Posted on 05/24/2015 5:33:16 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Scott Walker and his legislative minions have no respect for local democracy.
One of Walkers early acts as governor was to sign a law that pre-empted Milwaukees paid sick days ordinance which voters had approved by 69 to 31 percent and which the state Court of Appeals had upheld. Dana Schultz of 9to5, the National Association of Working Women, described the state override of the Milwaukee law as an assault on democracy, local control and working families."
The assaults have continued, with Walker and his allies moving again and again to prevent Wisconsins towns, villages and cities from acting to defend the public interest, serve local citizens, establish sound land-use policies and protect the environment. At every turn, the attacks on local democracy have been cheered on by the out-of-state special-interest groups and billionaire campaign donors who have sustained Walker and his legislative majorities. The most enthusiastic of those donors are champions of schemes to undermine public education. So it should come as no surprise that Walkers Republican legislators are now attacking elected school board members who have dared to act in the best interest of the students, teachers and communities they serve.
A plan approved last week by the legislative Joint Finance Committee on a 12-4, party-line vote would permit a county executive to take authority over vulnerable urban schools away from elected school boards. The executive could then appoint commissioners with the authority to assume control of those schools. The commissioners could either manage the schools directly or solicit takeover proposals. In effect, says state Rep. Cory Mason, D-Racine, this could give unelected commissioners the authority to privatize individual schools.
The initial target of the proposal is Milwaukee. But it could extend to Madison and Racine.
And thats not the last assault on local democracy.
Walkers legislative partisans are also moving to end the terms of all nine elected members of the Racine Unified School District Board in 2016 and force new elections for the nine seats a move Mason notes would effectively invalidate the elections of a number of board members. The board has been reasonably respectful of teachers and their unions, which does not sit well with the Republicans. Under the plan, board members would no longer be elected districtwide (as are the vast majority of school board members in Wisconsin). Instead, each member would represent a small section of the district. The GOP's goal is to reduce the influence of the city of Racine (a Democratic community with a substantial minority population and a history of supporting unions) while increasing the influence of suburban areas (which tend to be more Republican, have a smaller minority population and are presumed to be friendlier to the governors agenda).
Mason says, For the state of Wisconsin, under Republican control, to basically nullify Racine duly elected officials and make them run again in the districts that (the state) would prefer is not only an assault on local control, but democracy.
Wisconsin Republicans once respected local control and local democracy. Under Scott Walker, they have abandoned both putting crude partisanship ahead of principle.
From another liberal Wisconsin news source:
March 2015: “Why don’t we just turn all these failing schools in Milwaukee over to people who will run them better?
Because experience elsewhere and realities in Milwaukee suggest it is close to impossible that big steps like that would turn out well.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be important action coming out of the state Legislature soon.
But it does mean that, if it comes, it will be in smaller increments. What is very likely to be put before legislators will be scaled back from ideas floated earlier to turn a bunch of low-performing schools in the Milwaukee Public Schools system over to independent charter operators and create something like the New Orleans Recovery School District.
Two to five schools a year for the next several years that’s what state Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield) and state Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) are talking about now.
In late January, the influential legislators put out a policy paper called “New Opportunities for Milwaukee” that included the idea of creating a board, separate from the Milwaukee School Board, to “oversee a turnaround school initiative for all schools that fail to meet expectations in the targeted zone.”
While the proposal didn’t specify a targeted zone, there were more than 40 Milwaukee public schools in the state’s lowest performance category (”fails to meet expectations”) in the most recent round of school report cards.
Kooyenga said in an interview last week that he and Darling wanted to get feedback before they created a formal proposal. And they’ve gotten plenty.
That includes adamant opposition from the Milwaukee School Board and the Milwaukee teachers union. For example, the board brought to Milwaukee three people last week who are critics of what has happened in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. And the union has been making opposition to charter schools outside of MPS one of its urgent focal points.....”
Ooooh Noooo! The sky is falling in Madison, WI! (Do I need to add the sarc tag? This is the far left Cap Times.)
