RoJo: Replace Teachers With Videos

RoJo, Our Dumb Senator, has a new, brilliant idea on how to improve education - get rid of the teachers and replace them with DVRs. Via Amanda Terkel at HuffPo, we learn that RoJo shared this latest bright idea at a political forum in Wisconsin:

Johnson also touted the benefits of online education and suggested that teachers really weren’t all that necessary anymore:

JOHNSON: We’ve got the internet ― you have so much information available. Why do you have to keep paying differently lecturers to teach the same course? You get one solid lecturer and put it up online and have everybody available to that knowledge for a whole lot cheaper? But that doesn’t play very well to tenured professors in the higher education cartel. So again, we need destructive technology for our higher education system.

WISPOLITICS: But online education is missing some facet of a good ―

JOHNSON: Of course, it’s a combination, but prior to my doing this crazy thing [of being in the Senate] ... I was really involved on a volunteer basis in an education system in Oshkosh. And one of things we did in the Catholic school system was we had something called the “academic excellence initiative.” How do you teach more, better, easier?

One of the examples I always used ― if you want to teach the Civil War across the country, are you better off having, I don’t know, tens of thousands of history teachers that kind of know the subject, or would you be better off popping in 14 hours of Ken Burns Civil War tape and then have those teachers proctor based on that excellent video production already done? You keep duplicating that over all these different subject areas.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers gets a round of applause for her response to RoJo's inane comment:

"Leave it to someone from a party led by a reality TV star to confuse videotape with the learning experience of a classroom," she said. What Ron Johnson doesn't get is that education happens when teachers can listen to students and engage them to think for themselves - and that can include using Ken Burns' masterful work. But this is typical for a party with an education agenda as out of date as Johnson's Blockbuster Video card."

Although RoJo is obviously being a damned fool again, he should be commended for one thing - at least it appears he got past his irrational fear and hatred of movies like The Lego Movie.

With all of the gaffes, blunders and purely idiotic things that RoJo has done and said lately, one has to wonder if he even wants to win this November.

School Board Member Wants To Ban Muppets Book

File this under "Why even local elections are important."

In Marshfield, Wisconsin, the school board decided last summer to slightly change the curriculum to include kindergarten teachers to read a Muppets-themed book called "For Every Child A Better World." Per the Amazon description of the book, it is about this:

The familiar character of Kermit the Frog teaches young readers about the plight of young children who lack the basic human necessities and the efforts of the United Nations to provide such essentials as housing, water, food, and medical aid.

The goal of reading this book was to help make the little tykes better citizens, something that this world does desperately need.

But one of the school board members, Mary Carney, had a complete breakdown about this book and threatened to not send her kids to her school district. Carney's beef was that she felt that the new curriculum downplayed "American exceptionalism":

Central to Carney's criticism is concern for how students learn about the United States in relation to the world. Claiming the update "downplays American exceptionalism" by focusing too much on global affairs, she recited passages in the curriculum that say its aim is to develop students into citizens who can "use their knowledge about their community, nation and world" and to "become effective members of global communities."

"I believe that effective members of Marshfield, Wisconsin, American communities would have a greater benefit to us all," Carney said. "Yes, we live in an interconnected world — I've traveled the world, and I was an exchange student in high school, and it was a wonderful experience — but must we sacrifice our identity and values?"

Asked to provide specific evidence of her claims, Carney said in an interview that the revised curriculum lacks focus on United States history, including the founding fathers and American presidents.

"The focus is away from ... American exceptionalism and being proud to be an American, and the focus is instead on being kind of a citizen of the world, and we can no longer just be isolated, or ethnocentric," Carney said. "I think it's a philosophical shift."

Even though the school board ignored her craziness, she is a persistent goof and is now trying to get the book banned altogether. Her new angle is that the book is just too darn graphic:

Marshfield School Board member Mary Carney in July objected to the district’s use of the book “For Every Child a Better World” by Jim Henson in kindergarten classes, The book, she contends, contains images of suffering children living in poverty and violence, including one illustration that shows a child living in a box in the rain. Some people have said they were traumatized after reading the book, according to Carney, who cited online reviews as evidence.

“I just have concerns that it’s too graphic, even though these are Muppets characters,” Carney said. “Unfortunately in this world there is a lot of war and strife and poverty; I understand that. I just don’t know how appropriate that is to be teaching that to 5-year-olds.”

