Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Walker's budget, item by item - JSOnline #WIunion #SolidarityWI

Walker's budget, item by item - JSOnline

Walker's budget, item by item

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March 1, 2011 |(51) COMMENTS

JUSTICE

• Provide $1 million for raises for prosecutors.

• Provide $770,300 for more DNA analysts.

• Set aside $1.04 million to investigate Internet crimes against children.

• Cut $52.6 million from corrections.

• Provide $993,800 for more public defenders.

• Saves money by closing two juvenile correctional facilities - Ethan Allen School for Boys in the Town of Delafield and Southern Oaks Girls School in Union Grove - and consolidating operations at the Lincoln Hills facility in Irma.

• Repeal all mechanisms that would allow any early release of state inmates from prison, extended supervision or probation.

• Count on broad saving from lower prison population, which follows national trend.

EDUCATION

• Cut $834 million in state K-12 education spending over the next two years.

• Phase out income requirements and eliminate enrollment cap for Milwaukee school choice program, and make schools across county eligible.

• No change in the "funding flaw" under which voucher expenses are deducted from Milwaukee's state aid, even though no aid is granted to Milwaukee for those voucher-school students.

• Remove the requirement that MPS teachers reside in Milwaukee.

• Eliminate the minimum 180-day requirement for public school calendars, a measure that could open the way for some districts to initiate four-day school weeks. Districts would continue to meet a minimum instructional hour requirement.

• Repeal the limit on the numbers of students who could use the state's open enrollment system to attend a virtual charter school in another district.

• Allow any four-year University of Wisconsin campus to sponsor an independent charter school.

• Require that charter school teachers need only a bachelor's degree to teach, rather than a teacher's license.

• Remove mandates that school districts employ reading specialists and only licensed nurses with bachelor's degrees; prepare indoor environmental quality plans; and require training on drug administration to be approved by the state Department of Public Instruction.

UW SYSTEM

• Cut UW-Madison funding by 13% while giving the university

Live-blogging Scott Walker and the public employee unions, Day 17 - Isthmus | The Daily Page #WIunion #SolidarityWI

Live-blogging Scott Walker and the public employee unions, Day 17 - Isthmus | The Daily Page

click here for live blogging Live-blogging Scott Walker and the public employee unions, Day 17 - Isthmus | The Daily Page

Right-Wing Wisconsin Senator Fishes for Trouble with Capitol Protesters | FDL News Desk #WIunion #SolidarityWI

Right-Wing Wisconsin Senator Fishes for Trouble with Capitol Protesters | FDL News Desk

Right-Wing Wisconsin Senator Fishes for Trouble with Capitol Protesters

by David Dayen

Wisconsin State Sen. Glenn Grothman (R) (photo: WisPolitics.com)

Last weekend I mentioned Wisconsin State Senator Glenn Grothman (R), who went on TV and said the protest movement in Wisconsin was nothing more than a bunch of kids “up for a demonstration.” One thing I didn’t mention there – I saw him later that day. I wouldn’t have recognized him without seeing him earlier on MSNBC, but he was in one of the hallways on the ground floor, peeking out at the protesters in the Rotunda. I was headed out the door at the time, and I thought about turning around and questioning him on the AFSCME corrections

There are no palm trees in Pardeeville. « Fred Klonsky's blog #WIunion #SolidarityWI

There are no palm trees in Pardeeville. « Fred Klonsky's blog

There are no palm trees in Pardeeville.

by Fred Klonsky

In a typical Fox report on Bill O’Reilly, aggressive union activists that were allegedly in Madison, Wisconsin were seen in a video clip with palm trees behind them.

In another shot you can see the State of Illinois building in the background. That’s in the Loop.

There is no large-scale Dubuffet sculpture in Pardeeville, Wisconsin. No palm trees.

Pardeeville is west of Fond du Lac and north of Madison.

There was no band concert, no pie, no

Attacks on Workers in States Have Energized Working People | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG aders oppose Walker's 'budget repair bill' #WEAC #StateSOS #WIunion #Sol

Attacks on Workers in States Have Energized Working People | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG

Attacks on Workers in States Have Energized Working People

by James Parks, Mar 1, 2011


40Share

Christine Kistner

The attacks on public employees have energized working people across the country, motivating them and helping them to believe they are going to win their struggle to keep bargaining rights in states like Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana, says Katie Kistner, vice president of AFSCME Council 40 in Wisconsin.

Kistner was one of three workers to address the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in Washington, D.C., today.

All the workers said the attacks also have helped unify working people. Pete Rimsans, executive director of the Indiana State Building and Construction Trades Council, said a proposed new law in the Hoosier State, which supporters misleadingly call “right to work,” brought working people together. Even though those who work in the building trades would be exempt from the proposed law, Rimsans says, everybody strongly opposed the plan.

