The Legislative Fiscal Bureau released the first big document for the 2015-17 budget, its Informational Papers, which deal with every aspect and deparment the budget covers. Feel free to click on whatever subject interests you, as it offers good historical information, along with an explanation of what these programs are, and how they get funded.
I'll probably be going back to some of these documents in the coming months, as they're great resources. So get your geek on and check it out!
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
GOP Congress wrecking crew gets to work cutting Social Security
It didn’t even take a week for the new GOP-controlled Congress to start wrecking things. Through a simple rule change yesterday in the House of Representatives, without debate or even a bill to be written up for people to look at, the GOPs are already striking their poses and making moves that will lead to unneeded stress in people’s lives.
They’re also not very bright as to how this will likely play out in the court of public opinion. Here’s a great take from the DC-based political blog Balloon Juice that explains just how stupid this unnecessary move is.
Heck, in this day and age of shrinking pensions and stagnant wages, not only is it economically stupid for GOP politicians pulling stunts like reallocation to the threaten Social Security, but we should be demanding that it be EXPANDED to age 55, with the rich paying the same percentage of Social Security taxes that the other 95% of us wage-earners do. If Dems actually said that, and kept hammering on it, we’d never have to w1orry about another GOP Congress existing to screw up Social Security ever again.
The largely overlooked change puts a new restriction on the routine transfer of tax revenues between the traditional Social Security retirement trust fund and the Social Security disability program. The transfers, known as reallocation, had historically been routine; the liberal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities said Tuesday that they had been made 11 times. The CBPP added that the disability insurance program "isn't broken," but the program has been strained by demographic trends that the reallocations are intended to address.So the GOP is basically going to create a crisis for Social Security’s Disability side where none exists, and use these disabled individuals as hostages to try to screw up the pension side of Social Security for the rest of us. It’s quite reminiscent about how the GOPs pulled a change in figuring retiree benefits for the U.S. Postal Service in 2006, right before they were to be booted out of power. This move forced decades of USPS benefits to be paid up over ten years (see page 5 and 6 of this PDF), to the tune of $5.4 billion to $5.8 billion a year in extra expenses. This absurd requirement is the only reason the Postal Service had a deficit of $2.5 billion in the last fiscal year, which is now the impetus for GOPs and other “reformers” to claim delivery needs to be cut back and/or privatized in some other way. That’s the game these sick fucks are playing, and now they’re going to try it with those on Disability.
The House GOP's rule change would still allow for a reallocation from the retirement fund to shore up the disability fund -- but only if an accompanying proposal "improves the overall financial health of the combined Social Security Trust Funds," per the rule, expected to be passed on Tuesday. While that language is vague, experts say it would likely mean any reallocation would have to be balanced by new revenues or benefit cuts.
House Democrats are sounding the alarm. In a memo circulated to their allies Tuesday, Democratic staffers said that that would mean "either new revenues or benefit cuts for current or future beneficiaries." New revenues are highly unlikely to be approved by the deeply tax-averse Republican-led Congress, leaving benefit cuts as the obvious alternative.
The Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees estimated last year that the disability insurance program would run short of money to pay all benefits some time in late 2016. Without a new reallocation, disability insurance beneficiaries could face up to 20 percent cuts in their Social Security payments in late 2016 -- a chit that would be of use to Republicans pushing for conservative entitlement reforms.
They’re also not very bright as to how this will likely play out in the court of public opinion. Here’s a great take from the DC-based political blog Balloon Juice that explains just how stupid this unnecessary move is.
Hell, the Bush plan to privatize Social Security was a Machiavellian masterpiece compared to this. Remember that the stock market was riding high* [(*) Yes, Wall Street was riding on a mountain of turd mortgages, but few people knew that at the time] and the instantaneous yields on privatizing people’s SS money might have been fairly positive, at least until 2008. The debate concerned how comfortable people felt with risk more than cutting anyone’s benefits tomorrow. As it turned out most seniors lived long enough to remember the stock market going up and down, and the risk did not appeal to them at all. By contrast in 2016 Republicans just hope to cut everyone’s benefits by about a fifth. Psychologically that is about a million times more draconian than the sideways shift that helped Democrats take Congress back in 2016 and I expect it to go over proportionately well.I sure didn't vote for these a-holes, but as a 40-year-old, I will sure pay a price if their scheming cuts the Social Security benefits that I’ve paid into for more than half of my life. And especially given that I’ve lived through two stock market crashes since graduating college, I’m not exactly going to be counting on the Magic of the Market or the benevolence of a Greedhead CEO to carry me through.