The real kicker is that rural Wisconsin has been hit hard by Scott Walker's plantation economics. Some of those kids are living in extreme poverty. The book will be nothing new to them.

Oh, and if the gentle reader had guessed that Carney is a Teapublican, you are correct. In fact, she was the leader of the Central Wisconsin Tea Party.

Now go and keep telling yourself that it's just a school board race and doesn't really matter. Just don't complain when this kind of insanity hits your community.

Walker Finds New Way To Screw Over Kids

Y'know, I'm starting to think that Scott Walker doesn't like children too much.

On Black Friday in 2013, Walker's campaign sent out the infamous fundraising email telling people to not but Christmas gifts for their kids and to give him the money instead:

Instead of venturing into the cold this Black Friday, stay in and give your children a gift that will keep on giving.

This year, we are celebrating the Holiday Season with a Black Friday special that is better than any deal found in stores. Donate $5, $10 or $25 to help Governor Walker get reelected and save your children from a future of double-digit tax increases and billion dollar budget deficits.

Instead of electronics or toys that will undoubtedly be outdated, broken, or lost by the next Holiday Season, help give your children the gift of a Wisconsin that we can all be proud of. Governor Walker is helping Wisconsin move forward to a future where your children and grandchildren can experience:

• Economic Prosperity
• Improved Schools
• Freedom From Government Dependence

The Governor wants his sons to grow up in a Wisconsin as great as the one he grew up in. When asked why he never stopped fighting for Wisconsin during the Recall, Governor Walker says he has two reasons, his sons Matt and Alex.

With your help, Governor Walker is enacting reforms that are securing a strong state for the future of Wisconsin’s children. This Black Friday, donate $5, $10 or $25 to help Governor Walker win reelection so he can continue to help Wisconsin move forward.

A strong Wisconsin is the best gift you can give.

As Susan Madrak reported, Walker is keeping up his war on kids and Christmas by wanting to hike the bike tax.

I would be lax not to mention that Walker has now cut more than $2 billion from public education, bringing its funding level below what it was in 2010. Likewise, it should be noted that he has expanded voucher school funding, pushing for a statewide open enrollment for these unaccountable corporate education vultures. In Milwaukee, they are taking away public schools and privatizing them.

Even then, Walker's avarice wasn't sated.

He had to find new ways to screw over the kids. And he did.

Despite Walker's attacks on their educations, the children at Green Bay's Webster Elementary School went to the state Capitol to give a free concert. Walker showed his appreciation by sending them a bill:

If you’re planning a trip to the Capitol and want to use an outlet for an event, be prepared to pay. Webster Elementary School found this out the hard way.

The Green Bay-area school’s music class was charged a fee after giving a free concert at the state Capitol in Madison. Now several local representatives want to take a deeper look at the policy that prompted the bill.

An invoice from the Department of Administration said a music teacher had to pay $15 because his fourth-grade class plugged in a boom box so the kids could sing along while performing a concert in the Capitol rotunda.

Retired Green Bay teacher Kathleen Leadley says the charge is ridiculous.

“If the fact is that they owe fifteen dollars for plugging in a boom box, we perhaps may need to revisit that at the state level, because this makes no sense,” she said.

Really. How much longer before Walker starts stealing candy from babies?

Appreciate Teachers All Year Round

The following is an article written by Waring R. Fincke, a retired attorney and Vice-Chair of the Democratic Party of Washington County.  It is being republished here with the expressed permission of Mr. Fincke:

Appreciate teachers all year round
Fair treatment is the first step

West Bend’s school superintendent, Ted Neitzke, lives in a fantasy world. After years of demonizing, demoralizing and vilifying teachers, he has the unmitigated gall to send an email fairy tale to parents of kids in district schools, reprinted here Tuesday and reposted on the district website, about how much they should appreciate district teachers.

This past week was Teacher Appreciation Week. We need to celebrate and appreciate the hard work and dedication of those who choose to devote their lives to educating the community’s children. Neitzke’s request to send a card or letter to your child’s teacher just doesn’t cut it. He needs to be honest with the community and help organize parents, teachers and community leaders to demand adequate funding for public education.

