It's a wake-up call in more ways than one.
Time for some shit you need to know.
Look how we did it.
We tied in from schools to Wisconsin teachers unions.
They have experienced the largest drop in strength in the nation since 2012, according to a new study from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Come on, teachers.
teacher union membership in Wisconsin fell from 98% in 2012 to 45% in 2025.
The biggest decline of any state.
What is going on?
Researchers say much of the decline is tied to Act 10.
Oh yeah, that's true.
The 2011 law signed by Governor Scott Walker, the limited collective bargaining rights for public employee unions.
It was, well,
Well, they're not
going to
re-debate Act 10.
Wisconsin now ranks 36th nationally in teacher union strength after previously ranking 18th.
Despite lower membership, Wisconsin teachers unions remain active in state politics and education policy debates.
And I come from a teacher's union mom and a non-union school administrator.
So, who was formerly in the teachers union.
Yeah, this is, but that's, I'm sure we could say that for a lot of union jobs in Wisconsin where it's like, oh man.
I do find it interesting though that all these years later we're still dealing with ramifications of Act
10 and
we knew we would be, right?
But at the same time, this also explains the big stories about why young teachers especially aren't staying
in this
state.
Yeah,
I
mean, this is a big part of it.
Yeah, but they don't go on strike.
You still don't pay them enough.
You're lucky you have it because if you did, there would be districts striking non-stop because of the wages and the conditions and the program cuts.
So, I mean, if you're a proponent of Act 10, you get what you pay for, I
guess.
None of it is good for our education system.
any of it.
In other stuff you need to know this morning, I love this story because Great Lakes Cruises are growing in popularity with 2026 expected to be a record breaking year.
The economic impact of cruising on the Great Lakes is projected to be more than $300 million this year, which is up 25% from last year.
That's according to Cruise the Great Lakes.
That's a marketing program aimed at bringing more passengers to the region.
Ten ships across seven cruise
are slated to operate on the Great Lakes this year.
Together, they will carry more than 23,000 passengers.
That's up about 5% from last year, according to Cruise the Great Lakes.
Now, Wisconsin's tourism secretary, who happens to chair Cruise the Great Lakes, said that they expect a record-breaking season, and that's such great news because the Great Lakes can serve as a gateway to the state, bringing first-time visitors to five of the state's port cities.
cruising on the lakes was such a big deal.
I didn't realize that that
was such a big industry.
I'm learning.
Yeah, I knew I remember last year talking about some cruise ships docking along Lake Michigan.
But I didn't know it was such a big thing.
But that's yeah, I'm trying to think five port cities as you go up.
Obviously, it's Milwaukee is one
if we're
starting in the south.
Where else Port Washington?
Where else would you dock along?
Between here and Marinette is would Marinette be one?
That's
what I'm wondering.
Let's
see.
I'm gonna see if I can find... If you go as you come south from Marinette, because then you're up near... you're up in...
OK, so
I've got the list here.
So we are the five prominent port cities in Wisconsin include, as you mentioned, Milwaukee, also Green Bay, Superior, Manitowoc, and then this one is going on the river because I just did a quick search, so I'd have to dig in
a little bit
more.
It's got lacrosse listed because of the river.
But obviously, in this particular story, we're talking about the lakes, but that
was
a quick one.
But anyway.
I don't know why I brought that up and through things.
No, that's
good.
I like to do research on the fly.
Little
research on the fly.
I
like it.
All right.
Let's, you know what?
Even though there's stuff, tell Billy to hold on.
We're going to do just for one second.
Let's finish this last story.
And then we're going to tell Billy.
member of the teacher's union.
Yo, love to hear from him.
So last thing you need to know, it's just for fun.
Scientists have announced the discovery of a previously unidentified species of octopus found in the Galapagos Islands.
It is very cute.
It is very tiny.
It has blue flesh and large eyes.
It can fit between the bottom of your palm
and your first
knuckle of
your middle
finger.
It's tiny.
It looks like something out of anime.
It was discovered first in 2015 and
And then it took forever for the paperwork and everything to get done in the logistics.
Of course.
But the octopus finally arrived at the Field Museum in Chicago in 2022.
It is there.
They're not going to do a lot of experiments on it because it's so tiny.
It's in formaldehyde, but you can go see this thing or look it up.
It looks really, really cute.
I didn't know this.
300 different species of octopus, a varying size, shape, and color.
That's crazy.
I had no idea.
I didn't know there were that many octopi in the world.
I did not either.
But now you know.
