MADISON – Yesterday, the Republican-controlled Joint Finance
Committee allocated $3 million in state funds in an unprecedented move to use
taxpayer money to fund a partisan, conservative think tank at UW-Madison called
the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership. Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos stated
in media accounts that this Center was designed to counter “left-leaning”
research organizations and “liberal thinking” on campus.
This comes on the heels of a bill Vos is attempting to push
through the legislature that unconstitutionally punishes students for
exercising their First Amendment rights by the threat of expulsion.
The think tank will actually be controlled by a board
dominated by exclusively Republican political appointees without a single
Democratic appointment. According to
press accounts, UW Political Science Professor Ryan Owens, a former staffer to
Governor Thompson who has received funding from the conservative Bradley
Foundation, is vying to lead the Center.
A significant portion, $500,000, must be used to pay speakers for
engagements at other UW campuses.
“After $795 million in cuts to the UW System, including
millions in cuts that UW-Madison had to absorb during the last budget, the
priority of Republican legislators is to fund a partisan propaganda machine to
support their failing agenda that has stifled economic growth, resulted in
crumbling roads and schools and the stagnation of middle income wages,” stated
Taylor. “This is a serious misuse of public money for the purposes of pushing a
partisan, right-wing agenda on UW campuses,” stated Taylor.
UW-Madison currently has its own public policy school, the
world-renowned Lafollette School of Public Affairs which receives $600,000 of
public funds annually. The Tommy G.
Thompson Center will receive $1.5 million annually over the next two years,
with more to come from the private sector.
“How ironic that the Republican leaders who tried to gut the
Wisconsin Idea and abolish Wisconsin’s open records laws are the ones pushing
this Center, which will undoubtedly end up subsidizing the speaking fees of
their conservative buddies who will tour the UW System,” stated Taylor. “Right wing groups like the Bradley
Foundation will most certainly dole out big bucks to this Center to promote
their harmful agenda of privatizing public education and eroding the rights and
wages of working people.”
Earlier this month, the Charles Koch Foundation made a
substantial donation to UW-Stout for the creation of “Center for the Study of
Institutions and Innovation.” In 2012 alone, the Koch brothers donated nearly
$400 million to defeat Democrats at the ballot box.
Posts
This is already happening. One Wisconsin Now showed how UW-Madison econ prof Noah Williams lobbied the failed Walker for President campaign to be their "advisor."
ReplyDeleteAnd what's Williams been doing the last 2 weeks? Peddling his BS that claims Walker's giveaway to corporations added manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin (it hasn't)
Student protests of the rightwing and racist nuts who come risk draconian fines and suspension, if Republicans get their anti-free speech law past the courts.
ReplyDeleteThey can be appreciated off campus, in private.
DeleteTwo words: Havens Center.
ReplyDeletewhich means what
DeleteWhen the reactionaries have ALEC, Wisconsin Club for Growth, the McIver institute, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, Americans for Prosperity, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, and editorial control over much of state media is yet another outlet for their ideology really necessary, especially at taxpayer expense?
ReplyDeleteThey would love nothing more than creating anarchy to push their oppressive agenda.
ReplyDelete