Jobs and claims on the way up in Wisconsin

A couple more jobs-related reports came out here in Wisconsin today, and both gave some insight into where we're going in the months after the time period shown in yesterday's "gold standard" QCEW report (gone over in detail here). First of all, the state released its own monthly jobs report, and it featured a solid gain of 4,000 jobs in the private sector (but only 200 overall due to lower-than-normal winter hiring in local government). October's strong report was revised up even higher, so the state has seen 18,700 additional private sector jobs in the last 2 months, and 15,200 overall.

Manufacturing has also been a source of major strength in the last 2 months, with 9,000 jobs added in that sector since September. It's reflective of a big jump in manufacturing jobs nationwide in the same time period (43,000), and with Wisconsin being one of the manufacturing-heavy states. It might also indicate that employers are ending their BS excuses about a "skills gap" and hiring workers at a fair wage, but we'll need the wage data to make sure on that one. Another big reason behind the good reports has been that workers are being kept on the job longer than normal as the weather cools, instead of being laid off. An example is in Construction, where only 2,600 people were laid off in November, a much lower-than-normal number that translated into a seasonally-adjusted increase of 2,600. The goods sector has certainly been a leader in the last 2 jobs reports, with 10,800 jobs gained overall.

On the flip side, hiring for Holiday shopping season seems to have started slower than normal, as shown by the Trade sector only adding 4,700 jobs, which translated to a seasonally-adjusted monthly LOSS of 6,000. The Leisure and Hospitality sector had larger than usual post-Fall layoffs (10,800), which meant a seasonally-adjusted loss of 2,400. We'll see if there's a snap-back adjustment in December, or if this is a sign of bad things in the service sector.

These good reports have helped to make up for the state's horrible spring jobs reports (punctuated by over 20,000 jobs lost in April), and a weak July-September period (only 1,400 jobs added COMBINED in those 3 months), and now the state is up over 40,000 private sector jobs gained for the year. It's cut into the Walker jobs gap a bit, but the private sector gap is still close to 50,000.



An indicator that this would be a decent jobs report was the lack of increased unemployment claims through the middle of November, as they were running 10%-20% below the amount of claims in November 2012. This has reversed a bit in recent weeks, famously during the week of Thanksgiving, when Wisconsin led the nation in increased claims (partly due to the later deer hunting season). The unemployment claims report that came out today included the Wisconsin numbers for the first week of December, and while it didn't come close to being the largest increase in the nation thjis time, new claims in Wisconsin still rose by more than 1,600 to 16,896. This elevated number is still below last year's totals, but not by much, and if the claims don't drop next week here(they didn't drop much nationwide), they'll start to fall behind December's numbers.



So while it has been a good run in October and November for jobs figures in Wisconsin, it's not looking that promising for December, as claims are starting to run up as the snow starts to fly. It makes the decision by the Wisconsin State Senate to delay Badgercare benefits for 83,000 Wisconsinites all the more cruel, as there stands to be many more people falling below the poverty line in the next few months, but apparently Republicans felt a state with a massive cash surplus couldn't afford to shell out the $23 million it would take to fulfill the governor's original promise to cover that vulnerable group at the start of the year.

Stay tuned tomorrow, as the state-by-state report comes out around midday, and we'll see if the state is starting to get out of its "last in the Midwest" hole that it put itself in for the first two years of Scott Walker's tenure.

Low pay and few jobs = 2 years of Fitzwalkerstani fail

No surprises to me with the release of today's Quarterly Census on Employment and Wages, at least on the jobs side. Wisconsin fared poorly for job growth from June 2012 to June 2013, 42nd in the nation for total job growth, and 37th for private sector jobs, and continued to horribly lag the vast majority of the Midwest.

Private sector job growth, Midwest, Jun 2012-Jun 2013
Mich +2.79%
Minn +2.14%
Iowa +1.50%
Ohio +1.48%
Ind. +1.38%
Wis. +1.02%
Ill. +0.98%

The time period measured is important to note, as it lists the 12-month period after the recall elections of June 2012. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Governor Walker each claimed that job growth in Wisconsin was being held back due to "uncertainties" surrounding the recalls, and they said there would be huge growth immediately afterward if Walker and the Wisconsin GOP won. Well, that didn't happen. In fact, job growth FELL by nearly 40% after Walker was retained.



But you gotta give credit to the WisGOPs for one thing- they're consistently sucky. This time last year, the state was 40th in private sector job growth, and they're 38th nationwide (and dead last in the Midwest) for the last two years- which happen to be the two years Walker's and WisGOP's budget was in effect. So feel free to run on THAT record, guys.