The GOP can dress it up in opaque mechanisms but somehow people who have benefits will get around twenty percent less of them right before a major election. Say they cut the wealthiest twenty percent off of Social Security; in fact I think that is probably Boehner’s plan. Republicans have flirted with “means testing” plenty of times. Each time they only flirt long enough to take a cold and sobering look at the polls. The main difference is this time they cut off their own escape route. The rule change is the political equivalent of fighting with your army’s back against a cliff in the theory that men will fight harder if the alternative is surrender or death. Sometimes that works, but people only pull that kind of desperation move when the odds are not on their side. You don’t go looking for opportunities to do it.
To sum up, in a Presidential election year Republicans will have to either change the rule back (the smartest move but a pretty stark loss of face), raise revenues (= taxes, ha) or eat the blame for a huge haircut to the single benefit program most important to their core voting demographic. On top of that Democrats can just change the rule back in 2017 if the take Congress, which they may well do if the overriding issue of 2016 is who wants to defend your Social Security benefits and who wants to slash them for no damned reason at all….
Heck, in this day and age of shrinking pensions and stagnant wages, not only is it economically stupid for GOP politicians pulling stunts like reallocation to the threaten Social Security, but we should be demanding that it be EXPANDED to age 55, with the rich paying the same percentage of Social Security taxes that the other 95% of us wage-earners do. If Dems actually said that, and kept hammering on it, we’d never have to w1orry about another GOP Congress existing to screw up Social Security ever again.
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Budget problems for Wisconsin Transportation already obvious
Sounds like the reality of a bad budget is already setting in for the WisGOP Legislature. Take a look at this story which includes extensive quotes from Assembly speaker Robbin’ Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. Vos now is saying that the goals of this legislative session will be related to “right-sizing” government (i.e., not going after corporations that harm the state and break the law), and they are shelving talk of income or property tax cuts (translation: “You voted for us believing we'd keep cutting taxes after the election? SUCKERS!”).
But these guys also want to stay in the good graces of the Koch/ALEC/Grover Norquist "no-tax" power structure, so they’re not willing to entertain certain options to fund their road-building binge.
And you gotta love how Vos isn’t backing away from ideas that would raise the state’s $75 vehicle registration fee, which makes me interested in hearing what he thinks about the 2.5% “new car sales tax” that’s in the DOT’s budget request.
As the Transportation Fund condition shows , (on Pages 6-7 of this report), the gas tax is the largest source of revenue that the state’s Transportation Fund receives every year. Given that the state’s ongoing major expressway projects have to paid for somehow, if the gas tax isn’t going to be raised, there will have to be some significant fee increase and/or more of that “fiscally conservative” borrowing.
Top Sources of revenue for Trans. Fund, FY 2014
Gas taxes $999.4 million
Reg. Fees $658.1 million ($215.8 million of this pays off debt)
Transfers into fund $57.8 million (will be $189.6 million FY 2015)
Driver’s License Fees $39.2 million
EVERYTHING ELSE $87.5 million
Maybe what Vossy and Fitz will do is pass these costs off to the local governments of Wisconsin, either directly or indirectly. We are already seeing officials from the Superior area asking the Legislature to give it the freedom to levy a local sales tax to pay for roads, and drivers in Iowa County, Chippewa County, the City of Appleton and the City of Beloit will be paying new or increased vehicle registration fees this year to help their local communities plow and maintain the streets. This is a direct result of state aids not keeping up with the needs of these communities, and with the DOT and General Fund budgets being as deficit-ridden as they are, don’t expect those needs to be assuaged by extra dollars coming from Madison in future years.
So it’s not even mid-January, and already the leaders in the WisGOP Legislature are starting to realize that all of their tax-cutting and giveaways to campaign contributors (cough…ROAD BUILDERS….cough) is leading to a tough Transportation budget for the coming session, and it is likely that another “pose over reality” move would lead to an even heavier toll (how’s that for a pun!). Sure makes you wonder what kind of shell game Gov Walker, Robbin and Fitzy is going to try to cook up to stay on the good side of their big-money backers, while also not alienating the small towns through crumbling local roads, and those obnoxious laws of math.
