Buffet Buzz

By Keith R. Schmitz

Warren Buffet's op-ed in this morning's New York Times -- Stop Coddling the Super Rich -- has been burning up twitter since it appeared last night on-line, being tweeted 37,000 times. This makes both the title and its author trending topics all day long.

Looks like the Tea Party and anyone else who supports sacrifices on the altar of trickle down economics have run out of arguments, except of course this guy who has no idea about what he's talking about.

My Bachmann question

by folkbum

If you think back to 2008--I know! it was forever ago!--one of the biggest knocks against Barack Obama from the leading intellectual (and militantly incandescent) lights on the conservative side was that he was a "community organizer" with a thin political resumé. That was A) bunk and B) immaterial; people with thinner resumés have served admirably and life-long politicians (*cough*ScottWalker*cough*) can easily blow it.

So here's Michele Bachmann, who is, depending on who you ask, either the current frontrunner for the GOP nomination or a close second or third. Either way, conservatives, notably the tea-partiers who blasted Obama's lack of experience, love her.

But what's Bachmann's life story? She was, of course, a community organizer in Minnesota, organizing a group of paranoiacs afraid of UN domination against Minnesota's state educational standards. (Before taking up a life of anti-gubmint activism, she was a revenuer at the IRS). She has but 11 years in elected politics, in the Minnesota state senate and the US House.

I bring this up, of course, because that's actually a thinner resumé than Obama had. Though Obama's years in elected politics were identical to Bachmann's (depending on whether you count the US Senate as greater than the House), Obama's law degree is from a real school (Harvard, where he was on Law Review), not Oral Roberts U. And Obama taught constitutional law at one of the nation's top law schools among all of his community organizing. And yet, A) no one who now loves Bachmann but blasted Obama's supposedly-skimpy background seems now to care about such things, and B) it is not a line of attack taken by anyone on the serious (or fringe, that I can see) Left against Bachmann (proving, again, that we on the left are the more reasonable people).

So here's my Bachmann question: Will the GOP and the tea party turn on Bachmann for her inexperience, which would be the consistent with their previous arguments? Or will they finally admit that Obama was qualified to be president?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the answer to both is no, but I would be happy to be proven wrong.

Iowa Straw Poll

by folkbum

Just moments ago, President Romney called Michele Bachmann to congratulate her on her straw poll win.

Now on to the important stuff: How many games ahead in their division will the Brewers be at the end of the season?

FriTunes: This weekend's entertainment

by folkbum

Vote Today!

by folkbum

Assuming you live in one of the affected areas. Best of luck to Pasch, King, Schilling, Clark, Moore, and Nusbaum!

The 39,000 Jobs Hoax

By Keith R. Schmitz

The Walker administration and the six Republican state senators involved in this week’s recall election are throwing out the claim that the changes they have brought to state government have led to the creation of 39,000 new jobs. The media is allowing them to make that brag as well.

The six GOP targets have to sell this idea. Their jobs are on the line and if there is a metric people are looking at for all politicians right now, it is job creation. During last week’s debate in Menomonee Falls hardly ten minutes went by without Alberta Darling bringing up these job numbers and how wonderful their programs are.

For this discussion, let’s not talk about the quality of these jobs. After all, Walker chased away what would have been 5,000 good paying jobs with a future connected with extending the high-speed rail line before he even took office.

The question here is how can Walker, Darling, et al tell you that they helped create these jobs, when the realities of business tell you otherwise.

He Swears the Jobs are His

So we are to believe that the moment Scott Walker raised his right hand to take the oath of office for Governor, those jobs started popping up like mushrooms?

Usually businesses look for new hires when they have something for them to do. It would be mind stretching to think that just because someone is a fanatical Walker supporter that they would be bringing people on just because Scottie is at the helm. Not these hardnosed captains of industry.

For existing businesses, new faces generally start appearing only after a business sees a rise in revenue thanks to customers walking through the door or the sales force putting orders on the books. The evaluation process often takes months for a number of reasons and even then it’s not like people just start popping up, because recruitment takes some time.

Sure there can be new businesses opening their doors but even the planning for those is months in the works.

Origin of the Jobs?

The point is that the Walker/Darling/GOP assertion of creating 39,000 new jobs since January is ludicrous, given the way business works. It is also ludicrous because an administration has to do something to earn the credit for job creation.

A couple of times during the debates, Darling mentioned that 85% of Wisconsin business leaders said that Wisconsin is heading in the right direction. Make that 85% of the membership of WMC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party.

Now if anyone would be hiring because of giddiness over having Walker in office, it would be them. It would be interesting to find out how many of these companies have brought on new employees since they are among the state’s very largest companies, though we would never know when they actually started to think about adding these jobs.

Where Credit Is Due

The GOP crowd may not like to see this, but just about all these jobs probably began their gestation period back during the Doyle administration, with a big help from the Obama stimulus. There are in fact several companies here in Milwaukee that were able to launch new ventures thanks to stimulus funds, ventures that included high paying jobs.

Again, raising your right hand doesn’t count. In reality there was nothing Walker and the GOP did until he signed the budget back in late June. So even then, the clock didn’t start ticking until ink hits paper, so we are still many months out before we know if the plan works.

In between was the signing of the so-called budget repair bill, not a big booster to business. In fact it could be argued the other way. State employees make up 18% of the state work force, and with this large of population saying good bye to a large part of their salary; a number of stores, restaurants and other businesses will see a significant drop off in sales, especially in cities that have large concentrations of public employees such as university towns and places the have correctional facilities.

Let’s get back to the timeline. Walker signs the budget in late June, and any job creation they could take credit for would be legitimately in Fall.

May Not Be a Merry Christmas

But even with the holidays coming, the job picture may not be so rosy. In fact there are reports that this year parents have not let loose with back to school spending.

By then the recalls will be history, but we have some big events to look forward, mostly the prospect of a Walker recall, and his buddies in Congress have not been too helpful.

With the new Congress sworn in, there was as some pundits put it, “a lack of interest for more stimulus.” For many like our US Senator Ron Johnson who proclaimed that “the stimulus didn’t create a single job”, the country is finding out what the real impact of the stimulus is by its very absence. Johnson and his cohort ripped the tubes out of the patient just as the economy was recovering.

Most recently there is the horrible debt ceiling agreement. The right wing loves to assert that government jobs are not real jobs. The problem is that these people are being paid real money, which flows into the real economy and cut off that flow, the economy suffers. Many economists are predicting the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs once the debt ceiling agreement kicks into action.

Many of these economists are saying that extreme cutting is the last thing this economy needs. And we will soon find out if they are right. That may be by the end of the year, and that’s not good news for Walker.

There is speculation about when the long anticipated recall of Walker kicks into gear, ranging from around the end of 2011 to the 2012 general election. Either way, if the double dip recession hits, probably nothing Walker has done will avert it. Worse, Walker’s budget shredded the social safety net in Wisconsin, amplifying the misery – and heightening the anger against him.

If things play out, it will be Walker who will be joining the ranks of the unemployed, needing to get his first real job since college.

This is of course known in the trade as poetic justice, except we will be the ones paying the price.

FriTunes

by folkbum

Been a while since I did one of these.

Alberta Darling: $250,000 a year is not rich

by folkbum

She said that. Really!

This is the same woman who said teachers should be grateful for last spring's budget repair bill, which for most teachers meant a 6-12% cut in pay.

