The Capital Times

That gap has persisted for decades.

Cap Times' health and policy reporter Erin McGroarty spent months investigating this issue in her series Deadly Divide, which is still ongoing.

Erin joins me now to talk about her investigation and what she's learned about what might actually improve what is an extreme picture.

Hello, Erin.

I wanna just ask, why investigate this issue, and how did you get started on reporting for it?

Yeah, first of all, I just wanna, um, thank the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, um, for giving me a national fellowship and a community engagement grant to do this project.

I think where it first came from is, uh, obviously, I spent the first two and a half years at The Cap Times covering the legislature.

And what I heard over and over again was that Wisconsin is one of the worst places in the country to raise a Black family, and that seemed really shocking and, and horrifying to me.

We gotta get them up, 'cause we know Edgewood is a good program in the city from the private school standpoint.

But Madison, my heyday growing up and when I was with the Cap Times, State Journal, it was great to see the city schools battling.

And we had games like this.

We had an East Memorial game one year where we had 5,000 people here in the first quarter, people still streaming in from the parking lot.

They started back on the 10th, which was this past weekend.

Uh, The Cap Times spoke with the co-authors ahead of their events.

They did a little interview with them.

And I tell you what, we'll post this article in the description of our program so you can read the article with the two of them and, and get to know them a little bit.

But [laughs] well, I would say a growing number of Madison students, and their families probably are driving this, are, yeah, are rejecting having screens in the classroom.

According to a story f- in The Cap Times this week by education reporter Erin Gretzinger, the number of families who opted out of receiving Chromebooks from the district, paid for by the schools, went up more than 400% this year compared to last year.

In the 2025-26 school year, 44 students decided not to accept the computers, which, again, are issued free to students, uh, since the pandemic.

But this year, 249 students said no to the Chromebooks.

So, like, do we know in this story, like, what are the ages of these students that are rejecting the Chromebooks?

Well, like you said, it, it's across all, you know, K through 12.

But, uh, in the story, it's definitely parents of young children in el- elementary schools who were quoted by The Cap Times, who are really concerned about their kids' foundational skills, like reading and writing and basic math.

I am also concerned about my skills with basic math, but [laughs] will these students...

This one from Wisconsin.

19-- uh, pardon me, 2025, a year-long investigation by The Cap Times found that the State Department of Public Instruction investigated more than 200 Wisco- Wisconsin teachers, aides, substitutes, and administrators who were accused of sexual misconduct or grooming behaviors towards student, students.

No one in Wisconsin had ever been told that these investigations took place, certainly not the outcome of them.

Here, uh, Lawsuit Information Center, California sexual abuse lawsuits and settlements.

This is the reality for more than 7,000 disabled Wisconsinites who are left in limbo after state funding failed to meet demand despite warnings.

Natalie Eilbert, opinion editor at The Cap Times, recently published a cover story on this issue.

Natalie, welcome to CityCast Madison.

Thank you so much, Bianca, for having me.

Yeah, inaction is taking a stand and has a consequence.

Well, I hope that, you know, people read this story widely, including all legislators a- and people who are making decisions here.

Natalie Eilbert, opinion editor at The Cap Times, thank you for your reporting and bringing it here to CityCast Madison.

Thank you so much, Bianca.

This includes like email chains, email threads, text chat groups, and signal chat groups.

In fact, the Cap Times did put out like a survey to Alders a couple years ago.

And the city attorney says don't respond to that because that's – that's a quorum like you know that in an email

thread

But it does become an echo chamber.

And we need people like yourself who can come out and say like, this is the facts and I got this from the state journal or the cap times or channel 3000, whatever.

But also here's a different way of thinking about this fact, because I think a lot of times like we can all be repeating the same thing, but no one's actually really talking about what it means.

And that's something that I always really valued about tone.

They kill a lot of people around the country every year, and it's not a rational response to all sorts of different problems.

in our society.

Natalie Aylberg, the opinion editor at the Cap Times, wrote this great piece about Corey Ruiz's history in and out of the justice system and various stages of treatment.

And she wasn't digging into his criminal history to slime him as deserving of this, like some people do.