Sunday, March 9, 2014

I Swear, Rob

By Jeff Simpson

Rhinelander Republican Rep Rob Swearingen in baffled!   Rural Schools are taking a huge beating under the Walker budget(which he voted for) and Rep Rob is SUUUU - PRISED!  

Rob Swearingen, a Rhinelander Republican and task force chairman, said the committee initially aimed to get rid of inefficiencies and find cost saving measures, not dish out more money to schools. He was surprised during visits to rural schools to see them stripped to bare bones. Dozens of rural districts are slated to ask voters April 1 for money just to keep operating and avoid closing schools; many are likely to fail.

“Referendums are just tearing these schools apart,” Swearingen said, noting the votes in Rhinelander were narrowly split.

Who knew that ACT10 and the Walker budget's were not designed to help schools?

Perhaps Rep. Rob should be reading CogDis

I am glad that Rep. Rob ran for Assembly and has been voting on our public schools but yet had no idea what was actually happening IN our public schools.

At least Rep. Rob has a two fold solution.  1.  He wants to pass a Constitutional Amendment to makei it so it takes 2/3 of a majority in the Legislature to raise taxes, and 2.  He wants more money for his district.  (yes you read that right).
Under a plan being weighed by a panel of legislators, however, teachers could receive up to $10,000 to help retire college loans if they stay in a rural district for five years.
 By the way, if you aren't busy, could you help pay for his mess also (his constituents are freezing)!

In a press conference at the Oneida County Courthouse, state Assembly representatives Jeff Mursau (R-Crivitz) and Rob Swearingen (R-Rhinelander) and state Sen. Tom Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) all said they will be making a $100 donation to the fund and they encourage others to do the same.
“That challenge goes out to not just our constituents but people across the state,” Tiffany said. “We just felt it was really fitting [in the Northwoods] because our district is so rural and there are so many more propane users than many other parts of the state. We think it’s appropriate to highlight the Keep Wisconsin Warm fund as a place that people can help.”
State Rep. Mary Czaja (R-Irma) will also be making a $100 donation but was unable to be at Monday’s press conference.

Thats a heck of a platform Rep. Rob is running on in Northern WI.

Vote for Rob Swearingen - your schools are devastated and you're gonna freeze!    

Tweet your thoughts to Rep. Rob - @sweak1



 

10 comments:

  1. 100 x 3. Really ? BFD. They could find that in the sofacushions at the next ALEC 'conference' or C-Pack convention.

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  2. Apparently they're feeling guilty for having made so much off of the speculation on propane. Oh who am I kidding, they are incapable of feeling guilt or remorse. Bastards

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  3. This article deserves to be seen but when shared on Facebook, due to the way items from Cognitive Dissidence are formatted, most things people share from this site go unread on Facebook. a HUGE cognitive Dissidence masthead and then down beneath it in tiny letters, a heading which often fails to even give a hint what the article is about, thereby causing many, many readers to just turn away without opening it and reading it. You're doing yourselves a VAST disservice here. There's just too much content on Facebook these days to compete with such a nebulous "hook". Just a suggestion as I generally like your posts, but only read any of them because they come from a FB friend whose stuff I really like always. If it weren't coming from him and was on someone else's page, I'd never bother with this stuff...They almost look like ads, WITHOUT any content attached, so hard do you have to look to see the heading.

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  4. Well Rob, Team Walker firmly planted one up your ass.

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  5. The Speakers Task Force on Rural Schools website is http://legis.wisconsin.gov/committee/rstf/Pages/default.aspx Please go there and read the hearing testimony delivered. Look at the hearing notices and pay attention to the individuals and organizations who were invited to testify by the Chairman. You may be surprised to see many groups you would agree with! I was impressed while attending the Antigo hearing and watching the rest on WisconsinEye. Rep. Swearingen (a first term freshman) set a comfortable, open and respectful tone for the committee during all proceedings. Members from both parties got along with each other. They learned together, asked excellent questions, and had free ranging exchanges with those who testified. This blog, as well as two others where variations of the same take on the Green Bay Press Gazette article have been posted, are unfairly judgmental as well as entirely missing the point of that article and Rep. Swearingen’s comments. He may have begun the process with a set of assumptions but he has emerged with a different point of view. Instead of smacking him with a gob of snark at the point where the committee is sitting down to make recommendations prior to writing their report, why not celebrate education by contributing something positive to the discussion? Maybe you’re angry and really think that beating a “R” legislator about the head and shoulders will change his mind. Maybe you’ve given up. That’s too bad. I’m a public employee and the child of union teachers, signed the recall petition, and carried a few signs. But I have to tell you I take no joy from, nor can stand by without protesting when “our side” displays the same short sighted uninformed behavior we find abhorrent in the “other side.”

