Advocate weekly, 6/12

Once again, Joe over to the Shut Up and Teach! blog has done the heavy lifting to make a new Advocate Weekly. I'm in there, of course, as is some other great stuff, including

• Chris Correa on John Dewey
• Two good posts on military recruiting and high school
• A pair of scandals and some cheating

Plus a must-read that you'll have to go through Joe to find!

Yes, I've seen it

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is doing a series this week on vouchers. I've been reading and digesting; but I don't have time to do it justice right now. They just had to wait until exam week, didn't they, when they knew I'd be too busy to chime in.

Blogging later on small schools, though.

For your reading pleasure

I didn't get up to the Democratic Convention this year. If they could hold some other time than the weekend before exams, it would be a lot easier for me to take some time off and go. But I can't.

However, other people did go, and blogged about it. Stacie, for example, who has a number of good posts. So does Bill Christofferson, who offers a post-mortem among his other posts. Don't miss Badger Blues Ben's write-up, either. My friend and occasional Democrat Ben Masel went, and had some issues.

Don't forget the WisOpinion/ WisPolitics DPW Convention blog, for broader coverage of the event.

One depressing bit of news was Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager's loss in the straw poll to Dane County executive Kathleen Falk. I like Peg, and I think she has been both extraordinarily fair and non-partisan in her work as AG so far. I would hate to lose her, especially if it that loss comes in a nasty primary fight. It's true that Peg hasn't raised a lot of money, but, you know, sometimes you like that in a politician--she's too busy doing her job and fighting cancer to attend a fundraiser every week.

Also on the Wisconsin front, I finally added a post over at SensenbrennerWatch, about F. Jim's temper tantrum this week.

Insurgency? Blame the Media!

Despite the vice president's claims that the Iraqi insurgency is in its "death throes," things aren't going so well over there. The problem? The media, of course! I saw this in the LTE section of the paper today:

Don't give insurgents so much attention

Why do the media always report the actions of the insurgents with prominent stories and pictures? These usually are found on the first two pages of the newspaper. Some TV footage even shows the celebration of their victories with weapons being brandished, high above their heads, in defiance of U.N. forces.

Don't media officials think that these exposés make perfect recruitment posters for the enemy? Enemies can say, "Look what one martyr can do! You can be great, too, for Allah!"

I know that it's important to get the public the facts. However I think it's a dishonor to our forces to give the enemy that much attention. I'm speaking as a veteran of World War II.

H*** R***
Brown Deer

First of all, how many insugents--just ballpark it here--how many insurgents subscribe to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel? Do you really think they wake up in the morning and, between "Marmaduke" and Stuart Carlson they find pictures of their martyr friends to cut out and post on the refrigerator?

Okay, okay, I could imagine that the insurgents get FOX News over the satellite--I mean, dogmatic fundamentalism is dogmatic fundamentalism everywhere, no? But they're not watching the channel 6 news at ten and cheering every time Alison Gilman describes systematic, organized, synchronized car bombings.

Get a grip, Mr. H. R. I respect and thank you for your service during WWII, but there's no way you could claim that the Allies' victory was that much easier because there weren't pictures of dancing Nazis on the front pages. And the insurgents, unlike Tinkerbell, aren't going to disappear if we stop believing in them. We deserve honest news from the front, and if it makes you uncomfortable to know that US policies result in daily deaths of US troops and dozens of Iraqi civillians, then don't blame the messenger. Direct your anger where it belongs.

Light blogging weekend

It's the weekend before finals and the weekend before we head off to Mexico. So lots of house cleaning and schoolwork, not so much blogging.

Finally! Real News!

I can totally get behind this:

City workers will soon make a sweep of city businesses looking for illegal neon signs.

[Glendale] Mayor Jay Hintze said he ordered city staff to look for violators of city ordinances that require permission before any neon sign is installed. [. . .]

"I think a neon salesman has gone through the city," Hintze said. "None of these businesses has ever applied for permits for the signs. Even if the sign just says 'open,' you have to apply before you install it." Merchants have 14 days to comply.