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
Then I heard Mara Liason say on Special Report (many yrs ago) that the voters in NYC were more sophisticated than other parts of the country. One wk later, a reporter was interviewing people on the streets of NYC about the upcoming election. The person said they were voting for one candidate because the candidate was Hispanic. How sophisticated is that??
Most Liberals are idiots.
Article IV, Section 4: The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government
What do you want to bet that the same writer is all for a bunch of federal rulings and laws that pre-empt the locals and state. Exhibit #1, Proposition 8 in California.
Paying taxes to fund ineffective and wasteful government programs is not a matter of personal choice.
Yup. Liberals love federal money and control over local education (Common Core) but cry when states take it back from corrupted, Dem-controlled municipalities.
Hypocrisy at its best.
Liberals always complain loudest when they are dealt setbacks in their quest for centralizing power.
A Republic already contains the representational government. It is the Constitutional part that puts the teeth in Constitutional Republic.
Naturally, WPR is loath to inform its listeners, many who are radical leftists themselves, about the far left political leanings of many of their guests.
But it’s okay when one judge overturns a voted-in California constitutional amendment.
Urban school systems exist for the money. The tax money, the grants, the SPLOSTS and yearly dole-outs from Federal Government.
They nearly always do worse academically despite more money than their surrounding suburban counterparts. Except in the case where cheating of the Atlanta kind is involved.
THAT'S ALL I NEED TO HEAR. WALKER 2016!
Walker has reached an important understanding: that liberals will try to control and tyrannize at any level of government, and while, for the most part, the majority of people can elect the government they want, that government is not free to oppress the minority that didn’t support it.
For most of the 20th Century, it was understood that the purpose of local governments was to *manage* the local area in things such as zoning, emergency services and infrastructure. However, liberals have now decided to use local government to change social policy and behavior.
And, as state governments have become more conservative, they are now trying to restore local governments to their intended purpose, preempting their ability to socially engineer people to their whims.
And the liberals really hate and resent this, because they believe it is their right to use government to dominate and manipulate others against their will.
"NEW ORLEANS The American Federation for Children, which wants a dramatic expansion of charter schools and voucher programs, picked a boxing theme for its annual policy summit this week.
Red boxing gloves became table centerpieces at the opening lunch Monday. Panel titles included "Knocking out yesterday's education models" and "Training parents to win the fight." And the first keynote speaker was Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a likely Republican presidential contender who is best known for aggressively fighting and weakening his state's education labor unions.....
....Wisconsin is home to the nation's first modern voucher system. The state adopted legislation in 1989 that allowed some low-income students in Milwaukee to use state money at a private school. The program has expanded since then, and Walker has called for a statewide program that would be open to most if not all students, regardless of their family income or where they live. Lawmakers in Madison have been slow to embrace this proposal, which critics argue would divert money away from public school systems and to private or religious institutions with fewer accountability measures.
Walker also talked up how teachers unions in Wisconsin now have much less power, which he said has allowed school systems to more easily hire and fire teachers and save money on health insurance plans. And he called for federal authorities to give more decision-making authority to local school districts and parents. Toward the end of his speech, Walker said that increasing school choices "isn't a red issue or a blue issue, this is a red, white and blue issue."....
Leftists only support “local democracy” when it’s leftist. Otherwise, they are all for federal intervention (eg, Ferguson), but only as long as the federal government is in the hands of the Left.
Public Radio is by leftists, for leftists, paid for by the taxpayer. Media welfare...for the "intellectual" elite.
Caller: How Scott Walker Made it in Wisconsin...
It will give you a smile.
Yes, save for the local level and with exception to States with voter initiatives/referendums.
I don't give the source any credence, nor defend the content or suggest that is the case here, but there does exist a problem when voters enact something and the Courts or 'representative leadership' neuter it for spurious reasons.
Just let the DemocRats run things for decades and we get chaos, so Walker needs to bring some level of common sense and responsibility that will benefit all and not just the few.
Thank you Scott Walker and the conservative legislature for standing up to the Liberal power brokers.
Of all the repub candidates, the left hates Walker the most.
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