Big Bad Mandy Wright!

By Jeff Simpson

One of my favorite WI Legislators(and regular readers know I do not have many) is Representative Mandy Wright.   Mandy Wright is a former teacher who in 2012 took the legislature by storm.  She was a first term-er, who not only represented the 85th assembly well, but truly represented Wisconsin.

Mandy Wright is an educator and involved citizen focused on empowering her 
community.  As a wife, parent of three beautiful daughters, teacher, and volunteer, Mandy has deep roots in Central Wisconsin.Born and raised in Wausau, Mandy grew up exploring the woods and Wisconsin River near her childhood home north of Wausau.  She attended Riverview Elementary and earned Varsity letters as a cross-country ski captain, goalie and captain of the girls’ soccer team, and the football kicker.  After graduating from Wausau East, she studied English and Norwegian, receiving her B.A. from St. Olaf College.  She worked for the Boys and Girls Club, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and as an after-school coordinator at Jefferson Elementary organizing many community programs and events.  In 2000, Mandy organized a Food Camp for children focused on local, sustainable food production.  Her family is a member of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  The Wrights also frequent local farmer’s markets and make a point to shop locally.  Mandy and her husband volunteer to teach religious education at their church.  With an MA in Education from Viterbo University, Mandy worked for four years as an English and English Language Learner teacher at Wausau West.  After her third child was born, she took a year to be a stay-at-home mom and taught evening classes for Upper Iowa University.  She taught sixth grade and was coaching soccer at Horace Mann Middle School prior to her election in 2012.  Since serving, she has worked as the State Policy Coordinator for the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service and as a High School English teacher in the Mosinee School District.

Mandy was one of the biggest, loudest and best voices advocating for public schools and our children which did not go unnoticed.   American Federation for (profiting off of) Children(AFC) had no time for anyone who stood in their way of squeezing profits from our childrens classrooms.   

AFC, with the Devos family billions backing them, and unethical, formerly convicted felon Scott Jensen running the ground game in WI, attacked Ms. Wright Mercilessly.  They shelled out over $110,000 of trackable money to smear her during the election season, and less than $40,000 promoting her opponent.  

In case you missed that, reread that sentence again, slowly!  

 They shelled out over $110,000 of trackable money to smear her during the election season, and less than $40,000 promoting her opponent.    

AFC and Scotty Jensen did not care who was running, which shows how little they care for the kids, they could have run a box of rocks(and apparently they did as Mr. Heaton announced his retirement after a year and a half of his two year term).   

Their main objective was to privatize schools and Mandy Wright stood in their way.

Unfortunately, they won that round, by a whopping 86 votes.  That works out to $1744 per vote they needed.  Next time your school has an operating referendum to keep the lights on, remember that the billionaires pay Scott Jensen over $200,000/yr to take money away from your schools.   

The 86 votes though was too close for the owners liking, so they demoted Mr. Jensen and brought in Americans for (their own) Prosperity (AFP-WI).  AFP recently opened an office in the 85th Assembly district so they could have (well paid)boots on the ground daily to try and keep Ms. Wright out of Madison!  

Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin field director and Wausau area resident Jim Joyce had the following comment:
“Having an Americans for Prosperity office in Wausau is a real game changer. I have spent years fighting for freedom in central Wisconsin and now activists will have a permanent space to work. I cannot wait to see what we will accomplish here.”

If the name James Joyce sounds familiar, it is because it IS remarkably familiar to Rep. Bob Kulp's Treasurer Jim Joyce.    Not that I am accusing AFP-Wi with coordinating with campaigns or anything---- O hell, of course I am accusing AFP-WI of coordinating with these campaigns.    

To be fair though, in Wisconsin with such a strong reliance on WMC and ALEC to write their bills and tell them what to do, the Wisconsin Republicans have lost all critical thinking skills(if you dont use it you lose it), so someone needs to think through their campaign for them.  

As Scott Jensen himself said, 

In an interview, Jensen laughs off Heck’s “compliment” but notes that AFC won six of the eight legislative races it targeted. “Our goal was to elect as many school choice supporters as possible, so we focused on races we thought would be close, where our efforts would make a difference,”  he says. 

