief that good things can be accomplished through politics, an emphasis underscored by his current work as director of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, where one of his goals is to encourage young adults to get involved.

“We have the ability to shape our future, and the way we do it is through politics,” Axelrod told Gousha, the Law School’s distinguished fellow in law and public policy. “Politics at its best can make a great deal of difference,” he said. “It’s our opportunity to seize the wheel of history and, ever so gently because it’s hard to turn that wheel, turn it in the right direction.”