Our community leaders and the tea party faction of the Republican Party they serve have spent decades blaming teachers for all that ails our society. Most local teachers do not feel safe enough to publicly claim membership in their valued profession for fear of being further ostracized.

Teacher salaries were published in an ad in this paper with the claim that teachers are nothing more than overpaid babysitters who feed at the public trough. School board candidates won campaigns on reducing teacher pay to save a few property tax bucks. Our current School Board and administration have embraced the union-busting and school-funding reductions in Gov. Scott Walker’s budgets while approving five-figure raises for top administrators, a new six figure salaried standardized testing czar and an $80,000 program to create tests teachers could easily write.

Neitzke is correct that teachers go the extra mile, using their own resources to buy supplies for their classrooms and free time preparing to teach each day. These are conscious decisions made out of necessity so kids can learn. We should provide the resources educators need. They should not have to use their salaries to do what we hire them to do.

Supply budgets have been slashed. If it were not for the money that comes out of teacher wallets, many students would not have vibrant classrooms equipped for learning, pens to write with, notebooks to write in or breakfast in the morning. Teachers spend nights and weekends away from their families because school-day preparation and grading time has been eliminated by the addition of more class sections, larger classes, off-the-clock professional development and senseless data gathering.

The instruction teachers were hired to provide has been severely curtailed with the imposition of more and more standardized testing. There are so many tests to administer, with high stakes results in the balance, that much of the curriculum that encourages critical thinking and creativity has been put on the shelf.

Even though there is not a shred of empirical research to support the use of standardized test results as a significant factor in teacher performance evaluations and compensation, Neitzke and the school board started this year with a new teacher compensation package that does just that. When parents and staff complained, he backpedaled, indicating that maybe there would be less testing in the future. Whatever testing remains will still be used to determine teacher compensation.

While it is abundantly clear that many students need extra help getting ready to learn or staying in the classroom, no funds have been added to rehire the social workers we used to have in every building. 

Libraries need librarians to keep order, buy materials, teach reading (along with a love of books) and help kids learn how to search out information from our collectively stored knowledge. We used to have librarians in every school. Soon, there will be only one for the whole district.

Staff morale is at an all-time low. Neitzke’s recent gift to staff of a bumper sticker proclaiming “Proud to teach in the West Bend School District” won’t get much use until he changes his behavior.
Currently, Neitzke’s administration governs by fear, intimidation and the granting of favors to a chosen few. Letters of reprimand or discipline flow into teacher personnel files when they speak out about concerns in ways critical to the administration. Staff social media postings about district problems earn an unfriendly invite to Neitzke’s office. He and his administrators refuse to recognize or talk with the elected representatives in the recertified union about how they might work together on issues of common concern.

We need to appreciate teachers all year, not just for a single week. That appreciation needs to be shown tangibly and consistently with fair treatment, reasonable workloads and compensation based on empathy, creativity and actual observation by administrators who live and are involved in our community.

Education Privatization Group Uses Children As Props At Budget Hearing

On Friday, I and about a thousand other people took the day off to spend it at Alverno College where the state's Joint Finance Committee was holding their second day of public listening session.  When I arrived at about 11 am, the crowd was so big that it led out of the building all the way to the street.

As people trickled out of the building, they would let people in in small groups.  It took about an hour to get in the door and registered to speak. Even with all of these people, it was very calm and orderly.  I don't believe that it had anything to do with the score of police officers that were present. It is just that the citizens continued to be the adults in the room.

This left Alberta Darling with nothing to gripe about except that people would show their pleasure and displeasure by holding up different colored sheets of papers.  And after Darling insulted the citizenry, saying that they were being rude for this, people started admonishing her for her childish complaint.

The topics that people addressed to the committee were pretty much the same as the previous hearing at the first hearing, such as the cuts to the UW system, to public schools, laws that would damage the environment and the privatization of long term care for the elderly and disabled.

Even though it was spring break, there was a considerable presence from UW students that stayed in Wisconsin to address the proposed cuts to their schools. They pointed out that the cuts would make the schools less attractive to students and increase the brain drain that Wisconsin is going through.

Senior citizens, people with disabilities and their caretakers shared the importance of programs like Family Care and IRIS, which are the only things keeping these vulnerable citizens from being forced out of their own homes and into nursing homes.