Do we really want a guy, who is not even qualified to substitute teach in our schools deciding legislative races that effect the quality of education your children receive?   

As for Mandy Wright, luckily for Wisconsinites and the people of the 8th Assembly District, she has decided to throw her hat into the ring again.   

We know that she has so scared the oligarchy, that two dark money orgs, backed by multi billionaires are uniting to attempt to stop her from regaining her seat back!   

If that many out of state billionaires are scared of her, isn't that all the credentials you need to elect her?   Isn't that EXACTLY who you want sticking up for you in the Capitol?  

Here is Mandy's website and Facebook page.   Check them both out, send her a few dollars and by all means give her some of your time!   

Please Send Mandy Wright back to Madison, if anyone will fight for us all, she will!!

Testimony

By Jeff Simpson

I recently went to the Capitol to testify against the latest Republican attempt to eliminate local control and control our lives via #ALEC.

This was my first time ever testifying at the Capitol and after some reflection, I have a few thoughts about it.

The committee I testified in front of was the Assembly Committee on Education. The committee consist of:

Representative Thiesfeldt (Chair)

Representative Kitchens (Vice-Chair)

Representative Jagler

Representative Knudson

Representative Rodriguez

Representative R. Brooks

Representative Horlacher

Representative Murphy

Representative Quinn

Representative Hutton

Representative Duchow

Representative Pope

Representative Sinicki

Representative Genrich

Representative Barnes

Representative Considine

The Bill I testified against was AB481:

Relating to: limitations on borrowing by school districts and the use by school districts of resolutions and referenda to authorize bonding for capital projects or increase revenue limits and scheduling of school district referendums to exceed revenue limits.

My thoughts:

1.  By the time I arrived(I was the last to testify) many in the committee were not even there.  The ones who were there were perpetually leaving and coming back, in mid speaker, and talking amongst themselves.  

It seems to me that it defeats the purpose of having "experts" and the public take time out pf their day to testify on a bill, when the committee hearing your testimony is not really interested.    I wonder if they would get up and leave during an ALEC convention or if Scott Jensen was in their office, giving them their to do lists? 

I also find it ironic on a bill where they are claiming to protect the taxpayers, they are not really interested in hearing from taxpayers.   

2.  In the interest of full disclosure, Rep. Sinicki sent me a message apologizing for missing my testimony and the reason why.   While I do not think any rep owes me a personal apology or excuse(although I did appreciate it), I do think that every member of the committee should have a public notice of WHY they are not there during testimony of a bill.   They owe the State of Wisconsin the ability to listen to every aspect of an important bill like this before blindly passing/voting down on partisan lines.  

3.  When I arrived, a staffer had arrived before me handing Rep. Jagler a bag from Subway with a 6nch sandwich and chips.   While it is nice that he uses his taxpayer paid staff to serve him lunch,  what was even more telling was the profit in that sub sandwich.   

A subway 6" value meal is $6.00 at most Subway's.   From John Jagler's home town of Watertown, WI to the State Capitol is 27 miles, which at 20 MPG is approximately a gallon and a half of gas (Approximately $3.00 in gas).    For those scoring at home that is $9.00 and change.

Rep. Jagler after the last election was part of the Assembly that voted themselves a 133% increase in daily pay.   

The Assembly is planning to increase the amount members can collect for overnight stays in Madison from $88 to $138.
It would be the first such increase since 2001, when an Assembly committee set the rate for what is known as a per Diem at $88 for lawmakers outside Dane County and $44 for Dane County lawmakers.
Per Diem's are a fixed amount meant to cover food and lodging costs while lawmakers are in Madison doing state business.

That is a profit of $128  Wisconsin taxpayer dollars to sit and occasionally listen to the taxpayers and citizens of WI give their opinions on major bills.  No wonder they needed a raise, a $78 daily profit just was not cutting it.

3.   I also find it ironic that a group of legislators who continually stick bad policy items in the budget(despite promising they would never do that), now are trying to make it illegal that school spending referendums are allowed to be voted on by the public.  

