Michael Grebe Jumps The Shark!

By Jeff Simpson  - Cross Posted from Purple WI! 


Michael Grebe has had a few different positions in his career.  One of those positions, was running the Scott Walker campaigns in 2010 and again in 2012(yes, the 2012 election campaign that is at the center of the John Doe 2 investigation).
Michael Grebe, is currently President and CEO of the Bradley Foundation.  The Bradley Foundation, and Mr. Grebe fund some of the farthest right wing organizations and "news"(term used loosely) organizations there are in Wisconsin. Some examples of the long list:
-  The MacIver Foundation;
-  The Franklin Center which runs the poorly named Wisconsin Reporter;
-  Wisconsin Policy Research Institute(WPRI) - which actually employs Charley Sykes as an editor(seriously)!
-The inexplicably named,  WILL  - Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty run by fellow "purple blogger" Rick Esenberg. 
WILL and Mr. Esenberg have been busy lately.   While it is important to note, that Mr. Esenberg is NOT an employee of the Bradley Foundation, he ONLY receives the vast majority of his funding from them.   If there is anything that we have learned recently from our friends on the right, it is that hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions do not even phase them.   They just want Liberty!! 
Of course, it is just coincidence that the organization, that is funded by someone who spends millions of dollars working towards the privatization of public schools,  keeps suing public schools.
Milwaukee organization WILL, has already shown their disdain for local control and democratically elected school boards by suing the Kenosha School District.  While racking up legal bills for the district, the original lawsuit was at a standstill until some new school board members were elected.  It took a tie breaking vote, by the step father of the plaintiff,  to settle this lawsuit that was going nowhere and handing tens of thousands of dollars to Mr. Esenberg. 
I do find it interesting, that the person suing to "protect" the local taxpayer from the democratically elected school board negotiating with their employees,  charged the local taxpayers more money per hour than a teacher could ever dream of making.  
Back to the story, because now The Professor is at it again.   This time he has bitten off more than he can chew.  
Milwaukee organization, WILL and Mr. Esenberg have decided to find a local stooge and sue the Madison School District for negotiating with their employees, while ACT 10 was stayed.  
There is a special twist here though, Mary Burke, the person leading Scott Walker in the polls, happens to be a current member of the Madison School Board.  Even though Rick Esenberg is funded by former Walker campaign chairman, no political games at all here, Mr. Esenberg is just worried about the taxpayers of Dane County.   Well not everyone agrees with that:
WILL is not likely to prevail in court, Marquette University Law School professor Paul Secunda told the Wisconsin State Journal. “They negotiated their current contract when the fate of Act 10 was still up in the air,” said Secunda, who also accused Esenberg of “trying to make political points.”
Heck even the plaintiff gets giddy when he talks about suing Mary Burke:
“This wasn’t aimed at Mary Burke, but it’s a happy coincidence,” said Blaska.

“The Madison School Board is operating as if Act 10 were not in effect,” Blaska said. “They had the opportunity to reduce the tax load on the people – but the teachers are always first in line.”

While going up against a school board that actually stands for educating the children and not ideological warriors(and no direct relatives of Mr. Blaska's on the board), Mr. Esenberg will find that they do not roll over so easily. 

 

In the meantime, the lawyer from Milwaukee will do all he can to keep running up legal bills for the Dane County taxpayers! 

 

Mr. Grebe's and his "non" employee, have truly jumped the shark here!   It is time to let them know  to stop playing political games with our chidlren's money!  

 

One last piece of housecleaning, yes the Madison School Board did recently sit down and negotiate a new agreement with their teachers.   What are Mr. Blaska and Mr. Esenberg pretending to protect the taxpayers of Dane County from?  The teachers and the district negotiated a .25% raise.   For those of you scoring at home that is an average of approximately $125.00 for the year.  

 

Does the person you trust your children's future with, deserve a raise worth $125.00 for the year? 

 

Maybe Mr. Esenberg needs to rethink whtat he word "protect" means!  

 

It is also time to rethink voting for someone who would so disgracefully continue to attack public schools!