Education reform from a college drop-out

I'm a teacher.  I actually find it offensive--and scary--to realize the driving force behind education reform in my state is being masterminded by a college drop-out.  As such, I thought I'd present my proposal to reform government, using some of pretty much the same headings the Governor uses in his education plan.

1. Recruit, Retain, and Reward Great Legislators:
Base the wages of legislators on how many bills they personally write and get passed. It makes no difference if the bills are viable or how they'd affect the community, just get them passed.  The higher the percentage, the better the legislator.

Retaining of legislators will be at the sole discretion of the governor.

Do not recruit  legislators by calling those in their profession slobs, lazy, or thugs.

2. More Choices for the Governed: 
Lift the caps on private government and reduce regulatory restrictions.  Allow people to form their own "choice and charter" governmental units. They can make rules and govern their areas free from current laws and regulations.   Or, better yet, we will allow people to govern themselves using their computer monitors and call it "virtual government."

Make good government accessible to everyone by encouraging wealthier constituents (through payments) to leave their public governance area to join a private one.

3. Cross Your Fingers:
Hope like heck it works, even though recent studies show that in things such as school systems, "choice" doesn't always mean better.

Seriously, though, kudos to those Wisconsin legislators who see the wisdom in keeping income restrictions for the state voucher program.  The whole purpose of this program, after all, is to provide more opportunity and hope for those that may not have much of either.

Hopefully, all our legislators someday see the light that this kind of reform, with no input from those familiar with education, is merely change, not reform at all.

Things Learned From Scott Walker

I don't usually just list a link, but this letter to the editor in the Appleton Post-Crescent says it all pretty well. Click here.

WHO are the thugs?

Supporters of Republican recall-bound Senator Luther Olsen "forced" their way into a private Democratic function--a Thursday night rally for Baraboo Democratic Rep. Fred Clark, who will be taking on Olsen in the recall election.  The GOP backers who burst uninvited into the room, held signs and reportedly shouted at Clark, who was addressing his supporters during a non-public meeting in a room rented by the Sauk County Democratic Party. 

The GOP'ers said the disturbance was the Democrats' fault, not the fault of those who crashed the event. "This gang is very good at instigating events and then pointing fingers the other way,"  said Sauk County Republican Party Chair Tim McCumber, speaking of the Democrats.  McCumber, believe it or not, was actually one of the event crashers.  More info here and here.

As party chair, McCumber says on the party website that his group believes in "the right to American liberties as established by the US Constitution."  He may want to look up the First Amendment part about the right of the people peaceably to assemble.

Could this have been foreseen?  The slogan for McCumber's unsuccessful bid for the 47th Assembly District in 2010 appears to have been, "Already fighting for the 47th." 

Now it appears he's fighting for the entire Republican Party.

Happy Earth Day, Gov. Walker

Gaylord Nelson was a champion for conservation in Wisconsin.  As one of Wisconsin's US Senators he started Earth Day (April, 22, 1970),and he made numerous contributions to protecting our environment, including legislation that bought about the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.  He was instrumental in overseeing the preservation of thousands upon thousands of acres for Wisconsin parkland, including the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore of Lake Superior.   And he always believed that Wisconsin's greatest resources were its people and its natural resources.  It is a rich legacy for which the late, great statesman will always be known.

Scott Walker, unfortunately, has carved his own legacy.  Walker has promoted business at the expense of Wisconsin's environment.  Some of his proposals have included relaxing standards for water pollution (reducing weed-stemming phosphorous restrictions and run-off contamination), essentially eliminating farmland preservation, increasing road-building instead of promoting public transit (making cuts that will reduce public buses and halting the Madison-Milwaukee high speed rail), diverting money to transportation from a fund to clean up leaking underground gas tanks, and reducing incentives for putting land into conservation. Walker also requested changes in some wetlands protection (coincidentally on a parcel to be built upon by a major donor) and the elimination of subsidies for community recycling programs (while maintaining tipping fees charged for landfill use, which had been used to help fund those same recycling programs).