For her reference, people earning $250,000 a year are in the top 1% of households in this country, and in the top 1/2 of 1% in this state. It is five times Wisconsin's median household income (which itself is already higher than an average teacher's salary) and ten times Wisconsin's per capita income. I worked as a teacher for seven years before my lifetime salary first topped $250,000.

In close vote, MTEA declines additional concessions

by folkbum

In a letter emailed to teachers today (which you can read here), MTEA president Bob Peterson gave the results of the survey:

The survey showed that 52.4% of the membership opposed additional concessions and 47.5% favored them. Based on the results and the many thoughtful comments, the Executive Board decided to not pursue any additional concessions.

Considering that last fall's vote, which involved far larger concessions than those considered this time around, was overwhelming in favor, I think it's clear that Milwaukee teachers feel first, that we're not opposed to giving back, but we also recognize that we have given quite a lot.

But the closeness of this week's vote suggests that there is still room for compromise in the future, if we ever get the right to bargain collectively back. Currently, you might recall, it's against the law for the union and the district to meet and mutually discuss the employment conditions of Milwaukee's teachers.

I am disappointed by the vote, as I have been arguing for months that there are things teachers can give up that would save the district money without significant impact--a furlough day or two, dumping the "sweetener" supplemental pension--for both political and practical reasons. The superintendent--whose response you can read too--is not the enemy here; you can check the archives at his blog to see he agrees with me, and the union, in more diplomatic terms of course, about where the fault lies. Peterson's letter is pretty explicit, in fact, that a lot of teachers who might have voted yes commented that they didn't trust the current Republican leadership in the state and instead voted to protect themselves.

That right there is perhaps the worst damage that Walker and co. have done to the relationship between public employees and their employers. Not that long ago we willing made concessions to help the district and students, but now we feel we have to protect ourselves instead. Thanks, GOP.

Mordecai Lee—A descent into hollow reasoning

via mal

Mordecai Lee, Prof of Gov Affairs
UW-Milwaukee

'That 's sort of what this fight in Wisconsin is all about.'

The Rachel Maddow Show featured a superb guest host in Melissa Harris-Perry Tuesday night. 

Unfortunately, no one warned the host or her producers about Mordecai Lee, professor of Government Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Lee was a guest on a segment about Scott Walker's voter suppression-voter ID-close-the-DMV-offices.

Lee is notorious for, and let's be honest, acting like he is a dolt.

He's not. But Lee's commitment to veering into nihilism should the rational method indict the Republican Party is infamous.

A la the Washington Post editorial page, Lee pretends to believe that facts, logic and data show that all political parties are the same; and holding any one party accountable for its lies is missing the insight Lee has on the American political process.

Enlightening the viewers of the Rachel Maddow Show, Lee offers that in Wisconsin, "Partisan politics is a contact sport."

Brilliant.

An indignant Melissa Harris-Perry asked Lee about Scott Walker's closing down DMV offices right after signing the Voter ID law in an effort to make voting more difficult.

Lee said of Walker's DMV scheme: That's a "smooth move."

Asked if Republicans stand a chance in Wisconsin unless they make these draconian Voter ID laws, Lee responds with blather.

So, Harris-Perry presses him, asking Lee for comment on the lower-d, democratic value of obstructing rather than facilitating voters.

Here was Lee's great chance to tell the world that both major political parties are equally guilty of betraying democracy, national and Wisconsin Republican voter suppression programs aside.

Lee did not disappoint.

Said Lee: Since the civil rights movement era, "Every argument about enfranchisement or disenfranchisement has really been about partisan advantage. I don't necessarily think the Democrats have just, purely clean hands. Every party wants to gain an advantage. Democrats want lower-income and younger people to be able to vote. That 's sort of what this fight in Wisconsin is all about."

Got that? Republicans are engaged in a massive voter disenfranchisement scheme; but Democrats do not have "clean hands" because they want to enfranchise voters. Both parties are mere analogues of each other in the strange logic employed by Mordecai Lee.

Today's debt ceiling conundrum

by folkbum

While the conservatives in my comments section are busily prattling on about how Obama is a front for the Chi-coms, or something, here's where we are today. Dem Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is proposing a debt-ceiling deal that gives Republicans everything they have asked for including things they agreed to in the Biden talks and voted for in the Ryan Budget. Yet GOP House Speaker John Boehner is putting forward a plan that is the single thing that Obama has said he couldn't support--a short-term deal that forces us through all of this again in four months.

This is my question for anyone who likes what Republicans are up to: How is it possible to support a party whose sole purpose anymore seems literally to be saying no to anything Democrats propose, even when those proposals are exactly what Republicans say they want?

E-mails Reveal Randy Hopper Coached Mistress on Scoring State Job

Randy Hopper has denied helping his mistress score a job in the Scott Walker administration. But e-mails obtained by Eye on Wisconsin reveal Hopper advises his mistress "might congratulate [Keith Gilkes, Scott Walker's chief of staff]" on Walker's victory, among other career assistance for Valarie Cass' getting a state job as Walker told Wisconsin, 'we're broke'. Turned out to be good advice for the communications specialist - girlfriend

By Cory Liebmann at Eye on Wisconsin

In March we learned that state Senator Randy Hopper (R-Unknown) left his wife and filed for divorce last year. According to his wife he had taken up with 20-something Republican operative Valerie Cass. It didn't take long for additional reports to surface showing that this girlfriend was hired by the Walker administration under questionable circumstances and at a questionable pay rate.

Some have wondered if Randy Hopper played a role in getting his girlfriend the taxpayer funded job. A number of newly obtained emails now provide a closer view of some of his involvement.

Based on a November 30th email Hopper and Cass wasted no time in trying to score a state job for her.

See the full report at Cory Liebmann at Eye on Wisconsin.

Bay View Middle and High School listening session August 3

by folkbum

My regular readers know that I teach at Bay View Middle and High School (née Bay View High School). Which, while not MPS's best high school, is in fact what you might call the "best of the rest":

Five Milwaukee comprehensive high schools have some sort of entrance requirement, and thus, naturally, have higher scores on the state test, Wisconsin Knowledge Concepts Examination (WKCE). Those schools are King, Reagan, Riverside, Milwaukee HS of the Arts, and Milwaukee School of Languages.

A really successful school does not rely on sorting students but takes the students it is given and provides them with the best education possible.

Until recently, Hamilton High School called itself “the best of the rest” having the highest scores on the WKCE of the high schools not screening its incoming students. This year Bay View High School passed Hamilton on the WKCE. Hamilton did not slip so much as Bay View moved ahead being the only MPS high school to show measurable gains on the WKCE.

I can't take credit for this--as a teacher of juniors and seniors, they've already taken the tests whence these scores come. However, I do care about making sure that Bay View continues to do well and improve.

MPS itself seems to have the same idea: The new superintendent is pretty keen on Bay View, and seems willing to invest in the program. There is a new, young and optimistic principal coming in, and the new Board member representing Bay View, Meagan Holman, has made keeping Bay View strong a priority. In addition, there seems to be a new interest among neighborhood parents in getting involved and improving the school.

Which brings us to the listening session (the link is to a facebook even page). It's one of the first steps in the process of figuring out where to go next with Bay View. This is not a discussion about shutting it down and starting over, or anything like that; rather, it's about what to add to the existing success--the district's strongest construction program, music, Project Lead the Way, a growing AP program, and so on--to ensure lasting success at the school. What are your ideas? What's missing? We need to hear your voice.

