Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker thought he could run for president based on his hardline hatred for public school teachers and public schools. He was rushing to enact Betsy DeVos’s agenda even before she became Secretary of Education. And his agenda is even more expansive because he wants to drive teachers out of public schools. It is hard to believe that Wisconsin was once a progressive state with this guy as governor.
Peter Greene here reviews Walker’s latest attacks on public schools and their teachers.
First, he proposes to punish any district that is not strictly enforcing his infamous Act 10, which slashed teachers’ pay and shifted the cost of their health benefits and pensions to teachers.
Second, he proposes to eliminate any required number of instructional hours for students. Wisconsin, under his backwards leadership, would be the only state in the nation that did not set forth a minimum number of instructional hours. He claims this would provide “flexibility,” but in reality it would be a boon to cybercharters and others who will cut instructional time and teachers to save money. For more on this proposal, read here.
Greene observes:
Not that this is about cutting costs. Oh no. And that may be true– it may be more about reducing the need for staff. Can’t find enough teachers who want to work under Wisconsin’s increasingly regressive system? Split your school into morning and afternoon school meeting every other day and you can get twice the students, at least, served by one teacher. Have trouble staffing classes that don’t actually affect your state report card? Cut ’em and send the kids home early.
More than that, this also serves as a big blast of freedom for charters. Set your charter up however you want, teaching whatever you want, meeting as often as you want, with as few teachers as you want. Scott Walker says that’s okay. Come be an edu-preneur, and we won’t tell you what you have to do, ever.
Would this reduce the number of teachers in Wisconsin? Of course– and thereby weaken that damn union and its ability to stand up to guys like Scott Walker. And of course this also accomplishes the goal of making public schools less and less attractive so that charter schools can look better by comparison (without having to actually get good). Will this have any effect on the education of rich folks who can afford to make sure their children get into real schools that do real educating? Of course not, and that’s undoubtedly part of the point–
Scott Walker has pushed hard on many reformster ideas, but the unifying principle seems to be one of the lowest of all reformy ideas– wealthy folks (who deserve their wealth or why else would they be wealthy) should not have the government taking their well-deserved money to provide services for lousy poor people (who must deserve to be poor, or else they wouldn’t be). And that include those damn teachers, who not only keep taking money they don’t deserve, but keep using some of it to try to organize revolt against their rightful rulers. These peasants need to be sent packing and forced to understand that their Betters will decide what these Lessers deserve– and the short list of what these Lessers deserve does not include an excellent, free public education.
Really, I try to be civil on this blog. So, either Scott Walker is determined to drive every last professional teacher out of the public schools, or he is a moron. Or both.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
He is both plus pathetic. What terrible choices we have for our children and grandchildren.
Not if you live in the districts where Cory Booker and Chris Christie grew up. Their public systems are still fine, still sending students to selective colleges.
As a former Badger State resident, you are right on both accounts. Moron pretty much sums it up. He is in the Koch brothers pocket. Walker is a dimwitted individual who is looking for his next place to land. My hope is that my friends in Wisconsin will come to their senses. My return trips to Wisconsin are becoming more and more bizarre but I do think there may be hope. It will just take time.
I grew up in Madison and many of my best and oldest friends remain there; I haven’t been back in eight years, mostly because I don’t want to spend my union salary in this backwards state. At last, I’m going this summer because eight years is a long time, and in any case, the entire country is now run by dimwitted rightwing ideologues.
Scott Walker is a complete pimp and is destroying the quality of life for the people of Wisconsin. Such a shame that a lame dude who pretends to be a regular guy wearing his jeans and riding a motorcycle and yet this guy is poison. If I ever met Scott Walker in the street I would use my saliva to drench his face and my feet to kick really hard.
I am a Board Member in one of the districts and have one clarification. Act 10 required a 12% health insurance contribution from state employees, but not school district employees. Those districts who have less than a 12% employee contribution are in compliance with the law. The new proposal also doesn’t require a 12% contribution, but it denies a significant state aid to those districts that have less than a 12% contribution, punishing the students of those districts.
He’s a moron who’s sold his soul to the Kochs. No light in those eyes. Dead-souled man walking.
What does Charles Pierce call him? “Goggle-eyed homunculus….”
Much like watching Chris Christie act out against public employees yet more viciously after his humiliating run for President, I see Walker through the same lens: After being promised pie in the sky by Big Money, he found himself early and embarrassingly pushed out of the Presidential race.To bolster his bruised ego, he is even more dangerous to those employees over whom he still has power.