I'm getting sick and tired of all this news focus on the Downing Street Minutes, the scandal-a-minute Bush administration, and the war news. It's been wall-to-wall hard news for so long now . . .

Friday Random Ten

The Last Friday Before Summer Vacation Edition
(note: I am teaching summer school, so my vacation will be woefully short.)

1. "Hey Baby Hey" Robin Lee Berry from Going Driftless
2. "Old Man" Neil Young from Harvest
3. "Good Time" Leroy from Scrubs Sountrack
4. "Situations Like Lightning" Carrie Newcomer from Visions and Dreams
5. "Run" Catie Curtis from My Shirt Looks Good On You
6. "Trolley Car" Ellis Paul from Carnival of Voices
7. "Beloved Wife" Natalie Merchant from Tigerlilly
8. "Best Black Dress" The Nields from Live from Northampton
9. "When Sal's Burned Down" Dar Williams from The Honesty Room
10. "Life, In A Nutshell" Barenaked Ladies from Maybe You Should Drive

Finally!

Welcome, Advocates! This post here is the prelude to a series. Part one of the series was posted Monday, 6/13, and will continue from there

I have been waiting, anxiously, for the Summer issue of Rethinking Schools to go online. Today, it seems that it has.

Let me explain why I'm excited, and, perhaps, put some of the more cryptic of the last week's posts into some context: Many of you probably know that the Milwaukee Public Schools is currently suffering under a plan to dismantle high schools and turn them into multiplexes of small schools. This idea, like many others, sprang fully formed from our superintendent, like Athena from the head of Zeus. He read, I'm sure, about successful small schools and, without considering the full history of the small-schools movement, decided it had to be done here. As usual, the idea was heartily endorsed by the local paper.

Now, I believe in small schools. I went to a liberal arts college where the liberal was more important than the arts. We studied up on all the classic small schools; Deborah Meier and Ted Sizer were like gods to us. One of my most treasured books is a dog-eared copy of Horace's Compromise.

Trouble is, every single successful small school that we ever studied began in the same way: A group of involved parents, teachers, students, and community members recognized a need and democratically created a solution from the bottom up. Did you notice what was missing there? That's right--administration. When we studied school reform, we found that the best role for administration is to be supportive, but not controlling. What we have here in Milwaukee is exactly the opposite. It is the administration that is pushing for the creation of these small-school communities, not the community itself.

Which brings us to the current job conundrum. The principal we have had for the last three years believes in the power of the large comprehensive high school. I do, too; I am the product of one, and I turned out okay. Quite a few of these are large schools. And this principal stood firmly in the way of any attempt to break up the school and undermine the quality programs we offer. The rest of us also have bought into this, and we have redoubled our efforts to not only teach well (which we always did) but make ourselves look good on the state tests, too. For example, this year we leapt from a 74% testing participation rate to 97%. But our principal's opposition to multiplexing, we believe, displeased the superintendent. And, since principals are appointed by the superintendent, and we are all aware of the plan to multiplex as many high schools as possible, it is with trepidation that we face our principal's retirement in a few days.

The superintendent, aware of our trepidation (and attendant restlessness), did what I describe in this post from last night. He teased us by saying he'd come out and have a conversation with us, and then canceled just a few hours before without giving a reason.

And we were so hoping he would come, too. We were going to present him with a copy of the Summer issue of Rethinking Schools, and ask him to address some of the questions and issues raised therein.

At any rate, this is what I plan to do over the next week or so--I will take you through some of what, to me, are the most interesting and pertinent articles in the magazine, and begin to address how those stories and essays add to the debate we're currently having here in Milwaukee.

Oh, wait. Did I say "debate"? I didn't really mean that, since there is no debate. There is no one, anywhere, approaching this plan to dismantle every high school and turn them into multiplexes with a critical eye. The local news loves our "reformer" superintendent. The school board has a majority that fawns over him as well. The only voices of dissent or rising concern about this plan and its ramifications are the teachers being forced into multiplexes and squozen out of decisions affecting their professional lives.