Bay View Middle and High School Listening Session
Wednesday, August 3, 6-8 PM
BVMHS Auditorium
2751 S. Lenox St., in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood

America's going Galt

by folkbum

I found this list of things that will happen immediately upon passing the debt ceiling deadline August 2 interesting, as it apparently comprises the full list of what makes Ayn Rand's America great:

• You just cut the IRS and all the accountants at Treasury, which means that the actual revenue you have to spend is $0.
• The nation's nuclear arsenal is no longer being watched or maintained
• The doors of federal prisons have been thrown open, because none of the guards will work without being paid, and the vendors will not deliver food, medical supplies, electricity, etc.
• The border control stations are entirely unmanned, so anyone who can buy a plane ticket, or stroll across the Mexican border, is entering the country. All the illegal immigrants currently in detention are released, since we don't have the money to put them on a plane, and we cannot actually simply leave them in a cell without electricity, sanitation, or food to see what happens.
• All of our troops stationed abroad quickly run out of electricity or fuel. Many of them are sitting in a desert with billions worth of equipment, and no way to get themselves or their equipment back to the US.
• Our embassies are no longer operating, which will make things difficult for foreign travelers
• No federal emergency assistance, or help fighting things like wildfires or floods. Sorry, tornado people! Sorry, wildfire victims! Try to live in the northeast next time!
• Housing projects shut down, and Section 8 vouchers are not paid. Families hit the streets.
• The money your local school district was expecting at the October 1 commencement of the 2012 fiscal year does not materialize, making it unclear who's going to be teaching your kids without a special property tax assessment.
• The market for guaranteed student loans plunges into chaos. Hope your kid wasn't going to college this year!
• The mortgage market evaporates. Hope you didn't need to buy or sell a house!
• The FDIC and the PBGC suddenly don't have a government backstop for their funds, which has all sorts of interesting implications for your bank account.
• The TSA shuts down. Yay! But don't worry about terrorist attacks, you TSA-lovers, because air traffic control shut down too. Hope you don't have a vacation planned in August, much less any work travel.
• Unemployment money is no longer going to the states, which means that pretty soon, it won't be going to the unemployed people.

And, even better, Ayn Rand's America stops sending all aid to states, so within a month or so after the shutdown, everything from schools to hospitals to public safety folds up, too. It will be awesome!

The easy answer, obviously, is the kind of clean debt-ceiling vote that has happened 80-something times in the last 90 years, including many times that Eric Cantor, John Boehner, Paul Ryan and the rest of the GOP Randroid caucus uncomplainingly approved. It would take five minutes.

The less easy answer is to take advantage of the fact that real interest on government debt right now is negative: We can more than take a clean vote, but do a whole additional stimulus, which can simply be a big payday to struggling states (or interest-free loans to struggling states). This is also a no-brainer, which make it kind of ironic that the GOP will never let it happen.

Sole Latino Wisconsin Rep, Zamarripa, Hits Partisan Redistricting

 State Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa  

Virtually no local, public input; Latino community excluded
Milwaukee—Wisconsin's only Latino member of the state legislature blasted the Republican redistricting plan Senate Bill 148 (SB 148) expressing outrage that the scheme excluded public input on both the local level and communities of interest including Latinos.

"Seven days ago only one hearing was held on this massive plan that impacts every single citizen of our great state," said State Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa (D-Milwaukee, 8th Assembly District). "The GOP leadership allowed virtually no public input and passed this plan through both houses of the Legislature only one week after the public hearing."

Additionally, members of the Latino community in Milwaukee, who were able make it to Madison, on short notice expressed anger and disgust with the GOP redistricting process, said Zamarripa. "One Latino activist, Juan Carlos Ruiz, spoke passionately about how Latino’s of all political stripes came together on the local level to work on redistricting but were completely left out of the state process."

In order to satisfy their own thirst for a partisan monopoly, the majority party has thrown Wisconsin’s growing Latino community under the bus," said Zamarripa.

"On Saturday, it was reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Governor Walker wanted to work with Democrats," said Zamarripa. "A veto of the blatantly partisan SB 148 is an excellent starting point if the Governor is serious about working with Democrats."

Hopper Scandal Playing Loudly in Fondy

Randy Hopper's Girlfriend, not daughter

via mal - Sen. Randy 'Bed' Hopper's (R-Fond du Lac) affair with a 20-something former state Senate committee staffer and GOP lobbyist is playing very badly in Fond du Lac.

It's the family values hypocrisy that grates on folks, apolitical types with whom I spoke the last week, especially women.

Add to that the fact that Scott Walker's top ally is targeting Wisconsin working families, and it's easy to see how every family is feeling betrayed by, and let's be honest, a craven liar.

One Wisconsin Now is raising money to run the ad below, as the Greater Wisconsin Political Fund is mass-mailing a first-rate piece merging the cheating Hopper with the tax-cheating Hopper who, it bears noting, voted to target the middle class, health care and education while getting his girlfriend [while he was still married] a tax-payer-funded $40,000-plus state job.

Monday Morning

by folkbum

Every summer I misunderestimate how much work the summer job is--that's right, kiddos, this public-school-teacher thing, despite the ads, does not actually feature summers on the yacht with champale and caviar--and because of that, I haven't been much use to you, dear readers.

But two notes: One, I accept full blame for the US Women's National Team's loss yesterday. I was able to watch exactly one World Cup match this summer, and it was that one, so obviously, I jinxed it.

Two, remember this week as the GOP wrings its hands in despair that Congress raised the debt ceiling for St. Ronald de Tampico seventeen times in the 1980s. Seventeen.

Congrats to all the REAL Democrats advancing tonight

by folkbum

in the recall elections. You can support them financially here.

Also, congrats to Chris Taylor, who will be representing the 48th in the Assembly; and condolences to Beloit classmate Vicky Selkowe, who worked hard and would have made a great rep.

FriTunes: Concealed Carry edition

by folkbum

Eilen Jewell's got a new record out:



Also: Mark Erelli's released an EP to benefit the town of Monson, MA, where he recorded his "Memorial Hall" record and which was hit hard by last months' tornadoes. Highly recommended.

[the title of this post is the sound of my head asploding]

by folkbum

My klout score is higher than James Wigderson's, so I suppose I could just let this slide and try to sleep tonight with an asploded head. But instead, let's catalogue the ways he gets wiggy with the facts instead. (A primer on this fisking can be found in this post.)