The wages side is a mixed bag. On the positive side, weekly wages for all Wisconsin jobs were up 3.0% in the last year, and 2.4% in the private sector, both above the national average (the 3.0% increase for all wages was 3rd best in the nation). The problem with that is Wisconsin wages were well below our neighbors to begin with, and so this doesn't allow us to gain much ground.

Average weekly wage, June 2013
Ill. $971
Minn $929
Mich $875
Ohio $830
Wis. $801
Ind. $776
Iowa $757

This is especially true in manufacturing. Not only did Wisconsin lose 118 manufacturing jobs in the year surveyed, it also short-changes the people working in those industries.

Average weekly manufacturing wage, June 2013
Mich $1,184
Ill. $1,127
Minn $1,089
Ind. $1,040
Ohio $1,033
Iowa $978
Wis. $972

And Wisconsin's manufacturing workers weren't getting real raises either, with weekly wages losing ground to the country's 1.5% inflation rate in the period measured. Wisconsin's wage growth in manufacturing rated a horrible 45th in the U.S., and only Ohio kept it out of the Midwest's basement in this category. Also note who's Number 1 here.

Change in avg. weekly manuf. wage, Jun 2012-June 2013

Minn +2.64%
Iowa +1.66%
Mich +1.37%
Ill. +1.08%
Ind. +0.67%
Wis. +0.62%
Ohio +0.48%

That's right, not only is Minnesota gaining jobs at twice the rate of Wisconsin, they're giving manufacturing workers raises that are 4 TIMES MORE than Wisconsinites are getting, and at higher wages. So if you were a "free agent" manufacturing worker with skills, would you locate in the places that's got the better economy and better wages, or the place that's stuck in the mud, and paying less? NO BRAINER, and that's a big reason why we're losing ground to our Midwestern neighbors.

It also proves yet again that Wisconsin CEOs that claim they can't hire because there's a "skills gap" are full of crap. The QCEW data prove that a lot of the problem stems from the fact that Wisconsin manufacturers refuse to pay a fair wage to potential workers, and until they stop being low-paying greedheads, they won't get the top-flight applicants they want.

And with Gov Walker refusing to discuss raising the minimum wage or try to pass any type of regulation that might make manufacturers do their part in shrinking the wage gap, we will continue to lose work and workers to other places that give them what they're worth.

The QCEW data once again makes it clear- it is not working here in Fitzwalkerstan, and we are losing ground to our neighbors the longer we stay on this road.

Medicaid and tax "reforms" make Wisconsin seem very Confederate

If you look at some of the policy proposals coming out of the Walker Administration, it doesn't sound like anything that's done in the Upper Midwest, an area of the country that traditionally has strong human services. And that's because this Administration's heart isn't with the Midwest and its values, but instead seems in line with that third-world part of the country with high poverty, low incomes and even less hope- the American South.

1. The best example of this is Walker's folly in refusing the expanded Medicaid funds that are part of Obamacare (I've touched on how stupid this is numerous times, most recently here, where I noted a report that said turning down Medicaid funding will cost Wisconsin $1.75 billion in federal funds by 2022). Greg Sargent's "Plum Line" column at the Washington Post pointed out that of the 4.8 million people that may face gaps in their health coverage due to their states not expanding Medicaid, 80% are in the South. Slightly more than half of those people are not white (I'm sure that's mere coincidence), and Sargent relays the findings of the Kaiser Family Foundation, who broke down the states that are and are not taking the Medicaid expansion, as well as identified the backgrounds of the people who would fall into a coverage gap.

Now to its credit, the Walker plan does not have much of a coverage gap, because the state's Badgercare program would cover all Wisconsinites below the poverty line after April 1, and those with incomes above poverty are eligible to get coverage through the federal exchanges. So the only people facing a coverage gap will be those in poverty without children between January 1 and March 31 (unless the Senate refuses to pass the bill this week, then these people would be covered on Jan. 1), but even with that in mind, there are over 160,000 Wisconsinites facing a serious disruption resulting from the delay of being able to finally go on Badgercare, or from families that are barely above poverty being kicked off of Badgercare, and having to get coverage through the federal exchanges.

And this type of health insurance disruption in Wisconsin is happening for no other reason than for Scott Walker to pose against President Obama to try to impress the fraction of a fraction that TeaBag Republicans make up in the electorate. As the Kaiser Foundation's map shows, it is a stance that is completely out of step with the rest of the Midwest, as well as virtually every other state that stayed with the Union in 1861.