I am one such voice. I will not be quiet any longer.

Congrats

Three Wisconsin students have won Gates Millennium Scholarships. One of them was a student in my IB English 12 class this year. I'm very proud of her.

From Yesterday: No Luck

Imagine, if you will, that where you work, your boss is retiring in a few days.

Imagine, then, that the Big Boss--you know, the guy "downtown" or "at HQ"--has given no indication who will be the new boss, whether your workplace will continue its current programs, or even if your workplace may be dissolved.

Now imagine that Monday afternoon, the "Big Boss" called to say that he would meet with your staff, after work hours, on Wednesday afternoon; supposedly, this is to let you know what he's thinking about your future, and to listen to your concerns. You and your coworkers re-arrange your schedules and make other arrangements to prepare for the visit.

Flash forward to Wednesday: About three hours before the meeting, the "Big Boss" calls to cancel without giving a reason, confirming, in your mind, that he doesn't actually give a smelly rat's behind what you and your coworkers think or, even, thinks of you as anything other than ants in under his magnifying glass.

If you can imagine all of that, then you are getting close to imagining how I feel right now.

Flip Flopper!!!!!!!!

You just can't trust this flip-flopper. He's all over the place. He changes his mind more often than most of us change our socks.

I mean, six weeks ago, he said, "I feel strongly that there needs to be voluntary personal savings accounts as a part of the Social Security system. I mean, it's got to be a part of a comprehensive package."

Then last week, this spineless weasel said, "You can solve the solvency issue without personal accounts" in an interview with the Radio-Television News Directors Association.

I mean, if this guy can't even keep his story straight for two solid months, how can we trust him to be the leader of the free world? More at the Whiskey Bar.

Wisconsin Wednesday: FRAUD!!!!!!!!

Can you believe it? The vote tally was off by twenty-five percent, unfairly inflating one candidate to a whopping huge margin.

Any second now, I expect to see this guy and this guy and these guys and especially this guy all over the story, ferreting out the truth! We must uncover and prosecute all instances of fraud!

At least this guy is covering the story.

"We don't live in a lab."

                --Pedro Colón

I don't know if there's any more succinct a way to put it.

I have argued for years that the state and anti-public education forces have viewed Milwaukee as the Great Test Market. Our students are like New Coke to them, or Daewoo. Voucher Schools--They Keep the Hot Side Hot and the Cool Side Cool! We are the ant under their magnifying glass. The local rag champions them as "reformers" and conservative think tanks and foundations drown them in money as their reward.

Problem is, every market has losers as well as winners. Every school has real students, with real families, and real teachers. And every single one of them is sick and tired of it. The magnifying glass is burning us.

Pack it up, please.

(This was longer, and much more profane. It's been a bad week for me and "reform." With any luck, I'll have a good story for you tomorrow night.)

Too Funny

I have real blogging to do later. For now, though, it's okay to laugh again.

My Music (Meme) Monday

I've been memed again, this time it's from Joe at Shut Up and Teach. And it's musical!

1. Music Files on My Computer: 3188 files, 12.46 GB. And those are just the songs I like from the CDs I own.
   
2. Last CD bought: I bought both Rapture and Glencree from Peter Mulvey when we saw him live last month. Those were the two I have been missing, and I finally just went ahead and got them.
   
3. Song playing now: I actually am not listening, but let's fire up the ol' iTunes and see what pops up . . . Looks like it's "Killing the Blues," from Shawn Colvin's Cover Girl, one of the live recordings from that record. I think I also have a live version of this song by Chris Smither.
   
4. Five songs that mean a lot to me: I started with a list of nearly 40. Then I had to keep paring . . . So, in alpha order:
   • "16 Days," from Whiskeytown's Strangers Almanac. This kind of sums up my whole alt-country fetish--it stands in for the Jayhawks, Old 97s, Neko Case, Wilco, Son Volt, and so on. But I particularly love this song: the pedal steel, the harmony, the fiddle (I've often thought about placing a personal ad: Ryan Adams type seeks Caitlin Cary type. Under the "Musicians Wanted" section, of course).
     