There were many representatives from several school districts that came prepared with the actual numbers on how damaging the proposed cuts to public schools would be.  They were outnumbered by outraged parents that came to fight for their children's schools.  One of the best comments was a parent who said that they had made their choice, and that their choice was public schools:

"We have made our choice and we choose the public schools," Suarez Flint said. "Public education is not failing. You are failing public education."

Big business was represented too.

Members of the MMAC were there to plug for the hundreds of millions to build a new arena in Milwaukee, claiming that it was a "quality of life" issue.  This was met with derision and comments by the group pushing for actual quality of life issues like a decent education system or the programs that help our most vulnerable citizens.

Another corporate faction that was present were the parties that wanted to privatize so many important programs in the state.  One example would be that there were no less than three major for-profit insurance companies that were salivating over the chance to get a no bid contract for the $3 billion meant to help the disabled and the elderly.

The education corporate vultures were also present and were the ones that pulled a rather tasteless stunt.  They pulled out scores of children from school to push for Walker's agenda of privatizing the public education system:

Image courtesy of Sen. Chris Larson

As State Senator Chris Larson points out on his Facebook page, can you imagine what the reaction would be if the Milwaukee Public Schools pulled kids out of class to pander to the committee for more money?  The right wing squawkers and propagandists would be foaming at the mouth for weeks in their faux outrage.  It would undoubtedly make it to the national level as Faux News, Drudge and Breitbart all clutched their pearls and fell back on their fainting couches at the abuse of tax dollars.

Yeah, but even though the brainwashing education of these children are also being funded by taxpayers, don't hold your breath for any of the right wingers to say even one word about this.  That would require integrity and intellectual honesty, things that they are clearly lacking.

The Stupid Vote

By Jeff Simpson

Great column by Damon Linker from The Week:

That’s Exhibit B: Walker’s effort to cut $300 million from the budget for the University of Wisconsin system — coincidentally at the precise moment he’s gearing up to compete in the notoriously far-right GOP Iowa caucuses.

I have no idea if Walker actually believes professors are parasites on the Wisconsin state budget — or if he’s merely ingratiating himself to those who do. What matters is that in taking this stance he’s allied himself with the forces in American society that consider Advanced Placement history courses to be a problem rather than a plus, and who know so little about university life that they actually think professors are coddled wards of the state instead of richly educated researchers and teachers who work endless hours for modest pay and (thanks in part to slanderous statements by public figures like Scott Walker) precious little social esteem.

Is this really what America needs now — a scramble to nail down the stupid vote?

Scott Walker Heightens Attack On Public Education

Shortly after Scott Walker was first elected as governor of Wisconsin, he set about attacking the state's education system to prepare it for privatization. His first act was to cut more than a billion dollars from the education system. The effects of this massive cut were devastating, so much so that even the school district that Walker championed as a "success story" is failing horribly.

This year, Walker and his Republican cohorts in the state legislature have upped their attacks on the public education system. Walker wants to eliminate the requirement that teachers actually know how to teach. Meanwhile, his cohorts in crimes against humanity are trying to mandate that the public schools they deem to be unworthy have to become private schools - all at the taxpayers' expense, of course.

Ah, but there's more. There's always more.

Walker wants to further cut funding to public schools. An act so heinous that the editorial board of the Appleton Post-Crescent had to publicly lambaste him for it:

Walker is neither adding to the revenue limit nor including a per-pupil increase. For the next two years, districts will get the same money they have this year. If their fixed costs — like fuel, electricity or heating — go up, tough. Since a district’s budget is 80 to 90 percent personnel costs, the cuts will come from personnel in some form.

And then, it gets worse.

Walker wants to expand the statewide voucher program for students from low-income families (the limit is about $44,000 for a family of four) by eliminating the 1,000-student cap. The only saving grace is that, unlike the current program, the students getting new vouchers have to be coming from a public school or entering kindergarten. They can’t already be in private schools.

And, instead of providing extra money for vouchers in the budget, it’ll be taken entirely out of the pot of money for public schools. If a district loses five kids, it’ll lose what it would’ve gotten from the state to educate those kids. But, a district can’t reduce fixed costs in the same way. It’ll be another financial hit.

And then, it gets worse.