• [W]hen MPS asked the union to make concessions in the pension plan to mitigate the loss of state and federal aid, the teachers union refused.
  False. The district knew federal stimulus funds were drying up, and they predicted that a likely Republican majority in Madison would trim the expected increase in per-student funding. So they asked the union to make concessions and we did.
• Protecting the benefits of the union’s most senior members will result in the unemployment of 200 of the union’s members with less seniority.
  False. It is the near trillion-dollar gutting of public education--and shared revenue and other programs--by the GOP that is resulting in pink slips all over the state.
• Last October, at the height of the race for governor, Thornton and the teachers union reached a tentative agreement on a contract through 2013. [. . .] Due to the health care contribution and a freeze in teacher pay for the first year, the estimated savings over the next two years was $50 million.
  Again, a mangling of the facts. Base pay was frozen in that contract for two years, 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. The savings over 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 will be nearly $95 million. And in expectation that the federal money will end, a lot of positions funded by that were set to be eliminated. That's part of why there were 1000+ positions eliminated, but only about 500 announced layoffs.
• [T]he contract agreement was at a time of a great fiscal crisis at the state level.
  Additionally false. It has been pretty well documented that Wisconsin is not, in fact, broke. If we were broke, why would Scott Walker and the GOP be offering hundreds of millions billions in tax breaks?
• Now the school board and Dr. Thornton find themselves asking the teachers union to agree to the same pension contributions asked for by Walker. These contributions would be at the same level WEAC President Mary Bell said were never a problem, 5.8% of the teachers’ salaries. Of course the MTEA said no to Thorton’s request.
  First, let's dispense with the newspeak. It's not a new pension contribution--the pension contribution doesn't change, as it is set by state law at 11.6%. (The state likes to guarantee minimum income to its top-notch pension program.) It's a 5.8% salary cut, is what it is, and I won't call it anything else. It says something about what Wiggy and his ilk believe about their own position that they lack the guts to come right out and say they think teachers are paid too much. Man up, James. Just say it.
  
  But second, the union did not say no. The union said it would be happy to negotiate a salary give back once the power to negotiate was restored by the legislature.
  
  For as much as Wiggy insinuates that unions should have known collective bargaining would disappear, he forgets that, you know, we were all watching, and it wasn't that long ago. No one, not a single legislator or administration employee, said a single word about making collective bargaining between public employees and their employers illegal. Period.
  
  Further, when Mary Bell and other union leaders said unions would agree to the salary cuts, they said that's why you don't need to eliminate collective bargaining. If unions are allowed to sit down with employers and hammer out a deal, they will. Instead, the GOP ignored Bell and others making that offer--we'll agree to cuts so stop the attack on bargaining--and now they and Wiggy expect unions to still fold. There is a response to that I'd like to offer, but this is a family blog. (Though I will say, Wiggy is Gop in the puppy story.)
• In the case of the Milwaukee teachers union, this is the same union that in 2010 was willing to let 480 teachers go rather than switch health care plans.
  Switching health care plans would not have saved the kind of money the simple-minded media suggested it would. In addition, almost every single one of those teachers was recalled, after Dr. Thornton took a look at real needs and the actual budget available. He stood up for teachers when his predecessor would not.
• This is also the same teachers union still fighting to get taxpayer-funded Viagra included in their prescription drug plans.
  This is just a bald lie.
• Surely some teachers [sic] jobs could be saved if they privatized food service, painting and other services and cut down on the Administrative bloat, for example.
  False again. MPS food service runs a surplus, for example, and the budget this year makes larger cuts to administration, relatively, than to teaching.
• Or, maybe MPS will see this as a good reason to sell off a few empty buildings.
  What, does Wiggy not check the daily? Is his Bing broken? MPS is well on the way. In addition, the cost of those excess buildings is a pittance--barely ten teachers' worth.
  
  Oh, and the title of Wigderson's piece:
• Most MPS layoffs could have been avoided.
  Why yes, yes they could have. But Wiggy's looking in the wrong place for blame. The GOP misdirected voters for an entire campaign season about their intentions for schools, for unions, and for the middle class in Wisconsin. He can't bring himself to be honest about that, either.

So that's, what? nine solid bullet points of wigged out facts? I almost ran out of fingers. But I have one left for the liars and GOP willing to screw the next generation's education and this generation's public servants. Again, it's a family blog, so I won't say which one. Especially because, with my head asploded and all, it's pretty hard to talk to these liars at all.

But those mooching teachers have it way too good

by folkbum

The bottom line: It’s not exactly easy street for our $250,000-a-year family.

Seriously, that's the conflicting message of the political right these days: It's possible to be near poverty at a quarter mil a year, but that uppity mid-career teacher needs a 12% cut off her $45k salary.

Alternatively, you could put it this way: The political right weeps for a family living beyond its means in Naperville, IL (notably pleading to keep their taxes low, not suggesting they move to Aurora), but insists that we cut Medicare before the debt monster kills us all.

Seriously, MJS

by folkbum

It should not take until paragraph 34 out of 38 to reveal that the headline of a story is a lie, or at the very least, an extremely one-sided take on an ambiguous issue.

Also: The advertising skin up all day yesterday made your website utterly unreadable.

Happy Birthday, Boy

by folkbum

Apparently, we all missed capper's blogiversary the other day.

4th of JulyTunes

by folkbum



If you prefer good alt-country to local fireworks displays, head down to Shank Hall for this show. Locals Semi-Twang are opening, and they are a gem on their own.

Some stuff, we did know. It's what no one knew that is killing us.

by folkbum

Here's a comment from the thread below on MPS layoffs that encapsulates a common sentiment and that will serve as a good entree into this post, which I have been writing in my head for the last week or so:

Why not point the finger at yourself, the union, AND MPS administration? You KNEW there were going to be changes. The union KNEW there were going to be changes. MPS admin KNEW there were going to be changes. Instead of waiting to find out what they were, a contract was signed.

The background to this comment is this: My employer, the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) and its teachers, represented by our union, the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association (MTEA), have spent much of the last decade in contract-negotiation deadlock. We had a contract that expired on June 30, 2009, and for all of the 2009-2010 school year, we worked without a contract at all. The previous superintendent and his labor negotiators were being quite putzy about the whole thing--phone calls would go unreturned, negotiations would be canceled at the last minute, mutually-agreed deadlines would fly by with nary a peep from the MPS side of Vliet St. Plus, summer 2010 brought an ugly round of teacher layoffs.

In 2010, the Board hired a new superintendent, who came in July 1 intent upon having more of a clean slate to start his tenure, and who directed his people to get down to business and settle the contract. In October, the union and the district came to an agreement, and teachers and the Board ratified it soon after. This contract included many concessions by the teachers, including a pay freeze for two years (and, therefore, no back pay), a new drug plan, and contributions to health insurance costs. The magic benefit-to-salary ratio, which is the right's favorite talking point against MTEA, fell by nearly 7.5%. The contract was to cover not just 2009-2011, the two years that would have been covered if we'd settled by June 30, 2009, but also 2011-2013, which meant neither side had to immediately turn right back around and start re-negotiating for another contract.

Those of you with a rudimentary sense of chronology will be able to figure out that all of this, except the votes to approve the contract by both sides, happened prior to the 2010 election, in which Republicans won a majority of both state houses and the governorship.

Now, what the comment above refers to is the notion that MPS and MTEA should have known that "changes" would be coming to education in Wisconsin based on the November election results. There are a number of honest responses to this, the most basic of which is that neither the union nor the district had as its top concern the politics of the election; both sides simply wanted to not have to worry about having a lack of a contract over their heads.

But it would be dishonest to say that there was no attention paid to the politics. By October, when the agreement was reached, it was pretty clear that the election was not going to be good for schools. Tom Barrett had little chance of winning, the "enthusiasm gap" was real enough to mean that Democrats were better than even to lose one or both state houses. So you know what? Both sides, MPS and MTEA, tried to protect themselves from what they knew was coming.

