Who Else is Anti-TABOR?

Try Colorado's Republican governor:

Gov. Bill Owens (R) has been crisscrossing the country for years promoting the virtues of this state's strict constitutional limits on government spending. He has repeatedly urged other states to adopt restrictions of their own, based on Colorado's "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" amendment, known here as TABOR.

But this summer, Owens says, he'll be traversing his own mountainous state pushing the opposite message. Midway through his second term, Owens is working to persuade Coloradans to suspend the limits he championed and let the state government spend $3 billion more in tax money than TABOR would allow.

Owens thus becomes another low-tax, limited-government advocate who has found those principles hard to hold onto amid a sluggish economy and a sharply diminished flow of federal money to the states.

In the past two years, Republican governors including Nevada's Kenny Guinn, Idaho's Dirk Kempthorne, Georgia's Sonny Perdue and Ohio's Bob Taft have dumped no-new-taxes pledges to push for major new revenue and increased state spending.

As many of our state legislators have been local elected officials, I have to wonder why so many of them think that their successors can't, apparently, make the kind of hard decisions that they obviously did. It also makes me wonder where the miraculous Republican-scribed biennial budget is that stays in the hypothetical TABOR spending limits. Governor Doyle released his budget back in, what? January? and all the Reps have done since is gripe.

Rich over at BlogTABOR points us to a Green Bay News Chronicle commentary that drives this point home:

The proposed Taxpayer Bill of Rights would take spending decisions out of the hands of government and put it in the hands of voters. Excuse me, but aren't those decisions the reason we have a Legislature? If we're going to make the decisions, who needs them? We could probably save more money by getting rid of 132 legislators than we ever could with a stupid law.

Me, I call TABOR the "stop me before I tax again!" law. It's our legislators admitting they can't do their jobs. Here's a better idea. Anybody who votes for it is admitting they can't do their job. If so ... quit and go do something else.

And this is one of the strongest arguments against TABOR: If we can't currently trust our legislators to make smart decisions--where is that Republican budget again?--then why have legislators in the first place?

But the WaPo article linked above (and, hey, sorry about the required registration) goes on to explain other good reasons to stop TABOR before it starts:

All of these tax-raising Republicans offer the same basic reasons for their change of heart. "I have done something that is absolutely not part of my fiber," Kempthorne said when he proposed Idaho tax increases in 2003. "But I'm not going to dismantle this state, and I'm not going to jeopardize our bond rating, and I'm not going to reduce my emphasis on education." [. . . ]

For Owens, as for his fellow GOP governors, a key reason for the tax increases at home has been tax-cutting in Washington. Facing sharply decreased revenue and record deficits, Bush has targeted transfers to the states as a ripe place to reduce federal spending. In his budget for fiscal 2006, the biggest single reduction is a $60 billion cut in Medicaid funds that help the states provide health care to the poor.

"The federal cuts have been very difficult for states to manage," said economist Bert Waisanen of the National Conference of State Legislatures. "Governors have to run programs like Medicaid, No Child Left Behind, homeland security. But there is less and less money coming from Washington to pay the bills."

Before I go on, let me remind everyone that Wisconsin currently gets back less than 85¢ per dollar we send in to the feds. As I've nothed before, NCLB underfunding alone leaves us $2 million short.

The TABOR constitutional amendment passed by [Colorado] voters in 1992 says that government spending levels must be based on changes in population and inflation. Tax increases at any level of government must be approved by referendum. When tax revenue exceeds the permitted spending level, taxpayers must get a refund the next year; thus the state cannot build up "rainy day funds" in good years.

"The result is the public sector cannot grow at a rate faster than the private sector," Owens wrote in a column for the Wall Street Journal praising TABOR.

During the boom years of the 1990s, with population and personal income soaring, the limits worked well. But the economic downturn and the reduction in federal support during the first Bush term proved disastrous for Colorado's finances. The state put off building roads and maintaining infrastructure. It reduced services and raised fees. Spending on higher education fell so sharply that the president of the University of Colorado declared the flagship state school a "private enterprise."

Me again, interrupting to remind everyone that our University system is world-class and does some of the best biotech research in the known universe. Oh, and to remind you of the absolutely irresponsible spending by Republicans in the legislature and with Tommmy! at the helm during those boom times of the 1990s that left us with multi-billion dollar deficits now . . .

[Colorado] Voters grew increasingly angry and demanded changes from Owens and the Republican-controlled legislature. But GOP leaders refused to act. "So long as I am governor, we will not raise taxes," Owens pledged in 2003.

Last fall, the Democratic Party launched a statewide campaign against the TABOR limits -- and scored a huge victory at the polls. While Bush was easily carrying the state, Democrats took control of the state House and Senate.

"We have a clear mandate," said Rep. Andrew Romanoff, Democratic leader of the state House. "The voters sent us here to do something about the TABOR roadblock."

Owens conceded the point. [. . .] The striking turnabout by a onetime tax cutter has generated rage in some GOP circles. Republican legislators have rapped their governor as a "turncoat" and a "big spender." Owens has fired back. After Rep. Joe Stengel (R) announced his opposition to the proposal, Owens said: "When the next volume of 'Profiles in Courage' is written, there won't be a chapter on Joe Stengel."

While Republicans exchange insults, Colorado's Democratic leaders are exultant.

"Less than three months after they took over the legislature, the Democrats produced a solution and got a Republican governor to go along," said Democratic consultant Terry Snyder of Denver. "That's exactly what the voters put them in office to do."

See? This is how it works. The voters elect responsible people <cough>Democrats</cough> to make the difficult choices and then things get done. (And, I might note, the right half of Wisconsin's blogosphere has been unduly harsh towards Republicans even leaning a little bit toward Doyle's budget--"exchanging insults," indeed!) This push for TABOR is by people who apparently don't trust themselves to make those decisions. Well, maybe it's time they stepped aside for people who can. Hear that, Frank?

SensenbrennerWatch.com

It's up and running. As soon as we get hosting details worked out, we'll be off of blogspot.

Our motto: F. Jim Sensenbrenner before he F's you.

What Some People Say

Jef points us to some Actual Candidate Words:

On why we have affirmative action:

“I’m sure the liberals are going to say, 'It’s because they have an unfair advantage growing up, and that they don’t have access to good schools, etc., etc., etc.' This argument is nonsense. The business and political world have several minorities doing a great job, and not because of some ridiculous affirmative action policy, or because of some other tax-loving government program.”

Several? Well, then, everything's fine! Move along, nothing to worry about . . .

Friday Random Ten

Rules here.

1. "River" Ellis Paul from Stories
2. "When Sal's Burned Down" Dar Williams from The Honesty Room
3. "i Still Believe" Susan Werner from Midwestern Saturday Night
4. "Of Crickets" Plow On Boy from Broken
5. "Stranger than You" Joe Jackson from Live at the World Cafe Volume 12
6. "Johnny Was A Pyro" Patty Larkin from Stranger's World
7. "Lines" Kate McDonnell from NEXT
8. "One Good Turn" Carrie Newcomer from My True Name
9. "Red Firecracker" The Jayhawks (no relation) from Blue Earth
10. "Madame Butterfly" Sons of the Never Wrong from One if by Hand

Bryan Kennedy 2006

So I was at an organizing meeting with Bryan Kennedy tonight. He's got some interesting things going on, and a few things I'll have my fingers in that I will tell you about later.

As it is now, though, he's gearing up for his Melissa Bean moment: He will be taking on F. Jim Sensenbrenner again in 2006, he will win, and is, in fact, very far along the way. He's aiming for a first-quarter 2005 fundraising take of $50,000. Good news is, he's already raised iver $40k. Bad news is, there's only a week left in the quarter.

Remember, every Republican House member is a vote for Tom Delay and his Constitution-trampling ethics-violating antics. You can do your part here.

"Investigation 4:

Now who's swapping your fish?"
            --Carole, in a promo spot for the news tonight.

No, I don't know what it means, either.

WI Weds (plus some Teaching Tuesday): Fisking Underheim

This is another busy week for me (oh, for a job that doesn't come home with me!). So I kind of neglected Teaching Tuesday yesterday, and so far today I have written bupkis. I'm on a string of daily blogging since Feb. 28, and I don't want to break it now. So, a softball.

Last week I mentioned how hard it was to find Gregg Underheim's website, and how frustrating it was since I was looking for answers. Turns out, I needn't have bothered.

Underheim's website has a pretty standard three-column format. At first I was excited, since the right column (seen to your left here) seemed to be link-buttons to detailed policy statements or something. No go; they seem to be just empty statements of purpose. But the long middle column is worth looking at, and, if I may, fisking.

Underheim opens with the standard tax scare spiel, and then points out something I keep saying:

From 1992-1993 school year to 2002-2003 school year school spending went up over 55%. The rate of inflation was just over 26%. Education spending grew at more that twice the rate of inflation. There must be a conversation about cost and quality in education.