The Kaiser Foundation also mentions that this modern-day "nullification" approach on Obamacare could be a harbinger of longer-lasting effects down the road, much like how the South lagged the rest of the country for decades after the Civil War.

These continued coverage gaps and their varied impacts across groups will result in millions of poor adults remaining uninsured and likely lead to widening racial and ethnic as well as geographic disparities in coverage and access to care.

And this week, Scotty doubled down on the Confederate-style policies, saying his administration was considering "tax reform" measures that could include abolishing state income taxes in favor of higher sales taxes. Obviously, this is an absurd trial balloon, especially since there's no proposal on paper showing what cuts in services or hikes in sales and local taxes would need to be done to make up for the revenue shortfall from getting rid of income taxes. After looking at revenue numbers from the most recent budget, quick math indicates the state sales tax would have to go from 5% to at least 13% to make up for the loss of $7.6 billion a year in income tax. And for a whole lot of Wisconsinites, they pay more in sales taxes than income taxes, so they'd really get hurt by this idea.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy breaks down who pays what taxes in each state every year, and for 2013, its "Who Pays" report on Wisconsin shows that sales and excise taxes take a bigger bite out the wallets of the bottom 60% of Wisconsin income earners than income tax does.

% of income going to various taxes, Wisconsin end of 2012
Hurt by 0% income, 13% sales tax
Lowest 20% of income- 6.2% to sales taxes, 0.0% to income taxes
20-40% of income- 5.1% to sales taxes, 2.0% to income taxes
Middle 20% of income- 4.0% to sales taxes, 3.5% to income taxes

Helped by 0% income, 13% sales tax
60%- 80% of income- 3.4% to sales taxes, 4.1% to income taxes
80%-95% of income- 2.5% to sales taxes, 4.6% to income taxes
top 5% to top 1% of income- 1.6% to sales taxes, 4.8% to income taxes
top 1% of income- 0.9% to sales taxes, 5.6% to income taxes

So go ahead Scotty, sell that one to the general public, since a majority of them would lose in this equation, on top of the large amounts of workers that have already lost due to Act 10 stealing their take-home pay, their lower property values, and the worst job performance in the Midwest. Of course, this administration probably isn't too aware of how many people would be screwed over by such a policy, since the only outside input they're allowing on any of these "tax reform" talks are in closed-door meetings with oligarchs, such as the one Lt. Gov Mini-van Rebecca Kleefsich held in Beloit last week.

And it's telling that Walker claims to be "envious" of places with no income tax. Let's take a look at a few economic stats of states with no income tax, compare them with Wisconsin and the rest of the U.S. right now, and see what Walker "envies" about them. We'll even forget the fact that 3 of these states are in the bottom 5 for population, and really aren't close to Wisconsin's demographics in any way.

Median Household income
Alaska $63,648
Washington $62,187
Wyoming $57,512
Wisconsin $53,079
Texas $51,926
U.S. $51,017
South Dakota $49,415
Nevada $47,333
Florida $46,071

Unemployment rate, October 2013
South Dakota 3.7% (2nd lowest)
Wyoming 4.6%
Texas 6.2%
Alaska 6.5%
Wisconsin 6.5%
Florida 6.7%
U.S. 7.0%
Washington 7.0%
Nevada 9.3% (highest in U.S.)

Seems like the 0% income tax groups holds up OK. Until you get to this stat, which ties in very neatly with Walker cutting people off of expanded Medicaid funding.

Percentage without health insurance
Texas 24.3% (no. 1 in U.S.)
Nevada 22.5% (no. 2 in U.S.)
Florida 20.7% (no. 4 in U.S.)
Alaska 18.4% (no. 8 in U.S.)
Wyoming 16.8%
U.S. 15.8%
Washington 14.0%
South Dakota 13.5%
Wisconsin 9.8%

But hey, who wants to be ahead of the curve by having 90% of their people insured anyway? Apparently Scotty would rather we be like the states that don't care for their poor and sick, while keeping incomes largely the same, and possibly more susceptible to economic bubbles that burst (as shown in states like Florida and Nevada). Nice priorities, huh?

Then again, Scotty doesn't care about what happens to most of us. He's already gotten his orders, and plans to carry them out any way he can.



