Saturday, July 19, 2014

What Did Scott Walker Get Wrong Last Week?

Wherein the news reveals more reasons to call him "Wrong Way Walker."

*  There was that bone he threw to his fellow Tea Partiers (his label, not ours) - - repealing Common Core education standards - - that turned into a boomerang, as leading Republicans explained:

Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Ripon), chairman of the Senate Education Committee and a vocal supporter of the standards, said there's actually nothing to "repeal" with Common Core. That's because the standards are not codified in state law; they are voluntary for districts.
You'd think Walker would know the difference, having been a long-time state legislator and, as Governor, had also supported Common Core before abruptly switching sides in mid-campaign.

Suggesting, as does Marquette University Law School law and public policy fellow Alan Borsuk, that politics, not principled educational reform, is behind Walker's move:

Nationwide, the once-sleepy subject of the standards is now hot and controversial. It's become the new battleground in the fight against Big Government, federal heavy-handedness and the Obama administration. Fight Big Government by fighting Big Ed. Fight Obamacare and fight "the Obamacore," as some label it.
States are bailing or considering bailing. One fascinating aspect of this: Republican governors with presidential ambitions, such as Louisiana's Bobby Jindal and our own Walker, have reversed positions in favor of Common Core now that there's so much opposition among groups they count for core support...
The one-sentence news release issued by Walker symbolized how little this controversy has to do with serious work on specific aims for children's education and how much this is about politics and appealing to blocks of voters as the November election approaches.
Signature Walker Insincerity from our Poseur Governor, auditioning undeservedly for national office.

*  Then there was the announcement that Wisconsin, in June, had lost an estimated 1,200 private sector jobs, moving Walker away from the "right direction" [Sic] he claims in ads, and removing him even further from keeping that oft-repeated self-inflicted wounding promise to create 250,000 new jobs in one term:
The state also had seasonally adjusted monthly job losses in January (200), February (5,300) and May (900). It posted gains of 7,300 jobs in March and 8,800 in April.
*  Though to be fair, Walker has paid attention to some job creation, including some in the recent news.

* And speaking of job losses on his watch, Madison television station WKOW-27 reported that two Wisconsin businesses which received state money from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, (WEDC), - - which created and Walker chairs - -  had shipped Wisconsin jobs overseas after receiving the state funds:
MADISON (WKOW) -- At least two companies that received financial awards from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) later outsourced jobs to foreign countries, with one of those companies receiving a second WEDC award after the fact...

"What's troubling to me about this is that these companies were given tax dollars explicitly to keep jobs here in Wisconsin," said Lori Compas, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Business Alliance. "To take taxpayers' money and then turn around and fire hundreds of Wisconsin workers is a real slap in the face."
* Plus: did we see Wisconsin on the list publicized last week of the 13 states which had the fastest job growth - - and had raised the minimum wage, which Walker has strongly resisted?

Nope

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

James -- surely it isn't fair to expect scott walker to do the people's business.

He's got criminal probes -- what's more important -- working for Wisconsin or keeping your butt out of jail?

I'm sure you wouldn't be posting so much stuff if you were in the middle of a criminal scheme and the law was closin' in on you.

Give the guy a break -- I am sure after he beats the system and no longer has to worry about prison-time, scott walker will again become the competent, compassionate, and bold leader that "dropped the bomb" on Wisconsin.

Don't worry, we can expect more out of walker, much more when he is again free to openly grift, commit crimes, and continue his divisive out-of-state multinational agenda.

Anonymous said...

Is Luther Olsen correct about standardized federal testing that tracks everything big brother wants to know about little Bobby and Suzzie?

Does Borsuk mean to render Wisconsin DPI as uncapable of increasing educational outcomes throughout Wisconsin? That's quite an assessment of the job Tony Evers is doing...and our union educators.

Anonymous said...

Tony Evers had no choice but to pick up common core -- it is very dissappointing that some on the left believe that it is OK for Wisconsin schools to chronically leave non-majority and African American students behind.