If we are to succeed in not pitting seniors and kids and schools and teachers and taxpayers against one another we must recognize these problems and offer meaningful solutions.

Of course, he neglects to mention the single greatest reason why education spending has risen so: double-digit increases in the cost of health care. Education is a people-intensive business, so the personnel costs are greater than others state-wide. So when the cost of health care goes up in Wisconsin--at well faster than the national average--school district budgets balloon. This is why I noted last week that, had the legislature put an effort into controlling health care costs a decade ago instead of implementing revenue caps (which are killing us) and the QEO, we'd be in much better fiscal shape. Now, who among us is a state legislator, and could do such a thing if he wanted? That's right--Gregg Underheim.

The first of the "meaningful solutions" Underheim offers actually does, indirectly, address health care. He wants to put teachers into the same pool as other state employees. This is an idea championed by the conservative Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI) last January (their pdf is here), with claims that the state could save upwards of $100 million. Problem is, Underheim's third point is keeping the QEO. See, under the QEO, the total compensation of the teachers in the district is controlled--including salary and benefits. The state would still send the same money to districts; it would just be spent differently. I'm not saying that moving to the state plan is a bad idea (though others are saying it). I'm just saying it will not do what he thinks it will.

Underheim's second point, which I skipped, is what he calls W3--"What Works in Wisconsin," and it's not all bad. He wants to figure out how low-spending high-performing schools do it. (Never minding that there as many high-spending high-perfoming schools and low-spending low-performing schools.) I can venture a guess as to what this study--which was recommeded, by the way, by Governor Doyle's school-funding commission last summer!--will find. When a district spends a lot of money on special education and ESL students, their ROI is not going to be that hot.

Fourth is the "technology solves everything" plank of his platform, the thing that drove me to seek out his website in the first place. I renew my previous cost objections, including transition costs and the fact that you're not at all changing the adult-child ratio. Even if--and it's a big if--we could actually see long-term savings, we are really not in a fiscal position to make the big initial outlay now.

Fifth [Underheim writes], we must become positive toward the choice options in Wisconsin. The DPI must support the elimination of the school choice caps in Milwaukee. It must support giving counties the right to charter schools.

Do I need to give my response? First of all, a pretty exhaustive study recently showed that charter schools are not a panacea, not even a little bit. Having seen charter schools in action here in Milwaukee, I can confirm that they're not all that. And I wax eloquently on a regular basis against the problems of choice (see Fighting Bob yesterday, for example), so I won't belabor it now.

Sixth, and finally, something I can get fully behind, even if his reasoning is slightly convoluted. "[W]e must prepare students in math and science to meet the competition offered by the newly developing world," he says. And there's nothing wrong with that. Question is, how? And if he answers "technology," I may just scream.

And that's it for Underheim's website, besides a few news clippings and information about how to volunteer and give money. For comparison, I will direct you to Libby Burmaster's page, including a detailed section on her accomplishments and her platform.

Vote Libby. And go to bed. It's late.

BLOGTABOR

Go say hello to my my new best friend.

More Fightin' Bum

You probably already read it here or at LSF, but I've got an opinion piece up at Fightin' Bob.

Minnesota School Shooting

I can't find many details, but it sounds bad:

RED LAKE, Minn. (AP) -- Gunfire broke out at a Minnesota high school Monday, killing an undetermined number of people and injuring as many as 14 others, authorities said.

Tom Lyons, chief deputy for Beltrami County, said up to 14 people were injured in the mid-afternoon shooting at Red Lake High School in far northern Minnesota. Lyons said a suspect was in custody, but he had no other details.

The FBI did not say how many people had been killed and also declined to release details.

Students and a teacher at the scene, Diane Schwanz, identified a male student as the gunman. Schwanz said the shooter tried to break down a door to get into a room where some students were. [. . .]

Red Lake High School, on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, has about 300 students, according to its Web site.

Thoughts, vibes, etc.

[UPDATE: According to CNN, there are five dead at school plus the shooter, on top of the shooter's grandparents, whom he killed at home before going to school. There are at least 15 injured.

Huh.

Apparently, I'm very big in Finland. I feel like Spinal Tap, just learning about sales in Japan . . .

Today is a busy, work-filled day for me, with a break in the middle to go see a house concert with Kate McDonnell. So join the discussions in comments to posts below (hey, some of them are up to six whole comments!) or visit some of the fine folks in the links down and to your right.

On This Date Two Years Ago

the United States invaded Iraq. Today, the United States is invading a Florida hospital room.

I really wonder--someone, somewhere has probably already done this math--how much money the family, their supporters, the Florida state government, and now the Congress have spent to keep alive a woman who, for lack of a better word, has a cerebral cortex made of goo. Think about Florida's 700,000 children in poverty, and how much those dedicated folks could have done to help them.

But, you know, those black and brown kids don't make good television, I suppose.

Growing Up Red

That's the title of my near-neighbor Tim's new book. Give it a look. (The book's site is here.)

Gregg Underheim is Evil

Or a close approximation to it.

So I caught the last part of the call-in with Underheim on WPR this afternoon. (He's the guy trying to unseat state superintendent Libby Burmaster.) Every third word he said was technology. Now, unfortunately, I didn't get out of school today (yes, on Friday) until after 4:30, so I could not hear everything he talked about. So maybe his answer for everything isn't "technology."

But what I heard was enough to greatly upset me. I was almost a danger to drive.

For example, he described an ideal high school classroom, saving money through technology: A roomful of students, each at a different level in their math studies, working at their own pace--on their own laptops. On the other end of the internet for each of the kids would be "the best math teachers in the world!" he said. And the teacher in the room, he said, would not be a teacher, but a "tutor."

He answered every question I heard--which, as I said, was not every question--with variations on how technology would save money and solve our problems.

But since I wasn't certain that technology was really his single campaign plank, I thought I should look it up to be sure. And, wouldn't you know it, Mr. Technology doesn't seem to have a website (SEE POSTSCRIPT). Nothing from Google, Yahoo!, or even Dogpile. (MSN's search was down.) So I have no idea for sure. (To be fair, it parallels much of what I have read on the race.)

Yeah, sure, there's irony in Underheim's lack of a website. But moreso, here are two immediate problems I have with this "technology" solution:

• Transition costs: It would take at least two years' worth of my salary to outfit my classroom with laptops, infrastructure, and support (cuz you know they'll buy wintels, not Macs). And after that, you'll still need an adult at this end to babysit and an adult at that end to teach. I don't see much costs savings, even in the long run.
  
• Plummeting teacher quality: My plan since I was twelve was to teach high school, not babysit. I know the good teachers and and bad teachers and, while I haven't asked, I can imagine what the good and bad teachers will say. The bad teachers--coincidentally, some of whom are in the business department, so their current job involves babysitting kids on computers--might love it. Us good teachers? We'll be moving to a state where teachers, you know, teach.

I'm looking forward to the Wisconsin Public Television debate, so I can see if I was really hearing things right.

POSTSCRIPT: After I'd written the bulk of this post, I was just looking for the Wisconsin Public Television link and found--through them--a link to Underheim's well-hidden website. I need to spend time with it, and will report later.

Friday Random Ten

1. Open iTunes. 2. Set to Random. 3. Report.

1. "As I'm Leaving" David Gray from Lost Songs
2. "Extra Savoir-Faire" They Might be Giants from John Henry
3. "Fearless" Pink Floyd from Meddle
4. "Doc's Rag" Jim Henry from The Wayback
5. "Ruben Remus" Bob Dylan and the Band from Basement Tapes
6. "Someday Soon" Great Big Sea from Great Big Sea
7. "Intermittently" Barenaked Ladies from Maybe You Should Drive
8. "The Ocean" Peter Mulvey from Ten Thousand Mornings
9. "No Mother" Old 97s from Drag It Up
10. "Jenny and the Tower" Vance Gilbert from Fugitives

Fighting 'Bum

My first Fighting Bob guest blog is up. A no-prize to anyone who spots the mistake.

Sad News

For all you Richard Shindell fans: Mavis died this past Sunday.

Wisconsin Wednesday: Ixnay on the ABOR-TAY

Okay, before we can go on, you need to go into your bathroom and get a tube of toothpaste. Go on. I'll wait.





Got one? Good. Take off the cap and gently squeeze. Toothpaste comes out the end, right? Okay, clean that up.

Now, squeeze with one hand while you use a finger from your other hand to plug up the opening to the tube. What happened? It was harder for the toothpaste to come out, but some finally escaped. Clean up that mess, too.

Finally--and this is the last one, I promise--put the cap back on the toothpaste. Give the tube a good, hard, squeeze. Harder. Harder still. Whoa! Too hard!

Your toothpaste tube probably did not actually explode, since they make those things out of steel or something, but you can probably imagine the worst case scenario: The squeezing kept getting worse until finally the thing exploded.

Most of you are pretty smart (the ones of you who actually squirted toothpaste all over your house while reading this? Not so smart) and can see where I'm going here. Our little experiment is my latest contribution to the TABOR debate. And it encapsulates everything Republicans are doing wrong.