Walker is turning his state into a free market free for all, and a disaster for its citizens. Some regulation is necessary to ensure the safety of residents and promote ethical business practice. Walker has been hit with the “stupid stick,” and his reckless policies create more chaos than job growth. A recent comparison of Wisconsin and neighboring Minnesota shows that the more progressive Minnesota has fewer people in poverty and a healthier, more stable economy.
This is from a recent CEPR report. “The difference in child poverty rates is even more striking. The proportion of Wisconsinites under age 18 living in poverty has risen from 15.8% to 18.5%. The increase in child poverty in Wisconsin is twice as large as the increase in Minnesota, 2.7% compared to 1.3%.”http://cepr.net/blogs/cepr-blog/wisconsin-vs-minnesota-what-the-data-show
I’ve visited Wisconsin a number of times, and enjoyed its beauty and friendly people. As an outside observer, it’s hard to reconcile the political contradictions of the place: Fighting Bob La Follette and Tailgunner Joe McCarthy? Russ Feingold and Scott Walker?
Any Badgers out there want to comment/elaborate?
Yes, quite a few contradictions: Feingold versus Ron Johnson, a far right wing Ayn Rand acolyte who hates government and social programs. So far, Feingold has lost 2 times to this right wing vampire, Johnson. What’s the matter with Wisconsin? I should add, what’s the matter with NJ, where I live. NJ voted two times for Christie and now his approval ratings are at an all time low, in the toilet. The NJ state legislature is controlled by the Democrats but during Christie’s second campaign run, many top Democrats openly supported CC over their own candidate, Barbara Buono!!! I kid you not, it was totally insane and unprecedented. Don’t blame me, I never voted for Christie.
Yes, I remember the disgraceful treatment Barbara Buono received. That made Bridge-gate all the more satisfying, seeing that awful specimen of humanity fall on his ass right after his re-election.
The prosecutors in NJ are obviously going to let him walk away from his crimes (which are many), but at least there’s the satisfaction of knowing that he’s universally despised and disrespected, even among his own.
Some of us (unfortunately, not Wisconsin residents) wondered about the possibility of electronic voting machine tampering &/or any other sort of election fraud (NO, NOT VOTER fraud–that is an entirely different can of worms, very rare in occurrence, & what the Trumpsters have been {incorrectly} wailing about) in the Feingold-Johnson election.
It seems to me inconceivable that WI residents would re-elect this guy, & doesn’t have me wondering what’s wrong w/WI voters, but was there election integrity?
If any readers are/were involved w/poll watching, election watchdog groups, I’d be very interested in a response.
Based on my limited knowledge of the place, I’d guess de-industrialization and disappearing family farms would step forward as primary movers of political reaction in the state. The southern half of the state was a mix of family-owned dairy farms, and Upper Midwestern heavy industry. The northern half was logging and paper-making. I imagine Trump’s emanations about trade resonated with just enough Democratic-leaning-but-Hillary-disliking voters to put him over the top.
Republicans have been demonizing/delegitimizing government for generations. It goes back at least to Goldwater, more than half a century ago.
Well, they’ve succeeded, and when inequality/class conflict is high, and the state is increasingly seen as illegitimate, then the center does not hold, and working people break Left or they break Right. In the previous election, we know which way too many of them went.
Comments welcome from any and all Cheeseheads out there.
As an addendum and example to the above, Trump defeated Hillary in Kenosha County in southern Wisconsin. The city of Kenosha was a significant auto center with strong and progressive UAW locals. It had always been a Democratic mainstay; Obama received 55% of the vote there in 2012. Trump won it last year, by a hair.
The thing that bothers me most about Scott Walker is his refusal to actually do his job. The governor of each state is responsible for ensuring an education to the children who live in that state. If he doesn’t want to do the job, he should step down.
Scott Walker is one sick puppy.
Greene is inaccurate in saying there is no tenure for university professors. While Walker and Co. have made it easier to remove a tenured faculty member from her/his position, tenure does still exist in the UW System. I don’t support Scott Walker, so I do not write this to defend him. Rather, we must get our facts straight if we are to successfully resist.
Even tenured professors are afraid of Walker. Sarah Goldrick-Rab left U of Wisconsin after insulting Walker for fear of retaliation. Against her or University. He is a bully and stupid. Bad combination.