Scott Walker moving to weaken tenure for state college professors

Hot Air.com ^ | June 18, 2015 | JAZZ SHAW

[Kaslin]

Scott Walker has formed a Testing the Waters Committee, which I assume has something to do with Marco Rubio’s response to the State of the Union in 2013. (Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.) The new committee will provide him with an additional conduit to raise funds between now and when he announces his presidential bid in July. But at the same time, he’s making some other moves, particularly in the area of tenure for professors at public colleges and universities.

As Republican Gov. Scott Walker prepares to campaign for president as the man who tamed Wisconsin’s unions, he’s taking on a new labor fight: weakening tenure protections for professors at public colleges and universities.

Walker insists that by allowing the University of Wisconsin system Board of Regents, 16 of whose 18 members are appointed by the governor, to set tenure policies instead of having tenure protections spelled out in state law will help give the state university system more flexibility and financial leverage.

His effort could endear him to conservatives who are scornful of what they view as higher education’s ivory tower — a perception Walker has encouraged by suggesting that “maybe it’s time for faculty and staff to think about teaching more classes and doing more work” — but it has infuriated academics and others who consider tenure a vital protection of academic freedom.

Note that Walker isn’t proposing some sort of blanket ban on tenure. That’s probably a smart play, since such an unconditional declaration of war would be yet another bruising battle to engage in just as he’s getting ready to launch a national campaign. Instead of that, he’s proposing that tenure policy be set by the Board of Regents. The effect would probably not, in all likelihood, be the same as some sort of complete ban on tenure, but it could institute some long overdue reviews and corrections.

This will likely reignite the long simmering fight over the tenure system in general. The ivory tower elite will continue to insist that tenure serves the dual purpose of protecting educators from baseless accusations while ensuring that they are not beholden to the shifting tides of political opinion. As I’ve said in the past, the sad part of all this is that those would actually be fairly persuasive arguments in a perfect world. Students may behave maliciously and irresponsibly at times and could bring false accusations against an instructor. And inside of a state run system such as the colleges, it would be nice to think that teachers were all enlightened and pure of motive. Much like judges, it’s not difficult to imagine situations where elected officials put their thumbs on the scale in terms of appointments and hiring.

And yet, tenure turned out to be such a powerful and easily abused weapon that its downside eventually swamped whatever good it hoped to accomplish. The incompetent or even abusive were shielded along with the diligent workers. And rather than providing a nonpartisan safe space for academics, our universities largely turned into liberal or even socialist enclaves where no dissenting opinions would be allowed. The tenure system was simply a tool to cement that structure in place over generations.

Of course, Walker is being accused of doing this as some sort of “stunt” to burnish his conservative credentials as he moves into the primary race. But does anyone think those credentials really needed any polishing when it comes to conservative doctrine regarding unions and universities? Sounds precisely in character to me.

[Osage Orange]

You are what your are....

Anyone here...that's been here and reading, absorbing knows what you are.

[conservativejoy]

Lame come back to the links you asked for. The record for Wisconsin is what it is.

[Osage Orange]

Listen to the Dr. GG2...........

1/3th is a big deal..!!

[Osage Orange]

You protest too much....As does your sidekick GG2...

You both are either liberal/Democrat/progressive plants here...or???

People that watch....and read and follow..know.

Good luck here....

[conservativejoy]

If the good Governor could take off some time from using tax payer money to finance his campaign trips, he could concentrate on creating jobs using the natural resources in his state. Here's one: Link

[conservativejoy]

So, what did you think of the articles? Those were only two. Google will provide you with a Bunch!

I contribute to Cruz and am a Cruz volunteer.

[conservativejoy]

BTW, I don’t know GG2 personally, but by her posts, she’s a pretty sharp cookie!

[Georgia Girl 2]

Let me know when Walker gets the nomination running on tenure. :-)

[Osage Orange]

You do realize that N. Dakota had a big oil boom, right?

I mean you do understand that, right?

[Dr. Sivana]

You never cited a source for the job creation report. I found the Kaufman index, which seems to correspond to your posts.

Since the state by state listing runs on a script, it wasn't easy to show the actual data. But I managaed to capture it in a screen grab.



We don't find Texas in the top ten, and while the states are for the most part more conservative than liberal, they are mostly REALLY rural. Only Florida is a heavily populated state in the Top 10. And it, like Nevada, had among the biggest drops during the recession, so it had the most to gain during a recovery, even a tepid one. So yes, states like North Dakota, Wyoming and South Dakota are more inviting for small time enterpreneurs, given its natural resources and boom. Even a small influx of investors can make a huge difference, as the states are so sparsely populated.

Now, let's look at the Bottom Ten:



Why looky here, it looks like the entire rust belt is hovering in the same zone. Even Minnesota, with its impressive 3.7% unemployment rate (these numbers for ALL states are undoubtedly low, but they are allwe have to make rtelative comparisons), could do no better than 47th.

The bottom ten also seems to be based more on factors outside of politics.

You have been suspended before, probably because you changed the headline that focused on Hillary Clinton,a dn made it about Scott Walker . . . TWICE. You are looking for a statistic, any statistic that can portray Scott Walker in a bad light. In six months, when the jobs being cut in Texas right now due to the slump in oil prices sends Texas down the list of "jobs created", it will not change the fact that Texas is still eons ahead of most of the nation in job climate, and any drop will be neither the fault of Gov, Abbot or Sen. Cruz.

And trust me, if you had to be dropped with a parachute tomorrow and find a job in the state that you landed, you would MUCH rather land in #50 Wisconsin than #26 Illinois.

Ronald Reagan once said that there are "lies, damned lies, and statistics", and the worst of these is statistics.

[conservativejoy]

So why isn't Walker using his states resources to create jobs? Link to Shale Boom

[Osage Orange]

You are either on the payroll of Cruz...or a liberal democrat plant.

Most here that follow,...know that.

Thanks!

[Dr. Sivana]

If the good Governor could take off some time from using tax payer money to finance his campaign trips, he could concentrate on creating jobs using the natural resources in his state. Here's one: Link

If you lived or worked in Wisconsin like I have, you would have known that Walker successfully fended off attempts by the eco-crazies to cripple Wisconsin's fracking sand business. You would also have known that Walker shepherded through legislation to destroy the poison pill anti-mining regs so that iron mining might once again resume in the most impoverished northern area of the state. So Walker has been there, done that. While sand is great, it isn't quite in the same league as oil and natural gas, but we'll take it.

[Osage Orange]

I'd guess you two talk to each other all the time.....

You both sure do show up all the time together.

Tell me I'm wrong about that...

[Dr. Sivana]

You are either on the payroll of Cruz

Cruz is my #1 choice, and CJ's approach is completely at odds with that of Cruz, who is principled and allows for honest disagreement among conservatives, and is always a gentleman. I have my problems with Walker, but very few have to do with his performance as governor.

[Dr. Sivana]

Courtesy ping to #75, as I mention you.

[Osage Orange]

Let me know Professor...when you will answer my questions about tenure....

[Dr. Sivana]

Let me know when Walker gets the nomination running on tenure. :-)

Considering he buried it deep in the budget and didn't make a big deal out of it, he sure has the right people wailing.

[conservativejoy]

Wow. Wisconsin is even lower than I thought 45th instead of 40th. Links were in post 58.

[Osage Orange]

So CJ..how many times have you been suspended from FR?