Look, I'm a regular guy. I have a job. I own a house. And I, you know, pay taxes, too. A lot of them. Sometimes, I feel squeezed.

The school district where I teach is also pretty squeezed, which explains at least part of the reason why I'm squeezed as a taxpayer. The fact that Wisconsin is among the top ten of all states in prison spending, transportation spending, and education spending is a part of that, too. What TABORites want to do is cap the tube of toothpaste. And they've been trying that, in one form or another, for more than a decade.

Think back, for example, to the first moves in this direction. In the early nineties, Wisconsin taxpayers and agencies were starting to feel the squeeze. So the legislature tried to put a finger over the opening of the toothpaste tube in the form of school spending changes: the QEO, revenue caps, and a commitment to find 2/3 of school costs from state coffers. That led to a near-immediate relief in property taxes, but costs at schools kept rising and the toothpaste started splurting out of the tube again.

In fact, every single Republican proposal to address the concerns of taxpayers has been an ineffectual finger over the mouth of the toothpaste tube, up to and including TABOR talk (support for which boggles my mind, as it cements in place the current unfair tax structure) and the "tax freeze" business. Let me make my position on this clear:

The problem is not that we don't have a cap on our tube. The problem is that no one is trying to stop the squeezing.

(This is my common complaint with Republicans: They're all about "responsibility" but they want to wait until there's a mess and force you to clean it up--think about Republicans' drug or abortion policies--instead of providing you with better choices before you make the mess.)

Even with an iron-clad cap like TABOR would be, the squeezing, without relief, only means that at some point down the road, the tube will pop open, and then there will be toothpaste everywhere. And I'm not cleaning it up!

This is, of course, what has happened in Colorado over the last decade. Sure, taxes are low and there is considerably less squeeze in that arena, but services were slashed, tuition skyrocketed, and infrastructure crumbled. Sounds like there's Colgate on the mirror, there.

Now, Wisconsin TABORites will talk about how adjustments to our TABOR would allow for greater flexibility than Colorado's law. Fine. But it still addresses the problem ass-backwards. TABOR only tries to cap the tube, not address the squeezing.

TABORites will also be more than happy to explain how TABOR does address the squeezing. "If their hands are tied," TABORites will say, referring to those lousy elected officials who can't control themselves when it comes to spending, "then they have to stop squeezing!" Problem is, those elected officials are being squeezed, and that's why there's a problem in the first place!

Do you really think Milwaukee Public Schools--I'm being local here, I know, but this is the situation I know best--really wants to hit the revenue cap every year at the same time it's laying off staff and closing schools? Of course not! And if anyone tells you that the board members--many of whom I know personally--are just unable to control themselves, then clearly they've never been in that position. The corollary to my position above:

We are being squeezed because no one is doing anything to address the cost side of the issue!

In almost every sector of government, the cost of doing business is increasing faster than inflation, wages, and population growth. This is in part due to items that the state could very well step in and control if they had the political will to do it. It's things like repealing truth in sentencing, which has ratcheted our corrections budget way up. Or like doing something about the spiraling costs of health care or prescription drugs. Or making sure we get full reimbursement from the feds on Medicare and school funding. Or cutting the sacred gas tax cow.

And, look, I'm not saying Democrats have exactly been blazing the trail on this the way they should be. But if the only thing the legislative leadership wants to talk about is putting their fingers or some kind of band-aid over the opening to the tube, something's going to blow up eventually. And it just seems smarter to stop the squeeze first.

(Sorry this is late and link-less; I was home sick today and still spent the better part of the afternoon reading Julius Caesar essays. I may get it gussied up for a post over at Fighting Bob where, like Stacie and Jason, I'll be doing some guesting for the near future.)

Wisconsin Wednesday: Yak Yak Yak

If you're driving in Milwaukee right now, take a moment an spin your radio up and down the AM (or even FM) dial. (If you're not driving in Milwaukee right now, use your imagination.) What kind of talk radio do you hear? That's right: Wingnut radio.

On the one channel, you've got local guys. On the other, you've got many of the major national yakkers--like Limbaugh and Hannity (on tape delay)--followed by another local bobblehead. (One of these days I'm going to lay into Belling the way Belling lays into teachers, but first I have to figure out how to turn off the logic and compassion areas of my brain.)

While it's true that we get two NPR channels--one that carries the news programming and one that has state-wide call-ins and "Talk of the Nation"--those public radio types are all about balance, so you are as likely to find right-wing points of view as left or center. There is no station in Milwaukee devoted to good liberal news and talk.

Well, my buddy Scott is fed up, too. He's started a petition to bring Air America Radio to Milwaukee's airwaves. Milwaukee is the largest media market in the state, and one of the most reliably Democratic-voting cities, and we have nothing. (I believe that the vast majority of the listeners to the wingnut talkers are the sub- and exurbanites, not us city dwellers.) Go sign the petition, even if you're not in Milwaukee, if you believe that those of us not represented by the opinions of bobbleheads should have a home on Milwaukee's AM dial. Thank you.

Disclaimer Time

Ms. Lauren over to the Femimiste posted a disclaimer last week--stuff that her readers should really know before opening their big mouths. Dorcasina followed up with her own disclaimer, things her university students should know before entering her class.

Makes me wish I could have my own disclaimer for my students. Sadly, it's not the sort of thing I could really give kids and get away with, but here's what I would do if I could:

1. I have been teaching high school English for (gasp) almost a decade. In that time, I have taught probably close to a thousand students just like or very similar to you. And while something always happens to surprise me, rest assured that there is very little chance that anything you say or do to me will be new, original, unique, or particularly memorable, unless you are more creative than your predecessors.
   
   If I haven't quit teaching before now, your criticisms of my teaching style are certainly not going to push me over the edge. You can also feel free to criticize my looks, clothes, voice, bald spot, gait, shoes, handwriting, choice of chalk, or anything else that strikes your fancy, and none of it will bother me. Let's face it: My self-esteem really just doesn't depend on what some fifteen year old thinks of me.
   
   [Stealing this line directly from Dorcasina] If I don't like you, it's probably because you are a) dumb, b) belligerent, c) rude, d) unkind, or e) arrogant. If you are certain none of these applies, then I guarantee that the reason is a).
   
   
2. Physical threats and intimidation also do not work. I have great health care and, frankly, could use some time off. Take your best shot.
   
   
3. If you have a question, concern, issue, or problem, in particular about the way I run the class or why your grade is the way it is, the best time to ask me is, surprisingly, not the middle of class when I'm trying to teach and your classmates are trying to learn. Sadly, I never leave my classroom, because there's always a big pile of work for me to do. So, yes, I'm here before school, after school, between classes, and even during lunch. I am happy to talk to you then.
   
   
4. I am not here to be your friend. That's not my job. There's a word for someone who gets paid to be other people's friend, and, you'll notice, that word is noticeably absent from my job description.
   
   I will not regale you with tales about my private life. Do not ask me about my wife, my weekend, my hobbies, my taste in music, my car, and the like. If I want you to know something, I will tell you. If I don't tell you something, clearly it is because I do not want you to know it.
   
   This is a two-way street. I want you to tell me if you are in some kind of trouble or need help--I assure you I will do everything in my power to assist you or find someone who can--but this does not mean that I need to know every detail of your relationships, your recreational drug use, the parties you go to, your backstabbing friends, your body functions, and so on. The "experts" all say that schools should be treating students like customers. Think about it: Do you really want your customers to tell you their life's stories as they order that Big Mac?
   
   
5. If you address me or, through your actions in class, show me disrespect, it becomes that much harder for me to show you respect in class. When you come into class on the first day, I (usually) don't know you. I make it a practice not to dig up your transcripts or go scrounging around asking other teachers for their opinions of you. If at some point it seems like I don't respect you any more, it is because of something you said or did in my classroom.
   
   
6. The English class you are has not been designed to make you, individually, miserable. I do not sit around at night and devise as many clever ways as I can to ruin your life. If I assign work of some description, it is because I believe that it will improve your skills with the language in some way, shape, or form. If you do not like a particular assignment, rest assured that I did not give it to you just to piss you off.
   
   Remember that your high-school education is a cooperative exercise: I will do my part, but I expect some effort from you. If you choose not to do an assignment, that is your choice. If you choose not to hold up your end of the bargain, again, that's your choice. I will make every effort to help you learn the skills you need to succeed in the Real World or College or Wherever, but you actually have to do the learning. Basically, I get paid whether you learn or not, but it's in everyone's best interests if you at least try.
   
   One additional note: I do know what I'm doing. I've been here long enough to get the hang of it. I borrowed a lot of money to go to school for a lot of years to learn how to do this. I read books, journals, and articles to keep up in my field. If you decide not to trust me, again, that's your choice.
   