Walker — who has converted from a Common Core proponent to an opponent — finally has discovered that there’s no mandate for school districts to use the educational standards. But in his budget plan, he wants to get rid of the standardized tests that go along with Common Core — tests that state districts have been preparing for over several years and will use for the first time this year. He said districts can choose their own tests, which would make comparing districts difficult.

And, after failing in the last budget, he’s taking another swing at setting up a board that will approve independent charter schools — schools that could be non-profit or for-profit (red flag!) that operate outside of a school district’s governance.

As they did two years ago with the last budget, enough of Walker’s fellow Republicans in the Legislature may object to the governor financially stiffing public schools and will find some extra money to help them.

“I don’t see how they go two years without any (new) money,” Sen. Luther Olsen, R-Ripon and the Senate Republicans’ leading education expert, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

But the governor’s plan leads to two interesting philosophical questions.

Given how our public education system is so important to everything we do in the state that it’s engrained in our state constitution, shouldn’t we want to conserve it?

And, given how Walker wants to further damage our public education system, where’s the “conservative” in that?

It makes one wonder if even Walker is narcissistic and hypocritical enough to run as the education candidate for the GOP.

Gov's Higher Education Budget Cuts Bad for Wisconsin's Future

“I love college, Mom,” my son told me. “There is nowhere else I can hear a conversation in a different language every day.”

My son got me thinking about the challenges our students face – competing in a global marketplace, changes in the economy, changes in technology. College has never been so important. Keeping colleges up-to-date costs money.

Getting one’s children through college is harder. Finding the right mix of rigor and value is a real challenge for families.

Wisconsin universities stand out for value. Over and over again UW-Eau Claire and UW-La Crosse rank as two of the best values in the Midwest.

UW-Madison is a world-class research institution. The UW comprehensive campuses statewide are the cultural heart of communities large and small; where would River Falls or Menomonie be without the UW at the center of the city?

A new proposal from the Governor would make deep cuts to the UW, dropping state support – in actual dollars – to below 1997-98 funding levels. The Governor also proposed loosening public control over the UW. The twin actions of cutting funds & cutting the university loose from the state are a recipe for disaster.

The last foray into cutting loose a part of state government – the Department of Commerce – didn’t work well for the Governor. Once a big part of state government is cut loose, its central focus is not on serving the public interest.

The constituency for keeping the university system apart from the state will be so strong it will not be possible to bring the system back. And those constituencies fighting to keep the system separate have private not public goals. Say “good-bye” to the Wisconsin Idea.

The rationale for cutting UW support is to make the system more efficient. Sure, efficiencies are important. But the reduction proposed by the Governor – $300 million over two years – will cut one quarter of current state spending.

And this year’s state funding for the UW is already lower than six years ago.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Wisconsin is one of only six states that continued to cut higher education funding per student by more than 2% following the Great Recession (adjusted for inflation and using data from Fiscal Year (FY) 2013-14).

Over the last decade and a half, state support for the UW has been modest at best. For example, FY 2012 funding fell below FY 2001. Increasing education costs were shifted to steady increases in tuition. Reacting to parents’ concerns, the Governor and Legislative Leaders froze tuition. Other states froze tuition – but many also increased state funding. Not so for Wisconsin.

“Teach more classes,” the Governor said. But teaching more classes and “becoming more efficient” won’t absorb the proposed cuts. Cutting one out of every four state dollars is cutting too deep. As a consequence professors will leave Wisconsin.

The best and brightest on our campuses are not tied to Wisconsin. They are tied to their discipline – be it mathematics or biology. A local businessman once told me, “All jobs are mobile.” Professors are definitely mobile.

Once the best and brightest begin to leave (I’ve been told this is already happening) morale plummets. As more professors find new academic homes they take with them not only their expertise and international reputation – they take their federal grants.

Without federal grants UW loses another big source of funds. (Federal money, including student loans now account for more than a quarter of the UW budget.)

The Governor’s proposed actions place the UW in a downward spiral: less state money, a lock on rising tuition, loss of top faculty, declining federal money, loss of the world-class reputation. The consequences of disinvestment will take generations to recover.

Public universities are just that – “public”. Public universities are supported by the people and serve the people. Wisconsin has steadily eroded state support for the UW. We should be doing just the opposite.

Our public universities are a catalyst for the creative culture that builds the great places in which we all want to live, work, play and start a new business. They are well worth our investment.