   • "Been There, Done That," from Jon Svetkey, now of The Loomers (he's second from the right). This one is here to both cover that whole Boston/ new folk/ singer-songwriter slice of my music collection, but also because I learned more of my guitar style from Jon than anyone else. Sadly, few people have ever seen both me and Jon play to verify this.
     
   • "Gentle Arms of Eden," from Drum Hat Buddha, by Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer. Clearly, the most spiritual song ever written about evolution. Dave Carter here stands in for all the great singer-songwriters who left earth way too early (especially considering that people like David Lee Roth are still alive)--Townes van Zandt, Woody Guthrie, Stevie Goodman, Nick Drake, even all the way back to Joe Hill.
     
   • "May Day Cafe," from If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home By Now, by the Nields. This song should be number one on the pop charts forever. It's timeless, in both lyric and tune, with a great part for a horn section and a boucy hook. So this song covers all the alternative pop out there; even though the Nields do get folky most of the time, when the whole band was working (before that divorce, there), no one could do it better. That whole album is a masterpiece.
     
   • "Melissa," from the Allman Brothers Band's Eat a Peach. This one has to stand in for all the classic rock and southern rock of my childhood. (I've always liked Dickie Betts's stuff better than any of the Allmans'.) But count under this song everything I listen recorded before 1975.
     
     Honorable mentions go to "A Long and a Restless Day," by Bill Camplin; "The Ocean," by Dar Wiliams (beautifully covered by the aforemetioned Peter Mulvey on Ten Thousand Mornings); "3000 Miles," by Ellis Paul; "The Only Way," by Mark Erelli; "Badge," by Clapton/ Cream; "Waiting for the Sun," by the Jayhawks; "Crazy Dreams," the Lucy Kaplansky version; "King of all of the World," by the Old 97s; "Long Ride Home," by Patty Griffin; "Me and That Train," by Patty Larkin; "Holy Now," by Peter Mayer; "Midwife," by the again-mentioned Peter Mulvey; "A Crooked Line," by Darryl Purpose; "Transit," by Richard Shindell; "Like Bonsai," by Susan Werner.
   
   
5. Pass this on to five others: Well, I've already passed one meme on this week. But I can do it again!
   • Jason, something to worry about besides moving.
     
   • Joel, to get him to update his blog already.
     
   • Big Dan, something to worry about besides cancer.
     
   • Jonathan, to sneak in among the lovely photographs and Bush Jokes.
     
   • The other Scott, who may have been sad it was Scott S. who got memed last time.
     
     I was going to give it to Shari, but apparently she was the one who gave it to Joe . . .

Post below stolen in its entirety from Scott

VOTE Brewtown Politico for blog of the year.

The Headline Said "Barrett Proposes Expanding Choice"

And, before I read the article, I was, literally, planning to reprint my endorsement post from last spring with the whole thing in retroactive strikethrough. But then I remembered that the local paper has its own pro-voucher agenda and Tom Barrett is a lot smarter than that. And, as it turns out, I was right that the headline was quite misleading.

It's not that Barrett isn't proposing an expansion of the program; it's that he's proposing it in exchange for help for MPS:

Measures included in the proposal, which Barrett released to the Journal Sentinel on Saturday, are:

• A return to the state funding two-thirds of the costs of public schools, a commitment made in the 1990s but dropped in the last biennial budget to save money;
  
• Allowing Milwaukee Public Schools to count choice school students in state aid calculations, which would provide the school system an estimated $16.1 million a year to reduce its property tax levy;
  
• Raising the enrollment cap on participation in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program by 1,500 students per year over the next three years, or from 15% to about 19.5%;
  
Requiring private schools that receive vouchers to meet some accountability standards, such as accreditation, or through standardized testing of students.

"I felt it was extremely important that someone put out a marker as to what is important in Milwaukee Public Schools," Barrett said of his plan.

So, yes, tucked in among the four major elements of the mayor's plan is a note about "lifting the cap." That is hardly the major thrust of the plan, though.