Because we did, in fact, know things in October 2010. Scott Walker had an education platform, and it was this:

• Establish benchmarks for students in K-3 and hold back students who can’t read by the end of third grade.
• Evaluate teachers based on five criteria: 1) Planning and preparation, 2) Classroom and environment, 3) Quality of instruction, 4) Professional responsibilities, and 5) Yearly student progress. The overall ratings will be “ineffective,” “needs improvement,” “satisfactory” or “exemplary.” Teachers with two years of ineffective ratings will lose their teaching license. Those with satisfactory and exemplary scores will be eligible for bonuses.
• Reinstate the Qualified Economic Offer and tie it to revenue caps.
• Consider local economic factors in settling contract disputes.
• Facilitate local efforts to post school expenditures online.
• Allow school districts to enroll in the state health care plan.
• Remove the enrollment and eligibility caps on Milwaukee’s School Choice program and virtual charter schools statewide.

That was it. That is a complete and accurate summary of what Scott Walker was campaigning on in the fall of 2010 (see it on his campaign site too). In addition, there was a pretty good sense that Republicans would not follow the then-current statutory annual increase of ~$250 per student in funding across the state.

So when teachers went into the final stages of negotiation, we protected ourselves against the changes that we reasonably expected were coming: The contract maintains evaluation procedures and seniority rules, even though it changes some of the salary-advancement requirements. The contract freezes salary and lowers benefit costs, so it makes a possible switch back to the QEO more doable in the future. And it included changes to the health insurance program that makes joining the state health care plan less attractive for the administration.

At the same time as we teachers protected ourselves, the district wrung concessions from teachers that meant it could spend less in 2011-2012 than the then-statutory increase would have allowed. Figuring that as long as the increase was positive, even if it weren't $250 per student, the district could start the year on a sound footing with few if any layoffs--unlike what they had just gone through in the summer of 2010.

So what drops in February 2011? Not, absolutely not what's listed above. Walker's education platform did not say word one about slashing teacher salary by mandating minimum pension and insurance contributions. Walker did not suggest at all during the campaign that such a thing was coming. And the same is true for eliminating collective bargaining over everything but salary, limiting salary increases to the rate of inflation, and dissolving the unions and the protections that they provide. Not one single word of that was breathed during Walker's campaign--something that Walker has admitted to, since he is not so stupid that he would kill his chances of getting elected.

Further, Walker and Republicans absolutely did not campaign on slashing education spending statewide by nearly a billion dollars a year. I can guarantee you that if the GOP had walked around last fall telling parents and local school boards that they would be gutting the funds provided to schools, they would have lost in a landslide.

So in October of 2010, MPS and MTEA were looking at a contract that was going on two years expired, and both sides agreed that was too long. They were looking at specific and credible campaign promises from Republicans that would mean changes to the way they did business, and both sides agreed to solutions that addressed those promises.

In short, when the comment above asks why we didn't wait another four or six months or eight months until all the changes were settled law, we all, both sides, wanted to be proactive. We negotiated and approved a contract that not only saved the taxpayers money but accounted for the changes to education law that were promised to us by the governor-elect and his GOP majority.

And, worse, had we waited, we would not have been able to negotiate a contract at all! There was no reason to believe that once we did sign the contract, it would suddenly become illegal to re-open the contract for negotiation or work on a contract for 2013-2015 and beyond that responded to any additional changes that may come along. (It remains to be seen whether the contracts signed by other municipalities and districts after the effective date written in the budget repair bill can be challenged in court. The state's Department of Administration offered guidance that implementation of the changes should not begin until July 1, but when the state Supreme Court allowed the bill to take effect it did not change the language of the bill.)

So yes, commenters, we did know that there would be changes. And we accounted for them. It's what we didn't know--what no one knew until February 2011 because Walker and his minions deliberately hid their plans--that is killing MPS and causing additional layoffs. It's what we didn't know that is causing layoffs in districts and municipalities all across the state, and severe cutbacks in services. It's what no one knew that caused an uproar heard around the globe, nearly five months of daily protests at the Capitol, and unprecedented recall elections in all corners of the state.

So why should we point fingers at ourselves? MPS and MTEA negotiated $100 million in taxpayer savings over two years, something that under normal circumstances would be huge. But in the face of the ambush Scott Walker and the GOP sprang on the state of Wisconsin, Walker supporters have no defense left except to blame the victims of that ambush. Very classy.

--

Additionally: Another commenter in that thread asks why MPS couldn't have had our own "Kaukauna Miracle," noting the story that the Kaukauna school district used Walker's "tools" to create a surplus in the face of state-funding cuts. First, read Briane Pagel's brilliant dissection of this "miracle." It turns out that it's pretty easy to claim a surplus after you layoff a big chunk of staff first. UPDATED TO ADD: Economist Jake Formerly Of The LP has a smart take, too.

Second, realize that the fix was always in for Milwaukee, and even with Walker's "tools" in full effect, there was no way to turn a surplus. When state aid figures were made final this week, MPS was down $54.6 million. (This figure does not include cuts to categorical aids and grants, such as the the very successful Milwaukee Math Partnership; MPS estimates its total loss at more than $84 million for next year.) The state's own estimate of what Walker's "tools" could save MPS was $42 million, though state Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts and others determined that the state's numbers were high. MTEA, which knows what its members make and what the pension and insurance contributions would add up to, estimated savings through Walker's tools at a mere $36 million.

Either way, you can see the numbers don't add up, and MPS was going to need to find between $40 million and $50 million in additional cuts. Milwaukee was never going to get to a surplus, period.

--

And finally, I will continue to call for MTEA and MPS to work out additional concessions before the window closes at the end of this month.

Bet They Are Not in the Minority

By Keith R. Schmitz

Liberals really have nothing against people making a lot of money. What we give a crap about is how it is used. That's why it would be a great if this impulse would start to get infectious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqIgb48iq6w

Let's face it. Unlike our junior senator, you get the impression that these people got themselves where they are pretty much on their own, with the exception perhaps of the Disney woman. But if that's her attitude, great!

Nevertheless, these people seem to be smart. Smart enough to know that this country can't keep going the way it is going.

Friday Canada Day Cat Blogging

by folkbum

It's a tough life being a cat in the folkbum household.

MPS layoffs

by folkbum

Word is out today on the number of layoffs issued by my employer, the Milwaukee Public Schools, and it is a large number indeed: More than 500 positions total, including 354 teachers. (Updated to add, there's a workshop for laid-off teachers July 21 [pdf].)

Let's be clear about something: When the MTEA, our union, settled the teacher contract with MPS last fall, we did so making nearly $50 million in concessions. That is significant sacrifice to this point already, and, as I have noted before, that $50 million in concessions was enough to mean no (or very, very few) layoffs based on a reasonable projection--even a slightly pessimistic projection--of what the 2011-2012 budget would be.*

Scott Walker laid a budget on Wisconsin's schools that was nearly a billion dollars short of what schools were expecting. All districts, all over the state. Even though MPS and its union had bargained an agreement that left MPS on sounder footing than usual, particularly given the layoffs of last summer, Walker and the Republicans in the legislature tied the hands of MPS by cutting nearly $80 million from its projected budget. After MTEA conceded $50 million--worth nearly 500 teachers--suddenly we were expected to sacrifice more.

Which is not to say that we couldn't have. As I argued on this very blog and privately with MTEA leaders, there were things we could give up that would not mean significant additional hardship but that might save some of our colleagues' jobs. The Board and MPS are not the problem here, and pretending that they are doesn't help; taking a stand to draw attention to the damage being done to the state's educational system by the Walker-Fitzgerald regime doesn't keep my class sizes down.

