News: Analysis

As an analyst with the Wisconsin Department of Administration's budget office, alum Breann Boggs helps the governor's office and state agencies devise the state's two-year spending plan.

From Mali to Salt Lake City, La Follette School student Anne Chapman has seen the importance of well-informed, motivated community leadership — and the essential role a skilled analyst can play in sharing expertise about policy ramifications.

For situations involving Wisconsin elections and numbers, La Follette School alum Brian Bell is the man to turn to.

Sociologist Pamela Herd outlines the necessity of the annual American Community Survey to provide policymakers with good data in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  Read the article …

Nick Levine came to the La Follette School to pick up a few more analysis tools. "I have a background in the humanities, in East Asian studies with an emphasis on China," Levine says, "but my analysis suffered from a lack of understanding involving the economics, statistics and legal precedents used in the law and social sciences."

Curiosity about statistical methods brought Adam Hartung to the La Follette School. "I wanted to have a better understanding of how public policies are created and evaluated at a level higher than when I'm talking about a news story with friends," says the second-year Master of Public Affairs student.

A cost-benefit analysis by La Follette School students recommends that Wisconsin invest $20 million in programs that divert some non-violent criminal offenders from jail or prison to community-based alternatives. The annual investment could help offset increased costs of incarceration and reduce prison overcrowding.