I am willing to give my cautious support to this plan; I do not believe that this is time to "lift the cap"--type that phrase in the "Search" box above and see for yourself--but the other three items on Barrett's list are critically important, and, if politics is the art of compromise, it may be time to play politics here.

The two-thirds funding, for example, is a key element in the overall state-wide school funding scheme. For those of you unfamiliar with the history, about a dozen years ago, in a previous round of anti-tax hysteria (and deserved criticism of a regressive property tax), the legislature capped school districts' ability to raise money--we call it the revenue cap. As a reassurance to school districts that they would not go broke, the legislature--under Republican leadership--agreed to cover a full 2/3 of districts' costs through the more progressive income and sales taxes. For a decade--under Republican leadership--this remained in place, and school districts were able to get by under the caps. In the previous biennium--under Democratic leadership--that 2/3 figure was cut to about 65%, which was good for balancing the state budget, but less good for schools. This year, Governor Doyle--a Democrat who cut the aid last time--restored the 2/3 funding in his proposed budget for this biennium, now that the budget is closer to being in balance and the need for everyone to sacrifice is lessened.

Why am I stressing party affiliation here? Because some Republicans think that Doyle's and Barrett's calls to restore 2/3 funding are "bogus." Owen writes, thinking he's being funny, "This is straight off of the Doyle and WEAC (but I repeat myself) agenda.  Personally, I think that the arbitrary commitment to two-thirds state funding of K-12 is ridiculous, but in these tight budget times, it seems particularly ludicrous for the state to commit to such an arbitrary level of funding." One, he's not funny. Two, the 2/3 funding level, as we have seen, is not arbitrary: It was negotiated a dozen years ago to partially offset losses caused by the tax-saving revenue caps. Three, in "tight budgetary times," you set priorities: I think that our public schools should be a priority. And while a drop from 2/3 to 65% may not seem like much, for a district the size of MPS, that means a loss of 54 teachers and other cuts (in addition to the 130 teachers already cut, and the 600 teachers lost in the two previous years).

Even if the 2/3 funding doesn't happen, this can be offset (at least for MPS) with another aspect of Barrett's plan--the ability to count choice students in state aid calculations. If we were allowed to do that, we could reverse the cuts in classroom teachers (and librarians, counselors, other staff, and central office). These cuts have extended in the past three years well beyond MPS's actual declines in enrollment. I'll give you a personal example: The high school where I teach, three years ago, had about 1450 students. Next year, we are expecting about 1410--a loss of 40 students, which would mean a decrease, overall, of two or three teachers. However, in the last three years, we have not lost three teachers. Or five, or even ten. We have had to cut eighteen teaching positions. Our ninth- and tenth-grade English classes next year are being scheduled for forty or more students. And 40-1 is a common student-teacher ratio across MPS high schools. I doubt there's a voucher school anywhere in the city that tops 25-1.

Of course, Owen disapproves, calling this "perhaps the most idiotic part of Barrett’s proposal.  The Milwaukee Public Schools want to count the choice school kids in the state aid formulas so that the public schools can receive the money for the kids, but not have to actually educate them." But, of course, Owen, we do educate them. Many thousands of voucher students are in the program for just a year or two, and then it's our responsibility to try to get them back up to grade level. More importantly, hundreds of students every year get kicked out of voucher schools after the state checks have been cashed, and we have to teach them for free. And, of late, as voucher schools have been shut down for being unsafe, or because their principals buy Mercedes Benzes for themselves, or because the teachers stop coming to work because they haven't been paid in months, those students also end up in our classrooms with no money attached to them. I know--they've come to my classroom that way.

But perhaps the most important aspect of Barrett's proposal is the final one, adding accountability or accreditation standards. It never ceases to amaze me that the state has been forking over millions of dollars a year to a program that has zero accountability to the public. And by zero, I mean zero. There is absolutely nothing in the voucher authorization law that requires any voucher school to collect or report any kind of data regarding how students do. Given that the whole theory behind the voucher law is that we want to provide academic opportunities for students not served by MPS, there is a mind-boggling irony in knowing that we have no way to know that those opportunities are being provided at all. But that sits poorly with some people:

State Rep. Jason Fields (D-Milwaukee) blamed the push for additional accountability measures for voucher schools for preventing the parties from signing on. He said the accountability proposal is too unspecific to be worked out in time to be included in the Legislature's budget.