And yes, someone from that woman's company was at the closed-door meeting in Beloit with Lt. Gov. Kleefisch. Because that's the way business gets done in "a truly red", Confederate state. As The Daily Beast's Jamelle Bouie so accurately put it today

Of course Scott Walker is looking at eliminating the income tax in his state.

I mean, why wouldn't you turn your state in a laboratory for plutocratic nonsense?

Numbers from the CAFR show Walker failure

Wisconsin's Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) was released on Thursday, and while there's loads of data to go over in this document, I want to narrow in on a few points of emphasis.

1. Ignore all the spin at the start of the document and get into the numbers. On Page 34 of the PDF and Page 29 of the report, the CAFR shows a large budget deficit, based on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

The General Fund is the chief operating fund of the State. At June 30, 2013, the State's General Fund reported a total fund deficit of $(1.7) billion. The net change in fund balance during Fiscal Year 2013 was $468.3 million, in contrast to $733.0 million in Fiscal Year 2012.

This in itself isn't a big deal, as we all make payments on things in the present with plans to pay for them in the future, and it looks like good progress has been made, with the GAAP deficit dropping from $2.9 billion 2 years ago to $1.7 billion now, which Gov. Walker was quick to point out (and as a state employee, I say "You're welcome, Governor."). There's only one problem with this situation, and it's that candidate Walkersaid this in 2010.

Require the use of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) to balance every state budget, just as we require every local government and school district to do.

Huh, 'magine that, Walker lied to get himself elected. By the way, if you look at that page, Walker is going 0 for 5 in these "reforms", and he certainly doesn't include the addition of no-bid selling of state facilities and turning scores civil service positions into "Governor-appointed hack" jobs.

2. Page 39 of the PDF and Page 34 of the report goes into the state's debt, and it shows the amount of debt increasing in the Age of Fitzwalkerstan.

The total general obligation debt outstanding for the State as of June 30, 2013 was $7.5 billion, as shown in Table 8. During Fiscal Year 2013, $703.3 million of general obligation bonds were issued to provide for the acquisition or improvement of land, water, property, highways, buildings, equipment, or facilities for public purposes or to refund outstanding bonds. Of the bonds issued in the current year, $233.2 million was to be used for University of Wisconsin System academic and self-amortizing facilities; $257.6 million for transportation projects, $19.8 million for energy conservation projects, $61.7 million for environmental programs, and $131.0 million for various other projects.

And as the 2011 CAFR shows, this $7.5 billion is more than 11 percent higher than the amount of debt that the state had 2 years ago.

Outstanding General obligation debt, State of Wisconsin
FY 2010 $6.015 billion
FY 2011 $6.730 billion
FY 2012 $7.279 billion
FY 2013 $7.492 billion

This 2013 figure doesn't include the $2 billion in added borrowing that the 2013-15 Walker/WisGOP budget has, to help pay for his Koo-Koo tax cuts and other initiatives, so this number will increase as we go along. Not really "fiscally responsible", now is it?

3. The CAFR also goes into economic factors, and these don't look good for Wisconsin, for either the past or the near future. These show up beginning on Page 40 of the PDF and page 35 of the report, and it reiterates that Wisconsin's job growth lagged what was going on in the rest of the country under the first full year of the Walker/WisGOP budget.

Wisconsin employment continued to grow throughout 2012. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, total nonfarm employment in Wisconsin increased 0.9 percent during the year, but at a softer pace than national growth of 1.7 percent. Wisconsin employment decreased in 2009 and 2010 by 4.4 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively before increasing 1.1 percent in 2011. This performance matched national employment trends. Nationally, employment decreased 4.4 percent in 2009 and 0.7 percent in 2010 before increasing 1.2 percent in 2011.

More recently, Wisconsin's growth in employment has accelerated, closely matching the national growth rate. Between August 2012 and August 2013, Wisconsin employment has increased 1.7 percent. Nationally, employment is up 1.7 percent over the same period.

With the strong US jobs reports in the three months since August, Wisconsin needs to keep adding jobs at a brisk pace just to keep their jobs deficit at its already unacceptable level. We'll find out if they have later this week when the state's jobs numbers come out, and we'll also have the June 2012-June 2013 Quarterly Census on Wages and Employment come out, which seems likely to keep Wisconsin in the bottom third of the US for job growth.

4. Right after the employment info, the CAFR points out that the state's production and income growth also remain below national average. I also love how the DOA tries to spin this away in the report.