What the Republicans don’t understand is that we’re all in the same boat. You take one of us down, you take all of us. This unified everyone.

After thousands demonstrated in the state Capitol and worker-friendly lawmakers boycotted Senate proceedings, backers pulled the proposal.

Mahlon Mitchell

Pete Rimsans

Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin, said Gov. Scott Walker is not listening to the people. He’s listening to the Big Bucks CEOs who contributed generously to the campaigns of the governors and state legislators.

But Mitchell added the working people will prevail because “we are on the right side of justice.”

Kistner said she had hope because of a 35-year member in her union, a woman who refused to sign a postcard against Walker’s plan taking away bargaining rights for public employees for fear her name would be recognized and she’d lose her job. But just four days later, after the scope of Walker’s plan was revealed, she said the woman is now one of the most enthusiastic demonstrators and supporters.

Rimsans said he hopes more people will take a look at what’s happening in these states and he had a warning for all working people:

Watch your back. This [an attack on workers] is coming to a place near you.

Schools Matter: Community Involvement?

Community Involvement?

by Kenneth Libby

On Monday, the Oregon House Education Committee passed a bill that would, among other things, strip the requirement of community involvement in the development of charter schools. The full House will eventually vote on the bill. A local reporter accurately described some consequences of the bill:

All four of the committee's Republican members supported the bill including committee co-chairman Matt Wingard, R-Wilsonville, who sponsored it. After four amendments, Wingard gained the support of Democrat Betty Komp, D-Woodburn, the crucial fifth vote in the evenly split committee. The bill now moves to a vote of the full House.

"Ultimately, there is a pressing need to update this law and to make sure we continue to encourage the growth of charter schools in the state of Oregon," Wingard said Monday afternoon. "In my opinion, this is a modest bill and we were happy to compromise in order to move the bill."

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Last night's forum in Chicago

Last night's forum in Chicago

by Mike Klonsky

If last night's forum at UIC is any indication, mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel won't have much of a honeymoon, especially when it comes to his role as boss of the public schools. Emanuel's school plan, which sounds a lot like Mayor Daley's and the Civic Committee's Renaissance 2010, was under assault by last night's panel discussion before an appreciative, standing-room-only crowd.

The panel was organized in response to

Public Policy Blogger: Christie, Walker & Scott. Scaring and dividing us is not governing. #WIunion

Public Policy Blogger: Christie, Walker & Scott. Scaring and dividing us is not governing.

Christie, Walker & Scott. Scaring and dividing us is not governing.

by Anne Geiger

Every day, there's new commentary on two evolving news stories. One, the braggadocio of Republican governors to diminish, even eviscerate, the bargaining rights of public employees. And two, the fall of autocratic governments in the Middle East, as so many dominoes, the revolutionaries saying, enough, enough.

And I keep finding myself making connections between the two.

In a recent post, I encouraged public-sector employees to understand the resentments toward them, and to get ahead of the attacks by contributing more to their pensions and health care benefits to more closely align with private-sector contributions. I challenged top public-sector officials and private-sector executives to look in the mirror and scale back their own excesses and privileges. I asked all of us to scrutinize our whole economic

News from Inside the Wisconsin Capitol Building #WEAC #StateSOS #WIunion #SolidarityWI

News from Inside the Wisconsin Capitol Building

The Blog from Inside the Capitol Endures...

My name is Jonathan Scott. I have been living inside of our Capitol Building in Madison, Wisconsin most days and nights since February 22, 2011. I want to give everyone a window into the real situation inside of our Capitol Building.

Posted at 03:46 PM in Current Affairs, Democracy, Politics, Protest | Permalink | Comments (2)

Technorati Tags: bill, budget, building, capitol, current, inside, Madison, news, protest, repair, scott walker, WI, Wisconsin

03/02/2011

Brand new day

8:30am: I got a full eight hours of sleep last night! I'm lucky to get over four hours, but eight? I'm a new man. We had a mental wellness meeting last night, which taught me a lot about why he was feeling so awful yesterday. Beside the lack of sleep and the emotional drain that, I was faint all day partially due to a lack of potassium and a generally bad diet. Up until yesterday, food wasn't a problem because we had a lot of it. But now, it's important to monitor your food intake. I will be more aware of this moving forward. Thanks to all of you for the well wishes.
I've heard that people sleeping on the outside in solidarity with us, so we on the inside still have it easy. Thank you all, we love you and support you.
Update: We lost four sleepers this morning due to the lie that people would replace them. Also, the entrance checkpoint boundary has been moved back further into the building to keep our voices farther away from the shame. I figure the red ropes will soon restrict all of us to the rotunda alone!