   
7. In addition to knowing what I am doing, I also take great pride in it. Ever since I was your age, even a little younger, I've known that I wanted to be a teacher. My whole educational career from high school through college led me to this moment in this classroom teaching this curriculum. That is something that weighs heavily on me, and I take this job seriously.
   
   I stay up late grading papers (that's why I'm always cranky), reading books, blogging, and planning lessons. I go to training, conferences, classes, committee meetings, and union meetings, because I want to make sure that your work environment and mine are the best they can be. I practice what I preach by writing and writing about writing when I'm not teaching.
   
   And, while it's true that I can't quit my job--seeing as how I'm not really qualified to do anything else--I don't want to. I love what I do, even when I hate how a particularly poor group of students makes me feel. In the end, I'm not asking you to love what you do in my class. All I'm asking is that recognize that I do what I do because it is both my love and my calling. Once you get that through your thick little adolescent skulls, we just might have something here.

More on NCLB Underfunding

Chris Correa does the research so I don't have to. If remember a few days back, I noted that Bush's proposed NCLB budget drops in real dollars Wisconsin's share by $2 million; I noted that it meant 2000 teachers could lose jobs. Chris gives us the per-pupil cost, not of the real-dollar cuts, but of the total undefrunding per state.

Wisconsin is underfunded by about $164 million. That translates to what looks like a paltry $169.03.

But let me put that in perspective: My district has about 100,000 students. Really. In other words, NCLB underfunding costs my district alone $17 million. The last several years we've been closing schools and laying off hundreds of teachers because we've been running deficits in the $15-$20 million deficits. How many kids are missing out on their music or phy ed because we're giving up Title I money to NCLB requirements?

(Hat tip: shari, again.)

Teaching Tuesday: Class Size

Sure, you can read the studies and position papers all you want, but no one has written a more eloquent treatise on the subject of class size than teacherken:

I have told you about three students. And the other 29? I don't know what any student understands until I hear or read his or her words. Then I should respond. But this class has 32 students, and I have 45 minutes...

If I use 15 minutes for direct instruction, I have less than a minute per student to ensure understanding, answer questions, or pursue ideas invoked by the instruction. What might I be missing about my students? Of what are they thereby deprived? I don't know, because I have too many students, and not enough time to find out. [. . .]

I agonize over the students that I might not reach because I don't have time to find out what makes them tick. Is Shoshana not talking because she is shy, or because she doesn't understand what is going on? How about Wolodimir a few years ago, who actively participated in discussions, yet never handed in any written work? Why did it take me 15 weeks to realize that despite being promoted every year, he was reading at a third grade level in 8th grade? [. . .]

I'd like to be able to talk with all of my parents at least once a term, but I can't. Which would I choose: talking with Roy's parents about why he can't sit still, advising Nancy how she can reorganize her essay, or making the modifications to my lesson to account for Daniel who is blind and Maria who is hard of hearing and needs to read my lips?

Each student is entitled to be called by name without my having to look at a seating chart. I have a pretty good memory, but how does Ophelia feel when I'm still calling her Aurelia after three weeks? What about Sandor, who passes me in the hall with a cheery ``Hello, Mr. Bernstein" the second week of school, and I'm desperately trying to remember his name, and cannot respond except with a neutral ``How are you?"

Each student is due respect for personal integrity. [. . .]

Perhaps you are overwhelmed by the costs of reducing class size, such as building more classrooms and hiring more teachers? But what about the savings? We know from a recent federal study how poorly many people write. Miscommunication in business and government costs a fortune. Had I more time to correct Scott's essays, perhaps his parents wouldn't have to pay for a remedial writing course in college. Could not a reduction in class size also reduce miscommunication?

Now excuse me while I trundle off to school to my classes of 37 and 40 . . .

My Music Monday

"March" © 2002 Jay Bullock

You came home like a lion
The way March comes in
You were screaming and crying
About some supposed sin
You said I took you for granted
And that I was not always there
You came home like a lion
You chewed me up like a bear

On the first day of March, it came undone
Like your blouse in old passion, or unthinking action
And you left me cold, like the winter’s heart
When it all came undone on the first day of March

About a week or so later
You were at my door
Your easel and all your paintings
Taking up my floor
You told me I should be grateful
That you were so kind to forgive
About a week or so later
We were at it again

And by the Ides you were gone, you’d just up and left
On St. Patrick’s day, I got a call from L. A.
You said that out west was the place for your art
As if that explained why you left in the middle of March

Was this an April Fools? A month-long gag?
Were you out for revenge, is that what you planned?
I do not think I that had treated you bad
And now I won’t go out like a lamb

The month is over like we are
Though I hear you’re back in town
An old friend of ours tells me
That he’s seen you around
I suppose I should be wary
Won’t throw caution to these winds
But the month is over like we are
And the new year’s about to begin

My new lover says not to speak your name
A finger to my lips, like a gentle kiss
And if I see you again, I will know your heart
And I will not speak your name from this last day of March

It seems seasonally appropriate. I'd let you listen, but I can't upload the mp3 to GarageBand right now; if anyone is willing to host it for a week or so, let me know in comments. Thanks!

Happy Pi(e) Day!

It's 3.14--Pi(e) Day. Last year, Pi(e) Day fell on a Sunday, so my wife and I had friends over for a celebration (Stacie--the bamboo is still thriving!). We baked pies and pie-like things and all marked 1:59 as it passed. Mmmmm. Pi.

As Pi(e) Day is a Monday this year, and neither me nor my wife has had the time/ energy/ health/ gumption to clean the house and bake, we're just celebrating at home among ourselves. But you guys can use this thread to share your pi--or pie--memories.

To get you started, here's a story from me: Once in college a classmate (a guy named Arlen Arden--real creepy case) emailed me pi to a million digits. This would have been 1994 or so, when the whole email thing was new and exciting. It crashed the school's servers. Crashed 'em dead.

Is it Any Wonder My School is Losing Teachers Again This Year?

Wisconsin's share of NCLB is seeing a decline, in real dollars, of more than $2 million next year. Overall, our share of NCLB is underfunded by $164 million. One teacher runs you about $75,000. That's more than 2000 teachers we could have in classes. But, no.

Check your own state's status here. (Via An Old Soul.)

Too Busy to Blog

I actually wrote something last night for here, but Blogger ate it. It's been doing that a lot lately. Grrr.

So, talk among yourselves, and swing back by tomorrow for new content.

I'd Like to See Owen Defending WEAC

Given how much he hates WEAC, Campaign Finance Reform, and the Journal Sentinel Editorial Board:

Last November, Democratic Sen. Bob Wirch was in the fight of his political life against Republican challenger Reince Priebus. [. . .] Normally, an incumbent would not be viewed as vulnerable as the Pleasant Prairie Democrat was, but a couple of items conspired to make him so. 1) He riled Wisconsin Manufacturing & Commerce, a powerful business advocacy group, which simply had the will, money and power to make him vulnerable. And 2) he angered Gov. Jim Doyle when Wirch voted to override a veto of a concealed weapons bill.

He was the only incumbent Democrat in the Senate on whose behalf the governor did not appear or do a fund-raiser for during the fall campaign.

Wirch survived, but this is less a testament to his own political acumen than to the intervention of yet another player from outside his district. The Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state's largest teachers union, poured in $569,270 for Wirch.

This was to counter spending by WMC, which spent an estimated $200,000 to $300,000 in its effort to boot out Wirch. We say estimated because, under current law, this group did not have to report its spending. [. . .]

But who elected WEAC and WMC to wield so much power--WMC with the ability to oust an incumbent, barring a bigger outside giver stepping in, and WEAC, in this case, with the ability to save him? [. . .]

Total spending in the Wirch-Priebus race was $2.2 million, according to Common Cause in Wisconsin. But, combined, the two candidates spent about $530,000, or perhaps just a quarter of the total. That means folks other than the candidates essentially waged separate campaigns in which they got to shape the issues and characterize the candidates, rather than the candidates making their own cases.

Other members of Wisconsin's right wing--Lance, for example--have been on this anti-CFR trip, too. I'm not sure Mike Ellis's bill is perfect, but it makes more sense than what we have now, a system that, as shown over the last several cycles has proven to be pretty broken.

Atrios Would Call This Post "Bobo's World"

Since Atrios has a habit of pointing out how the good people in David Brooks's exurban red-state imagination are often not so good.

I, on the other hand, just think it's depressing:

Gunman kills 7, himself at Brookfield hotel
Four others seriously injured in shootings at church meeting

A Waukesha County man opened fire at a church service at a busy Brookfield hotel this afternoon, killing seven people and wounding four others before killing himself, police said.

Four victims and the gunman were dead when police arrived on the scene at the Sheraton Milwaukee Brookfield Hotel, Brookfield Police Chief Daniel Tushaus said. Three others died after being taken to Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital in Wauwatosa.

Six of the dead were males, ages 15, 17, 44, 50, 58 and 72. The other was a 55-year-old woman. The four surviving victims included three females, including a 10-year-old who was in stable condition at Children's Hospital, and a 20-year-old man.