The badger state has the worst schools in America for these groups and essentially does not teach African American boys to read.

And I am suppose to support this as being OK because, evidently, its a "workers right" to enable and participate in the most racist schools in America.

Wisconsin's previous academic standards were a joke -- not only were they the lowest in the nation -- they were banded at 4, 8, and 12th grade. The mislabeled "benchmarks" were just warm fuzzy statements that no one could assess nor even agree if they were attained.

This was by design -- professional educators and even those that wrote this crap knew that Wisconsin's Model Academic Standards were flim flam.

But don't give Tony Evers any credit for bringing in common core -- he is a snake that enbles and protects the multi-generations of racist schools in Wisconsin.

He demands data from private schools for which he has no legal authority to do so and makes sure the public does not have access to the real score in the public schools he overseas!

Olsen is a partisan hack -- don't give him any credit here -- he just wants school reform to go though CESA and folks that will give him more of the booty.

Olsen has been preaching that Wisconsin cannot fund public schools for many many years -- he does want to eliminate pubic education as we know it.

He proclaims that consortiums of educators will then magically emerge from the "grassroots" (his term) and POOOF! all problems magically go away while he pockets boatloads of money.

How so?

His "wife" (they are not actually married) Joan Wade runs CESA 6 -- every cut in education means Olsen receives (via his "wife") more contracted business for mandatory services.

Olsen's wet dream (look out babysitters!) is to create a series of local impoverished schools that have to contract much of their staff and services through CESA!

In the end, Olsen and Evers stand for the same thing -- dumbing down education, making sure its profitable for the right people, and grandstanding to be the savior of our schools.

Evers needs be replaced and the public needs to call out his BS so that he chooses not to run again.

Olsen has not supported all of the republican school privatization because bringing well-founded out-of-state corporate interests to run our schools will not allow him to extract his pound of flesh.

After all, Rocket Ship and others will not need to contract services with CESA.

NOTE: Not only is CESA 6 the largest, geographically, in the state; but all CESAs have the right to contract services ANYWHERE. They work outside of their boundaries.

Wade/Olsen's CESA 6 is very aggressive about this -- Olsen is holding out for a system that destroys public schools and replaces them with sham "public/private" partnerships that line his pockets by contracting with CESA 6.

Water Lily said...

The reversal of Common Core could become Walker's Anti-Federal Government Trifecta: he's already earned two home runs for 1) refusing federal monies for high-speed rail, and 2) refusal of federal dollars for Medicaid expansion that left 60,000 people without health care. How did those work out for you, Scooter? So why don't you try it again with Common Core--only this time the pain won't be felt by just the poor or just the urban transportation users: this time the pain will be borne by individual school districts (and therefore students and teachers) whose legislators apply the pressure for political purposes. Scooter must be listening to the ill whisperings of Nurse Rachet Vukmir . . . . a fellow traveler on the Road to Hell.

Anonymous said...

Running CESA 6 is a really great gig! Joan Wade makes $131,000 plus really, really great benefits. Her and Luther are really mopping up!

@ Water Lilly

What does "urban transportation" or "just the poor" have to do with Common Core? The standards apply uniformly and expose just how bad our public education system has been for the last 20 years (under union influence). Problem is, CC is another federal monitoring system akin to the NSA.

Anonymous said...

Anon -- 7:14

Joan Wade makes more than that -- she gets an over-ride (i.e. commission) on "sales" -- in this case, contracted services.

luther olsen's "vision" of reform will reward him (and joan) much more than $131,000.

Get some facts before you post.

Water Lily said...

@Anonymouse 7:14 pm:

Why don't you read the whole thing before you post your snarky reply? Then you'd understand the connect between urban transportation and the poor and the CC standards.

Or perhaps you lack the intellectual capacity to make connections. In that case, you shouldn't bother trying to play with the big kids.

You only embarrass yourself by pretending to misunderstand.