Shocker! Walker Lied About Wanting To Kill Wisconsin Idea

Last year, just as Scott Walker was getting his official pre-official presidential bid running at full speed, it was discovered that he wanted to do away with the Wisconsin Idea.

What is the Wisconsin Idea? Well, this:

First summed up by UW President Charles Van Hise in 1904, the Wisconsin Idea means that "the borders of the University are the borders of the state." Van Hise declared that he would “never be content until the beneficent influence of the university reaches every family in the state” and this has long been the core philosophy of the UW System, which has worked hard over the decades to generate programs that serve people and communities all over the state.

Walker wanted to take that language out of the mission statement after more than a hundred years of it being held up as a national and international standard. He wanted to remove it because he didn't believe in it. He wanted to use the entire university system as a way to deliver yet even more corporate welfare to his wealthy campaign donors.

When the people of Wisconsin learned of this unspeakable act, the outrage was instant and overwhelming and growing bigger every day.

Walker, not wanting to derail his campaign wagon, quickly distanced himself from this and said that it was merely a "drafting error." Needless to say, no one believed him.

When an open record request was done, Walker withheld hundreds of pages of emails regarding the changes to Wisconsin Idea. He was sued by the Center for Media and Democracy, The Progressive magazine and two individuals, whom won in the court of law.

Walker released 86 more pages of emails and they revealed that - brace yourself now! - Walker lied about his involvement with the changes being proposed to the Wisconsin idea. Not only was he aware of these changes, he wanted them and directed his staff to make them:

Records released Friday by Gov. Scott Walker’s office in response to a judge’s order make clear he sought controversial changes in 2015 to the University of Wisconsin System’s mission statement, known as the Wisconsin Idea.

The office made public 82 pages of records late Friday after Dane County Judge Amy Smith said Walker’s office erroneously withheld 12 email exchanges and six of nine attachments from the public.

One January 2015 document reviewing System comments on proposed changes to its governing structure says Walker requested a “simplified and clearer mission and purpose statements.”

In another — an email that had previously been made public — a budget analyst says that Walker “is recommending revising the UW’s mission and statement of purpose.”

This is all getting rather tedious. Not only is Walker as corrupt as any politician could be, he's not even very good at it.

The gentle reader can peruse the emails themselves, all 86 pages of them, here.

An Open Letter To Governor Walker

An Open Letter to Governor Walker

Published February 9, 2015 Alumni Voices , Education in the news 350 Comments
Tags: Claudia Felske, Scott Walker

Dear Governor Walker:
I was both surprised and bewildered last week when I saw a news clip of you stumping in Iowa about Megan Sampson, whom you called “The [2010] Outstanding Teacher of the Year in my State.” This was baffling to me since in 2010, I was named Wisconsin High School Teacher of the Year (Maureen Look-Ainsworth, Middle School Teacher of the Year; Peggy Wuenstel, Special Services Teacher of the Year; and Michael Brinnen, Elementary Teacher of the Year). In a most humbling ceremony, we were each surprised at our respective schools by State Superintendent Tony Evers and later honored at the State Capital as the Wisconsin Teachers of the Year.
And so, as one of the bonafide 2010-2011 Wisconsin Teachers of the Year, I feel the need to engage in one of the most valuable skills we teach our students, critical analysis.
Verified by multiple news sources, it turns out that Megan Sampson did win an award in 2010, but it was the Nancy Hoefs Memorial Award given by a relatively small organization of Wisconsin English teachers (WCTE) for “an outstanding first year teacher of language arts.” She was one of fewer than a dozen teachers across the state who self-nominated for this award.
You failed to mention these details as you used Sampson’s lay-off from her first year teaching position as an opportunity to bash Wisconsin schools on the national stage. You blamed the seniority system for Sampson’s lay-off when, in good conscience, you should have done some serious soul searching and placed the blame squarely on your systematic defunding of public education to the tune of $2.6 billion that you cut from school districts, state aid to localities, the UW-System and technical colleges.
This Wisconsin Teacher of the Year would like to clarify precisely what you’ve done for education.
2010-2011 was a surreal school year to be named Teacher of the Year as that was the year your passage of Act 10 marked the exodus of thousands of outstanding veteran teachers from the profession they love and marked the beginning of an extreme strain on our ability to continue providing the excellent public education Wisconsin has always been known for.
And what have you done lately?  In just the past month, it seems you have once again actively declared war on education in your own state:

1. You’ve directed the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to devise content exams that would certify anyone with a degree to become a licensed teacher. The ramifications of this move are nothing short of catastrophic and would grossly diminish what data has repeatedly shown to be the single most important factor in student learning: the quality of the classroom teacher. Allowing someone to teach without any training in HOW to teach, in effective pedagogy, in student behavior, brain research, motivation, and classroom management is akin to allowing someone who says  “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on t.v.” to give you a heart transplant.
2. Continuing your bellicose streak (war is war, right?) you cut to the jugular by proposing a 13% across-the-board budget cut from the Wisconsin University System, our cornerstone of higher education, the source of much of our skilled and educated workforce, the center for research and development for our state. Aside from clearly being anti-education, this move is clearly anti-growth.
3. Psychological warfare has been your most recent tactic when you attempted to (and later tried to blame it on a clerical error) revise “The Wisconsin Idea” the sacred credo of the UW system articulated over a century ago. You sought to omit mention of public service and improving the human condition (you do realize that as Governor, you are considered a public servant?) You also tried to delete the phrase: “Basic to every purpose of the system is the search for truth.”  Truth. Hmm…I guess I shouldn’t be surprised about that one.

Your tenure as Governor has demonstrated nothing less than a systematic attempt to dismantle public education, the cornerstone of democracy and the ladder of social mobility for any society.
How our paths have diverged from that August afternoon in 1986. True story: it was freshman orientation just outside Memorial Union. We were two of a couple thousand new Marquette University freshman wistful about what our futures held. Four years later, I graduated from Marquette and later became Wisconsin High School Teacher of the Year. You never graduated, and you became the Governor of the State of Wisconsin bent on dismantling public education. Ironic, isn’t it? Situational irony at its best. I’d laugh if its ramifications weren’t so utterly destructive for the state of Wisconsin.
Sincerely,
Claudia Klein Felske
2010-2011 Wisconsin High School Teacher of the Year
Marquette University Class of 1990

Scott Walker Republican Extremist!

By Jeff Simpson

Scott Walker recently made headlines by trying to rewrite the Wisconsin Idea.  He wanted to strike truth from our state(he already has a very good start) but was caught and called on it!

After his typical pass the buck, it wasn't me explanation, even Scott Walker friendly Politifact gave him a pants on fire!

Walker said fundamental changes to the language describing the Wisconsin Idea in the University of Wisconsin System's mission statement were the result of a "drafting error" in his state budget proposal.
But Walker’s administration had insisted to UW System officials on making the changes, giving detailed instructions on passages to be removed from state law. And eventually Walker himself acknowledged that the UW System had objected to the changes before his budget was put into final form.
His original claim was not only inaccurate, but ridiculous. Pants on Fire.

Mr. Walker has already shown that the people of Wisconsin do not care that the truth and facts are his mortal enemies, they love him anyway.  However that will change when he steps outside his Waukesha safe zone.

The New York Times has been paying particularly close attention:

All of that may be red meat for conservative zealots in the caucus and on the presidential primary circuit. Yet it is hard to see such a clumsy attack on education going far with a general electorate concerned about their children’s chances in life. If nothing else, Mr. Walker is sharpening the debate within the Republican Party about whether it can win despite its own extremists.

Why yes, that is the National paper of record calling Scott Walker an "extremist".  his days of hiding behind friendly and timid "press" are behind him.  As he steps on the national stage, we will see that the Emperor truly has no clothes!