But the point of this post is simply this: Everyone who says MTEA didn't try to save its teachers is a bald-faced liar. A pants-on-fire liar. And vilifying the wrong people.

* The "School Zone" blog post linked above does not mention this negotiation or the fact that MPS was on relatively sound footing before the massive budget cut from the state was announced. We'll see if the full story in tomorrow's paper, or any of the sure-to-be sensational coverage on TV, addresses the previous concessions. We already know talk radio is pretending it didn't happen.

Stimulus idea

by folkbum

Two billion dollars in dollar coins in vaults around the country? Send 15 of them to each of the 130 millionish households in the US.

Is it going to turn the economy around? No. But, hey, it's as close as we'll get to an actual helicopter drop.

There's sometimes a difference between "legal" and "right"

by folkbum

Five years or so ago--I'm so old-- this blog weighed in on a controversy about Democratic candidate for Congress Bryan Kennedy. I defended Kennedy's paying himself a stipend from campaign funds, which is a practice allowed (at least, it was then) under federal campaign rules and which, for a middle-class head of household like Kennedy, kept his family fed and his babysitters paid while he did the full-time job of campaigning. (See, for example, these posts: 1 2 3.) While Kennedy was allowed to decide how much to pay himself from campaign funds, it all had to be disclosed in filings and his salary was capped at what he had earned before taking his sabbatical to run for office. In other words, he couldn't hide what he was up to and he couldn't make himself rich in the process.

At the time, a lot of people smelled something fishy; but as Kennedy himself explained, the rules allowed people who were not able to self-finance a campaign--or even self-finance the time off of work to run--a better shot at getting elected:

To support my family, I draw a salary from the campaign that is less than my university salary. I felt it was more ethical to draw a salary from voluntary contributions than to be paid by Wisconsin taxpayers. [...] It's also uncommon because most candidates for federal office don't need to do this.

Why? Because they're usually rich. They can support themselves from their personal wealth, or, if they're already elected officials, they probably enjoy an ample taxpayer salary. [...] Congress isn't made up of normal Americans like you and me. We have a system "of, by and for the rich." Middle-class people are systematically discouraged from running for office.

Teachers, carpenters and Wal-Mart employees are unlikely to socialize in wealthy circles, which makes fund raising more difficult. In addition, the major political parties favor wealthy candidates who can finance their own campaigns.

The result of these realities is that the middle class is terribly underrepresented in the halls of power. [...] Middle-class voices are stifled by millions of dollars from lobbyists and huge corporations. If we want to get anything else done, we have to remove the special interest money and corruption from our government first.

I say all this as preface, as the news this week about Senator Ron Johnson, while it may invite comparison, is really incomparable to what Kennedy did:

After dropping nearly $9 million from his own pocket to win a seat in the U.S. Senate, Ron Johnson didn't have to feel the pain for very long. Johnson's plastics company paid him $10 million in deferred compensation shortly before he was sworn in as Wisconsin's junior senator, according to his latest financial disclosure report.

The first-term Republican declined to say how his Oshkosh firm, Pacur, came up with a figure that so closely mirrored the amount he personally put into his campaign fund.

"You take a look in terms of what would be a reasonable compensation package, OK?" Johnson said this week. "It's a private business. I've complied with all the disclosure laws, and I don't have to explain it any further to someone like you." [...]

Unlike most deferred package deals, however, it appears that the company had not set aside a specified amount annually that would be paid out when he left the firm. Instead, Johnson said the $10 million payment was "an agreed-upon amount" that was determined at the end of his tenure with the company.

Agreed upon with whom? "That would be me," he said.

The story notes that the married-into-money Johnson did not draw a salary for much of his time leading the company, though he still managed to earn in most years what I, with my gold-plated union-thug public-employee compensation package, would need another 20 years to earn. He was not, how shall we say it?, poor, like the Pacur workers who are in the state's BadgerCare program. Nor even middle-class, like Kennedy.

Seriously: Even the smallest number offered in the story, a $650,000 payout for just half of 2010, puts him in the top 1.5% of all earners in the US. Johnson is the embodiment of the kind of politician Kennedy warned us about, one who governs with an eye toward maintaining not merely his own elite status, but that of the rest of his class (as opposed to, say, retiring Sen. Herb Kohl, whose votes often look out for the little guy).

That Johnson could finance his own campaign is one thing. That he then had the authority to pay himself off at the expense of Pacur employees, customers, and shareholders simply reeks. What Johnson did, like what Kennedy did, may be legal. But you'd have a hard time convincing me or any other reasonable observer that Johnson's payoff was right.

RIP, Peter Falk

by folkbum

One more thing:

Why I hate America

by folkbum

Because every independent restaurant has its online menu in pdf format and every restaurant chain has its online menu in Flash.

updated to add: also, because people are surprised that two years after a weak-sauce stimulus followed by no jobs bills and tax breaks up the wazoo for the rich and famous there's still sucky unemployment.

I will never ride the dinosaur

by folkbum

Somehow I managed to make a visit to the family in Cincinnati once again without making a stop at the Creation Museum.

Happy Fathers Day

by folkbum

To all the fathers in the audience. In the meantime, here's a story about a mother, a union, and the kind of thing that Republicans have made impossible.

RIP, Clarence Clemons

by folkbum

If I believed in Heaven, I would have a hard time reconciling two Big Men in one place.

Our long national nightmare is over

by folkbum

Weiner is resigning! I'm sure unemployment will plummet next month and consumer spending will be through the roof.

IANALBSIPOOTI*

by folkbum

I will comment, because I suppose I am expected to. Three things:

1. It continues to baffle me that the 21st century Republican Party insists that the 20th century never happened: outlawing unions, relaxing child labor laws, bringing back bail-bonding, trying to kill the internet, leaving the poor and elderly to die early and brutally without the help of modern medicine. What's next, corsets? slavery?

2. This one's a question: Do all the contracts signed in the last 90 days become presumptively void, or do we have to wait for some asshat to file suit in each case? It seems to me that any old asshat will do, as every taxpayer in the state would seem to have standing.

3. There was a time, genuinely, when I was younger and perhaps more naive, that I thought teaching was not just a good thing to do, but something that, generally, everyone else wanted to help me to do. Not in the sense that I had people lining up at the door to volunteer their services, but in the sense that it didn't feel like there was an organized effort to actively make the job shittier. This is no longer the case, and hasn't been for some time. It's not just the recent unpleasantness, of course; there's also No Child Left Behind and the Gates-Broad-Democrats for Education Reform nexus and the like. I still get a lot of pleasure from working with kids, from seeing their growth and achievement. But at this point it's pretty clear that what I do--teach students to write well--is no longer a valued skill and, in fact, something people simply don't want me to be able to do well or easily anymore.

* I am not a lawyer, but sometimes I play one on the internet.

The Great Bay View High School TP Crisis

or, wasting money by saving money

by folkbum

This is an actual email from my actual work email inbox yesterday, bold, exclamation point abuse, and all-caps in the original:

ATTENTION -- EVERYONE -- URGENT ISSUE!!

We NEED EVERYONE to bring a ROLL OF TOILET TISSUE -- starting TOMORROW -- there is NONE otherwise!!