4.   Has anyone ever changed their mind based on public testimony by someone who was not a major campaign donor?

5.  In my time there. listening to people testify and listening to everyone who signed up for/or against the bill and it was overwhelmingly against.  There was only one person who registered FOR the bill and he did not testify.   It was Eric Bott.  

What were some of your experiences testifying?

Santorum Speaks to the Republican Base

This is Rick Santorum.

Rick Santorum was brought to WI, during the last election as a headliner by Americans for Prosperity and Luke Hilgemann, in their defending the American Dream summit. 

On Saturday, March 24, Americans for Prosperity Foundation-Wisconsin will host the Wisconsin Defending the American Dream Summit.

AFP Foundation-Wisconsin is proud to announce presidential candidate Rick Santorum, Senator Ron Johnson, and Congressman Paul Ryan will speak at the Defending the American Dream Summit.

This is who Rick Santorum is:

That Americans for Prosperity in Wisconsin feature Mr. Santorum as a "conservative" speaker and that Paul Ryan and Ron Johnson enjoy sharing the stage with him, tells you what you need to know about them.  

Its only post racial America when we hold people accountable for their racism.  

*Edit note - This speech was not given at the AFP-WI summit, but shortly before it.    Santorum was still allowed to speak.   

Hey Shopko Employees

By Jeff Simpson


I know that corporate Shopko just announced a store closing in Madison, WI.

Green Bay-based retailer Shopko plans to close its store at 2602 Shopko Drive, eliminating 66 full- and part-time jobs.
Shopko notified the state Department of Workforce Development in a letter dated May 29.
The first layoffs are expected within 60 days and will last until the end of August.
Shopko has three other Madison stores, according to the company's website.

There is no need to fear though, because Americans for Prosperity - Wisconsin is spending $1,000,0000 in ads to tell us that "it's working.", we have "bold leadership", and as the economy grows strong, Wisconsin is getting back to work too(says the guy in the messy house that represents something).

Since AFP-WI has a million dollars to blow, on bad ads, worse acting and silly platitudes, it MUST be working, our economy has to be stronger.  Which means you did not really lose your job and your store did not close.

If you have any questions, or need a refresher course in the faith and another drink of Kool-aid, contact

Contact AFP-Wisconsin
10 East Doty Street
Suite 800
Madison, WI 53703
608-204-5915 ext 4120
Email: infoWI@afphq.org
State Director – David Fladeboe

Read more: http://americansforprosperity.org/wisconsin/contact/#ixzz33AGOUd7o

David will gladly guide you to where it IS working and where the economy is strong(just be prepared to move to MN). 

PS: I would guide you to contact Scott Walker, but he is never in WI!

Is It Working?

By Jeff Simpson

On the same day that Scott Walker was able to get his bosses to pony up $1,000,000, to tell everyone in WI that "it's working", in a silly, poorly produced ad. 



Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction came out with updated numbers on childhood poverty in Wisconsin. 

For the 2013-14 school year, Wisconsin has 359,400 public school district students who are eligible for free and reduced-price school meals out of enrollment of 829,394 in the 413 school districts that participate in the National School Lunch Program. There are now 117 school districts that have 50 percent or more of their students eligible for free and reduced-price school meals, including the state’s five largest districts: Milwaukee Public Schools (82%), Madison Metropolitan (54%), Kenosha
Unified (55%), Green Bay Area Public (58%), and Racine Unified (63%).

I guess, AFP-WI feels that the increase of childhood poverty and hungry children in WI was an endgame, then it is working perfectly.  

I personally think "Its working!" would mean that those numbers decreased, not increased.  But that's the crazy progressive in me.  

Ghost of Kenosha Future!

By Jeff Simpson

We have let you know that the Koch Brothers are trying desperately to buy the Kenosha School Board.

Don't believe me?  Kenosha is not unique....check out this video!

Kenosha this will be you if you do not show up and tell them NO!  

AFP-WI Serves Sour Tea in Kenosha!

By Jeff Simpson

We have brought you the story of how Americans for Prosperity, the anti-Wisconsin Koch brother's funded astroturf group has decided to start buying local elections throughout the country.  One of the places they have targeted is the Kenosha School Board.  

