Dennis Dresang
Areas of expertise: Wisconsin politics, Federal-state-local-tribal relations
Regions: U.S.
Languages:English
Contact info: (in order of preference)
Email: dresang@lafollette.wisc.edu
Office: 608-263-0446
Willing to appear in: All Media
Dennis Dresang is Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs and Director of the Center on State, Local, and Tribal Governance. He is also founding Director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs. His research focuses on state politics, public personnel management, and community issues. He has contributed to public service in a variety of ways: directing a research and public service seminar of La Follette School students examining community health issues and youth violence, chairing two major gubernatorial task forces, and serving on numerous tribal and local government commissions on human resource management issues. He is research director for a policy initiative of Wisconsin's Lieutenant Governor to improve the status of women. For his research and public service on pay equity, he has received distinguished service awards from the Women's Political Caucus and the Wisconsin Equal Rights Council.
Key Publications:
- Politics and Policy in American States and Communities (with James J. Gosling, Allyn and Bacon, 1999)
- Public Personnel Management and Public Policy (Longman, 2002)
John Witte
Areas of expertise: democratic theory, public policy, organizational theory, tax policy, education
Regions: U.S.
Languages: English
Contact info: (in order of preference)
Email: jwitte@polisci.wisc.edu
Office: (608) 262-5715
Willing to appear in: All Media
Professor Witte has a joint appointment with the Robert M. LaFollette School of Public Affairs. In recent years he has been at the center of a national debate over educational vouchers and school choice. His research has focused on tax policy, politics and education, including charter schools. His current work, supported by the U.S. Department of Education, examines charter schools. He has been a Fellow at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York and at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. He served in 1984-85 as Executive Director of the Governor's Task Force to study the quality and equity of Milwaukee public schools. In 1988 he was awarded grants from the Bradley, Spencer, and Joyce foundations to organize a 1989 conference on Choice and Control in American Education, which produced two volumes on educational choice. In 1990 he was named the state evaluator of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. The Spencer Foundation funded a study of that program through December 1995. His recent work continues the focus on education policy. His most recent book, The Market Approach to Education, examines educational vouchers. He is doing research on charter schools with the aid of a substantial U.S. Department of Education grant.
Key Publications:
- Choice and Control in American Education (Falmer, 1990)
- The Politics and Development of the Federal Income Tax (Wisconsin, 1985)
- The Market Approach to Education: An Analysis of America's First Voucher Program (Princeton, 2000)