This is not, in fact, a hoax or a last-days-of-school prank (i.e., on the eve of her retirement our principal is not planning to TP rival Bradley Tech and so needs a truckful). My school is flat out of toilet paper and flat out of money to buy any. If you want to be a good citizen and pick up a pack or two and swing them by the school today, people would love you, particularly the ladies.

You might, though, be thinking to yourself, Self, this seems ridiculous. You should try working there! And no doubt right about this point in the post someone further up the chain of command at MPS is getting irritated that I'm putting the business out there.

But here's the deal: The other day, I stated, perhaps too clearly, that my union and the district needed to sit down and work out some additional concessions, because, in the end, the district here is not the enemy in the current budget crisis. While it may doom my chances of ever being elected union president--not that I was thinking of running, mind you--it is something that I and a sizable minority of my peers feels needs saying. The board and the superintendent have been clear for months now that the gaping hole in the 2011-2012 district budget is squarely the fault of Gov. Walker and his allies in Madison, not teachers, and they have not required teachers to bear the full brunt of the deficit either. The budget for next year cuts administrative positions at a rate twice that of teaching positions. Similarly, they have made it equally clear that the long-term hole in the MPS budget is the fault of an inadequate and complicated state funding formula that doesn't serve the needs well of any district in the state.

But that doesn't mean that MPS has made wise decisions in the past or that the board and the administration can be absolved of all responsibility for the lack of TP at Bay View this morning. The sub-head for this post, I think, is a point that needs stressing, because it goes a long way toward explaining why my school is both out of TP and out of money to get any.

In last year's budget, the district made some deep and unwise cuts that looked, short-term, like a good way to save money. For example, they cut the entire department of education technology, replace the two-dozen or so represented technicians with less-expensive contractors. Which sounds good, until you realize that this has cost my school, literally, tens of thousands of dollars; like a fabled old mechanic who's the only one that can keep a machine running, the DET staffer formerly at our school had quite literally hand-coded software and jerry-rigged systems for years that were efficient and effective. We spent, for example, something in the neighborhood of $25,000 on a new student ID and tardy-tracking system. (Bizarrely, there is no district standard for this kind of thing; while the software that runs our attendance and grading systems has dead buttons and non-selectable menu items to suggest this functionality could be turned on, it is not.)

You may be doing the math in your head--$25,000 is a lot of two-ply.

MPS also rolled out a new Comprehensive Literacy Plan, with a big focus on saving money by consolidating around a single reading program. At the same time, that plan calls for a huge additional investment in paper. Not only are we hanging student work around the place, as we literacy teachers always do, but there's a new emphasis on a "print rich" environment in classrooms where every spare inch of wall and ceiling (yes, people, I was told this year to hang stuff from my classroom's ceiling) is to be covered in anchor charts and mentor texts and other buzzwordy teacher-created materials. So what did we run out of in April? Paper. Plain old copy paper. (Many props to our federal- and state-mandated "vendor" partners who moved funds around and bought us paper with federal stimulus money.)

You get the idea.

There's more: The latest word is that all "Metro Region" MPS high schools are being mandated to offer a seven-period day next year, after years of us all having been mandated to offer a four-block day. (The Metro regional executive reportedly hates block schedule and, near as we can tell, that may be the only reason why we're all switching, his capriciousness.) While many of you probably see no issue with making the change (hey, didn't we all grow up on the old system?) the four-block day is more efficient, with teachers teaching the equivalent of six units a year instead of five units, which is what a seven-period day allows. My principal estimates it will take five additional teachers--a half-million dollars we don't have in our budget for next year--to make the change work. Where will those teachers and that money come from? No one knows at this point.

(Bonus fact: the middle grades at our school--next year, we will be a 6-12 program--are mandated to teach 60-minute classes; a seven-period day for the high school means 50-minute classes. This seems like a problem, since classrooms and teachers are shared between the programs. The district's answer? "Make it work." Okay!)

So the Great Bay View TP Crisis is merely a symptom. MPS still has a lot of work to do on the administration side of the street to make some more sensible budget decisions on the small scale. A pension contribution or another year of wage freezes for teachers will go a long way toward helping MPS deal with the immediate fiscal crisis created by the draconian state budget. But on the small scale, the district needs to think about whether small short-term goosing of the budget is really going to save money, and what the ripple effects of its school micromanagement will be.

McIlheran Watch: Silence of the Beaver

by folkbum

I had presumed, from the lack of blogging and Thursday columns, that nemesis and calumnist Patrick McIlheran had been enjoying a well-deserved vacation. After all, one can only do so much chewing and regurgitating of talking points for so long without a break to recharge the ol' Evereadys.

As it turns out, though, he's apparently been scouting inside-the-beltway housery for this lateral move.

Interestingly, he now qualifies as one of those public-employee thugs we hear so much about; in addition, he'll be working as a staffer on the committee that oversees the federal workforce--all those unionized folk working for Uncle Sam.

Best of luck to him in the new digs, and better luck to the federal workforce who, I fear, needs it more than McIlheran. In the meantime, the McIlheran Watch is, pending whatever mess may appear as his final Sunday column, now retired, full pension.

Politi"Fact" does it again

by folkbum

Welcome, Inside Milwaukee readers! Click on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel label below for more--and more substantive--critiques of PolitiFact.

A voting-rights story that includes the clause "Last word goes to Hans von Spakovsky" simply cannot be taken seriously. von Spakovsky is a minority vote-suppressing machine with an awful history in the Bush Justice Department and elsewhere. This is just embarrassing.

Also, too, what digby said, for like the last seven years.

For the record 2, pension boogalloo

by folkbum

By popular demand!, I bring you an addendum to the post I wrote last March urging my union, the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, to sit down with the Milwaukee Public Schools and work out something to make the cuts imposed by Governor Walker's budget a little less devastating. (I did comment on twitter Tuesday during the Board meeting, but apparently my critics hanging on my every word to learn my opinion haven't figured out how to work the tittums machine yet.)

The backbone of this conviction of mine that something else needs to be done is simply this: Neither MPS nor the children of Milwaukee are the enemy here. Under different circumstances, I would agree with former MTEA president Mike Langyel when he says, bluntly, that we did the negotiating once already, and we're done.

And Mike is right about the first part, even if he's wrong about the next step: The union stepped up last fall and made concessions that squared the district's finances based on a reasonable prediction of what MPS's money situation would look like, using, in fact, a reduced prediction for revenue limits, rather than what the statutes projected. At the time the contract was signed, the outlook for 2011-2012 was good, with few layoffs or cuts predicted in large part because of the union concessions. The concessions already made will save nearly $100 million over the next two years. This on top of a negotiated pay freeze for this year and last.

At the time we signed this contract, no one in the union or at MPS expected the size and scope of the cuts that have materialized under Walker's budget. The cuts to schools seem to have been a huge surprise to everyone, in fact.

So let me be clear: Anyone who says that MTEA hasn't been willing to make concessions to save jobs or help out the district's finances (or "share the sacrifice") is just plain lying.

But still. I do think the union needs to step up again, because hurting our kids or our colleagues is a piss-poor way to move forward, even with the excuse that Scott Walker is the real enemy. Blaming larger class sizes on the governor's intransigence may be a decent rhetorical strategy, but practically it still leaves me with larger class sizes.

