Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is following the ALEC script:

More charters

More vouchers

Lower standards for entry into teaching

Did he ask the voters if they want to get rid of public education? No.

Categories ALEC, Charter Schools, Privatization, Vouchers, Wisconsin

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Yvonne Siu-Runyan says:

May 23, 2013 at 4:51 pm

He’s an idiot and evil, too. What he says is not worth his spit and breath.

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systemschangeconsulting says:

May 23, 2013 at 4:53 pm

It bears repeating that he does not have the support of sufficient Senate Republicans to pass his voucher plan, so perhaps instead of constantly complaining about what is wrong you can point out that there are many people, including Republican politicians, who do not support the voucher agenda.

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Joel says:

May 23, 2013 at 5:58 pm

How ironic that I see this post first thing when I turn on my computer, when the last thing I studied with my students today was the concept of social challenge. We interpreted several quotes, the final one being “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

I do not accuse the good people of Wisconsin of doing nothing, but they do need to seriously reconsider who is running their state. He is not their friend.

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Cee Mor says:

May 23, 2013 at 6:07 pm

Everyone in Illinois…BOYCOTT Wisconsin (and Chicago while your at it)…they depend on our dollars during the summer!

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- systemschangeconsulting says:
  
  May 23, 2013 at 6:28 pm
  
  That is so offensive and unhelpful to those of us in Wisconsin. Would you like us to return the boycott favor by what just happened with Chicago school closures?
  
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  - Carrie says:
    
    May 24, 2013 at 9:30 am
    
    As a matter of fact, yes I would like you to boycott Chicago b/c of the closures. And let everyone know why you are doing it at the same time. And please be sure to mention you won’t stay at a Hyatt hotel, too.
    
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  - Ang says:
    
    May 24, 2013 at 10:08 am
    
    What is wrong with the concept of voting with your dollars/time etc?
    If the Gov. of Wis. is taking the state down a road that offends, don’t spend money in the state if you have the choice. Hate the way Walmart treats its employees? Don’t shop there.
    We can argue about the effectiveness of such a thing (I personally thing that $ is the only thing some people understand), but at least one would have a clear conscience.
    So, I fail to see how the suggestion is “offensive”.
    
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  - systemschangeconsulting says:
    
    May 24, 2013 at 10:12 am
    
    While well placed boycotts can have an impact in the right place, e.g., divestment from S. Africa, if Americans started boycotting each state with a bad Governor, this nation would fall apart quickly. Moreover, it wouldn’t harm Scott Walker. It would harm the thousands of Wisconsin small business owners who need tourism to survive.
    
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Cap Lee says:

May 23, 2013 at 7:14 pm

Even Voucher advocate Dr. Howard Fuller testified against Walker at a legis;ative hearing. This has nothing to do with education, it has to do with power, ego and control.

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- systemschangeconsulting says:
  
  May 23, 2013 at 7:16 pm
  
  That’s right, because Dr. Fuller always believed vouchers should represent a choice for low income families who cannot afford to attend private schools. He got off the boat once income caps were increased and in the case of special needs vouchers, there is no income cap whatsoever.
  
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  - dianerav says:
    
    May 23, 2013 at 7:41 pm
    
    Dr. Fuller is still collecting large sums from the reactionary, voucher-loving Walton Family Foundation.
    
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  - systemschangeconsulting says:
    
    May 23, 2013 at 8:07 pm
    
    Have you ever met him? I have. And while he and I disagree on many things, I can tell you that his dedication to getting low income children a high quality education is unwavering.
    
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  - dianerav says:
    
    May 23, 2013 at 8:36 pm
    
    Yes, I have met Howard Fuller many times back when I was active in rightwing think tanks.
    
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  - Jim Morgan says:
    
    May 23, 2013 at 8:28 pm
    
    Please. If he’s collecting money from the Walton Family Foundation he is no friend to public education.
    
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  - systemschangeconsulting says:
    
    May 23, 2013 at 8:32 pm
    
    It is so fascinating to read how so many people put so little thought into their opinions by castigating very smart people completely because they may have taken money from an organization you don’t like. Are you sure your hands are so clean? Seriously, shouldn’t this blog be about how to provide high quality education to ALL children instead of spending so much energy putting down people? I prefer to build bridges rather than burn them.
    
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  - dianerav says:
    
    May 23, 2013 at 8:35 pm
    
    Sorry, but taking huge sums from the Walton Foundation is not different from being funded by the Koch brothers. What they have in common is a desire to privatize public education. If you are okay with that, that’s your right. I am not.
    