Wisconsin's state nominal gross domestic product increased 3.2 percent in 2012. This was in line with the 3.2 percent growth in 2011 and 3.4 percent in 2010, while representing a significant improvement over 2008 and 2009 when the state's economy shrank 0.2 percent and grew only 0.5 percent, respectively. It compares to a 50-state total for gross domestic product decline of 2.3 percent for 2009, and growth of 3.7 percent, 4.0 percent and 4.1 percent in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively. Since 2007, Wisconsin's gross domestic product increased by a similar magnitude to the national average at 10.6 percent compared to 11.7 percent nationally.

It takes a graph to show what this means, and you'll see that Wisconsin (in blue) had cumulative GDP growth above the nation's in 2009 and 2010 (under Doyle/Dem control) and has fallen behind the US since Walker and WisGOP took over.



The DOA writers didn't want to let you in on that, did they? The state is also lagging in income growth. These are nominal numbers, by the way, and not adjusted for inflation.

Wisconsin personal income grew 1.4 percent, 5.3 percent and 3.9 percent in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively. Nationally, personal income grew 2.9 percent, 6.1 percent and 4.2 percent in the same years. On a per capita basis, Wisconsin's income performance is similar to the nation's. Per capita income in Wisconsin increased by 1.0 percent, 4.9 percent and 3.6 percent in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively. This compares to growth of 2.0 percent, 5.3 percent and 3.4 percent in the same years nationally.

Actually, (nominal, not real) per capita income being up 9.8% over the last 3 years isn't that close to the 11.1% increase in the rest of the nation. It's a rate of growth more than 10% LESS than the national rate.

So the CAFR shows Wisconsin doesn't have a GAAP-balanced budget, we have growing debt, and lagging job, output and income growth. So explain to me how "it's working" in any type of honest analysis? Well, outside of increasing inequality in favor of campaign contributors and FUBARing the state so badly that its services may have to be sold off to oligarchs in exchange for big-time corporate payoffs. Maybe that's the intelligence of Fitzwalkerstan's design, but it sure screws those of us with real jobs and real lives.

Higher unemployment claims OK, but WisGOP Scrooges are not

1. I'm going to do a rare thing, and agree with Scott Walker's Administration that there is a legitimate excuse for the bad economic news that came out for Wisconsin this week. It comes from the weekly unemployment claims report, and Wisconsin stood out as Number 1 in a bad way.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending November 30 were in Wisconsin (+4,420), Ohio (+2,597), Kentucky (+1,538), Massachusetts (+1,129), and New Jersey (+1,124), while the largest decreases were in California (-19,920), Texas (-7,284), Florida (-5,400), Pennsylvania (-5,145), and Nevada (-3,295).

And usually, I'd use that as a reason to say "it's not working" and go from there. But the Walker Administration's reasoning for the 4,400+ added claims has some legitimacy behind it.

Officials with the state Department of Workforce Development explain that Wisconsin historically sees a seasonal increase in unemployment claims around Thanksgiving -- in part because of deer hunting -- but note the number of claims for 2013 is actually down from 2012 by 17.4 percent and the lowest since at least 2009.

And the recent history of Wisconsin unemployment claims bears this out. As you'll see from the last 4 years, claims usually spike up this year, and the week of Thanksgiving, and the average increase in claims during Thanksgiving week is just over 6,500. It just came a week later this year because Thanksgiving (and deer hunting) came a week later in 2013.

So 4,420 is actually less than in previous years, which makes sense, since the nation as a whole is seeing lower unemployment claims on the order of 10-15% year-over-year. The real test to me is to see what happens with the unemployment claims in Wisconsin for the most recent week, which get revealed next Thursday. The U.S. had an increase in unemployment claims (unadjusted) of just under 150,000 for last week- not too unusual, due to seasonal factors, but it should also raise Wisconsin's unemployment claims in the next report. That'll give us a good indication what the December jobs picture might look like, a lot more than this week's increase in claims will.

On the flip side, this seasonal increase in unemployment claims is what makes the Walker Administration's desire to delay Badgercare for childless adults all the more cruel. Because it is this time of the year when more people lose their seasonal jobs, and would need Badgercare to get by (especially if they were covered in their previous job). It's especially bad because these people previously received notification from the state that they would be eligible for services starting on January 1, and if the Senate agrees to these changes next week, they'll have all of 2 weeks to find out they're going to have be on their own for the next 3 months, and that includes the Holidays. But don't worry, the Walker Administration said today that they have a plan.

Wisconsin health officials plan to call and send letters to all 83,000 childless adults who were originally scheduled to start receiving Medicaid in January but now will have to wait until April under a cost-savings move by Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature.

