Free Republic

Wisconsin unions Monday are once again attacking Republican Gov. Scott Walker, this time over a proposed budget that may result in cuts to tenure for state college professors. With the upcoming budget session, the Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee is expected to propose a plan to reform the University of Wisconsin System. While it is not yet finalized, unions warn the plan will cut $250 million in funding and will remove academic protections for professors such as teacher tenure. This latest union battles comes at the heels of a likely announcement Walker will run for president. With his previous labor reforms,...

".......Today, the so-called Wisconsin Magna Carta is being tested, as Gov. Scott Walker and the legislature move to change the system of tenure. Fortunately, earlier efforts to alter the mission statement of the University of Wisconsin system by deleting references to the search for truth and the creation of knowledge were retracted as “drafting errors.” Still, the symbolism of such proposed changes is having a chilling effect on the flagship campus at Madison and across the university system.This concept of a social contract between the people of a state and their university system is not unique to Wisconsin. America’s public...

The old so-called Wisconsin Idea was that government would collaborate with experts drawn from the state’s university system to craft progressive legislation. The new Wisconsin Idea is that the state is broke. Gov. Scott Walker is bringing austerity to the intellectual breadbasket of American progressivism, and seeks to break the grip of the public-sector unions in a state that had a large hand in empowering them. His effort could become a national model for recalibrating the relationship of state governments to the unions that are bankrupting them. To attempt this anywhere brings yelps of outrage. To do it in Wisconsin,...