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.

Gordon Hintz Hates Sondy Pope

By Jeff Simpson

We brought you the story yesterday of how Gordon Hintz was so incensed that someone would dare to challenge Robb Kahl in a primary.

This is such a distraction," said Rep. Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh. "Think about this. Hopefully all 35 of us (Democrats in the Assembly) are going to come out strongly for Robb. Every dollar and every door that we do for our colleague is another dollar and another door that we’re not doing in a Republican district that we can win. When we pick up a seat or two fewer in the fall, I’m going to think about these so-called progressive hypocrites that went after this unnecessary seat to make themselves happy or to high-five their friends at the co-op."

The vision of 35 sitting assembly reps doing doors in a Democratic Stronghold to make sure their buddy gets reelected while letting reps such as Scott Krug, Andre Jacque and Robin Vos skate free, while passing a whole different group of young progressives doing doors for their candidate would explain everything you need to know about the end of the Wisconsin idea.

However as we say here, there is more....there is always more.

It seems as if Robb Kahl is not the only Democratic incumbent to have someone challenge them in a primary.   For instance, Representative Sondy Pope has TWO challengers.     Luke Joseph and Dale Yurs.  

Yet Mr. Hintz expects Sondy Pope to spend her time helping Robb Kahl(who probably has a zero percent chance of being beaten) get reelected.   Despite the best effort of the Solidarity singers and your local coop to hijack the election.  

So the question you have to ask is why is Robb Kahl untouchable but Sondy Pope should be left to twist in the wind?   Is it because she is a woman?  Or does he not want to work with someone who tragically lost his ability to walk?   Or maybe there are other reasons he is not telling us.  

Maybe the best thing to do is contact Gordon Hintz and ask him to explain and tell him he owes the people of the Democratic party an apology!

Madison Office:Room 109 North
State Capitol
P.O. Box 8952
Madison, WI 53708Telephone:(608) 266-2254
(888) 534-0054Fax:(608) 282-3654District Phone:(920) 232-0805Email:Rep.Hintz@legis.wisconsin.govVoting Address:502 East Irving Avenue
Oshkosh, WI 54901
Staff:Carly Michiels Carly.Michiels@legis.wisconsin.gov
Emily Pritzkow Emily.Pritzkow@legis.wisconsin.gov

@gordonhintz