The calls will be placed not only to those who thought they were about to receive coverage but also another 80,000 childless adults who have been on a waiting list but earn too much under tighter eligibility requirements set by Walker and the Legislature, said Department of Health Services spokeswoman Stephanie Smiley.

Isn't that nice of them? Poverty-level Wisconsinites will get a phone call and a letter to tell them they're screwed in the coldest months of the year that have the least amount of jobs available (of course, whether the DHS folks will actually reach them is a whole 'nother story). Tell you what, I've got a better idea. Why not accept the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, which would save Wisconsinites' taxpayer dollars, and cover all these people and many more! What a concept!

But OK, I understand Walker needs to do his symbolic "stand in the doorway" move against Obamacare for the right-wing bubble-worlders, and can't accept that. Fine. Here's another option, and it was laid out in State Sen. David Cullen's letter to Walker from a couple of weeks ago that called BS on this plan. All the state would have to do would be to cover the childless adults at or below the poverty level, AND families with children that are currently on Badgercare for the next 3 months. Doing both for 3 months would cost all of $21.6 million to state taxpayers- a drop in the bucket compared to the Medicaid costs, and with revenue numbers coming in strong so far, why can't we do the right thing through the winter months? To ignore that easy compromise should reveal the Wisconsin GOP as the self-absorbed "dollars over people" Scrooges that they are, and should be hung around their necks for the next 11 months, through the 2014 elections.

Given that the State Senate seems to be up for grabs along with the Governor's mansion next year (and the Assembly too, if there's a Dem wave), it would probably behoove GOP State Senators in purple districts to go along with this 3-month compromise. Especially in light of the proposed budget deal cutting extended unemployment benefits, delaying Badgercare for 83,000 Wisconsinites would be a brutal double-whammy in the dead of winter, and is the type of thing that leads people to take our their desperation in very bad ways. I'd recommend that the WisGOP Senators not push their luck on this issue when they meet next week, and work out the sensible compromise....but I bet they won't have the guts to.

Vos, Vuke and Icki illustrate Common Core fail

I got three quotes here, the first to show why the GOP's argument against Common Core is so foolish and hypocritical, and the second illustrates why there'd be reps saying and thinking things so stupid.

The first comes from Assembly Speaker and ALEC cabin boy Robin Vos, who said that having nationwide standards doesn't allow for local schools to have the freedom to decide their own curricula and levels of knowledge that they want their kids to have.

It’s important that our state continues to empower local school boards to decide what’s best for their students. State or federal bureaucrats should not force feed local school districts educational standards or curriculum. Our local school board members were elected and are accountable to the taxpayers for making the appropriate educational decisions for their communities.

Hmmm, Speaker Vos, that's an interesting comment, since you and your Republican colleagues had no problem with force-feeding local school boards with Act 10 when it came to how they should negotiate salaries, benefits and work conditions with their teachers. And you certainly had no problem with a top-down, hands-tying approach when it came to how much they could levy in property taxes. But because Common Core wasn't your idea, and wasn't ALEC-written legislation, NOW is the time to start talking about "local control" with schools, isn't it?

Then again, when you realize Vos refuses to subject his beloved vouchers face the same measures that public schools do, I guess it isn't all that surprising. After all, Robin Vos loves any idea that would make Wisconsin public schools mess up and look worse to the public, which would give him an excuse to privatize even more schools for his campaign contributors. ( Remember him telling Mike Ellis "I know where I can find $200 million in venture capital for schools?" I do.)

Another obnoxious Wisconsin rightie chimed in to ask that Common Core not be implemented today.

“While the Common Core State Standards may be better than what we currently have, I believe we can do better. They do not have the rigor associated with the top state standards in the US and around the world. The standards do not appropriately take into account the needs of advanced students. States are not allowed to enhance these standards due to copyright laws. They emphasize writing over reading which contradicts centuries of research. These concerns are just a few of the many discussed during this process.

Reading through the considerations of the two reports, I believe there is hope for getting Wisconsin’s educational system out from under the federally pushed Common Core State Standards." - State Sen. Leah Vukmir

Sen. Vukmir also asked for the State Legislature to have more oversight of what standards are, and to make sure the school boards follow what the Legislature hands down. Seems like she might want to get on the same page as Vos there. And yes, she was a vehement backer of fellow Tosan Scott Walker and Act 10.

Now, are Sen. Vukmir's "concerns" based on a belief that the standards are too light and aren't meeting kids' needs, or might there be something else in play?