Police identified the shooter as a 45-year-old man. He used a handgun in the shootings, police said. No motive was immediately known. [. . .]

The shootings occurred at a regularly scheduled Living Church of God gathering in a meeting room at the hotel shortly before 1 p.m. Police said the gunman was in some way affiliated with the church.

The church had met weekly at the Brookfield Sheraton for the past four or five years, police said.

No other suspects are being sought in the incident.

Slow Down, Your Honor

Four words: 83 in a 65.

I guess that's really two words and two numbers. Either way, Tom Barrett should know better. Money quote: "Lt. Ted Meagher of the State Patrol said the trooper who issued the ticket told his superiors that Barrett was cooperative. He said the trooper wasn't sure who Barrett was. 'He said something like, "The name sounds familiar, but I can't quite place it," ' said Meagher. '(Barrett) said, "I'm the mayor of Milwaukee." He was very cordial." '

Don't Fence Me In

Hey, all. I signed the Online Coalition's petition. Did you?

Friday Random Ten (Annotated)

1. Open iTunes. 2. Set to Random. 3. Blog results.

1. "Message to My Friend" John Scofield and Pat Metheny from I Can See Your House From Here: This is the "acoustic" number from this generally excellent collaboration. It's a slow, jazzy blues, with John and Pat doubling up for the melody and alternating solos. I'm pretty sure this is the only record the two worked together on, though they made a great duo, and the, erm, synergy, I think they call it, is fantastic.

2. "Beautiful World" Ellis Paul from Sweet Mistakes: This album is a collection of B-sides, outtakes, and remixes. "Beautiful World" is a number Ellis sings a cappella to close the album. It's kind of a reminder that while things might be seeming to fall apart all around you, it's important to keep your sense of wonder and hold on to what's important. Some day I will tell you all my Ellis Paul stories, but I have too much work to do now . . .

3. "Where You Can Find Me" Darryl Purpose from Right Side of Zero: Not one of my favorite DP songs, but it is from an otherwise excellent album--"Right Side of Zero" was his debut, and it immediately established his credibility as a songwriter and guitarist. DP's got a very intriguing backstory, from his days as a professional blackjack player to the time he spent as a peace activist. That breadth of experience lends a very philosophical and wizened bent to even a simple love song. The chorus: "I don't know all the places I've been/ I've forgotten things I have done/ I can only imagine what I'll see/ But I know where I'll be: Where you can find me."

4. "Get Me to the Church on Time" Connie Evingson from I Have Dreamed: A sultry version of the Lerner and Loewe classic--it starts slow and quiet, building to a horn-filled conclusion--very different from what you might remember Sinatra doing. This CD was a gift from my in-laws, and I initially wasn't all that thrilled to get an album of standards by a singer I had never heard of. But Evingson has grown on me.

5. "Tilman Co." Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer from : The story of Dave Carter is one of the most depressing ever; it's further evidence that if there's a god, he/she/it certainly hates the world to have beautiful music. I mean, why would he/she/it take Dave at his prime and leave us with, say, the Rolling Stones who you know just need the billions from their new album. (I have real hostility about this sort of thing.) The song is from the last album before he passed, a record that, if you were looking for the best songwriting ever wouldn't be a bad place to start.

6. "I'll Be True to You" The Monkees from The Monkees: A Davey Jones love song. What else do you need to know?

7. "Tell Me Why" Common Faces from Real Life: My wife and I sometimes think we are cursed, since whenever we book a good band for something (in this case, our wedding) they break up shortly after. The Common Faces were probably Madison, WI's best acoustic group, with a jazzy, folky, funky groove thing going on. One of the best live shows I ever saw was the three-member core of the band--guitarist Asa Miura with husband-and-wife team Chris Wagoner and Mary Gaines (currently with the Moon Gypsies) on fiddle and bass--completely acoustic at the Cafe Carpe. Not even a vocal mic. The energy was unbelievable; the room was packed. That was a good night.

8. "Christmas Carol" The Nields from Love and China: This is a pretty sad song when you realize it's the Christmas after Nerissa's divorce from David . . .

9. "You Stay Here" Richard Shindell from Courier (Free Bonus CD): This EP came free with the purchase of Courier, Richard's live CD, when it first came out. It's got a few additional tracks, including this one. One thing he can do that I wish I could is really paint a picture without being too wordy. The simple repetitiveness of this song--with only a few words changing in each verse--belies the complex themes behind it. Sarah and I are lucky enough to have tickets this week to see RS with Tracy Grammer this Wednesday at the aforementioned Cafe Carpe. If it's not sold out, and you can spare a weeknight, I recommend it. (They're playing Tuesday, too.)

10. "Am I too Late" Old 97s from Satellite Rides: Old 97s may be the best alt-country band recording right now. This is from a couple of records ago; the drummer is the star of this song.

That Time of Year

DPI has announced that 171 schools have applied to be a part of Milwaukee's voucher program next year. That's more that the 154 applicants last year, and way more than the 117 choice schools open last September. (Last September is a distinction that will be important in a moment.)

One disturbing element in this whole thing--and there are so many to choose from--is this: "The new batch of applicants includes some established schools that have decided to join the program--for example, Milwaukee Lutheran High School--but many are start-ups." One of the arguments that I make regularly about the choice system as it exists here in Milwaukee is that it establishes very appealing incentives for anyone with a few friends and an occupancy permit to set up a "school" and start collecting tax dollars. (I have the highest respect for Milwaukee Lutheran--and there are many other schools, the majority, in fact, that do good work.)

How can this be? you might ask, especially those of you not from Wisconsin. Well, the answer is simple: Our Legislature, in its Infinite Wisdom (or, perhaps, blinded by its Sheer Idiocy) refuses to establish even a single academic standard that these choice schools must meet. Not. A. Single. One.

The only mechanism in place to make sure our taxpayer money is spent well is that a school must have a sound business plan. Does it matter what they plan to teach the kids? Goodness, no, we shouldn't interfere in that. But we have to make sure they'll stay afloat!

And, remember, these restrictions only came into place a year ago--after more than a dozen years of choice in Milwaukee. And these rules only came about because of massive fraud going on at some of these fly-by-night schools. You might think that problems like the ones described in the link at Mandela school would automatically be solved by the market. You know, parents would pull their kids out and the school was closed. Not so. As I wrote last spring:

The sad case of Alex's Academics of Excellency (yes, that's its real name) is instructive. This is a school that was ordered closed by Milwaukee's building inspectors in 1999, back when it was just Alex's Academic of Excellence. After moving repeatedly during the 1999-2000 school year, that summer the school's CEO (a convicted violent rapist) was jailed for tax fraud in an unrelated case. This was around the same time a private voucher program was refusing to send students to the school because it did not meet their academic standards. By the fall of 2003, the school was still open (now known as Alex's Acadmics of Excellence) and getting my taxpayer money while staff got stoned and drunk instead of teaching the children, and the state had to explain how its hands were tied.

This market approach to education is just plain stupid. It's like, stupid-and-a-half. Continuing on in that post from last spring:

The solution is clearly not the market--and what we're really talking about here is a free (or at least free-er) market for education. In any market, there are winners and there are losers. But we're not talking about losers like New Coke or Daewoo here--we're talking about children. Do we really, really want to say that the market, which guarantees losers among the winners, is the best way to educate our children?

This is doubly important based on the second thing that disturbs me about DPI's new list: "The list includes at least one person who was a key figure in a large voucher school recently closed by DPI order. Ricardo Brooks, who was an administrator of Academic Solutions, is listed as the administrator of a proposed school to be called Northside High School." Why does this matter? Because Academic Solutions is this year's poster child for failing choice schools.

I know this not just because of what I read, but because of what my students tell me--my students who have come to my school after Academic solutions closed following what can only be described as a riot. And they verify--and elaborate on--all the things I have read. Things like how the teachers stopped coming in to work after they stopped getting paid in November. Or things like absolute fraud in reporting the number students they should get paid for, so bad they called in the D.A.. Or things like this: "One parent, L* S*, said her daughter, T*, 16, had been doing well at the school, where she enrolled as a sophomore this year. She said her daughter had been getting F's at Milwaukee Marshall High School but was getting nearly straight A's at Academic Solutions." The curriculum of that school--confirmed for me by former students and by Milwaukee police officers who were there--was videos. Why not? The teachers aren't there. So the girl got an A for watching videos. Do you think that she really was getting the education she missed at the other school?

Ricardo Brooks, the guy from Academic Solutions who is looking to open a new school, said at the time of their appeal to stay open, "The school will be safe. [. . .] We don't have a bad school. We have a great school." This guy must have been blind to what was going on under his nose--serious fights every day. And now he wants to try again? Give me a break!

Any expansion of the voucher program will only lead to more of this. And this should serve as a warning to anyone in other states considering "choice." Let them look at Milwaukee: It is not what I would choose.

Where's My Hat?

