Meet The GOP Education Czar

  

By Jeff Simpson 

I am not sure how I missed this story earlier but its time to catch up.  The Republicans passed a law stating that they can make a charter school in any district that has more than 25000 students(Milwaukee and Madison).    

The BIG Government Republicans in our state decided the best way to improve our public educational system is by hiring some young kid from out of state, who  has never taught in our schools or probably even stepped foot in a public school in Madison or Milwaukee. to run a NEW Government agency. 

The chief of staff for state Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, has been hired by the University of Wisconsin System to oversee the creation of independent charter schools in Madison and Milwaukee.
Gary Bennett, a former public school teacher, will begin April 1, according to the UW System.

Not only did they increase the Government, they made him a  "special assistant to the President" of UW further stretching their resources because they also are going to pay him $95,000(with Cadillac Benefits).   Its amazing how the Repubs, keep putting their otherwise unemployable party members in high paying state jobs.   

In his new role, Bennett will earn $95,000 and report to UW System President Ray Cross as a special assistant to the president. 

For those of you scoring at home, the 7 members of the Madison School Board get paid $8000/yr with NO medical insurance.    That means the 7 members make $56000 a year while Mr. Bennett makes this plus an extra $40k and benefits.  Or about the cost of TWO classroom teachers and Mr. Bennett is not accountable to anyone and has no contact with children.

The taxpayers are very generous wth Mr. Bennett, especially when no one knows what he does all day.  Let's go to Mr. Bennett for his explanation.

Bennett declined comment Thursday.

$95,000 does not buy as much as it used too.

Because I am late with this story, we have the benefit of some hindsight to see how it is working so far.  

Thanks to Rep. Sondy Pope we know. 

The private voucher and charter school lobby spends millions every year padding Republicans’ campaigns, and this session they were gifted with another big return on investment in the Office of Educational Opportunity and its newly appointed "czar."
A partisan "czar" was appointed to oversee the newly created OEO. This individual can authorize charter schools in Wisconsin’s two largest districts, Madison and Milwaukee. Students can live in any district and still attend these new charter schools.
This “czar” will have vast power over schools in Wisconsin. His authority overrides that of locally elected school boards in Milwaukee and Madison. His salary and benefits, and those of his staff and office, will be paid by the already cash-strapped UW System.

In Summary, the Wisconsin Republicans passed a non fiscal, policy in the budget(to avoid debate), where they increased the size of Government and created a new "czar". interviewed in private, hired a former staffer(cronyism to the extreme) who has never even taught in WI, who makes double the taxpayer funded salary or what a teacher does, who will be completely unaccountable to anyone but the Republican party and his sole job is to take away local control from democratically elected school boards in Madison and Milwaukee.  

Sounds about par for the course under the Walker regime.