Saturday, March 12, 2011

Wisconsin GOPers To Huddle With Corporate Lobbyists In DC After Worker Rights Vote | TPMDC #wearewi #WIunion

Wisconsin GOPers To Huddle With Corporate Lobbyists In DC After Worker Rights Vote | TPMDC

Wisconsin GOPers To Huddle With Corporate Lobbyists In DC After Worker Rights Vote

Evan McMorris-Santoro | March 10, 2011, 9:52AM

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State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI)

Wisconsin , Wisconsin Protests

More details on the upcoming fundraiser for members of the Wisconsin state Senate GOP in the headquarters of a prominent DC lobbying firm are coming to light.

In short, when members of the state Senate caucus that just voted to strip state workers of their collective bargaining rights gather in the downtown DC offices of a lobbying firm founded in part by Haley Barbour, they'll be among friends.

The BGR Group, the lobbying firm Barbour helped to found in 1991, has long been known for its ties to the GOP. Among its executives are Bob Wood, a former aide to Tommy Thompson, the Republican governor of Wisconsin for 14 years. And on BGR's past client list is a large energy company - and that's raising eyebrows with watchdog groups.

On Thursday, the Public Campaign Action Fund, a nonprofit advocate for campaign finance reform, pointed out that WE Energies, an energy utility based in Milwaukee, has spent more than $300,000 on lobbying with BGR since 2009.

Executives with the company gave more than $10,000 to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's (R)

Schools Matter: An intercepted memo from Bill to Arne #wearewi #WIunion

Schools Matter: An intercepted memo

An intercepted memo

Memo from Bill to Arne:

Our progress thus far and plans for the future

The current Blueprint provided a strong beginning. The Blueprint calls for a substantial increase in testing, far beyond the level required for NCLB. We will test more subjects (eventually all, I hope), do pre (fall) and post (spring) tests in order to have value-added scores unaffected by summer, and interim tests all along the way, as the Achieve people are already doing with PARCC. The Department of Ed's $170 million is certainly well spent there. Their testing plan will reach over 60% of US schools. In addition, the technology report demands quantification and a demonstration of cost benefits for all aspects of education.

The public reaction has been far better than expected. There have been practically no protests of this gigantic increase, even though nearly everyone agrees that NCLB required too much testing. We deserve some of the credit for this: We have kept teachers so busy that they have little time or energy to study current issues and obscure documents, and we have kept the potential protesters busy with a number of pronouncements that we knew they would

Huge crowds expected at Wisconsin pro-union rally Saturday #1u #wiunion

Huge crowds expected at Wisconsin pro-union rally Saturday

Thousands of demonstrators against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's budget repair bill gather for protests at the Capitol building in this March 5 file photo.JOHN HART – State Journal archives

Wisconsin Democratic and union leaders are expecting a huge crowd at a rally in the capital against a new Republican-sponsored law that drastically weakens the state's public employee unions.

Opponents of the law that would strip most public employees of nearly all their collective bargaining rights say the fight is not over even though Gov. Scott Walker signed it into law on Friday.

Dozens arrived early Saturday morning, and tens of thousands more are expected to turn up for another day of demonstrations at the state Capitol. Clumps of protesters are already walking around the

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#wiunion Farmer-Labor Tractorcade Wisconsin Farmers Union & Family Farm Defenders - Razoo

Farmer-Labor Tractorcade Wisconsin Farmers Union & Family Farm Defenders - Razoo

Farmer-Labor Tractorcade Wisconsin Farmers Union & Family Farm Defenders

A project of FAMILY FARM DEFENDERS INC

Support family farmers who are taking their tractors to the Wisconsin Capitol on Saturday, March 12 for the Farmer Labor Tractorcade!

Wisconsin Farmers Union & Family Farm Defenders Sponsor "Farmer Labor Tractorcade."

On Saturday, March 12, family farmers from across the dairyland will bring tractors and solidarity to the Wisconsin Capitol to fight for collective bargaining rights and a just state budget.

Family farmers and rural communitites will be disproportionately hurt by the cuts to Badercare and education, and family farmers in Wisconsin stand with state workers, and all working and middle class families in the state.