I may need to throw it into the ring against Kohl. The gazillionaire senator voted for the final bankruptcy bill. Not that I think I could win, but, dammit, this is just bad law.

Russ Blogs!

Here!

Owen's At It, Again

I've been giving Owen a free ride lately, what with my being on hiatus, and stuff. That ends today.

Today Owen's off on this Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial. Now, I am not one to praise the paper very often, but their editorial stance on election reform is both reasonable and fair. They take the stance (and I concur) that Wisconsin's voting laws, which, yes, are "liberal," are responsible for our higher-than-average turnout and great participation. Messing around with the laws without good cause, they say, is a bad idea, with this specific editorial arguing against uber-strict photo-ID rules.

Owen, who has been doing a toned-down Wayne Madsen impression, is convinced that something is not kosher in (Democratic-voting) Milwaukee, and the fault is our "liberal" voting laws:

No, [he writes,] identification fraud hasn’t been proven, nor can it ever be proven.  If voters do not currently have to prove their identity, how is it possible to prove identification fraud?  [. . .] What we can look at is a preponderance of the evidence.  We have thousands more votes than we have voters, which indicates that people may have voted more than once.  We have well over a thousand same-day registration forms for which no voter can be verified, indication than many people may have provided false identification.  There are many indications that massive voter fraud took place in Wisconsin, but it will never be proven to a certainty.

What I see (and have seen, as a Milwaukee voter) is septuagenarians who are overtaxed on a 16-hour day.

Look, I am pretty well plugged in to the Milwaukee Democratic/ liberal/ leftist/ Green/ anarchist community. I go to meetings. I'm on email lists that would make Castro blush. If there were a concerted effort to perpetrate fraud in Milwaukee, I would have heard about it. Hell, I might have been leading it. But no such effort existed. Owen (and the conservative yakkers on the radio) are trying to weave innocuous threads into some tapestry of Democratic evil-doing. It just isn't true.

More importantly, let's look at some of the editorial Owen didn't quote, information you should probably take into account:

The new rule would make voting more of a hassle for the 123,000 Wisconsin voting-age residents who, according to the Department of Transportation, lack a state driver's license or ID card and for those residents who lose or forget their cards. The bill's provision to offer both the license and ID card free of charge lessens the hassle only somewhat. (And, by the way, that would cost the state an estimated $1 million per year. [Where's the "why we need TABOR" now?])

[. . . ] The Legislature's premature fix would move Wisconsin into a tie with South Carolina for the most stringent identification requirements in the country. That's not good company; the Dixie state has a sordid history of denying voting rights to African-Americans.

Seriously. Think about that: Do we want to be more like Minnesota or like South Carolina? Y'all?

Wisconsin Wednesday: The All-In-One Post

No One Listens to Me
Not that I could have gone to a daytime meeting, anyway (and I have a meeting until 6:30 tonight so I can't even go to the evening part of the program), but if state legislators care what anyone in the state's largest urban center thinks about the next biennial budget, it will only come from people willing and able to drive an hour or so to Watertown.

I mean, it's not like I don't have things to say. I do. Like, I think Jim Doyle blew it by slipping in a proposal to tax internet downloads. The idea just seems riddled with holes (Stacie [née and again] Rosenzweig has a good run-down). On the other hand, I think the Republicans are also crazy to want to hamstring everyone from your sewerage district to your school district with a tax freeze.

Not that I could have said anything, 'cuz, you know, they don't seem to want my opinion.

Belated Sympathy
to Russ Feingold. His mother Sylvia passed away last week.

Tommy Scores
How many damn jobs can one former HHS secretary hold? Looks like two three. Who's a lucky ducky now?

Why We Don't Need TABOR
You often hear Republicans and conservative bloggers whining about the "liberal media" presenting slanted news. From where I sit, all I hear is the TABOR drumbeat. (If you want me to re-hash my opposition to it, I will. Later.) Why do we need TABOR?, you might ask them. They say, Our taxes are stifling! It's a Tax Hell!

Yeah, I guess that's why Wisconsin's economy--unfrozen taxes and all--is kicking butt. To wit:

The weaker dollar and stronger corporate profits mean that demand for capital goods made in Wisconsin will be extremely healthy in the United States and abroad this year, he said.

Wisconsin produces more than its share of such goods, so the boom will help it more than the rest of the nation. The weaker dollar in particular means that the machinery and industrial parts made in Wisconsin can be sold overseas at competitive prices, Nichols said. That will lead to a boom in manufacturing in the state.

Now, I don't know that Jim Doyle deserves all the credit--Bush and his high-deficit, weak-dollar policies have a hand in it--but I think that Republicans' complaining about how dismal our economy is are starting to ring pretty hollow.

My Sleepy Head

The paper's headline this morning: High schoolers may soon sleep in. That also means me. There are some issues--like how our idiot superintendent can't just unilaterally declare start times--but I may get a break next year.

I'm not fully persuaded that it's the best thing to do, but it may ease a little tension at the folkbum household.

Wisconsin Wednesday: Call Kohl, Kind

I wrote last about Kohl's apparent support for the horrible bankruptcy bill working its way through the Senate. It is not too late to contact him about it, even though the cloture vote happened today, and debate is almost over. If we try hard enough, we might still be able to get his corporate head out of his corporate rear long enough to vote nay on this puppy. Hie thee to a phone:

Washington Office
Phone: (202) 224-5653
Fax: (202) 224-9787

Milwaukee Office
Phone: (414) 297-4451 or 1-800-247-5645 (toll free in Wisconsin)
Fax: (414) 297-4455

Madison Office
Phone: (608) 264-5338
Fax: (608) 264-5473

Eau Claire Office
Phone: (715) 832-8424
Fax: (715) 832-8492

Appleton Office
Phone: (920) 738-1640
Fax: (920) 738-1643

La Crosse Office
Phone: (608) 796-0045
Fax: (608) 796-0089

In addition, it seems 3rd CD Dem Ron Kind seems to be supporting the bill, too. Make another call while you're at it:

Washington
PH: (202) 225-5506
FX: (202) 225-5739

La Crosse
PH: (608) 782-2558
FX: (608) 782-4588

Eau Claire
PH: (715) 831-9214
FX: (715) 831-9272

This bill is bad for seniors, veterans, the uninsured, anyone who can't afford attorneys to set up legal trusts, you, me, and everybody in between. It was penned by credit card lobbyists (literally, by some accounts) and the Republicans (and some Dems) have shown their true stripes by voting down every single amendment meant to protect average Americans. Every. Single. One.

You know, I keep telling my wife not to worry, that I won't file to run against Kohl in the primary. But this is the kind of crap that makes me reconsider it.

Teaching Tuesday

First off, Ms. Lauren of Feministe is doing some practice teaching with one of my favorite poems, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." It brings back memories, as I did that poem during my own student teaching days.

Second, let me argue early and loudly for some better Geography teaching in our nation's middle schools. Well, at least my district's middle schools. My 9th graders are doing a research project, a simple comparison-contrast thing involving two cities, Milwaukee (kids ought to know a little something about where they live, no?) and some international city, i.e., a city outside of the United States.

"Can I do Denver?" a student asks. No, I tell him, since Denver is not outside of the United States.

"Oh, you mean like Kansas City?" (I wish I were making these up.) Again, I explain, Kansas City is in the U.S. We want something in a foreign country.

"Can I do France?" That's better, I say, but France is a whole country; pick a city in France.

"How about Hawaii?" (By now I'm feeling frustrated.) Hawaii, I explain, is neither a city nor outside of the U.S.

(And it goes on like that.)

Add to it the argument when a student insisted that it wasn't plagiarism if he changed a word or two, and--I'd better stop. We did the research yesterday and today; we start outlining tomorrow. Don't even ask how it went when we found percentages from their opinion surveys . . .

Iron Blog

It's back, with a Battle on about "objective journalism." Expect lots of puns from me in the comments: "I object!" "Jeff Gannon sure used his object!" and so on.

I'm not proud. It's just what I do.

Inernational Women's Day

Check out a sampling of some of my favorite women songwriters:

• Carrie Newcomer
• Lucy Kaplansky
• Patty Larkin
• Ani DiFranco
• Susan Werner
• The Nields
• Patty Griffin

Why do I write songs?

At the Peggy Seeger workshop Saturday, she started with that question. And, since I came in right at the start time, I got stuck in the chair just to her left, so she also started with me.

You'd think, after doing this for fifteen years, i would have a better answer. I don't, especially not without time to plan.

My standard answer--which I'm not terribly proud of--is that the short form of the song is just the right size to get my head around. I don't have time to pound out the novel in my head (someday I'll tell you about it). Most of the time I even really don't have time to do much long-form blogging. (Full disclosure--I don't even really have time for songwriting, either.)

Now, that doesn't mean that I don't think songwriting is as hard or as challenging as fiction or even blogging. It is, and its demands are very precise and, in many ways, more challenging than prose.

So why do I do it? I can't say I know for sure. That's going to be my challenge this week.