Kathleen Vinehout!

Walker's Championed School District Is Failing By The Numbers

After Scott Walker dropped his bomb of Act 10 and as he was preparing for the inevitable recall attempt, he was desperately trying to show that his plan was working. One area that he repeatedly focused on as one of his "success stories" was the Kaukauna School District. The dark money front groups American for Prosperity and MacIver Institute joined forces to collaborate with Walker's campaign by touting Walker's false claims of how much money it was saving.

Jake at his Funhouse pointed out that Walker's savings were nothing more than smoke and mirrors, allegedly solving a problem that didn't exist until Walker created it.  And even then, Walker didn't really solve the problem he created.

A year later, when we revisited Kaukauna, it was found that things were going to hell in a hand basket, as was predicted:

The owner of a $150,000 home within the Kaukauna and Little Chute school districts will see annual costs jump $80 and $61, respectively, if the home’s value increases or decreases at the same rate as the school district’s projections.

After several years of cutting spending, the Kaukauna Area School District no longer had any fat to trim and will have to increase the tax levy for revenue, said Bob Schafer, business manager for Kaukauna. Because the district spent less than it budgeted, state aid was reduced by more than $850,000, according to figures from the Department of Public Instruction.

“Our biggest dilemma was No. 1, the dropping property values, and No. 2, the amount of state aid,” Schafer said. “We lost a lot of state aid this year.”

Kaukauna also underspent their budget last year by about $1.5 million due to healthcare and retirement adjustments, which meant a smaller state aid payment for the 2012-13 year.

If anyone thought this was just a bump in the road to the prosperity that Walker promised, think again.

The untold costs of Act 10 are being seen now that open enrollment season is upon the state (emphasis mine):

This is the time of year when families can apply to send their children to public school districts outside the areas they live.

The process is called open enrollment, and it cost five Fox Cities public schools millions of dollars in 2013-14.

Public schools receive money from the state for each student enrolled. When students who live in Appleton, for example, attend school in Neenah, the state aid follows the student. Here is a breakdown, according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction:

The Kaukauna Area School District had the largest decrease in state aid as a result of open enrollment. Ninety-three students transferred into Kaukauna schools during 2013-14, while 641 transferred out. The result was a net loss of 548 students, and $2.9 million in state aid.

The main reason why parents would want to have their children enrolled in a different school system is because they feel the school district they live in is not meeting the needs of their children. They feel so strongly about this that they are willing to have their children take longer commutes to go to what they believe to be a better school district.

It's understandable why parents would seek out other school districts that would better serve their children.  Thanks to Walker's cuts to education, there are less experienced teachers, programs have been cut, and class sizes are bigger.

Walker's education agenda wasn't working then and it's even more of a failure now.

Expanding Concrete Before Expanding Minds - It's The Walker Way

Gretchen Schuldt at Milwaukee Rising, succinctly states one of the things that has been bothering most Wisconsinites.  What's more, she does it with supporting facts:

A couple numbers to think about.

Wisconsin’ education spending has dropped $1,014 per pupil since 2008, trailing only Alabama in spending decline as measured by dollars, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (Wisconsin’s 14.6% education spending decline ranked fifth in the nation).

Meanwhile, the state transportation fund siphoned $970 million away from the general fund over roughly the same time period, from the 2007-2009 through the 2003-2015 bienniums, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. The general fund, of course, is the money the state uses to pay for things like education.

NOT just a coincidence. Expanding concrete before expanding minds. It’s the Wisconsin way.

In other words, Scott walker has sold our children's future to the road builders in exchange for campaign donations.

If he is reelected, what else will he do to our children?

Your Education Tax Dollars At Work

I can't wait to see how the Walker idiots and paid propagandists try to spin this one:

Wisconsin taxpayers have paid about $139 million to private schools that ended up being barred from the state's voucher system for failing to meet requirements since 2004, according to a newspaper report.

State Department of Public Instruction data shows more than two-thirds of the 50 schools terminated from the state's voucher system in the last 10 years had stayed open for five years or less, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. They were all in Milwaukee.

Eleven schools, paid a total of $4.1 million, were terminated from the voucher program after just one year.

So, Walker and his friends stole nearly a billion dollars from our children's education fund and gave it to these fly by night operations that took the money and ran.