But these guys also want to stay in the good graces of the Koch/ALEC/Grover Norquist "no-tax" power structure, so they’re not willing to entertain certain options to fund their road-building binge.
Vos also said a hike in the gas tax wouldn't be possible or reasonable but adds he wants to wait for the guv before committing to any specific plan to fund roads.Vos’s quotes are especially precious. The guy who says he wants to reduce the size of government also is open to starting up toll roads and installing a detector in people’s cars to monitor how many miles they’ve driven. Real small government there.
[Gov Scott] Walker has suggested in recent interviews that GOP lawmakers don't want a gas tax boost, even with prices dropping to around $2 a gallon.
Vos said he's personally open to boosting registration fees, creating tolls and starting a miles-driven tax. But, said Vos: "The governor has got to lead on it."
Fitzgerald also said some of his members are cautious about additional tax cuts in light of the projected budget shortfall and Senate Republicans don't have the appetite for a gas tax hike.
And you gotta love how Vos isn’t backing away from ideas that would raise the state’s $75 vehicle registration fee, which makes me interested in hearing what he thinks about the 2.5% “new car sales tax” that’s in the DOT’s budget request.
As the Transportation Fund condition shows , (on Pages 6-7 of this report), the gas tax is the largest source of revenue that the state’s Transportation Fund receives every year. Given that the state’s ongoing major expressway projects have to paid for somehow, if the gas tax isn’t going to be raised, there will have to be some significant fee increase and/or more of that “fiscally conservative” borrowing.
Top Sources of revenue for Trans. Fund, FY 2014
Gas taxes $999.4 million
Reg. Fees $658.1 million ($215.8 million of this pays off debt)
Transfers into fund $57.8 million (will be $189.6 million FY 2015)
Driver’s License Fees $39.2 million
EVERYTHING ELSE $87.5 million
Maybe what Vossy and Fitz will do is pass these costs off to the local governments of Wisconsin, either directly or indirectly. We are already seeing officials from the Superior area asking the Legislature to give it the freedom to levy a local sales tax to pay for roads, and drivers in Iowa County, Chippewa County, the City of Appleton and the City of Beloit will be paying new or increased vehicle registration fees this year to help their local communities plow and maintain the streets. This is a direct result of state aids not keeping up with the needs of these communities, and with the DOT and General Fund budgets being as deficit-ridden as they are, don’t expect those needs to be assuaged by extra dollars coming from Madison in future years.
So it’s not even mid-January, and already the leaders in the WisGOP Legislature are starting to realize that all of their tax-cutting and giveaways to campaign contributors (cough…ROAD BUILDERS….cough) is leading to a tough Transportation budget for the coming session, and it is likely that another “pose over reality” move would lead to an even heavier toll (how’s that for a pun!). Sure makes you wonder what kind of shell game Gov Walker, Robbin and Fitzy is going to try to cook up to stay on the good side of their big-money backers, while also not alienating the small towns through crumbling local roads, and those obnoxious laws of math.
Monday, January 5, 2015
At Walker's 2nd inaugural, the state budget is in worse shape
Are we better off fiscally in Wisconsin than we were 4 years ago? This is a question that is worthy of investigation as our fair Governor got sworn in for a second term today. Let’s look at the then-and-now, shall we?
As Governor Walker took office in January 2011, the best estimates we had of future budget numbers were from the estimates done by Jim Doyle’s Department of Administration that were done in Nov 2010. At that time, it said the following.
Nov 2010 DOA estimates
FY 2010 Ending balance +$71.1 million
FY 2011 Ending balance +$10.1 million
FY 2012 Revenues $13.651 billion
FY 2012 Projected expenses $14.392 billion
FY 2012 Ending balance -$731.0 million
FY 2013 Revenues $14.147 billion
FY 2013 Projected expenses $14.840 billion
FY 2013 Ending balance -$1.424 billion
PLUS $65.0 million required reserves
TOTAL TO MAKE UP FYs 2011-13- $1.489 billion
Here’s what the 2014 version of the same November DOA document shows for the upcoming budget.