No, no, no

Katryna Nields has polyps again. Why can't I get polyps instead? I mean, I already can't sing, and I need the time off from school.

Okay . . .

. . . so no Peggy Seeger Day report. I know, I know. But I still have a mound of papers to grade before tomorrow, and my helper monkey doesn't read English (only Czech), so I have to do them all myself.

Peggy Seeger Day

Did the workshop. Going to the concert soon. Report tomorrow, or Monday.

Sometimes you learn things

Just tooling through the blogger NavBar "Next Blog" links, I learned an ancient secret.

Friday Random Ten (Annotated)

You know the drill: Fire up the mp3 player, set it to random, and list the first ten songs, no matter how embarassing or uncool it makes you seem. Note: Since the death of my hard drive last month, I've had to re-build my iTunes. I'm currently up to the Ms (yes, I alphabetize), so this list will be somewhat limited by that.

1. "I Don't Feel Like a Train" John Gorka from Temporary Road: John's one of my heroes, as a songwriter. This is from one of his earlier albums, before he was quite the fixture that he is today. But this track exhibits some of his greatest strengths: clever wordplay over a deeply philosophical discussion. Take the end: "I don't feel like a train anymore, I feel like the track/ I think that I can help you if direction's what you lack/ though I'm never hard to find, I'm out and open every day/ though I cannot carry you, I can show you the way." An uplifting end to a conceit that could be kind of depressing. Also, I don't have the liner notes in front of me, so I can't be certain that it's Nancy Griffith's harmonies here, but for me, they take this song to the next level.

2. "Twilight Time" Leo Kottke from Live: A classic recording of the classic Platters' hit, done by the master of 12-string guitar. What's not to like about this record?

3. "Been There, Done That (Live)" The Loomers from Shine: When I was in college, I did a lot of talent booking for several of the music series. (In retrospect, it's really kind of scary how much money they entrusted to me and my friends to spend bringing our favorite people to campus to play for us.) One of the acts I admired most was singer-songwriter Jon Svetkey, one of a cohort of Boston songwriters that included Ellis Paul, Dar Williams, and Jim Infantino (of Jim's Big Ego). Building on what people like Bill Morissey--and, yes, John Gorka--accomplished in the 1980s, the 1990s "new folk" songwriters brought both a wide audience and whole lot of talent to what many people thought was a genre that died the day Dylan went electric. Anyway, Jon Svetkey's debut CD included "Been There, Done That," a kind of world-weary "bought the t-shirt" song from the heyday of the "whatever" early 90s. "I'm tired of all the talking, tied of all the shocking, and can anybody tell me any more good jokes?" (When you think about it, that's a pretty silly thing for someone in his 20s.) Facing his 30s without a career in music that would really support him, Jon retired from touring, but keeps playing around Boston with his band, the Loomers, and occasionally solo. This CD was recorded live, including some songs--like this one--at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

4. "Sweet Sixteen (Live)" BB King from Live at the Apollo: The King of the Blues, bending strings live. I love the horns on this record--I think my life would be so much better if I had my own horn section!--not to mention King's voice and guitar in their prime.

5. "Tell It to the Gov'nor" Bela Fleck and the Flecktones from Bela Fleck and the Flecktones: Howard Levy is a harmonica god. Period. Oh, and Victor Wooten is a bass god. Period. (This is not one of my favorite songs of theirs, but, damn, Levy can bend those notes.)

6. "Old Future" John Gorka from Old Futures Gone: Another downer, about 9/11, I think: "Fear took down the winged life, the winged life we've led." And so on. One thing about John Gorka: As sad as much of his music is, he is one of the funniest live performers, ever. He's like Steven Wright (remember him?) on stage, with deadpan ridiculous humor. If you get a chance to see him live, go out of your way if you must to see him. Really. His email updates are pretty funny, too.

7. "Barricades & Brickwalls" Kasey Chambers from Barricades & Brickwalls: Kasey Chambers is the Texas-est Aussie you will ever hear. In much the same way as the Norwegians in Minnesota are more Norwegian than the Norwegians in Norway, Chambers and her band have fully resisted the trends by which American "country" music has been Faith Hilled. This song, like much of the rest of this album, is gritty and not pseudo-pop-radio friendly. By the time she gets done explaining that "Barricades and brick walls won't keep me from you," you can tell she means it. There's no painted-on smile here.

8. "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" Shawn Colvin from Cover Girl: Shawn Colvin's had some minor commercial success, but she's long been a fixture in the singer-songwriter world. This record was kind of her tip-o'-the-hat to all the songwriters who influenced her and whose work she regularly covered back then. This is her great version of the Dylan classic, recorded live at, I think, the erstwhile Bottom Line in New York, one of her old haunts. It's a great reading of the song, and quite the nifty guitar arrangement, too.

9. "Mannish Boy (Live)" The Band from The Last Waltz: (Speaking of when Dylan went electric . . .) Everyone should own The Last Waltz. I don't know why you wouldn't. That two hours is perhaps the most complete precis of Rock history. This track explores the roots--Muddy Waters hisself joins the Band (with Paul Butterfield on harmonica, I think--curse this liner-notelessness!). Maybe delta blues isn't your thing, but Muddy is the master, doing his signature song. This is as good as it gets.

10. "#34" Dave Matthews Band from Under the Table and Dreaming: The instrumental cut the closes the record. For a while in college, I wanted to be Dave Matthews, but then I realized that playing "frat boy music" meant playing frat houses, which, having occasionally been in one, I really had no desire to do.

Something for your Weekend

At least, if you're in or near Milwaukee:

From: Sandy, Folky1 Prodcutions
Date: Thu Mar 3, 2005 1:00:35 PM US/Central
To: folkbum
Subject: Peggy Seeger in concert March 5th at the Miramar

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to let you know about this upcoming benefit concert and songwriting workshop. The Urban Ecology Center is one of my favorite local non-profits. Part of their mission is to help urban dwellers, especially children, to gain a connection with the earth, not by taking them out to the country, but by working with them right here within the city and they do great work! And Peggy is a wonderful performer who seldom comes to Milwaukee. Hope to see some of you there!

Thanks,
Sandy
Folky1 Productions

Peggy Seeger - Songwriting Workshop & Concert to benefit the Urban Ecology Center

Member of the musical Seeger family, Peggy Seeger is a singer of traditional Anglo-American songs and activist songmaker. She plays six instruments: piano, guitar, 5-string banjo, Appalachian dulcimer, autoharp and English concertina. She has recorded 19 solo albums and participated directly in more than a hundred others. The workshop is co-hosted by the Portage Road Songwriters Guild. Learn more about this amazing artist at www.pegseeger.com. Special guest, Milwaukee's own Larry Penn, will also be performing at the concert.

Saturday, March 5

Songwriting Workshop:
Urban Ecology Center (www.UrbanEcologyCenter.org)
Riverside Park, 1500 E. Park Place
1:30 p.m.
For adults
$12 in advance and $15 at the door (UEC Members - $12) Call 967-0302 to register.

Concert:
Miramar Theater (www.themiramartheatre.com)
2844 N. Oakland Ave.
8 p.m.
For everyone
$12 in advance and $15 at the door (UEC Members - $12) Tickets are available through Ticketmaster, the Miramar Box Office (414) 967-0302 and the UEC (414) 964-8505.

Wisconsin Wednesday: Snacilbuper

Republicans here in Wisconsin do everything backwards. Really. Recent examples:

Problem: Wisconsin's largest school district, with more students in poverty, in special education, and speaking a language other than English as their first, is failing too many of the students it serves.
Republican-enacted solution: Take resources away from the district, and invest tax money in fly-by-night schools that can be established and staffed by anyone with a pulse and which are held to exactly zero academic standards.
Problem: Wisconsin's taxes are high and the tax structure is particularly punitive to middle-class homeowners.
Republican-proposed solution: Pass a law freezing taxes at the high level and propose a constitutional amendment making the tax structure permanent.
Problem: Wisconsin's health care costs are increasing faster than any other state's in the region.
Republican-proposed solution: Cap liability payouts in lawsuits--oh, wait, we did this years ago and our rates are climbing faster than ever.
Problem: Wisconsin's electoral votes go to Democrats.
Republican-proposed solution: Erect barriers to voting, including the elimination of same-day registration.

This is the most recent:
Problem: Wisconsin families and workers are being squeezed by high property taxes and high health care costs.
Republican solution: Prevent Wisconsin cities with the highest costs of living from raising the minimum wage for their residents--which might have made the squeeze a little less painful.

Monday this week, Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett signed a bill that would phase in a new minimum wage of $6.50 an hour, the same increase recommended by a non-partisan state panel last year for the whole of Wisconsin. When Republican legislators (perhaps goosed by the business lobby's hands in their back pockets) balked at that plan, Madison enacted its own raise last year, phasing in an eventual rate of $7.75 by 2008. Milwaukee is the second city to raise its rate. (And it looks like Lacrosse may be the third.)

