Noth's article deals with the Brookfield native's imperial arrogance and crocodile tears regarding K-12 education in Milwaukee, and his threats to ask that the state go further in taking over Milwaukee Public Schools. Noth rightfully calls out this BS'er for the fool that he is.
On Mike Gousha’s TV talk show July 31, Kooyenga totally misunderstood the strong negative reaction toward his and Alberta Darling’s OSPP, the Opportunity Schools and Partnership Program. That fanciful half-baked proposal (now law) would take out of MPS hands a few schools identified as troubled (only it’s getting harder to figure out which are troubled since MPS is actually improving the usual suspects). They would be turned over for private school operation with state money by a commissioner selected by the Milwaukee County executive, currently Chris Abele.Seriously, read the whole thing for your Sunday knowledge. It points out the lie of tools like Kooyenga, who came back from last week's national ALEC convention promising to be "more aggressive" with oversight and demands being put onto MPS in the next session, if given the opportunity. It shows that Kooyenga and other WisGOPs' real goal is to grab power away from the residents of Wisconsin's largest city, and it goes along the ALEC goal of defunding and deforming public education. These double-talkers couldn't care less about dealing with the real reason for dispairities in public education- POVERTY AND ECONOMIC HOPELESSNESS. In fact, suburban GOPs like Koo-Koo want that crippling ghettoization of poverty to continue, because then they and their Bubble World constituents can continue to claim (white) superiority over "those people", and not have to work harder to improve themselves against tougher competition.
Now every knowledgeable educator says a concept without a worked-out plan – and how about a budget? -- will never fly. That’s OSPP. And that’s why MPS offered an alternative that would benefit its education efforts. Everyone except Kooyenga and Darling (K&D) thinks it’s a great idea and would preserve and enhance the MPS – an early childhood education center in the inner city open to the community and dedicated to best practices.
When Demond Means, that Abele appointed commissioner, learned that not only his plan but also this substitute would not fly with the bill’s authors (K & D), he resigned. Kooyenga on Gousha’s show interpreted this as Means being “run out of town” not by K & D but by entrenched forces at MPS – rather than the thousands of parents and teachers who stood up and shouted OSPP down. At several meetings it was like a Capra film. Seldom has Milwaukee seen such community uniformity and involvement.
This opposition called the OSPP what it is: Ineffective, unfunded and patently a takeover effort – another example of gutting local control and treating citizens as plantation slaves who need the master’s direction before they exercise their mental and moral faculties.
I also give Noth credit for not even mentioning Koo-Koo's finest moment, which came just over a year ago on the floor of the State Assembly, where he gave a shit-faced (and wrong-headed) ramble about the state's revenue picture. I wasn't going to be as classy as Dom and allow you to relieve those "35 seconds?" of glory, but apparently Wisconsin Eye has pulled the video.
I agree with your major statement: the ineffective schools are a symptom of a much greater problem.
ReplyDeleteWe have a population which, mostly due to poverty and a near complete lack of faith in American opportunity, is not participating in the economy in any meaningful way.
This is not a racial issue though it looks that way in Milwaukee. Look at the vast rural areas of the state, and you'll see the same issue: people without hope making whatever lives they can most conveniently make for themselves.
Many times, they are sponging off older relatives on SS and disability - sometimes they're selling drugs to the people who are employed (or on SS or disability) - sometimes they're boosting prescription drugs from relatives or scamming doctors into writing huge scripts and selling most of them. Any idea what the value 100 oxy tablets might be?
It's about two weeks wages for yours truly, and I make a damn good buck.
We have to get people working. Unemployment is the worst social ill there is - it exacerbates everything else. Substance abuse, domestic abuse, entrenched health problems, mental health issues, community decay and criminality in general are all made worse by unemployment.
Most of the unemployment that remains in the US is entrenched in poor areas of both urban and rural backgrounds.
When we get those people working, there's at least a chance of them finding a little pride, hope and faith in opportunity - a belief in the notion that their choices and actions matter.
We're going the wrong was on drugs. It's tragically comic to watch Republicans argue both sides of the prohibition debate when it comes to guns and drugs.
Kill the illegal market by making drugs legal and cheap; then put your money into jobs, health care, mental health care and addiction treatment. It won't be pretty to start with, but it's gotta be better than locking them up, letting them die on the streets and shoving billions of dollars into the hands of violent criminals.
Maybe then people will have the chance to start rebuilding their own families, neighborhoods and communities (including their schools).
From there, there's at least a chance of some local (legal) entrepreneurship starting.
To help keep local money local, I think we need to shift the economic power levers from huge operators like Wal-Mart back towards smaller, privately owned businesses. But I admit I have no idea how to do that or if it's even possible. Budding business people might just have to find cracks in the existing system.
I've heard talk from time to time of creating a state bank to help cut some of the international money industry out of the local economies, but I think smaller credit unions could do the same sort of thing.
I'm in the process of switching as much of my debt load to a local credit union and away from outfits like Wells Fargo and Citibank. It feels better, but I don't know for a fact that it's accomplishing what I hope it is.
Happy Sunday to you. Go Pack!
/rant