See, even with stuff you need to know, we are educating you here on Daybreak.
Education and entertainment.
And let's talk to, we were talking about Wisconsin's seeing its largest drop in teacher union strength.
And Billy is a member of a teacher's union.
He is listening on WMDX.
Hey Billy, welcome.
Hey, good to talk to you.
Yeah, as a member of the Wisconsin Education Association Teachers Union, you know, I think that certainly the, I'm not as sure about the drop in the membership coming from Act 10.
I think that was kind of across the board.
But as we, you know, try to build our numbers back up, you know, it's very interesting in my situation.
A lot of our members are like me in their fifties.
And it's very difficult to get younger members to join.
You know, they often cite the expense of the dues, but the dues, I think, are well worth it.
It certainly comes back to us in salary when we have that bargaining power.
But I understand that it's not for me.
sounds like we lost.
Are you there?
Thank you.
There we
go.
Okay.
I'm sorry, Billy.
Yeah, you keep breaking up.
We appreciate the call.
Thank you for the call.
Your point is well taken.
This has been going on and we mentioned it's been going on for years.
The retention of young teachers and
then
you're right getting them if if they don't see the benefit of a union having
either grown up in Wisconsin and being indoctrinated under Act 10 or they just don't know what it's going to be it's hard to get them to join whereas in some places where you need you have to join the union
if you
want to be if you want to work uh I think it's I think it's a I think unions are a good thing yes I think they can be
They can go a little off the rails just like anything else, but
it's all
about leadership at
the top
of
every union, right
exactly and what you decide to ask for what you decide to fight for
But it is one of the things that is keeping young teachers who are trained here from sticking around.
Do we have a big story today, Jamie?
We do have a big story today because it turns out that there's a lot of people in this country who are struggling to find food.
In fact, a new Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey found that hunger in the United States, this is mind boggling to me because we all remember back to the COVID times, right?
Water in the U.S.
right now is worse than during the height of the COVID-19 panic across the nation.
In fact, about 10% of families said that they have skipped meals because they can't afford food.
16% have relied on food banks or donations.
Obviously, this is affecting people making less than $50,000 a year more than a majority of other people with higher incomes.
Nearly 20% of those earning $50,000 a year or less are saying that they're going without meals because of financial struggles.
And in fact, there are food banks across the nation, Brian, that are reporting the demand is so great that some families are lining up overnight or sleeping in their cars in
the parking
lot so that they can get groceries the next
Now, I did a little digging into this, and it turns out that in Wisconsin, we're also dealing with the food insecurities.
One in 10 Wisconsin households faces a food insecurity right now.
That affects nearly 700,000 residents, including more than 200,000 kids.
Food banks across the state have seen an increase in demand from nearly 30% to more than 100% since the pandemic.
Obviously, you couple on the fact that rent, groceries, health care, childcare, utilities, all of that are also rising.
We are in a major crisis in this country when it comes to food.
And it's terrifying.
It's terrifying.
The good news is we have money to pay insurrectionists, we have money to repaint the reflecting pool, and we have money for an arch and money for all sorts of things, but feeding people, giving them health care, we don't have it.
Now it's ridiculous that we're in this, we're supposedly the wealthiest nation on the planet.
the greatest nation on the planet and yet we have so many people who even if they're working 40 hours a week because that used to be the old oh well if you had a job you wouldn't have to go to a food bank no that's not the case
anymore
sometimes you've got people with two two adults working or even if one adult is still working a full-time job and they can't afford a simple place to live and food for their kids
And what's scary right now for these food banks is here in Wisconsin, they're reporting a double squeeze.
They have to help more families, why they also have to deal with rising food prices, higher diesel prices to get the food to their banks.
And then of course, they're also getting fewer donations because people don't actually have the money
to go.
Exactly.
I
mean, we're talking
college students in this state, 27% of UW Madison students report that they are struggling to find enough
food to eat because of the disparity in income, the cost of being a student in this state, and
the
fact that the rising costs are just pinching them out of what they can afford.
It's it's frightening and I also now start wondering because kids are so food insecure all across this country And we were just talking about it at the top of this block kids are getting out of school and for a lot of kids That was the one meal a day that they got.
What are these
kids doing
in the summer?
It's the hardest thing and I know there's a lot of areas that do
Different programs where at least the kids can come and they can pick up a sack lunch and you can if your school-age kids or if they'll give lunches to your siblings You come and yeah, because for all the arguments about school lunches and school breakfast Sometimes that's all the food you get