Remember, a worker earning the current minimum wage ($5.15) full-time would still only earn $11,000 a year pre-tax, pre-health care, pre-food and shelter. That is, literally, poverty wages if that person has a child. (A raise to $6.50 would only barely lift that person above poverty level.) As my guy in the Assembly Josh Zepnick put it (pdf), "Right now, a minimum wage earner can afford a monthly rent of no more than $268. Maybe some people in the Republican leadership would like to go apartment shopping with me on Milwaukee's South Side [. . .] I sure haven't been able to find any $268 apartments." (And it's true--search here.)

The business lobby, though, is crying foul. (As much as conservatives dislike trial lawyers, they sure do go to court a lot, don't they?) I say so what if the duly elected officials of certain cities want to ensure that the people who live there are able to stay there? But those Snacilbupers are even refusing to compromise.

Anyway, perfect opportunity for Republicans controlling the legislature to deny any actual solutions for the problems that they are only happy to exploit.

"Entirely Appropriate" My Fat White Blasphemous Ass!

(Cross-posted from Liberal Street Fighter, where the hits just won't quit!)

So I was driving home listening to "All Things Considered" when they ran Nina Totenberg's story on the Ten Commandments SCOTUS case. As is her wont, she read excerpts of the transcript, so that we little people can get a feel for the back and forth of the oral arguments. One particular exchange set me off pretty good:

Totenberg read Antonin "Fat Tony" Scalia questioning the anti-Commandmenters. "[The Ten Commandments] are a symbol that the government derives its authority from God, and that seems to me entirely appropriate." WTF?

Has that man read a history book? How in the hell can he be fit to serve as an arbiter of what the Constitution says when he doesn't have the first clue where that document draws its moral and legal authority from?

The Constitution is a wholly secular document, based on natural and civil rights of humankind. It owes far more to humanist philosophy than scripture; Madison and Hamilton and Jay and the others who formed the framework of our government and penned the Bill of Rights spent their time at the Constitutional Convention discussing the ancient Greeks and the contemporary French, not the Biblical Hebrews.

Hell, if the Ten Commandments truly were the basis of our system of laws, every teenager in America would be in jail for not honoring their fathers and mothers. I myself would be in the stocks because damned if I remember the last time I honored the Sabbath and kept it holy. How many Republican Congressmen are known adulterers?

Seriously, how in the hell can we allow Constitutional questions to be decided by someone who doesn't know the first thing about the Constitution?

Teaching Tuesday

Just some random notes today:
Ex-teacher and ex-candidate's wife Stacie is now officially an ex-candidate's ex-wife. I think congratulations are in order. Maybe a muffin basket. I don't know; I've never really done this before.

TeacherKen is going great gonzo with some nice educational posts, both at his own blog and at dKos. For example, there's this one about what makes a good teacher; this other one about good teaching; and a seriously scary post about how the right wants to destroy public education. (I mean, we've always known that's what they're up to, but now they're not even trying to hide it.)

Ms. Frizzle is going to Finland on a Fullbright. That definitelty deserves a muffin basket.

On a more solicitous note, we could really use your help to protect public education here in Wisconsin. Libby Burmaster is up for re-election as state superintendent. She's up against a Republican state lawmaker--a big voucher supporter. I've met Libby several times, and she's Good People: a lifelong educator, a non-partisan, and a big believer in the power of communities to change kids' lives. Any support you can give in this (mostly) non-election year will be greatly appreciated, especially since her opponent is likely to be rolling in national voucher money soon.

Next week, maybe we'll talk about what we did in class today: The Quote Sandwich. Yum.

Links, etc.

The sidebar is 90% done. I want some pictures, and there are a couple of blogs I want to link yet.

Plus, imageshack seems to be mucking with the pictures I already have. They show up sometimes, not others. Grr.

Mostly, I wanted to say that your blog's disappearance from my blogroll is not necessarily personal. I use my sidebar as a reading guide, so the blogs I link are the blogs I read. It's that simple. (If your feelings are really hurt, lemme know and I'll put you back.)

Let's start with Herb Kohl

Kohl is up for re-election in 2006, and while I like him okay, he could do much better for us. Here's what I wrote him today:

Please Vote Against Bankruptcy Bill
I know you voted the current bankruptcy "reform" bill out of committtee last week, but I urge you now to vote against it.

I would like to direct you to this story:

In it, the New Republic notes, "Under the current system, bankruptcy courts have broad discretion to decide who can file for Chapter 7, which allows debtors to erase their obligations after forfeiting a state-determined percentage of their remaining assets, and Chapter 13, which requires strict repayment according to court-ordered schedules. Judges base their decisions as much on why the debt was accrued as on income; this way people who come into debt through no fault of their own can get a fresh start, while a judge can decide that a careless gambler must pay what he owes. But the new bill would replace judicial discretion with a means test on household income--those above a certain level would be forced to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy--dismantling the system's ability to discriminate among worthy and unworthy debtors.

Credit card companies insist that most filers are merely credit addicts who have spent beyond their means and want to stiff the industry with the bill. [. . .] But a recent Harvard study shows that roughly half of all filers for Chapter 7 do so in the wake of major medical expenses. Moreover, Chapter 7 bankruptcy is hardly a get-out-of-jail-free card--it leaves a prolonged stain on one's credit rating and imposes tough financial sanctions. The credit card companies, by contrast, don't seem to be hurt by the filings much at all. According to Harvard Law School bankruptcy expert Elizabeth Warren, since 1997, 'Bankruptcy filings have increased 17 percent, while credit card profits have increased 163 percent.' "

This bill is symptomatic of what Republicans everywhere are doing (we see a lot of it at the state level here in Wisconsin, too): They want to treat a symptom, not a cause. And in doing so, they are serving their investment-class masters rather than the best interests of everyday Americans.

Thank you.

Write your own letter to Herb Kohl here.

Fingers Crossed

Another quick repair from Apple and, Jobs willing, I will have my iBook warming my lap tonight.

UPDATE: I'm at the Apple Store. It's looking good. We just may have real bloggage again starting Monday.

What's Missing?

If you guessed "Jay's iBook," you'd be right!

I got a call from Scott over to the Apple Store this morning telling me that apparently, the Depot people replaced the logic board and not the hard drive, so that when they booted it up last night it failed miserably.

But since this is a family blog, I won't tell you how I really feel.

An Update, A Preview

So my iBook will be back in my hot little hands Saturday afternoon. Actually, it got to the Apple Store sometime Thursday morning--and considering that I dropped it off Monday night and it didn't ship to the Depot until Tuesday morning, that's fast.

So today I want to give you a a preview of what the remade f's r&r will be all about. Mostly, it has to do with trying to keep a regular schedule:

Monday: My Music Moday--I will take the time to talk about something related to my music. I will try to get you all mp3s if you want them, as well as talk about process, lyrics, and such. (By the way, if anyone knows someone willing to host downloadable mp3s, you should let me know.)
Tuesday: Teaching Tuesday--I glimpse into what I'm beating into those young minds: literature, grammar, writing.
Wednesday: Wisconsin Wednesday--I will try to focus on local stuff at least once a week. That's not to say I will never write about Wisconsin other times; it's just that Wednesday is alliterative.
Thursday: Thursday Three--Three posts from around the net that you maybe haven't read, but should have.
Friday: Friday Random Ten (Annotated)--You know the drill: Set your iPod/ mp3 player/ iTunes/ whatever to random and list the first ten songs. I will annotate my list, with commentary, reminiscence, and recommendations. Obviously, I can't do this today without my iBook.
Weekend: Random stuff, greatest hits from the past or my other writing outlets, whatever.

So, come on back. I will try to have something this weekend (and I'm still re-arranging the sidebar links so there are fewer and they are easier to navigate). At any rate, there will be real postage here Monday. Promise.

Yellow plus Blue makes Green!

Or, go start reading Blue and Red, which is not really about color at all.

Bad News

While my hard drive is off being replaced (I am fully backed up this time!) I'm pushing back my re-launch. I will aim now for Saturday the 19th. Sorry.

Update update

The new template is basically done. I think I need to do a little tweaking of the sidebar's width. The content of the sidebar is still in flux; I hope to trim it to about half its current length. I'm still not officially "back" yet, though. Just working through the process.

UPDATE on the Update update: I fixed the sidebars. I have seen the site in Mac and Windows, Mozilla and IE and Safari. Anyone see anything that looks bad?

Oh

And for those of you in driving distance of Ft. Atkinson, I'm at the Cafe Carpe Friday, Feb. 11. Come on out and see the show. I'll buy you cake.

I'll be back

Hiatus is almost over. I will be back--I promise--on Feb. 17, one year to the day after Howard Dean's loss here in the Wisconsin primary and the official death of what little political optimism I'd started to have.

In the meantime, keep reading me at LSF every Monday. I'm up for a Koufax, too, if you care to head over and vote. I will be rearranging and trimming my sidebar links, so click through while they're still there.

Your patience will be rewarded!