Nov 2014 DOA estimates
FY 2014 Ending balance +$516.9 million
FY 2015 Ending balance -$132.1 million
FY 2016 Revenues $15.540 billion
FY 2016 Projected expenses $16.636 billion
FY 2016 Ending balance -$1.096 billion
FY 2017 Revenues $16.126 billion
FY 2017 Appropriation requests $17.244 billion
FY 2017 Ending balance -$2.214 billion
PLUS $65.0 million required reserves
TOTAL TO MAKE UP FYs 2015-17- $2.279 billion
Now it’s worthy to mention that the DOA figured $1.633 billion in lapses for the 2011-13 budgets, compared to “only” $918 million in lapses for 2015-17. But even so, the 2015-17 “zero-lapse” deficit is still higher by a total of $75 million (both are over $3.1 billion).
Let’s also compare the projected tax revenue growth for the year in progress for both of these reports.
FY 2010-11 DOA projected revenue growth +4.25%
FY 2011 year-over-year revenue growth thru Nov +3.61%
Final FY 2011 Year-over-year revenue growth +6.43%
FY 2014-15 DOA projected revenue growth +4.98%
What I estimated FY 2014-15 revenue growth to be after Nov 2014 figures +2.94%
And I’m not even taking into account the Transportation Fund’s issues, which had a surplus of $110 million in FY 2010 (even after $85 million was sent to the General Fund to shore up that budget), and had $200 million in the bank at the end of FY 2011 (see page 7 of this PDF). By comparison, that bank balance was barely half that by the end of FY2014, and that was with the General Fund and other sources kicking in $57.8 million. With $751 million in added taxes and fees being asked for in the next budget just to keep the Transportation Fund solvent, this is another area where we are clearly not better off than we were in January 2011.
The bottom line is that we have a current-year budget deficit (which we didn't have in January 2011), and a larger deficit looming in the 2015-17 budget than we had in the 2011-13 one (with a higher likelihood that current-year revenues will fall short, which would increase the budget deficits for all three of those fiscal years). We also are in significantly worse shape in the Transportation Fund, with a large number of freeway projects that have been started in the last 4 years, with nowhere near enough money to pay for them. I don’t see how January 2015 can be honestly portrayed as a better situation, especially when the one-time bullet of Act 10 benefit cost savings has been shot, and is now baked into the larger budget deficits of today.
So any talk from Governor Walker and his spokespeople on AM radio about how “our budget is better off than it was four years ago,” is simply not true. The numbers show that the Transportation and General Funds are in worse places than they were when Gov Walker took his first Oath of Office, and with tax cuts and other austerity measures having already been imposed, there are fewer options left to get out of the mess that we’re in. But I hope you enjoyed the small handful of tax cuts that you might have received along the way!
As Governor Walker took office in January 2011, the best estimates we had of future budget numbers were from the estimates done by Jim Doyle’s Department of Administration that were done in Nov 2010. At that time, it said the following.
Nov 2010 DOA estimates
FY 2010 Ending balance +$71.1 million
FY 2011 Ending balance +$10.1 million
FY 2012 Revenues $13.651 billion
FY 2012 Projected expenses $14.392 billion
FY 2012 Ending balance -$731.0 million
FY 2013 Revenues $14.147 billion
FY 2013 Projected expenses $14.840 billion
FY 2013 Ending balance -$1.424 billion
PLUS $65.0 million required reserves
TOTAL TO MAKE UP FYs 2011-13- $1.489 billion
Here’s what the 2014 version of the same November DOA document shows for the upcoming budget.
Nov 2014 DOA estimates
FY 2014 Ending balance +$516.9 million
FY 2015 Ending balance -$132.1 million
FY 2016 Revenues $15.540 billion
FY 2016 Projected expenses $16.636 billion
FY 2016 Ending balance -$1.096 billion
FY 2017 Revenues $16.126 billion
FY 2017 Appropriation requests $17.244 billion
FY 2017 Ending balance -$2.214 billion
PLUS $65.0 million required reserves
TOTAL TO MAKE UP FYs 2015-17- $2.279 billion
Now it’s worthy to mention that the DOA figured $1.633 billion in lapses for the 2011-13 budgets, compared to “only” $918 million in lapses for 2015-17. But even so, the 2015-17 “zero-lapse” deficit is still higher by a total of $75 million (both are over $3.1 billion).
Let’s also compare the projected tax revenue growth for the year in progress for both of these reports.