And that's just in his first four months.

Senator Nelson wouldn't recognize Wisconsin on this Earth Day.

Sadly, neither do I.

Recounting the future of Kloppenburg

I happened across what I'd term a typical talk-radio discussion on WSAU in Wausau.  The host was going on and on about JoAnne Kloppenburg requesting the recount that he said is her right under Wisconsin law in the Supreme Court race wth David Prosser.

And then a funny thing happened.

I agreed with him.

Well, not for 99% of it, but for some of it, anyway.

I, too, agree that I don't think a 0.48% margin will be reversed.  As I wrote in a previous post , just as the conservative talker discussed, I don't believe the recall should be done because of the expense and the relative futility of any significant change (although--surprise,surprise--Minnesota's losing Republican 2010 gubernatorial candidate did the same thing with about the same margin--0.42%) .   And the host said it was likely that Kloppenburg's camp would try to get the Brookfield votes declared illegal and thrown out (which, I agree, if they are found to be illegal, I would expect they should be thrown out).

But then the host mentioned something I hadn't really considered, that the recount would keep the issue alive and energize non-conservative Wisconsin voters for the upcoming recalls.

I thought about it, and I agreed again.

Gosh, I hope he's right (I mean, correct).

Oh, to be like Arkansas!

This whole financial martial law thing (which Governor Walker denies he's considering doing) is, according to some, typical of the policies promoted by ALEC (The American Legislative Exchange Council).  So I thought I'd take a quick, little internet trip up to ALEC and see what I could find.

It looks like the organization identifies the "2010 ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness rankings of the states based on their economic policies and examine which states took the right corrective actions and which states took the wrong ones in the face of this fiscal storm." ALEC website

I do not pretend to understand anywhere near the 142 pages of the full report.  And it's very possible I don't care that much, but I did note that, in the 2010 State Economic Outlook Ranking, Wisconsin is number 23  (Utah, at #1, is best).   

I guess, then, some of the states to which #23 Wisconsin should aspire include #13 Arkansas (which happens to be #48 in median household income and #46 in Forbes' Best States To Live), #16 Louisiana (41 in income; 40 in "best states"), #17 Alabama (46 in income; 33 in "best states"), and #18

Mississippi (50 in income; 48 in "best states").  Poor #23 Wisconsin tops each of these states, though, by a pretty significant margin, in income (#21) and in "best states to live" (#24).   Regarding education, ALEC's own ranking of "K-12 Performance, Progress, and Reform" in American education has Wisconsin at 21, Alabama-40, Arkansas-44, Mississippi-46, and Louisiana-47.

To the untrained eye, it sure looks like "Economic Competetiveness" may come with some costs regarding quality of life.  I mean, Arkansas is nice, but it's not Wisconsin.

So, hopefully, Governor, you really won't be taking ALEC's advice, right?

Comforting words from our Governor

Like a warm, fuzzy blanket or a bowl of grandma's chicken soup, with two little words, Governor Walker soothed all our fears today.

"Absolutely false," said the Governor discussing the Rick Ungar report that Walker was working on a "financial martial law," on Newsradio 620 WTMJ's "Midday with Charlie Sykes."

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Previous comforting words:

(I pledge to) "oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes." Scott Walker, Americans For Tax Reform Pledge "A new nonpartisan analysis of Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker's budget proposal shows that it would raise taxes for poor people..." BusinessWeek, 4/15/11

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says his budget-repair bill would leave collective bargaining “fully intact,” Politfact, Rated PANTS ON FIRE

This (collective bargaining) has never been about union busting, it’s about balancing the budget. See Walker admit collective bargaining saved no money in the budget in testimony before Congressman Kucinich.

"(I will) End the practice of raiding segregated state funds to pay for other programs."  Walker's website "Walker taps insurance fund to fill in deficit," JS Online

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Whew.  Thank goodness.  For a moment there I was worried...