To add to the insult, the money that was siphoned off from our kids went to the education profiteers, who in turned used some of that money to pay the propagandists. It's a Mobius strip of corruption.

Walker Doesn't Need No Education!

By Jeff Simpson

“Education’s Purpose is to Replace an Empty Mind with an Open One." – Malcolm Forbes

This story from WKOW:

MADISON (WKOW) -- It has been well publicized that Governor Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin) never graduated from college, but 27 News has now learned three of his top executives also lack a college degree.

At least one of those appointees was recently called out by a subordinate for being unqualified.

32 year-old Ryan Murray is a former campaign and office staffer for Governor Walker, who became Chief Operating Officer at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation in 2012, despite having no college degree and no real experience in economic development.

Former State Senator Cathy Stepp now serves as Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources.  Like Murray, she has no real background of expertise in the area of regulation her agency oversees.

The Secretary of the Department of Administration, former Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, also holds no college degree.

I know, not everyone needs a college degree.  Let's let the walker group explain it:

Regarding Ryan Murray:

 "There are many quality people that span the spectrum from folks from high school graduation to college degrees to technical degrees to post-graduate degrees.  We have people that have the whole spectrum of things," said Gov. Walker.

 See Ryan Murray needs no education, or work experience, he knows things!  Now Cathy Stepp:

 Cathy does not have a college degree," DNR Spokesperson Bill Cosh told 27 News.  "She has a tremendous amount of real world experience which includes management training with McDonald's Corporation, several management positions with various businesses including Stein Optical and Wisconsin Optical, and the experience of running her own businesses."

If management experience at Stein Optical and McDonalds isnt enough to be in charge of the Wisconsin environment, then nothing is.    Now Mike Huebsch:

"Secretary Huebsch, the leadership at DOA, and the Administration's cabinet embody the variety of education, experience and knowledge that exists across Wisconsin," wrote DOA Spokesperson Stephanie Marquis in a statement to 27 News.  "There are thousands of professionals, entrepreneurs, and farmers that may not have gone to college, but they are competent, intelligent and talented.  Our leadership is experienced and educated, whether that's through work experience, professional knowledge or a college degree."

Marquis says Secretary Huebsch left Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma just nine credits short of a degree, because he ran out of money at the time.

I would have never guessed that the guy who testified that the protestors did $7,000,000 wort hof damage to the Capitol would have money problems his whole life.

10. “Education is Simply the Soul of a Society as It Passes from One Generation to Another.” – Gilbert Chesterton

The Tools Are Working In Waupaca

As the gentle reader is well aware, Scott Walker's agenda included more than trying to bust the unions and giving away taxpayer dollars to dark money special interests.   It also included destroying the public school system in order to pave the way for privatization of the education system.

It's not only Milwaukee Public Schools getting hit, but also the rural school systems like the one in Waupaca, as reported by Robert Cloud of the Waupaca County Post:

Estimates released this month by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction indicate state
aid to Waupaca schools may be cut by as much as $500,000 in 2014-15.

Not including this most recent cut, the Waupaca School District has seen its state aid decrease by a total of $3.4 million over the past five years, according to District Administrator Dave Poeschl.

Under state law, when a school district loses state aid, it can recoup that money by increasing property taxes.

“Over that same five-year period, we’ve only recouped $1.9 million through increased property taxes,” Poeschl said. “We’ve been fully aware of the effect that the decrease in state aids has on taxpayers. We’ve been doing the best we can to mitigate that effect.”

As a result of not raising property taxes to cover lost state aid, the Waupaca School District’s budget is about $2.7 million below the state-mandated revenue cap.

“We can’t continue to do that and at the same time provide the quality education our community is expecting,” Poeschl said.

The gentle reader should also note that even though it was Walker who cut the education budget by nearly a billion dollars, it is the local school board and administrators that have to try to make it work. Sadly, Walker has sabotaged the education system so much that they can't do that without making up Walker's shortfall by raising taxes, risking the ire of the voters.

In other words, they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Either way, Walker, if given the chance after November, and his fellow corporately-owned Teapublicans will sweep in, declare public schools are failures (even though he was the one that made sure they failed) and say the only way to save the schools are to privatize them.