Luckily, the locals did the only thing they could do.  Fight back!  Yesterday they held a rally to raise awareness in the community and tell the Kansas Billionaires to stay out of our schools! 

About 60 demonstrators voiced their opinion in front of the Kenosha Unified School District Educational Support Center in a show of solidarity leading up to Tuesday’s election.
The picketers carried signs critical of the Americans for Prosperity group and those School Board candidates they feel are aligned with the group.
While the signs did not advocate for any candidate, they did encourage people not to vote for Dan Wade or Gary Kunich(who is a proud member of the local tea party).
Last week the state director of Americans for Prosperity — the conservative group funded by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch — said the organization has a field team working on the Kenosha School Board race, doing phone banks and canvassing in the district.

As we have told you before, Dan Wade is Kristy "Knot My Wisconsin"  Lacroix's father and  his wife(Kristy's mom) is his treasurer.  Which is fine, until she speaks:

Some of the marchers were briefly confronted by members of candidate Dan Wade’s family, including Wade’s wife Mary, who is the treasurer of her husband’s campaign.
“The Americans for Prosperity have no business being in this school board race, but they” — she said, pointing to the marchers —“are trying to put my husband and Gary Kunich in the same pot as the Tea Party.”
She admitted that the Republican Party had donated to her husband’s campaign. “But if the Democratic Party had given us a check, I would have taken that one too,” Mary said. “Being my husband’s treasurer, trust me, running a campaign is expensive and trying to refute a bunch of lies is even more expensive.”

While I understand the need to distance oneself from the despicable AFP-WI, and I also understand that to support Scott Walker so rabidly, you need to deny reality.

Unfortunately for Ms. Wade we have pictures:

Vote FOR  Jo Ann Taube and Mike Falkofske!

OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT!

Luke Hilgemann Says "Bring It"

By Jeff Simpson


Then runs for the hills and hides!

Our friends at PRWatch came across an email where Luke Hilgemann, then state director for Americans for (their own) Prosperity, wrote saying if there was going to bad press  --- "Bring It.".

An August 28 email from Hilgemann, regarding the bad press from the paper and CMD (and sent one day after CMD's article), lays out some of the strategy. “Let me be as direct as I can with this recent attention to USW… BRING IT!”

Then we found out that Luke was a member of the United Sportsmen, attempted theft of Wisconsin taxpayer money and learned that what Mr. Hilgemann meant was "bring me as much Wisconsin taxpayer money are you can."

Typically, after Hilgemann's macho Bring it, line and after getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar, he has mysteriously disappeared from view!

Hilgemann, Suder's former top aide, hasn't responded to repeated requests for interviews over the United Sportsmen grant. But privately, he wasn't shy about giving his thoughts on the matter.

The effect of light shining on Hilgemann, appears to have the same effect as some other species!

Here is an exclusive picture of Hilgemann addressing a Kathy Nickolaus appreciation party, where he informs everyone in the room - "Sorry about your kids public schools, but we need to cut their aid so I can be rewarded for all of my time playing the good soldier."

In the "taxed enough already", small Government, free market AFP, this massive taxpayer cash grab was rewarded with a promotion!  They felt if he could fleece $250,000 a year from Wisconsin taxpayers, imagine how much he could get from the Federal Government - so off to Virginia he went!


Here is Hilgemann, saying good bye to his followers,  as he leaves for greener pastures.  Ironically every green t-shirt stands for $10,000 of WI taxpayer money Scott Suder had planned on handing him to make the move easier.

NO To Scott Suder

By Jeff Simpson

Scott Walker vows 'we'll act' on public assistance fraud:

:

"There's a number of things from the stories we've seen and from other things that have come up since then we'll act on," Walker said when questioned at an unrelated event in Milwaukee last week....

Walker declined to disclose details about how he plans to tackle the issue other than to say changes would be rolled out.

I have the perfect way for Governor Walker to prove he is serious about cracking down on public assistance fraud and being a watchdog for Wisconsin taxpayer money!

Don't hire Scott Suder!