You can help farmers come to Madison on Saturday by making a donation to the Farmer Labor Tractorcade Fund. Contributions will be used to offset expenses incured by farmers attending the event.

The Farmer Labor Tractorcade is being sponsored by Wisonsin Farmers Union and Family Farm Defenders.

Thank you!

The Lack of a Revolt Against NCLB « Cooperative Catalyst

The Lack of a Revolt Against NCLB

by Kevin

Hi all,

I’ve been thinking about methods of resistance to the negative effects of NCLB and have wondered why, in the age of anti-incumbancy and conservative state rejection of federal stimulus money, why we haven’t had some innovative social configurations providing a calculated, rational, evaluative revolt against NCLB.

By my understanding of the law, it exchanges federal education dollars in return for states to come up with a standardized performance indicator (test) that is administered yearly in schools, and that there must be significant consequences –including administrative firing, teacher replacement, funding drops — tied to the outcome of those tests. Because the federal government does not have jurisdiction over education (the reason they can’t mandate the test themselves), all of this is tied to the federal dollars that a district receives. Last I

U.S. corporations are sitting on $2 trillion in cash « Larry Miller's Blog #wiunion #1u

U.S. corporations are sitting on $2 trillion in cash « Larry Miller's Blog

U.S. corporations are sitting on $2 trillion in cash

by millerlf

Published on Friday, March 11, 2011 by The Capital Times (Wisconsin)

The Crisis is Our Unwillingness to Make Rich Pay Their Share

by John Hallinan

U.S. corporations are sitting on $2 trillion in cash – trillion, not billion. The same people who shipped millions of jobs overseas, caused the financial crisis, and pay themselves multimillion-dollar bonuses every year are now sitting on a mountain of cash. Yet both state and local governments feel the need to give them more tax cuts. To what end? So they can create more profits and sit on bigger piles of cash, so they can play monopoly as they buy each other out, or so they can give themselves even bigger bonuses? There is no indication that they are interested in doing anything to spur the economy.

In December we heard the Republicans tell us that people making over $250,000 per year couldn’t afford a 4 percent tax increase, and it would be terrible for the economy to increase their taxes. Thirty years ago they were paying 70 percent in taxes. Now they pay half that, but a 4 percent increase is just too much to bear.

Now we are told that state workers making $40,000 to $60,000 per year are stealing the state blind. The same

School Tech Connect: Off To Wisco #miunion #wiunion #1u

School Tech Connect: Of To Wisco

Of To Wisco

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Heading up to America's Dairyland for the day. This time I'm only taking a single camera--- I'd like to live in the moment for once rather than trying to record it and tweet about it. So, I'll see you all tomorrow or Monday.

If you want to help with the recall, remember that you can check for the various staging areas and timeshere, and you can help pay for it here.

Robert Denham: California's Gamble on K-12 Education is Gamble on Our Future

California's Gamble on K-12 Education is Gamble on Our Future

Predicating education financing on California's legislators busy posturing on the budget for re-election or on voter emotions in June of 2011 is looking more and more like a bad bet. In Sacramento Governor Jerry Brown's proposal to extend tax hikes for another five years that state lawmakers approved last year as temporary in order to hold K-12 education and public safety somewhat "harmless" has been met by delaying and dodging tactics. So, even if the proposal makes it to the statewide ballot, the bet is hedged by pinning the survival of California's schools on a public that feels its pocketbooks have run dry. Californians do not have a history of voting for tax hikes -- any tax hikes.

So what's a Governor to do? Take a page from the classroom. "Show and Tell" is an effective communication strategy. I appreciate much of the frank talk and tough choices Governor Brown has put forward. However, I think we're going to need a much bigger dose of reality. We need black

Schools Matter: Krugman: Degrees and Dollars

Krugman: Degrees and Dollars

by Kenneth Libby

In case you missed it, Paul Krugman had an excellent piece in the NY Times last week. It reminds me of Bracey, a voice we dearly miss these days. Here's the intro - do read the whole piece:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that education is the key to economic success. Everyone knows that the jobs of the future will require ever higher levels of skill. That’s why, in an appearance Friday with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, President Obama declared that “If we want more good news on the jobs front then we’ve got to make more investments in education.”

But what everyone knows is wrong.

Continue reading here.

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Saturday, March 12, 2011