FY 2010-11 DOA projected revenue growth +4.25%
FY 2011 year-over-year revenue growth thru Nov +3.61%
Final FY 2011 Year-over-year revenue growth +6.43%
FY 2014-15 DOA projected revenue growth +4.98%
What I estimated FY 2014-15 revenue growth to be after Nov 2014 figures +2.94%
And I’m not even taking into account the Transportation Fund’s issues, which had a surplus of $110 million in FY 2010 (even after $85 million was sent to the General Fund to shore up that budget), and had $200 million in the bank at the end of FY 2011 (see page 7 of this PDF). By comparison, that bank balance was barely half that by the end of FY2014, and that was with the General Fund and other sources kicking in $57.8 million. With $751 million in added taxes and fees being asked for in the next budget just to keep the Transportation Fund solvent, this is another area where we are clearly not better off than we were in January 2011.
The bottom line is that we have a current-year budget deficit (which we didn't have in January 2011), and a larger deficit looming in the 2015-17 budget than we had in the 2011-13 one (with a higher likelihood that current-year revenues will fall short, which would increase the budget deficits for all three of those fiscal years). We also are in significantly worse shape in the Transportation Fund, with a large number of freeway projects that have been started in the last 4 years, with nowhere near enough money to pay for them. I don’t see how January 2015 can be honestly portrayed as a better situation, especially when the one-time bullet of Act 10 benefit cost savings has been shot, and is now baked into the larger budget deficits of today.
So any talk from Governor Walker and his spokespeople on AM radio about how “our budget is better off than it was four years ago,” is simply not true. The numbers show that the Transportation and General Funds are in worse places than they were when Gov Walker took his first Oath of Office, and with tax cuts and other austerity measures having already been imposed, there are fewer options left to get out of the mess that we’re in. But I hope you enjoyed the small handful of tax cuts that you might have received along the way!
So Much Wrong Here
Yesterday's playoff game between the Lions and Cowboys was so wrong in so many ways. First of all, from the action on the field. Not that I ever recommend reading anything from the Murdoch Post, but this headline and caption is spot on.
That reversal was bad enough, but much worse was the scene when the Cowboys clinched the win by stopping the Lions on 4th down.
I know Chris Christie is a Cowboys fan, but what the hell is he doing in Dallas as the Governor of New Jersey in a game that doesn't effect either the Giants, Jets, or Eagles (who al have major Jersey constituencies)? He'd better not be charging a cent to the Jersey taxpayers for that trip (much like how our Governor Walker charges taxpayers for his out-of-state campaign trips), and are there other deals being struck in that luxury box with Cowboys owner (and GOP backer) Jerry Jones?
Oh, and let's also note that this game was being played in a stadium that is the result of large amounts of taxpayer dollars subsidizing the palace for the 'Boys billionaire owner.
That reversal was bad enough, but much worse was the scene when the Cowboys clinched the win by stopping the Lions on 4th down.
I know Chris Christie is a Cowboys fan, but what the hell is he doing in Dallas as the Governor of New Jersey in a game that doesn't effect either the Giants, Jets, or Eagles (who al have major Jersey constituencies)? He'd better not be charging a cent to the Jersey taxpayers for that trip (much like how our Governor Walker charges taxpayers for his out-of-state campaign trips), and are there other deals being struck in that luxury box with Cowboys owner (and GOP backer) Jerry Jones?
Oh, and let's also note that this game was being played in a stadium that is the result of large amounts of taxpayer dollars subsidizing the palace for the 'Boys billionaire owner.
[Robert] Cluck won his race for mayor [of Arlington] in 2003. The former obstetrician soon met with Jones, who said he wanted to build a $650 million stadium (the Dallas Palace ended up costing over $1.2 billion). The city agreed to contribute about half of that, Cluck said in an interview. Jones declined to be interviewed for this story.The whole thing makes me shake my head, and not just because the Packers get a much tougher matchup with the Cowboys instead of playing the 8-8-1 Panthers. And this tweet summed it up well.
“We offered them money to come here and build their stadium,” said Cluck, now 73. “We were just trying to help them out.” He knew after the first meeting that Arlington was “going to get the Cowboys,” according to the city history...
Cluck had to get the council and voters to approve revenue bonds backed by city taxes. To repay the proposed borrowing, voters had to accept a 0.5 percent sales-tax increase, a 2 percent hotel levy and a 5 percent rental-car tax.