In an interview, Fitzgerald confirmed what other lawmakers such as Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) are openly acknowledging — that the grant was pushed heavily by former Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford), who is any day expected to take a political appointment in Gov. Scott Walker's administration with a still undecided salary that could be $107,000 annually — more than twice his pay of $49,943 a year as a lawmaker.

As the May 13 letter shows, Fitzgerald said he understood that the grant was aimed at United Sportsmen, contradicting a past statement by Suder that the grant was meant to be competitive and wasn't being steered to one group.

"This was one item among a slew of items that we were dealing with at the end" of the budget, Fitzgerald said. "When we started horsetrading items back and forth, the Assembly had a list of things and Scott Suder — this was his thing and I think he'd be proud to say it was."

 Not appointing Scott Suder to cushy state job(after he orchestrated such a dirty deal) at double his old income would truly send a message to the people of Wisconsin that you do care about the budget and their tax dollars.  

Going forward with the appointment would send the EXACT opposite message.  It would show that the Governor has no interest in saving Wisconsin taxpayer's money.  That anyone who would be in such a hurry to reward his friends with that much taxpayer money, and in the process almost cost the state $30 million dollars, does not deserve a promotion.

To go forward with this appointment, would send the message that the Governor  is a placeholder to make sure the GOP establishment get taken care of and services and budget be dammed. 

So Governor Walker, which one will it be?

Call/email the Governor and tell him NO to any appointment for Scott Suder! 

govgeneral@wisconsin.gov

Office of Governor Scott Walker
115 East Capitol
Madison, WI 53702
(608) 266-1212

@scottkwalker  and/or @govwalker 





   


More on Scott Suder's forgettable career here! 

Our Media Needs Your Help!

By Jeff Simpson

Our friend Blue Cheddar, pointed out that now that we have gory details on the incompetence, lack of ethics and morals of the Wisconsin republican party, in the United Sportsman debacle,  the mainstream media is doing their best to whitewash the story!

Like this gem from the Wisconsin State Journal:

Or this one from WMTV TV 15 in Madison :




Ok Coggies, this is where the media needs OUR help. They obviously have a headline writer who has no idea whats happening in Wisconsin.

Help them out:

YOU write the headline for the United Sportsman story:


Go! 

Robin Vos Day

By Jeff Simpson

Robin Vos recently spent lunch hour with Americans against Prosperity and he let them know what an amazing legislator he is!  

The first-term Assembly leader added that he is happy with the progress the state has made since it fell under full Republican control in 2010
.
"Wisconsin is headed in the right direction and we really made good choices," Vos said. "As we look to the future, we also have to recognize the great job that we've done."

So I think to honor Mr. Public Service for doing so many good things for Wisconsin we should declare a Robin Vos Day to properly thank him!

First we need a date.  I would suggest 2/28/11, the day he received a speeding ticket(no wonder he wants to increase the speed limit).   Or Possibly 8-12, the day his first divorce was finalized, without that he would not have been able to get started in his second divorce(which he has not finalized yet).  Or it could be the date that his current paramour Michelle Litjens divorce from her husband and kids gets finalized, but that date has not happened yet either. 

While we finalize the date, we also need to think of things to do to properly reward him for his service to Wisconsin. 

*I am thinking a pocketful of quarters so when he hooks up with a married woman discretely he can run into a convenience store and grab a condom.  

*  we could give an award to the landlord that treats his tenants the worse throughout the year in living conditions and rent and give them the Robin Vos Slumlord award. 

*  we could change the English language to include a new saying for everytime a politician blatantly breaks ethic laws with no punishment...ex.  Senator So and So just pulled a Vos.

We are welcome to other thoughts on how to Honor Robin...leave them in the comments! 

 

PS:  I pulled the AFP pic from their website where it had this caption - Great event today in Racine. Thank you Speaker Vos for speaking to the 100 folks who showed up.  

Terrorism or Not Terrorism

By Jeff Simpson

AFP-Wisconsin, our resident Koch brothers Shrill group, is now carrying water for Chris Cline.  Luke Hilgemann will sell out to anyone.    Today on facebook they posted the youtube video of a protestor in Northern Wisconsin, swearing and pulling a camera from someone who worked for the mine.   They posted it with this caption:

Only one way to describe this - Eco-terrorism.

