Follow Local Issues

If you want to go beyond voting and actually follow what local government is doing, these are some of the most useful places to start:

Official government sources

• City of Madison Legislative Information Center. (https://www.cityofmadison.com/cityhall/legislativeinformation/)
• Madison City Channel for the city’s municipal television channel (https://www.cityofmadison.com/information-technology/city-channel)
• Madison City Channel meeting page to watch specific committee meetings not covered in regular programming. (https://www.cityofmadison.com/information-technology/city-channel/meetings)
• MMSD Board of Education — learn who serves on the school board and what decisions they’re making about Madison public schools. (https://www.madison.k12.wi.us/about/board-of-education)
• MMSD Board of Education meetings. (https://videos.madison.k12.wi.us/Board%20Meetings and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvo1cQVR0MPaTo_SvQRSoXQ)
• MMSD BoardDocs to find agendas, materials and policies from past and upcoming board meetings. (https://go.boarddocs.com/wi/mmsd/Board.nsf/Public)

Local news and watchdog coverage

• The Capital Times — Madison’s primary source for local politics, education, housing and development reporting. (https://captimes.com)
• Isthmus — independent nonprofit news covering local government, politics, arts and community issues. (https://isthmus.com)
• WisPolitics — Wisconsin’s political news service, useful for state-level coverage that connects to local decisions. (https://www.wispolitics.com)
• Forward Lookout — a nonprofit, independently run site that tracks City Council, the Dane County Board and the school board week by week. (https://www.forwardlookout.com)

Transit

• Metro Transit — Madison’s bus system, relevant if you’re following transit policy or route changes that affect campus. (http://mymetrobus.com)