That was Walker's modus operandi in Milwaukee County and it still is as governor.

Thiesfeldt V Ryan

 

By Jeff Simpson

Jeremy Thiesfeldt (R-ALEC) has taken time away from reading Alec emails that are sent to his personal email to write a blistering criticism of the George Bush written and Paul Ryan(R-Ayn Rand) supported No Child Left Behind republican education policy!

The near-unanimous adoption of CCS came from recession cash-strapped states eager for bothfederal stimulus funds, and a waiver from the heavy hand of No Child Left Behind.

Of Course Paul Ryan (R-Standardized tests) was a big supporter of No Child Left Behind and the heavy hand of the Federal Government!    Apparently the "tea party" that keeps having Paul Ryan speak at their events are not that opposed to the heavy hand of the government if its done by republicans! 

In the interest of limited government and freedom, Jeremy Thiesfeldt supports Rob Zerban and you should too!  








   

Paul Ryan on Education
Rep. Ryan went along with the Bush Administration in supporting more federal involvement in education. This is contrary to the traditional Republican position, which included support for abolition of the Department of Education and decreasing federal involvement in education.
-Voted YES on No Child Left Behind Act (2001)
- See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2012/08/paul-ryan-not-opponent-big-government-left-and-right-make-him-out-be#sthash.ycclu7wo.dpuf

Paul Ryan on Education
Rep. Ryan went along with the Bush Administration in supporting more federal involvement in education. This is contrary to the traditional Republican position, which included support for abolition of the Department of Education and decreasing federal involvement in education.
-Voted YES on No Child Left Behind Act (2001)
- See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2012/08/paul-ryan-not-opponent-big-government-left-and-right-make-him-out-be#sthash.ycclu7wo.dpuf

Paul Ryan on Education
Rep. Ryan went along with the Bush Administration in supporting more federal involvement in education. This is contrary to the traditional Republican position, which included support for abolition of the Department of Education and decreasing federal involvement in education.
-Voted YES on No Child Left Behind Act (2001)
- See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2012/08/paul-ryan-not-opponent-big-government-left-and-right-make-him-out-be#sthash.ycclu7wo.dpuf

Paul Ryan on Education
Rep. Ryan went along with the Bush Administration in supporting more federal involvement in education. This is contrary to the traditional Republican position, which included support for abolition of the Department of Education and decreasing federal involvement in education.
-Voted YES on No Child Left Behind Act (2001)
- See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2012/08/paul-ryan-not-opponent-big-government-left-and-right-make-him-out-be#sthash.ycclu7wo.dpuf

School Choice Wisconsin Shows Their Hand

By Jeff Simpson

There has been much discussion lately about the poorly named 'School Choice" debate, and no matter how they run the numbers, charter schools under perform public schools every time. 

Even Luther Olsen, has had enough of the BS.

State Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Ripon), chair of the Senate Education Committee, looks at the program differently than Vukmir. He said it's not about kids on the outside looking in to private schools; it's about kids on the inside looking out for a check.
"The question is, what is this purpose of this program? Is it a program to help poor kids get out of public schools, or is it a program to pay for the tuition of kids who are already in private schools?" Olsen said. "It's pretty obvious from the last two go-rounds (of applications) that it's the latter."
Olsen said the Legislature and governor will have to decide if the program is going to be a new entitlement program, and if so, how the state would pay for every child in a private school.

Its so rare to hear a republican in WI talk sense so make sure and read that quote again.

However the telling quote of this debate came from Terry Brown, vice president of voucher-advocacy group School Choice Wisconsin(emphasis mine):  

Terry Brown, vice president of voucher-advocacy group School Choice Wisconsin, said there's a "natural suppression" in the number of overall applications because many parents and private schools didn't want to roll the dice on applying to participate with so few seats available under the enrollment cap.

Terry Brown is pointing out that if the odds are not stacked in their favor they are not interested.    School Choice Wisconsin,does not want to play if they can't guarantee a win.  

Another subpar lesson that the voucher schools teach their children, along with a nice tell on what his interests are* for the future of WI!   

*hint they are not in your best interest!  

How bad are things for the School Choice movement now?  So bad that they have enlisted their gopher Christian Schneider to regurgitate a bunch of silly BS. 

You know you are desperate when Michael Grebe loans his coffee boy out to your cause!