WI's day in the limelight. @RepPaulRyan speaking @ALEC_states Thomas Jefferson Reception. Honored to introduce him! pic.twitter.com/ODcqFuoY7j

— Senator Leah Vukmir (@Leahvukmir) December 4, 2013

Ah, there's your answer! Just more ALEC bullshit to try to denigrate public schools and them eju-kated types.

No you may ask, how can people in the suburban areas that Vos and Vukmir represent not see through their hypocritical bullshit that they are trying to throw around? Probably because far too many of Vossy's and Vukmir's constiutents are weak-minded bitter folks that get their "facts" on the radio from people like this.



These are the LAST people that should be making any decisions on education, or pretty much anything else that ends past their nose. They all have to go.

EDIT: Here's an excellent summary from Wisconsin Soapbox on just how much these people want to oversee and screw up our public education system. Please read it, and pass along.

Quotable in Wisconsin's Common Core K-12 debate

3 quotes that sum up a lot of things going on with the K-12 education debate in Wisconsin, and why you shouldn't allow people who are hostile to public education be the ones designing education policy.

First off, the state's Select Committee on Common Core standards released the results of a statewide survey of superintendents on Common Core today. Statements from GOP Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt and GOP Rep. Dean Knudson tended to focus on the cost that has already been done to adopt the nationwide standards, and expressed a desire to have legislators change the standards if they felt it wasn't fitting the state's needs.

The problem with these statements (well, in addition to Reps. Thiesfeldt and Knudson not understanding the concept of "sunk cost") is that the report included the actual testimony of the superintendents and other school officials, and they were overwhelmingly positive about Common Core, with many claiming it raised standards in the state, and that it would be foolish to go back on keeping those standards after districts have spent so much time and money getting the correct curriculum in place. One of my favorite quotes comes from John Engstrom, who's the District Administrator at the K-8 Friess Lake school district in Hubertus (which feeds into Hartford High School), and it makes up the last 2 pages of the Common Core report.

I am not a wholesale supporter of the Common Core. I have concerns about an overly standardized curriculum, an over reliance on standardized testing and the rise of a “Testing Industrial Complex,” a narrow focus on the role and purpose of K-12 education, and a lack of attention on the #1 problem impacting the educational experience of too many young people today- poverty.

If the Wisconsin Legislators were raising these types of concerns about the Common Core, I would be with them. However, the concerns I’ve heard from legislators have been quite different. At least one legislator chose to show an alarmist video in their local office that spewed lies and distortions about the Common Core. I would expect this sort of nonsense from an interest group or a private citizen, but not from an elected official.

Then, we moved to the hearings. The hearing I attended in Fond du lac left much to be desired. It did reveal some true colors, as it served as a platform for riling up the types of folks who think it is appropriate to distribute detestable packets of information- including a pamphlet entitled “20 reasons why Christian parents should get their children out of Wisconsin’s WEAC-run government schools.” Open the pamphlet up and the first thing you see is a verse from Matthew 18:6: “But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drown in the depths of the sea.” Then, just for good measure, there’s a picture of a millstone. Get it?

Truly Horrible. And yet, sadly, this type of garbage was very much in line with the prevailing sentiment of the anti-Common Core crowd at the Fond du lac hearing. I will state with a high degree of confidence that most of the people who attended that hearing to oppose the Common Core have no connection to a public school.

And Superintendent Engstrom continues in this vein, mentioning that "We have not had one concern, not one complaint, about Common Core" from Friess Lake parents, despite being located in arguably the most Bagger-ific part of the state (one which supported DON PRIDEMORE for State Superintendent).

Bergstrom's criticism echoes the smackdown Dem Rep. Christine Sinicki gave the committee 6 weeks ago, when she resigned from serving on it, denouncing it as a Tea Party-organized sham. Fellow Dem Assemblywoman Sondy Pope has also consistently hammered on the Common Core Committee, and she immediately responded to the release of the report by urging Republican reps to make policy based on what education professionals had to say, and not politics.

Today, the results of a survey that was sent to school district administrators on behalf of the Assembly Select Committee on Common Core was released by Chairman Thiesfeldt. The letter asked administrators to answer four questions regarding their experience with the Common Core State Standards. Unfortunately, members of the committee have cherry-picked quotes to fit their own partisan goals.