So lets break it down for Luke.

 ter·ror·ism

[ter-uh-riz-uhm] Show IPAnoun

1.the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.

2.the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.

3.a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

 Hmmm  




               

Definition of ECOTERRORISM

1: sabotage intended to hinder activities that are considered damaging to the environment

2: political terrorism intended to damage an enemy's natural environment

if you look up the items needed to Mine our pristine Northwoods, no where is a camera part of the essential items.    So grabbing a camera from someone's hands is dumb it is NOT "ecoterrorism! 

So let us sum it up for you:

THIS is terrorism:

THIS is NOT terrorism:

If you insist that the above video IS terrorism, then this also has to be terrorism:

If you insist that the northern Wisconsin incident is terrorism, then THIS also has to be terrorism(PS- Santorum was AFP's guy):

Or Hilgemann is just a hypocritical partisan hack who brings nothing to the table.  



 

Update:  His buddy Parrots him - Bawk Bawk! 

Just Another Day in Wisconsin!

By Jeff Simpson

A quick look at the headlines, and you will find out that April 30, 2013, is just your typical day in Wisconsin.  

First thing we see is that there are more Wisconsinites losing their jobs, 100 at one plant and 90 Wisconsin workers at another.  

While we lose hundreds of jobs a day, the two papers of record are on it.  The Wisconsin State Journal is so upset that they decided to attack public school teachers (yet again) in their editorial.  JSOnline has decided to prioritize advocating for less democracy in Milwaukee County. 


While we all wish that our media was more competent, its the legislators that can really get something done. With Wisconsin dropping to 44th(out of 50) in jobs created and obviously losing jobs by the day, let us check in and see what the legislature has on its plate to help fix this:

1.    The extremist personhood law, declaring life at first date!

2.    Limiting voting hours.

3.    More Austerity!

These days all of this right wing extremist crazy and hundreds of job losses in WIsconsin are so common place that no one even blinks*.

Except AFP-WI who parties everytime we have bad Wisconsin news!

Voucher School Failure!

By Jeff Simpson 


There has been a propaganda bus tour, to tell us how great private/voucher schools are and we know that the Governor will also tell us how great they are at his version of the State of the State.   Everyone knows, you can count on AFP-WI and Scott Walker to not tell us the truth, it is time to look more closely at voucher/charter schools.   

1.  We will start right in Milwaukee, WI, where we see that the Milwaukee Public School system outperforms the area voucher schools.   

 A new report from the Public Policy Forum in Milwaukee found that the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, which enrolls about 25,000 students in private schools through the state's voucher program, has similar demographics and poverty levels as Milwaukee Public Schools, but students there perform slightly worse on standardized tests in math and reading.

2.   Diane Ravitch points out exactly what Milwaukee needs and it is NOT vouchers:

Gov. Scott Walker's answer to the Milwaukee problem is to call for more vouchers and charters and for virtual charters. But if the students in those schools are not outperforming the ones in the public schools after 20 years, why should those sectors grow? And we know from multiple studies that students in virtual schools do worse than those in brick-and-mortar schools.
More of the same is no answer. Doubling down on failure is a bad bet.
Yes, Milwaukee needs a bold vision. It needs a reset.
It needs one public education sector, not three competing sectors. The time for dual- and triple-systems should have ended in 1954, with the Brown vs. Board of Education decision.
Milwaukee needs one public school system that receives public dollars, public support, community engagement and parental involvement.
Vouchers and charters had their chance. They failed.
Now it is time to build a great public school system that meets the needs of the children of Milwaukee.
The children of Milwaukee need universal pre-kindergarten so that they arrive in school ready to learn. Children with high needs require small classes and extra attention. Public schools should provide a superb program in the arts for all children in every grade. They should have a rich curriculum - history, literature, foreign languages, the sciences, mathematics and civics - for all children. Every student should have daily physical education. The schools should have the nurses, guidance counselors, social workers and librarians they need. Children should have after-school programs where they can learn new skills, strengthen their bodies, and get extra tutoring.
It is impossible to achieve these goals in a city with three competing school systems. It is entirely possible to achieve when there is one school system that becomes the focus of the energies of parents, civic leaders and the business community.
Many children, one Milwaukee.

