WisGOPs like higher education...when it doesn't involve the deep thinking stuff

Yesterday’s Joint Finance Committee meeting offered another chance to show where the priorities of the Wisconsin GOP were at when it came to higher education. And when you look at it as a whole, it spoke volumes.

One of the actions had to do with financial aid for Wisconsin college students.

Joint Finance Republicans rejected Gov. Tony Evers’ proposals to increase need-based grants for students at Wisconsin’s colleges, universities and tech schools, opting instead to keep funding at current levels.

The state provided $113.8 million in 2018-19 to students at the UW System, private colleges, the Wisconsin Technical College System and tribal colleges.

Evers proposed an increase in the grants for undergrads by 5 percent annually. The increase totalled nearly $17.3 million in general purpose revenue with another $73,000 in program revenue.

Because why would we want to increase opportunities and college choices for students in this state? Especially in a state where nearly 2/3 of Wisconsin college grads have student loan debt with an average nearing $30,000.
And no, this WisGOP mentality is not helping.

Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville, said taxpayers — many of whom didn’t go to college — have dug deep so the “select few” can benefit and opposed putting more money into the program.

“The taxpayers have been very generous,” Stroebel said.

Interesting that Duey would reference taxpayers, because he wasn't one of them for a few years, as One Wisconsin Now told us in 2016.

In addition to the “divide and conquer” cheap shot from that rich a-hole, WHAT IS STROEBEL (Bachelor’s and Master’s from UW Business School) TALKING ABOUT? The GOP has limited and/or cut funding to higher education for the last 8 years, and reduced the ability of those schools to offer market value for faculty to improve the product that comes out of there.

Interestingly, the JFC did add $25 million to the state’s Technical College system in the same meeting. That seems to be a compromise that the GOP-led committee made with themselves on the day following Governor Evers and JFC Dems for more in after word came out about one-time increased revenues this year.

The Joint Finance Committee approved a $25 million boost in state funding to the Wisconsin Technical College System — more than Gov. Tony Evers originally proposed, but less than he wanted after revenue projections climbed an additional $753 million.

The GOP motion to increase funding $25 million passed along party lines 11-4.

Evers’ original proposal called for an additional $18 million in general purpose revenue. But after the new revenue estimates came in Wednesday, Evers urged lawmakers to double the funding boost. That would have fully funded the tech colleges’ request for an additional $36 million over the budget.

But that $25 million is $7 million above what was in Evers’ budget at the start of this week, so you get an idea which way the wind is blowing there.

Along a similar line, the JFC gave Evers most of what he wanted with extra funding for workforce development.

The state would pump $12.5 million more into workforce development than what Gov. Tony Evers proposed under a motion the Joint Finance Committee approved today.

While more than what the guv floated, it’s short of the additional $15 million that he urged lawmakers to invest after seeing revised revenue numbers.

The motion, approved 11-4 along party lines, includes putting an additional $6 million over the biennium into career and technical education grants for school districts and a boost of $5.5 million for youth apprenticeship grants.

The final $1 million would go to grants that cover the cost of technical education equipment.

The committee’s motion also approved several of Evers’ plans, including $2 million over the biennium that’s earmarked for Marinette Marine to aid the shipbuilder in committee Co-chair John Nygren’s district.

Funny how John Nyrgen is cool with earmarked projects in his part of the state in the 920, but complains about places like Milwaukee getting funding to replace water lines. Wonder what’s different about those sets of Wisconsinites…

Yesterday’s a really good illustration how GOPs in the Legislature are fine with funding post-college education if it helps add to the workforce of certain types of jobs. But they’re not as keen on having students go to 4-year universities that encourage new ways of thinking and coming into contact with people of different backgrounds.

And not surprisingly, the gerrymandered districts in the Legislature reflect this, as only 4 of the 13 4-year UW campuses have a GOP State Rep, and only 4 of the 13 have a State Senator (which campuses are represented by which party differs a bit in each house).

It also reiterates one part of George Carlin’s great “American Dream” rant, which hasn’t changed in the 15+ years since he said it.



“[The corporate owners of the country] don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking, they don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking…that’s against their interests. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table to figure out how badly they’re getting f***ed by a system that threw them overboard 30 f***ing years ago. They don’t want that.

You know what they want? They want obedient workers. “Obedient workers”. People who just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime, and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it…”

Any coincidence that GOPs in the Legislature decided this was a good week to vote on extreme abortion bills based on situations that never happen? Nice distraction from another month of job losses, isn’t it?

Until the WisGOPs value thinking and academic education like they do machine operators, or until they’re removed from control of any part of state government, this state will continue to have the “workforce problems” that they and their corporate allies constantly bemoan.