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  6. Anony, you make a good point but one I will gladly answer.

    "He may have begun the process with a set of assumptions but he has emerged with a different point of view"

    he did not just "begin the process" with a different set of assumptions, he acted upon them. He voted as if h e knew exactly what was going on in the schools in every single vote he took that affected our schools. Now that he actually stepped foot in a school and listened to actual experts and people who know whats going on he somewhat changed his mind.

    I will point out also, that what was his response when is eyes were opened? was it lets relook at education funding? - NO Was it maybe we shouldnt be giving public money to voucher schools? -- NO... was it maybe we do underfund our schools? - NO

    The response was my district needs more money!

    you can say im short sighted, but as a School Board member, I have had to cut over $5,000,000 in the last five years because of people like rep Rob. \I have listened to people exactly like rep rob since ACT10 talk about the failing schools, the lazy overpaid teachers, the bad kids, etc... of our public schools. I would bet rep rob during the ACT10 protests couldnt tell enough people what an amazing job scott walker was doing "reforming" our schools.

    Now he sees the devastating effects of his policies and his only response is give ME more money.

    After witnessing the hypocrisy and ignorance.....i thought I was too soft on him!



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  7. I respect your point of view but am still disappointed and ask that there be some overlay of political reality. Rep. Swearingen was elected in 2012 in a district that had not been represented by a Democrat since 1992. That Democrat voted for QEO! Legislators relate all things to their own districts. The current funding formula benefits districts where there are more people and more legislators. The Task Force has 4 other members including Wright who are from north central Wisconsin and none of them, particularly Wright who is in the minority, are going to change the formula. That wasn't the purpose of the task force. If Rep. Swearingen and the other majority task force members can leverage an increase in categorical aids from their leadership, more power to him. At least some schools will be helped even if it isn't the school you're most close to. Please don't lower hypocrisy and ignorance on a bet because of your anger at "people who are exactly like Rep. Swearingen." We are short sighted when we do that. It only makes the gridlock worse.

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  8. Yes rep Rob was elected in a district that elects republicans, now they are reaping what they sow, wouldnt you say? As they like to say, elections have consequences. Well the consequences we have with our election habits are attacks on public education.

    The purpose of the task force was to see how we can improve rural schools. There are to answers to that. 1. the easy one - do things differently than we have been doing them for the last four years or 2. Keep going on the path we are and just send more money to republican districts, which will hurt everyone. which is also the path we are on.

    Sending temporary money to Rhinelander School distroict is not a solution, its part of the problem. We need fixes for ALL students.

    This group of legislators, and the Governors crew, have demonized teachers for four years now and then they finally step in a school and are surprised by what they see. Followed up with no admission that everythint they have done is wrong?

    Now you want me to treat them with kid gloves? I respect that you can, but I dont have that in me.


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  9. The present school aid formula has placed districts in rural, property rich but income poor areas at a disadvantage for years. Many of those schools are in Northern Wisconsin; some are not. I’m really sorry that more recent reductions in school aid have caught up to your school district (Cottage Grove isn’t it?) and for the difficult choices you now have to make as a school board member. I do not, however, agree that children in Republican areas should receive a less than stellar education as punishment for the voting record of their elders, any more than their counterparts in Dane County. And I agree we need “fixes for all districts.” So I'm curious: Why do you think the school funding formula wasn't reformed when the Democrats were in control of both houses of the legislature and the governor's office and had the opportunity to do so?

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  10. I absolutely do NOT think that kids in republican areas should receive a less than stellar education at all.

    I do think though that the mess that rural schools have become and the struggles they have should be pinned right to the chest of the republicans and Scott Walker, right where it belongs. You do not cut 1.5 billion and demonize the teachers then look surprised when you see problems.

    Why did education not get fixed whne the dems had control? Pure incompetence, They dems in power in those years were horribly incompetent and led to this. I was not blogging then had i been i would have been much harder on them than i was rep rob here.

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