3.   The School Administrators Alliance(aka union), hardly a liberal group, has come out with their own research report about voucher schools, and had the following findings:

 In the memo, the SAA makes four major points about private school voucher expansion and why it is the wrong choice for Wisconsin:

1) The ultimate objective of voucher advocates is a statewide system of private school vouchers for all Wisconsin school children.

2) Vouchers do not improve student achievement.

3) Vouchers eliminate public accountability.

4) Vouchers take resources away from public school students.

4.  Jake, like he so often does, showed us how Private schools copy failure NOT success. 

   Wisconsin's strong educational base was once again illustrated with the release of a report last week showing the Wisconsin high school class of 2010 had the 2nd-highest graduation rate in the U.S. at 91.1%. This improved on the 2009 figure of 90.7% when Wisconsin was Number 1 in the nation for best graduation, and Wisconsin's graduation rate improved from 83.3% in 2001 to that 90.7% in a span of 8 years - the 11th largest increase in the nation.

  And it wasn't like Wisconsin was just pushing kids through the system, as Wisconsin high schoolers have consistently scored well above the national averages on the ACT test,  despite the state potentially watering down the scores by encouraging more Wisconsin students to take the test in recent years.

 5.  The Northwestern likes Senator Ellis idea that local referendum passes before vouchers be expanded to a community! 

One can only hope his act of outspoken courage helps fuse the spine of fellow senators and pushes this partisan plum off the Republican agenda during biennium budget discussions. The school choice movement is little more than an employment agency for former Republican lawmakers who continue to push for taxpayers to foot the bill for private education. There is no evidence the voucher experiment in Milwaukee has produced results better than public schools.

Nor are voucher advocates prepared to suggest private schools operate under the same myriad of federal and state regulations Wisconsin’s public schools are required by law to follow. Private and religious school choice advocates would be wise to stop courting public dollars for they may ultimately find they get the dollars — and long strings attached. Parochial schools have long and proud traditions that will continue to flourish without the deep pockets and pages of requirements of public dollars.

Research over and over shows us that voucher schools do NOT perform as well as public schools, we also know that without public oversight, administrators in private schools, show us that they can not always be trusted!

6.   A Reuters reprt on charter schools, shows us that - many such institutions disregard their own promises of inclusion and equal opportunity by creating barriers to needier students while targeting for enrollment those most likely to pad test scores or otherwise enhance their own promises of "success".

As Reuters reports, many charter schools across the US, despite their assurances to the contrary,

aggressively screen student applicants, assessing their academic records, parental support, disciplinary history, motivation, special needs and even their citizenship, sometimes in violation of state and federal law.

And the barriers documented include:

• Applications that are made available just a few hours a year.
• Lengthy application forms, often printed only in English, that require student and parent essays, report cards, test scores, disciplinary records, teacher recommendations and medical records.
• Demands that students present Social Security cards and birth certificates for their applications to be considered, even though such documents cannot be required under federal law.
• Mandatory family interviews.
• Assessment exams.
• Academic prerequisites.
• Requirements that applicants document any disabilities or special needs. The U.S. Department of Education considers this practice illegal on the college level but has not addressed the issue for K-12 schools.

 full report here!

7.  We also know that while the test scores at voucher schools do not outperform public schools, we also know we can not trust the private schools to even give us the correct results!

A for-profit school that was hyped by Republican lawmakers as a solution to Tennessee’s education problems recently admitted deleting bad grades to “more accurately recognize students’ current progress.”
A December email obtained by WTVF showed that Tennessee Virtual Academy’s vice principal instructed middle school teachers to delete “failing grades” from October and September.
“After … looking at so many failing grades, we need to make some changes before the holidays,” the email says, adding that each teacher needed to “take out the October and September progress [reports]; delete it so that all that is showing is November progress.”
“If you have given an assignment and most of your students failed that assignment, then you need to take that grade out.”