"We've agreed with the money that will come back to Milwaukee Public Schools as well as Milwaukee, we're all on board with that," Fields said. "The hang-up is this accountability piece, which I think the mayor should leave alone. . . . It's getting too greedy. You can't ask for the money and then want all these other items in this short of a timeframe."

Oh, boo hoo. The state has had fifteen bloody years to develop standards for voucher schools. Here's a thought: Why not just apply the Wisconsin Model Academic Standards that we spent years and millions of dollars developing for our public schools to follow? And we can test them with the WKCE that every public school in the state is required to give? Owen knows why not: "Most school choice supporters oppose mandatory tests and accreditation standards for many reasons.  Primarily, they oppose them because of the very real fear that more government intervention in the private schools will drive up costs and hurt education." What's that, you say? Public schools are more expensive because we have to give these stupid tests? Hm . . . I wonder how we could cut budgets . . .

At the very least, we can require accreditation; a quick googling found the WRISA, which already accredits 41 Milwaukee schools, many of which participate in the voucher program. How hard would it be to make every existing and new voucher school prove itself through an accreditation program such as WRISA's before letting them reel in that taxpayer money?

Finally, Owen opines that, "The Joint Finance Committee plans to take up school funding as early as next week.  Barrett’s proposal, with all of its vagaries and contentious issues, was offered today.  There is no time to properly parse through all of the aspects, debate them, and decide on details before the budget must be decided." Again, I say, boo hoo. The Republicans running the legislature make it a habit to do "legislation by stopwatch":

This troubling practice is on the rise in the Legislature--rushing bill drafts to public hearing before they have been formally introduced. Until they are introduced in a house of the Legislature, bill drafts traditionally are for legislators' eyes only. They are not posted on the Legislature's Web site or other public access points. A citizen has no way to know what the bill says, unless he or she has an inside connection to the bill's author. [. . .]

Another troubling practice is to vote bills out of committee by ballot, away from the committee table, rather than in the full light of public scrutiny. Far too many chairs of committees are taking votes on important legislation in secret by what is known in the Capitol as "paper ballot."

Legislators have a duty to debate the merits of legislation in the full light of day. We should be required to justify our reasons for passing bills and to defend our reasons for opposing them. [. . .]

Republican leaders cite "efficiency" as the reason for these practices. They say they want to make government more efficient. Speeding up the process may be a virtue when it comes to making toothpaste, but when it comes to making public policy speeding up the process tends to shut people out.

If they can fast-track lobbyists' bills, then they can fast-track Barrett's plan to help the school district in the state that most needs help--and attach some much-needed accountability for voucher schools while we're at it.

Forget cautious support--nicely done, Mr. Mayor.

I've been memed!

I do believe this is the first time ever that I've been tagged with one--and it's a book one. Ken from Milwaukee's Heraldblog hit me yesterday.

Number of books in my collection: Probably 500, maybe closer to 700.

Last book bought: Impossible Things, by Connie Willis, and The Butlerian Jihad, by Brian Herbet and Kevin J. Anderson. I'm off to Mexico in two weeks, and I need some good beach-reading SciFi.

Last book read: Nectar in a Sieve, by Kamala Markandaya. I don't know if it counts or not, since I read it before teaching it these last couple of weeks. Before that, I think it was an Ann Tyler.

Five books that mean a lot to me: This is tough, since there are so many that have left a significant impact on me at one point or another in my life. But I'll try to provide some from different phases of my life:

1. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving. This may be as close to the great American novel as I have read.
   
2. Tess of the D'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy. Lyrical, enthralling, exhilerating--it's Victorian soap opera and it remains one of my favorite books ever. I'm convinced it landed me my first teaching job: In the interview, they asked me what I liked to read, and I said Hardy; they asked if I was crazy.
   
