Friday, May 20, 2016

Master Chief Petty Governor of Wisconsin - Scott Walker

By Jeff Simpson

The University of Wisconsin System has been holding no confidence votes in President Ray Cross and the Board of Regents.   Since Scott Walker has packed the Board of Regents with unqualified cronies, he took it personally.

That led Scott Walker to channel his inner 6th grader and write(have ghost written) an op-ed heavily criticizing, one of our finest public institutions in the state, that he laughingly titled

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Faculty Fuss Leaves Out Important Facts

“The facts speak for themselves,” Governor Walker said.  “The bottom line is UW System funding stands at an all-time high, spending per student at UW-M is up more than 40 percent since 2002-03, and faculty is spending less time in the classroom.   We want to preserve the world-renowned quality of the UW System while protecting students and taxpayers.”
I say laughingly, because Walker's press release where he fills in "important facts", was given a "pants on fire" rating by Walker friendly politifact.

It was not just Scott Walker either, Career criminal and GOP assembly majority leader Jim Steineke. warned the faculty about these no confidence votes that they had better shut up.

On Tuesday, Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, defended Cross and the Regents, described the changes to tenure as "minor" and criticized faculty for bringing the no confidence vote.
“This action ... shows an arrogance that doesn't serve the university or its students well," Steineke said. "It’s a clear example of the complete disconnect between UW-Madison faculty who seem to expect their job to come with a forever guarantee and the average Wisconsin family struggling just to make ends meet.”
A college dropout, who was part of an incredible unethical redistricting of Wisconsin to make sure that he has a job for life telling Phd level world renowned professors that the changes to tenure were minor.

If only we could mine irony.

These attacks on the UW system and Professors, went unanswered by the Administration but not by the Professors.

Ironically, it is Walker himself and the rest of the GOP who are preventing the University of Wisconsin from offering a competitive product in a global marketplace.
Let’s start with price. Businesses charge market rates for their products and services. Top-tier private colleges and universities right now are charging $44,000 or more in tuition each year, more than four times the rate of in-state tuition for an education at the UW-Madison,ranked in the top 50 universities around the world.
Why are prices so low? Because politicians have put a cap on tuition.
It’s like telling Toyota that they must charge a particular price for their cars, while letting Honda and General Motors and Hyundai sell the same — or inferior — vehicles to the same customers at four times the cost.
Unfortunately the Professors that are fighting back, are doing so as they are packing their cars to go to greener pastures.

I myself am now leaving the University of Wisconsin after 14 years. At my new university in another state, I will have stronger tenure protections than I now have here. I will earn about 50 percent more than my current salary for the same job. And I will be free from the strange crazy-making double-speak that on one hand demands that higher education deliver value like a business, and on the other hand, methodically prevents it from doing so.
Caroline Levine will be resigning from her job as professor and chair of the English department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this summer.
These continued acts of telling the truth about whats happening in their workplace finally drew a response from the administration and sadly, it was directed at the faculty.

The adversarial relationship between the University of Wisconsin and Gov. Scott Walker is perilous, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank told faculty Tuesday.
“It makes me really worried going into this budget round how we maintain a civil and useful conversation,” Blank said at a session of the campus Faculty Senate. Beyond that, a strained relationship with the governor jeopardizes the long-term prospects for investment in and future strategic growth of the university, she said.
And the kind of war of words in the media that emerged recently between the governor and UW faculty is “dangerous, should it continue,” Blank said.
Let me translate for you.

UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank told faculty that they need to stop telling the truth because Scott Walker and the GOP Legislature are a petty vindictive, childish bunch that will punish them in the next budget for daring to fight back.  

The attacks on the University of Wisconsin system have had real and long last effects.   The University of Wisconsin system is truly the engine that drives our economy and for someone in a position as Scott Walker to punish his perceived enemies, because they have a differing opinion while making the whole state suffer for years shows you exactly who Scott Walker and his allies are.

That an op-ed written by a Professor would have any effect on the UW-System funding in the next budget shows that they are not fit to be on a Junior High Student Council.

We need to show them in November that pettiness makes one unemployed!

5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is just one more example of the effects of the "starve the beast" agenda that has been forced on the citizens of Wisconsin by politicians beholden to ALEC, the Koch's and other big money interests.
    These politicians were elected by angry,uninformed, gullible voters, who revel in the draconian measures being taken against what they perceive to be overpaid, over privileged "liberal elites" who are merely getting what they deserve.
    These voters can not see how they have been duped by the politicians they have elected. Many of them are from rural communities that benefit from UW extension programs (http://www.uwex.edu/about/) that will lose funding because of the decision they made to elect those officials.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It is the same method used on local government and schools, then make it nearly impossible to raise local taxes to make up the difference. Here in Manitowoc our Republican and DINO controlled city government speaks nary a word against Walker but like a lot of other cities is opting to institute a wheel tax on cars because the Legislature forgot to forbid that. NOT ONE of them cites the real cause but the allegedly Dem mayor just prattles on about fiscal responsibility.
    If you want to know why student loan debt is out of control realize this. In the early 70s my wife graduated from UWO with a double degree in the sciences and $2500 cash in the back. That is in 1975 dollars too. I was able to pay for my branch campus tuition out of pocket. A few years back my daughter graduated with over 100K in debt. The chart tells the whole story.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey guys, where did you source this graph? I tried finding it on Google and only ended up with propaganda posts from the usual RW/fascist sources including WPRI, MacIver etc. Couldnt find it anywhere other than on this blog. It makes sense to me but I would like to verify the source.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. sorry i should have sourced it in the article

      http://isthmus.com/news/news/uw-system-braces-for-deep-cuts-proposed-by-gov-scott-walker/

      Delete