So I'm going back to what I wrote in March. The union should offer concessions, starting with taking furlough days and killing the "sweetener." The 2011-12 calendar includes required professional development days in the place of the former WEAC teacher convention days. Those should be made regular school days (or optional PD days), and MPS should end the school year two days earlier, paying teachers for two fewer days of work. And the sweetener should be discontinued or, at least, made into an opt-in supplemental pension. As I noted in March, that's a solid $20 million in additional concessions.

Teachers could also give back a portion of the scheduled raise next year--as noted, the first we're getting in a while. The raise is set to be 2.5%. At the same time, teachers will be kicking in 2% of our base salary for health insurance, which is part of how MPS is getting nearly $50 million in savings next year. If we give back the other .5%, and take, in effect, no raise for the third year in a row, that alone would pay for every school nurse and then some. A more generous offer might be to give up the full 2.5% raise on top of the insurance premium share. This also keeps the base salary steady, making the raise scheduled for 2012-2013 smaller on net for the district. Combined with the furloughs, that amounts to between 1.6% and 3.6% of salary; the district is seeking up to a 5.8% cut in salary, masked as a pension contribution.

And that's part of the key here for me: giving back something more without setting the precedent of teachers' paying doubly for their own deferred compensation (i.e., pensions).

I understand MTEA's point that opening any part of the contract could subject the whole contract to legal challenge pending various court actions. However, it seems the legislature is set to provide some cover for a concession like this if it is done quickly, which is what I encourage MTEA to do.

Wisconsin Citizens Spied on by Walker Regime

Scott Walker regime is the most hostile to civil liberties of Wisconsin citizens in state history

Not content to threaten citizens in the Capitol, to take away local control of government, and even arrest journalists, the Walker Regime is now, according to Dane 101, prepared to deploy a "state emergency response team [that] has been operating out of the GEF-2 (101 S. Webster St.) building downtown specifically to monitor protest related activity on social media sites and elsewhere."

The team is allegedly coordinating with law enforcement to identify and shut down any major direct actions planned by protesters at the capitol, by watching things like the #wiunion hashtag on Twitter and related Facebook groups, etc."

This is Wisconsin under Republican Rule.

Requests For Expression

by 3rd Way



Even after taking my love for the tuning fork proposal into account I am still pleased with the stance Chris Abele is taking against the fat sculpture commission the county was contemplating. Awarding a three quarter of a million dollar commission to a small team for a single work is a terrible idea during tough times for local labor. I love a government that makes grand expenditures on artistic amenities, but such amenities should be utilitarian and targeted to employ local labor and talent.

The county should spend the sculpture money by accepting proposals from local artists and designers and awarding commissions based on proposals artistic merits, benefit to community and ability to employee local labor and talent.

A series of artfully designed benches sprinkled along the lakefront that could serve as both playthings for skateboarders and resting spots for walkers would be great. A series of inspired bus shelters aligned down one of the city's busy thoroughfares could greatly enhance a neighborhood. A multi-flight urban exercise/observation stair tower with an awesome long slide down would be a landmark worth erecting. A cleverly designed renovation project to a County Park owned structure converting it to leasable space able to house a small establishment like the Alterra by the lake or the Northpoint burger place could turn a building maintenance liability into a revenue generating asset. Carving up a parking lot sea of asphalt with imaginative ribbons of runoff absorbing plantings would be a good thing.

Giving out seven $100K projects to local teams of aspiring artists would be far more beneficial to the city than one big chunk going to a single team of established art professionals. Seven $100K creative construction projects would help keep locals employed and make our community a more desirable place to reside.

I am sure that if the county sent out a “Request For Artistic Expression” other hungry locals would come up with better ideas for projects that would improve Milwaukee while providing a little boost to local construction firms and the art/design communities. Abele could probably even find donors willing to put up matching funds. Turn the thing into a yearly competition à la the Marcus Prize and within a few years Milwaukee would be a more interesting and vibrant place.

Sen. Alberta Darling (R-Candyland) endorses union solidarity

by folkbum

Despite earlier protestations that she would try to make it on her own, she has instead decided to join with her colleagues to fight collectively for all their rights, not just hers alone. No, really, she has. She said so:

We're staying together as a group. I could have had a chance of sticking out there by myself or staying with the group. So it's as simple as that.

--Sen. Alberta "Solidarity Forever" Darling

Shorter WISGOP

by folkbum

Delaying tactics for extra time to put together a campaign, good; delaying tactics for extra time to explain what's really in the "budget repair bill," call out the state troopers!

McIlheran Watch: Vacation's over, time to start up the hypocrisy machine again

by folkbum

You know how it is: You come back from vacation, and the grass is up to here, weeds all over the place, papers piled up on the porch because you forgot to put it on hold. Patrick McIlheran, serial calumnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, finds a similar situation upon his return. See, the Republicans, the party for whom McIlheran usually shills, did something anathema over his vacation--they raised taxes!--and he needs to justify it, which he did both in print and on his blawg. (For a description of why the legislative action is a tax increase, read the news story.)

But it's okay, people, he tells us, that the GOP is cutting the Earned Income Tax Credit, a tax credit designed, as McIlheran freely admits, to encourage poor people to work more by offsetting their payroll or other taxes.

Why is it okay? Because of all the tax cuts in the budget. No, really, he says this. From the Sunday calumny column:

Walker and the Legislature, short of money, decided to cut by 15% one work-inducing incentive and to increase another they reckon will be more effective.

And what was that other tax cut work-inducing incentive? Elimination of taxes on certain capital gains for businesses. I'm actually quite surprised that McIlheran didn't go on about the other business tax breaks the GOP has included in its budget, like the one slipped in Friday night that gives businesses a dollar-for-dollar tax break ... just because. At least with the cut in reinvested capital gains, the GOP is pretending to pick breaks that sound reasonable to your average person. But so many of them are just give-aways to corporate donors.

This is your modern GOP in a nutshell: In a time of deficit, tax breaks for the poor are simply impossible to maintain. But tax breaks for business can continue, and we'll throw in new ones, too.

Congrats to whichever local conservative blogger this is

D-Day. Thank you to the Greatest Generation.

by folkbum

As Sarah Palin would say, this is the day that American soldiers stormed the beaches of Burgandy to tell that wily ol' Kaiser Permanente that he can't have our guns or our Medicare vouchers!

Tonight's DPW convention and events

by folkbum

I'll be live-tweeting (I'm @folkbum, if you don't follow me yet) the interesting parts of tonight's Democratic Party of Wisconsin convention, as well as the pre-con bloggernalia, and I will try to post something in the space later or Saturday morning to summarize. I am not sure what the accepted hash-tag will be for the event to follow other new-media reporters covering the events; some DPWers are using #20l1RecallConvention but since that's like eleventy-four characters, I won't be using that.

FriTunes: This weekend's entertainment

by folkbum

Kapitol Kaos

by folkbum

I am not watching, but the twittums machine tells me that apparently a mess of rude and disruptive dipwads are effing up the Joint Finance Committee hearing. While I disagree in the strongest possible way with the actions of JFC tonight, I also disagree strongly with the kind of crap now going on. While earlier protest efforts were wrongly catagorized as "chaos" and used to justify the current police state at the Capitol, this sounds like actual chaos and is just going to make things worse.

Shorter Kevin Binversie

by folkbum

Here's a series of affirmative claims, including some personal attacks on a guy I've never met and a bold admission that I think only gay people care about gay people, that are all wrong, but you know, I was joking.