3. Watchmen, by Alan Moore. Yes, I was a comics nerd when I was smaller. This is the series that opened up an entire world of comic-book possibilities to me. The story was utterly original--The Incredibles ripped it off, though much more upbeat--and every character had more pathos than all the New Teen Titans combined.
   
4. Beloved, Toni Morrison. The first time you read this book, it's like discovering that everything you ever knew about writing was wrong. Morrison turned everything inside-out and made me a better writer--and reader--in the process.
   
5. An American Childhood, Annie Dillard. I have a great love for literary non-fiction, for memoir in particular. Dillard does it as well or better than anybody, and in this text, I love the way the many short, diverse threads get teased into a whole cloth by the end.
   

And now it is my solemn responsibility to meme others. So I pass this on to some other Cheeseheads: Scott, Stacie, Ben, Tom, and FJ. I would give it to Paul, but he's on vacation.

Vote Fraud Update

I believe this is a good thing:

In the aftermath of an election with hundreds of fraudulent votes and a knot of other lingering problems, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett on Thursday appointed a 28-year police veteran to the city's top elections job.

Capt. Sue Edman would bring no election experience to the post, though she made a run for an open council seat in 2002. Instead, Barrett highlighted Edman's management experience in the Milwaukee Police Department, including assignments overseeing extensive records.

Edman, 51, would replace Lisa Artison, who resigned March 1 amid heavy criticism of how the city handled the Nov. 2 presidential election. [. . .]

Several aldermen noted that, as a police officer, Edman is likely to take a harsh view of any efforts to defraud the system. She was described as bright, direct and businesslike, but not characterized as gruff or as a harsh taskmaster.

Artison was clearly not up to the task (a mere four months lead time before the September federal primary didn't help), and made what was probably a mess into a disaster.

In other news, the state's contract with Accenture is still on:

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) and others sued the state over the $13.9 million contract, saying that Elections Board Executive Director Kevin Kennedy did not have the authority to sign the Accenture deal without the board's explicit approval.

Circuit Judge William C. Foust concluded that [Kennedy could not commit the board to that deal alone, but he found that the board's eventual ratification of the contract was adequate approval of the deal.

Kennedy signed the contract last year. The board voted to affirm the deal in January, just weeks after being sued.
Foust also found that the board had given proper public notice of its plans for the statewide voter list, which under federal law must be operational by Jan. 1. [. . .]

Although the case focused on the narrow legal issue of Kennedy's authority, the critics who brought the case have charged that Accenture has a history of missing deadlines and overrunning its budgets. Accenture is seeking to reopen negotiations with the state to extend deadlines.

"I can't think of a greater sign we need to stop this now," Pocan said of Accenture's request. "Kevin Kennedy has made a bad decision, and the only decision worse would be to stick by that."

A month or so back, I wondered aloud about how "a single, unelected official can direct millions of dollars to an Enron-accounting, off-shore tax-evading, under-FEC-investigation, Apartheid-supporting, Wisconsin-ripping-off company to compile that most precious of resources, our state voter lists." I still wonder all of those things, even if it is technically legal.

You want to talk about a mess turning into a disaster? This will be it.

Friday Random Ten

UPDATE: Norbizness makes it serious.

The More Commercial than Usual Edition

1. "Empty Pages" Traffic from The Very Best of
2. "Paint Box" Pink Floyd from Early Singles
3. "Stretched on Your Grave" Peter Mulvey from Glencree
4. "Crocodile Man" Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer from Tanglewood Tree
5. "Breathe" Willy Porter from High Wire Live
6. "Superman" Lazlo Bane from Scrubs Soundtrack
7. "Rant and Roar" Great Big Sea from Rant and Roar
8. "Secrets" Sons of the Never Wrong from One if by Hand
9. "5:05" Kate McDonnell from Where the Mangoes Are
10. "Ants Marching" Dave Matthews Band from Remember Two Things