Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

The gentle reader is aware that the education profiteer group School Choice Wisconsin sent out a massive amount of open record requests to school districts across the state to troll for information on the children that attend school in those districts.  Fortunately, due to public outrage, the profiteers modified their requests, at least in Green Bay.

Over the weekend, Molly Beck, of the Wisconsin State Journal, wrote about the "creep factor" of the these requests.  Overall, it's a pretty decent article.  However, there is one part that needs to be corrected.

Beck wrote this:

The matter was brought to light in February after liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now disclosed that the Green Bay School District received a request from the voucher advocates.

“I think this points to a larger concern that public education advocates have about the unaccountable privatization movement and that is they see children as commodities and our children’s education is a product to generate profit from,” said OWN executive director Scot Ross.

Because some school districts either allow a student’s information to be included in all directory data requests or none, Ross said “it doesn’t seem fair a kid can’t be in a yearbook just because they don’t want to get calls at their house from some private entity.”

Now, I love me some One Wisconsin Now and have relied on their research and reporting a lot.  I have the highest esteem for Scot Ross. I consider myself to be fortunate to call him my friend.  Trust me, the state would be in even more dire straits if it weren't for these good people.

But Ms. Beck is incorrect in stating that OWN, as wonderful as they are, broke the story.

That was actually my friend and colleague, Jeff Simpson, who wrote about the creep factor first, first at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Purple Wisconsin blog page and then at this here blog.

Now, Jeff and I have been doing this long enough to know what it feels like to have someone else use one of our stories without being given credit for it.  But I have to call this one out, especially since Jeff was the one that had to deal with all the faux outrage to the point at losing his privileges at Purple Wisconsin.

If a person has to go through all that crap, he should get some acknowledgement for it.

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!  

Income Inequality That Your Kids Suffer From

 

By Jeff Simpson

The average teacher salary in Wisconsin is $46,000/yr.  Governor Scott Walker's signature piece of legislation ACT10 cut public workers take home pay by up to 12%.    Which for the average public teacher salary in WI comes to approximately $5520. Act 10 has been in effect for four years now which would be $22,080 in lost income(or demand in Wisconsin).


What was the motivating factor behind that?

Scott Walker in that time has received over $2,400,000 in support of privatizing schools, increasing vouchers and ending teachers unions.  This is money given by the ruling class earmarked as just donations for the politicians they own(for those of you scoring at home, that is equivalent to over 52 teachers complete salaries).     

It doesn't stop there.  

The Democracy Campaign report showed that spending by voucher supporters skyrocketed in the last election cycle, with more than half of the $9.8 million spent over the past decade coming in 2011 and 2012.

Of the spending, $7 million was for activity like independent campaign ads or mailings. The remaining $2.8 million was given in individual campaign contributions to mostly Republican and conservative candidates for office. Nearly two-thirds of that $2.8 million came from donors outside of Wisconsin.

The most donations came from billionaire voucher advocates Richard and Betsy DeVos of Michigan, who gave $337,330 to Wisconsin candidates between 2003 and the first six months of 2012.
Walker received $2.35 million from voucher supporters since 2006, but most of that came during his recall campaign. He got $1.1 million from individual school choice supporters — including $252,600 from Richard and Betsy DeVos. He got another $1.1 million from the Washington-based American Federation for Children, the report showed.

That group is the main driver of outside spending from voucher supporters in Wisconsin, accounting for $4.4 million of the $7 million over the past decade. The group’s Wisconsin lobbyist is former Republican Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen.

Two other former Republican speakers, John Gard and Jeff Fitzgerald*, work for School Choice Wisconsin.

*  total spending does NOT include salaries to the many many lobbyists they employ.  All of which make more than the average teacher does in salary for a year.

So ask yourself why billionaires, who have spent their life increasing their salary and worrying about ROI would be investing millions in privatizing our schools. 

Do you think it is because they worry about YOUR child's education or is it because they see massive return on investments by privatizing our schools?