Smart Guy (Gates) makes my list of “Dumbest Stuff I’ve Ever Read!” « School Finance 101

Smart Guy (Gates) makes my list of “Dumbest Stuff I’ve Ever Read!”

by schoolfinance101

Bill Gates (clearly a very smart guy) has just topped my list of Dumbest Stuff I’ve Ever Read for the first few months of 2011. He did it with this post in the Huffington Post and with his talk to State Governors (in which he also naively handed out copies of the book Stretching the School Dollar, which is complete junk):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-gates/bill-gates-school-performance_b_829771.html

Let’s dissect two bold premises of Gates’ argument about US spending and student outcomes – how we’ve spent ourselves crazy for decades and how we’ve gotten nothing for it – how we spend so much more than other countries, but they kick our butts – his reasons for arguing that now is the time to flip the curve.

Gates opines:

Compared to other countries, America has spent more and achieved less.

To be able to make such a comparison, one would have to be able to accurately and precisely measure

Walker’s Two-Year Budget Shows Repair Bill to Be Trojan Horse | FDL News Desk #StateSOS #WIunion #SolidarityWI

Walker’s Two-Year Budget Shows Repair Bill to Be Trojan Horse | FDL News Desk

Wisconsin Gov. Walker’s Two-Year Budget Shows Repair Bill to Be Trojan Horse for Attacks on Workers

by David Dayen

Hey, Wisconsin, beware of geeks bearing gifts. (photo: ccarlstead)

The reality of Scott Walker’s two-year budget is setting in, and people have begun to connect the dots. The reason Walker needs to gut collective bargaining now is because he’ll need to silence state and local workers’ voices when he guts their pay later. That’s the only way you can have the municipalities and school districts absorb over $2.5 billion in cuts without any gaps in service. When Walker says he wants to give the local governments the “tools” they need, he means to cut their take-home pay. You can call it increases in health care or pension contributions or whatever else, the end result is a cut to take-home pay. What’s more, he wants to

Sacrifices must be made! « Fred Klonsky's blog

Sacrifices must be made!

by Fred Klonsky

Shanker Blog » Seize The Day? #WEAC #StateSOS #WIunion #SolidarityWI

Shanker Blog » Seize The Day?

Seize The Day?

by Randall Garton

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s determination to destroy collective bargaining rights for his state’s public employees has generated a lot of hyperbolic rhetoric from both sides. Some conservatives have taken particularumbrage at demonstrators’ signs likening Walker to Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Hosni Mubarak. They are right that Walker is not akin to these brutal, murderous dictators, who solidified power by crushing independent unions. Indeed, they need not look overseas at all to find anti-union inspiration. The U.S. has its own rich tradition of union-busting – albeit considerably less fierce than in these particular dictatorial regimes.

This information is just a mouse-click away. Anyone with access to the internet can easily trace the history of violent state and business response to unions and union organizing in America, dating back 150 years. It’s not just the infamous Pinkertons and other thugs hired by business. Police, the National Guard, even federal troops have been used to brutally suppress workers’ efforts to form their own unions. Homestead, Haymarket, Ludlow, Pullman, the 1937 Battle of the Overpass – all are storied examples of incredibly violent action against workers and their organizations.

This sort of drama, punctuated by carnage and death, is pretty much a thing of the past. With the passage of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act and 1959 Landrum-Griffin Act, anti-union judicial decisions, global outsourcing, and the

Oh, Dr. Seuss. They’ve turned our country into Flobbertown. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Oh, Dr. Seuss. They’ve turned our country into Flobbertown.

by Fred Klonsky

Today is Dr. Seuss’ birthday. In the art room, we make stove pipe hats and read his last book, Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! The rest of the school is taking ISAT tests. Shhh. Don’t make any noise.

“All schools for miles and miles around
Must take a special test,
To see who’s learning such and such -
To see

Letter from a Teacher in Defense of Small Class Sizes - Dana Goldstein

Letter from a Teacher in Defense of Small Class Sizes

by Dana Goldstein

Jennifer T, a Washington, D.C. public school teacher (and friend from my hometown!), writes in with the following response to yesterday's post on class size.

This teacher believes that class size is tied with improving teacher education as the number one issue in education today. Really good teaching is differentiated teaching- meeting each and every kid where they are and raising their level of work bit by bit, day by day. Only by knowing each kid, conferencing with each kid and providing instruction to each kid how he or she best learns can we honestly close the achievement gap. We cannot do this with 26 second graders and only one teacher. It is impossible. Even for excellent (Highly Effective, even!) teachers in well-funded schools with amazing PTAs that pay for full-time assistants who are graduate students of education. Not with

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Wednesday, March 2, 2011