You know how Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker incessantly vilified teachers in his effort to strip public employees of their right to bargain collectively? Well now we can understand why:

Wisconsin leads the nation with a 90.7 percent graduation rate according to the recently released report, “Public School Graduates and Dropouts from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2008—09,” from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

“This is the second year in a row that Wisconsin has led the nation in public high school graduation rates, and our rate is up more than one percentage point from the previous year,” said State Superintendent Tony Evers. “In fact, according to the NCES, over the past five years of this report, Wisconsin has been first or second in graduation rate, growing by four percentage points. We should be proud of that accomplishment, and remain focused on reaching our goal of having every child graduate prepared for success.”

But you know, you get what you pay for, so good luck Wisconsin in maintaining that impressive track record now that so many of your experienced teachers are retiring en masse.

(Oh, and in case you're wondering, no, Washington doesn't fare so well in that NCES study, scoring only a 73.7 percent graduation rate. Good thing we're slashing K-12 funding; that should fix things.)