Chris Christie rooting for the Cowboys from Jerry Jones' box in a rigged game is the perfect metaphor for America
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) January 5, 2015Friday, January 2, 2015
Another year, and we get more GOP power grabs for K-12 schooling
2015 is starting out with a bang when it comes to Republicans trying to deform reform K-12 education. Look at what wisdom dropped on New Year’s Day in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel from the office of State Sen. (and Joint Finance Committee Co-Chair) Alberta (Dingbat) Darling.
On the in-classroom side, MPS teachers also have to deal with the problem of having these transfer students get up to speed with what is being taught in a given classroom. I’m not even mentioning the burdens thrown on the students, who now have to adjust to a brand new school, set of classmates, and other social concerns that go far beyond the academic difficulties involved in changing schools.
Here’s another example of how GOP politicians at the state level are trying to consolidate power in education. Indiana voters put in Democrat Glenda Ritz as the state’s School Superintendent in 2012, replacing Tony Bennett, who corruptly gave preferential treatment on grades given to charter schools over public ones in Indianapolis- charter schools that his wife happened to work for. Since being elected, Ritz has constantly had to battle with the GOP-stacked Indiana Board of Education, and an example of the types of conflicts happened last month when the BOE passed a bill over Ritz’s objections to give more power to the Board of Education to run “turnaround initiatives”, similar to what Darling’s office is floating in Wisconsin. What this will do is take that power away from the Indiana Department of Education, run by Ritz, and install it in the hands of the more charter and voucher-friendly BOE.
So naturally, what’s the answer from Hoosier GOP legislators to Ritz’s concerns and policy conflicts with Gov Mike Pence and BOE officials? We’ll let Eric Weddle of Indiana NPR affiliate WFYI tell you
Because who needs democracy when determining a society’s needs in education, right?
This is the bottom line of how GOPs really operate when it comes to public education. They want to consolidate more power for themselves and their allies and take it away from any other organization that might check their power, giving them and their financial supporters all the control over education policy and funding, but none of the accountability for the results that might come with doing so. In Wisconsin, what this means is that when Sen. Darling and others make noise about “reforming” Milwaukee schools, they aren’t doing so with the idea of improving performance of the schools or improving the chances of success for kids to make it in that community. They’re doing it to take power away from the locally-elected MPS school board and the teacher’s unions that work at the school, and centralize the power in a Madison-based organization that’s stacked with members from the overly white, GOP-voting suburbs. And if such a system is privatized the “right way”, it puts a whole lot more taxpayer money into the hands of their campaign contributors from the voucher lobby, whose owners rake in big profits while the vast majority of the rest of the state suffers and not just kids and teachers will lose in this scenario, but also the taxpayers who pay more for running two school systems, with results that may well be worse.
I’ll let Andy from the Soapbox finish with why the spectre of a “recovery zone” for schools should worry all of you, even if you’re not in the metro area that these zones might be imposed on.
At least one leading Republican senator is exploring the idea of a so-called recovery district in Milwaukee, but it's too soon to say whether that idea will morph into an actual bill in the next legislative session.I could go on in detail why a “recovery zone” imposed on Milwaukee schools through the State Legislature is such a stupid and arrogant idea, but I’ll let Andy at the Wisconsin Soapbox do it for me. Andy’s a high school teacher at an MPS school, and he probably has a whole lot more of a clue about the reality than I do, and certainly more than Dingbat Darling, who is likely on her 4th Xanax-and-other-item cocktail at Ozaukee County Club as I write this. Andy picks up from another part of Erin Richards’ article to discuss the subject.
Right now, there's a lot of talk but no details.
Aides for state Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) acknowledge the suburban Milwaukee lawmaker has been talking to stakeholders about the idea of a recovery or state-run district, but there are no definite plans yet.
Champions of changing the structure of persistently low-performing schools say that dramatic action is necessary to spur improvement, and that high-performing charter schools, or public schools managed by independent nonprofit companies, are one solution.It’s not like expanding “choice” and other alternatives to MPS have been a great success in Milwaukee. For those of you who were away over the Holidays and may have missed, let me remind you of the story that broke earlier this week about the voucher-funded Ceria M. Travis Tech high school that shut down over Winter Break after its owners couldn’t come up with the bond money to keep operating, and lost its state subsidy from the Department of Public Instruction. This school performed at an atrocious level, well below the allegedly “unacceptable” levels at MPS, and the even-lower levels for Milwaukee’s voucher schools.
