How to Fix Wisconsin's Economic Malaise

Long, long essay, but the takeaway is this:

Refocus Wisconsin calls for three initiatives — first, creating a new economic development initiative through a “charter model,” which is “an independent, private-sector-driven organization held to accountability standards for achieving public goals” — for instance, charter schools. “This could be called a public/private partnership, as Forward Wisconsin was in the 1980s. That underfunded partnership model in Wisconsin ended in 2005, when the state Department of Commerce took it over. In the charter structure, the governor would be the chief salesperson — but not the engineer building the model.” The other two proposed creations are a $1 billion five-year Wisconsin Idea Fund similar to Ohio’s Third Frontier, and a “pro-growth, pro-reform political dialogue” modeled on Bill Clinton’s Democratic Leadership Council and Progressive Policy Institute, as well as conservative institutions like the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation.

Not bad at all.