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  - democracy says:
    
    May 24, 2013 at 7:56 am
    
    Diane notes that she was once “active in right wing think tanks.” I’ve real elsewhere that the “data” changed your mind about conservative education policies. But I’m wondering why, exactly, you abandoned those ideas and places, and others are still quite actively propagandizing (and as you not above, taking their paychecks and consulting fees).
    
    I’m also curious as to what those “bridges” that systemschangeconsulting wants to build look like. Please do
    explain, systemschanger.
    
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  - systemschangeconsulting says:
    
    May 24, 2013 at 9:32 am
    
    Bridges including looking for solutions rather than constantly critiquing the so-called other side. Among the achievements I had during last year’s most contentious of all legislative sessions was unanimous passage of a law to protect school children from inappropriate seclusion and restraint, something that unions, school boards and school administrators had previously fought for 12 years. Here is a link to a blog post I wrote about that: http://systemschangeconsulting.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/wisconsins-new-law-on-the-use-of-seclusion-and-restraint-of-school-children/
    
    Here is another blog post I wrote on finding solutions: http://systemschangeconsulting.wordpress.com/2013/04/20/getting-to-yes-in-the-21st-century/
    
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Jeff Klaus says:

May 23, 2013 at 9:30 pm

What’s wrong with privatizing the operations of our government run education system? We can maintain public governance via an elected or appointed BOE that focuses on district goal-setting, regulation, and quality standards for all schools – but the BOE should no longer be in the business of running schools. It’s way past time or a change.

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- democracy says:
  
  May 24, 2013 at 8:14 am
  
  what’s wrong with privatizing prisons ? or interstate highways?
  
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  - Jeff Klaus says:
    
    May 24, 2013 at 4:28 pm
    
    Nothing in concept.
    
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- Carrie says:
  
  May 24, 2013 at 9:37 am
  
  In Chicago Daley privatized parking meters. The city still has to maintain streets and sewers. And that interrupts parking. So Chicago must pay the group of investors from Abu Dhabi anyway. For 75 years.
  When you take a public good, privatize the profits but leave the costs to be borne by the public, you have subsidized corporate profits. The more public assets you lease or sell, the more you have diminished the future of the middle class.
  
  Closing 50 schools will cost over $1billion dollars.
  CPS floated a $329 mln tax exempt bond, at 7.5% interest, which pays out $25 mln a year for 30 years.
  
  Closing any more schools will bankrupt the city. All to put money in the pockets of real estate hedge fund managers, Murdoch, Apple, Pearson and everyone else.
  
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Leigh says:

May 23, 2013 at 9:55 pm

They don’t care about evidence… it is all about political gain and power… If they continue to perpetuate substandard schools and destroy public schools — all of the children in our community suffer… As Dr. Martin Haberman often reminded his students and colleagues at UW-Milwaukee, the quality of our schools — and the teachers in them — is a matter of life and death for the children attending them… I wish he was still her to join this fight. Dr. Ravitch — we need to start a chapter of your organization here in Milwaukee!

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democracy says:

May 24, 2013 at 7:03 am

As I noted earlier (on a comment to Diane’s post on “creative destruction”), when those who cite “market” forces and privatization and “choice” as the means to improve education are willing to source their ideas, the names that emerge are von Mises, and Hayek, and Milton Friedman. (Indeed, the Kochs are major benefactors of Scott Walker, and they are enthusiasts of von Mises; their daddy was a John Bircher). The more daring will even cite Ayn Rand,

More importantly, what the blogger and the corporate “reformers” omit is that public education in a democratic society has a special place and purpose. Aristotle grasped this important concept more than two thousand years ago in arguing for a system of public education in Athens, saying that “education should be one and the same for all…public, and not private.”

Aristotle perceived the importance of public schooling to democratic citizenship, noting that “each government has a peculiar character…the character of democracy creates democracy, and the character of oligarch creates oligarchy, and always the better the character, the better the government.” Democracy is government “of the people, by the people, for the people,” while oligarchy is government by a relatively small (and usually wealthy) group that “exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes.”

Early state constitutions in the U.S., like those of Massachusetts (1780) and New Hampshire (1784), set up and stressed the importance of a system of public education. The Land Ordinance of 1785 provided for public school financing in new territories. In Virginia, Thomas Jefferson sought a publicly-funded system of schools, believing that an educated citizenry was critical to the well-being of a democratic society. In his Notes on the State of Virginia (1794), Jefferson wrote “The influence over government must be shared among all men.” Many early advocates for public schools –– Jefferson, George Washington, Horace Mann, for example –– agreed that democratic citizenship was a – perhaps THE – primary function of education.