“If this committee does decide to implement a review of academic standards, it must be done in a fashion that protects the constitutional authority of the State Superintendent and guarantees fact and reason is put ahead of politics,” said Rep. Pope. “Any legislative body will struggle greatly with that task as evidenced by the workings of the current Common Core review committees.”

Many of the superintendents surveyed voiced their support for the continuation of the Common Core standards and emphasized their desire to keep politics away from any review process related to Wisconsin’s academic standards.

In the meantime, there are real issues to be dealt with in regards to public schools, such as achievement gaps and inequities in funding, but it seems that the Baggers in the Legislature really don't care about digging deep into solving that problem- they'd just rather beat up on the public schools and funnel money to their campaign contributors in the voucher lobby. State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout goes into this in a lengthy interview with Heather DuBois Bourenane at Monologues of Dissent .

I'm a Vinehout fan to begin with, but she's even better in this interview with the level of detail in which she describes the issue. I encourage you to read the whole thing, but here's a passage that sums things up quite well.

VINEHOUT: What’s happening in Milwaukee, the parents who are engaged, the parents who are a little wealthier, the parents who maybe have the resources, are pulling their children out of public schools. I was just at a meet and greet in Wauwatosa, where a fellow who teaches – young guy, really excited – who teaches in MPS, really excited about teaching in MPS, and what he described for me what a student body that was becoming higher and higher need, but the resources were not following that. This is where I see Wisconsin going ten years from now. Diane Ravitch’s book lays it out very clearly. The intention is to create a multitude of options for parents. The only problem is: not all parents have those options. We’re never going to see a [Two Hours] Charter school sit down the road from Alma. There’s not enough people. Just like why AT&T doesn’t want to come out and put out broadband there. Why do we have to have our own rural electrification? Because the utility companies didn’t want to come out there. The density of the population is very low. They can’t make money there.

MoD: Well I don’t’ think these organizations have even expressed an interest in serving kids in these areas. They only want to go into the areas that have large education budgets; that’s been demonstrated nationwide.

VINEHOUT: Absolutely. So to say, “the schools are broken, we need to privatize them” is to repeat the myth of the other side. To say that “poverty is no excuse” is to repeat the myth of the other side. What we need to do is look at what’s actually happening. There’s no evidence that shows us that these schools do any better at educating the same kid when we control for factors like poverty and special education and other factors. And the research is clear: achievement is related to poverty. And how do we solve the problem of achievement in high impoverished areas? We increase the resources. We lower the student/teacher ratio. We use innovative means in a very hands-on, one-on-one if we have to, to help those children. We know the answers to how to deal with these problems, but we can’t seem to get the will of the legislature in this building to pass the changes to the funding formula that recognize that children in poverty cost more to educate....

We need to have a dialogue in communities all across the state about what’s happening, what happens Election Day, what’s happening in the Capitol, and what’s happening in your community related to what’s happening in the Capitol.

When I have those dialogues with people, the first topic that comes up is education. People want a great school. And they’re very worried about what’s happening in the rural schools. And the Republicans see this vulnerability. It’s no fluke of luck that Robin Vos put together a Special Task Force on Rural Schools, and named one of his most vulnerable members, in an area where the schools are being starved of resources, to chair it. If the Superintendent’s uncomfortable, tell me, there’s nobody north of Highway 8 that got a single bit - pennies on the dollar related to that 100 million dollar property tax decrease money going into schools. We know now, from the history, and looking at what happens with property tax and state aid, they’re tied at the hip. If you dramatically decrease state aid, you’re going to increase property tax. Yes, there’s a levy limit, but there’s also a lot of people who haven’t levied to the max – like Alma, and my husband’s on the school board – who are now in the position of saying “We cut as much as we possibly can. If we’re going to continue to provide great education to these students, we’ve got to raise revenue under the levy, and use that space under the levy law.”

We have to be honest – we, the Democrats, have to be honest about what’s happening in the Capitol and how people are being distracted from what really matters. The Common Core hearings were nothing but a distraction.

As usual, Sen. Vinehout is right. Dems need to be upfront over the next year in calling out the pro-voucher GOP for their failed, corrupt education policies, and stand strongly for what traditionally has been one of Wisconsin's few advantages over other states- its high-quality public education system. A voice defending that system is one of the many reasons I support Vinehout entering the Governor's race, and hope her injuries from this weekend's auto accident don't set her back much.

If Dems don't speak up like Sen. Vinehout, and tell Wisconsinites the truth about what GOPs are trying to mess up, they not only will lose on this issue to the privatizers, but Wisconsin will descend into a mediocrity that few will want to move to.