Aristotle believed that that a democratic society was contingent on a citizenry that understood and was committed to democratic values. Pericles had defined them four decades earlier: openness, popular sovereignty and majority rule, equality, justice, tolerance, and promoting the general welfare. They are written into our Constitution. In any democratic society, the people are the government (or at least, they’re supposed to be). Aristotle and many of the Founders knew that if all citizens are part of self-rule, then they are “a part of the state, and the care of each part is inseparable from the care of the whole.” That is the essence of the social contract.

And that is precisely why public education is so important. It’s also what the oligarchs and ideologues (and a slew of the Wall Street crowd) – the corporate-style “reformers” – are determined to unravel. And privatize. For their own personal gain, and for even more power.

The well-orchestrated and -financed effort to force the “market” into public education (witness the UVa Curry-Darden “partnership” to bring the “business” model to public school classrooms), is not just about schooling.

It’s also about the very nature and health of democratic governance, and of a society dedicated to the democratic ideals of its founding.

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- Harlan Underhill says:
  
  May 24, 2013 at 8:29 am
  
  So, how’s that constitutionalism working for you?
  
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  - democracy says:
    
    May 24, 2013 at 9:13 am
    
    What, exactly, is your point, Harlan?
    
    Do you even know what it is?
    
    Because you’ve said some pretty nutty – and grossly inaccurate –things in the past. You’ve written that the public education has “zero claim to support from the public taxpayers” because it is “populated by the socialist/communist philosophy.” Yet, as I note above, support for a public system of education is traceable to Aristotle. And, early state constitutions in the U.S., like those of Massachusetts (1780) and New Hampshire (1784), set up and stressed the importance of a system of public education. The Land Ordinance of 1785 provided for public school financing in new territories. In Virginia, Thomas Jefferson sought a publicly-funded system of schools, believing that an educated citizenry was critical to the well-being of a democratic society.
    
    You say that the citizenry of this country, produced by the public schools, “is responsible for the low information voter which perpetrated the disaster [Obama’s presidency] on America.”
    
    Naturally, you leave out the Bush presidency’s failure to heed dire warnings of terrorist threats; its laissez-faire, supply-side economic policies and its aiding and abetting of massive fraud and corruption on Wall Street, and its taxpayer bailout of the big bankers; its manipulation and manufacturing of “intelligence” to launch a war in Iraq while botching one in Afghanistan, and its failure to pay for either one; and you forget that the biggest economic cataclysm – a genuine economic disaster – since the Great Depression took place during the Bush administration (and the Bush administration was well-populated with disciples of Hayek, von Mises, and Ayn Rand).
    
    You seem to disagree with the foundational precepts and values of American democracy, and with the role of public education in sustaining them.
    
    What is it – exactly – that you detest about democratic governance?
    
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  - Harlan Underhill says:
    
    May 24, 2013 at 9:25 pm
    
    The original principles were fine, but have been betrayed by progressivism. Local control, local funding, just fine. But “spreading the wealth” is inherently piratical. It may be a prudent thing to do for education, but it is not a “right.” Whatever Bush’s failings were, and they were many, can’t be used to defend Obama’s policies. If you don’t like how education is going these days, wait until next year when Obama care kicks in and the same kind of twisted disorder will arrive in health care. Ignorant voters make democracy destructive. 90 years of progressive education in the USA has produced the “entitlement” citizen. It’s not the method that is corrupt, but the people using it. Hobbs may have been right. Self government requires a citizenry which can self-govern their behaviour. Not enough of that going on.
    
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Zak says:

May 24, 2013 at 9:34 am

It’s amazing to me Scott Walker sleeps at night. He wants to privatize everything under the moon, but when people question specifics of his plans, he never has answers.

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Carrie says:

May 24, 2013 at 9:44 am

No privatizers offer answers or detailed plans in advance. Ever.
They simply roll out one piece of the program at a time, then let people complain, then move on to the next step in the process.
They hope people will be too worried or demoralized or confused by the propaganda to put together what is really happening.
Then they silence the principals and teachers with threats, and warn them not to speak with media or parents.
It is a travesty of democracy.
It is joint plundering of our public assets by Republicans and Democrats.
It is arriving at Brave New World by way of The Prince.
It is racist.

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Carrie says:

May 24, 2013 at 9:46 am

I used to wonder how George W. Bush slept at night knowing he went to war in Iraq under false pretenses. Then I wondered how Obama decided not to hold any hearings on the issue. But there is no need to wonder. Money trumps conscience.

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- Duane Swacker says:
  
  May 24, 2013 at 2:19 pm
  
  Look forward and not at the behind!
  
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