No... They're really not. The only real reason that those schools succeed are for the same reasons why MPS has several schools that are extremely high performing, they can be exclusionary. They can kick out students who are consistently disruptive, they don't have anywhere near the level of special education students, or emotional-behavioral needs students as we do.
We have high performing schools for those reasons. If you want to reach the students at a school like mine, we need resources like school psychologists, job training, class sizes capped at 20, structured discipline policies where students are not immediately kicked out or given a pass for bad behavior. We know what we need, the problem is that nobody wants to hear the answers because they are expensive and not efficient. Good education in inner-cities is inherently not efficient.
Last fall at the academy, only 2% of the students could read on grade level. Only 3% could do math on grade level.And while Ms. Sperling was being overworked and underpaid, her bosses at Travis seem to have done just fine. This is from the more recent article describing Travis Tech HS’s shutdown.
The average rates of proficiency for voucher schools that year was 12% in reading and 15% in math.
Former Ceria M. Travis first-grade teacher Jacqueline Sperling worked at the school during her first year of teaching in the 2011-'12 school year. Sperling said her salary was $31,000 that year, and that she started with 38 children in her class and no textbooks or any other books.
"We had to submit lesson plans," she said. "But there was no rule over what we had to do or how much we had to do."
The nonprofit running the schools is headed by CEO Dorothy Travis Moore and her daughter, Executive Director Wilnekia Brinson.And Andy at the Soapbox pointed out that most of the 179 students that are now without a school will likely be thrown back into MPS starting on Monday, and MPS has to quickly adjust its resources to meet the needs of this large number of extra students. Sure, they’ll eventually get some of that money back as a state aid adjustment, but that’s well after its classroom staffing and hiring for this school year has been done, and its tax levy for the next school year have been set.
Both are paid six-figure compensation packages, according to their organization's federal tax filings. Meanwhile, current and former employees have complained to the state and to the Journal Sentinel of lacking textbooks and other adequate classroom materials and resources to help children learn.
They also complained that Travis Moore has regularly employed teachers without bachelor's degrees — the state requires teachers at voucher schools to have degrees — while employing family members with dubious job titles and responsibilities.
On the in-classroom side, MPS teachers also have to deal with the problem of having these transfer students get up to speed with what is being taught in a given classroom. I’m not even mentioning the burdens thrown on the students, who now have to adjust to a brand new school, set of classmates, and other social concerns that go far beyond the academic difficulties involved in changing schools.
Here’s another example of how GOP politicians at the state level are trying to consolidate power in education. Indiana voters put in Democrat Glenda Ritz as the state’s School Superintendent in 2012, replacing Tony Bennett, who corruptly gave preferential treatment on grades given to charter schools over public ones in Indianapolis- charter schools that his wife happened to work for. Since being elected, Ritz has constantly had to battle with the GOP-stacked Indiana Board of Education, and an example of the types of conflicts happened last month when the BOE passed a bill over Ritz’s objections to give more power to the Board of Education to run “turnaround initiatives”, similar to what Darling’s office is floating in Wisconsin. What this will do is take that power away from the Indiana Department of Education, run by Ritz, and install it in the hands of the more charter and voucher-friendly BOE.
So naturally, what’s the answer from Hoosier GOP legislators to Ritz’s concerns and policy conflicts with Gov Mike Pence and BOE officials? We’ll let Eric Weddle of Indiana NPR affiliate WFYI tell you
Proposed Indiana legislation would let governor appoint state superintendent in 2021; Sen. Buck's bill: http://t.co/vFI1qjHqE9
— Eric Weddle (@ericweddle) January 2, 2015Because who needs democracy when determining a society’s needs in education, right?
This is the bottom line of how GOPs really operate when it comes to public education. They want to consolidate more power for themselves and their allies and take it away from any other organization that might check their power, giving them and their financial supporters all the control over education policy and funding, but none of the accountability for the results that might come with doing so. In Wisconsin, what this means is that when Sen. Darling and others make noise about “reforming” Milwaukee schools, they aren’t doing so with the idea of improving performance of the schools or improving the chances of success for kids to make it in that community. They’re doing it to take power away from the locally-elected MPS school board and the teacher’s unions that work at the school, and centralize the power in a Madison-based organization that’s stacked with members from the overly white, GOP-voting suburbs. And if such a system is privatized the “right way”, it puts a whole lot more taxpayer money into the hands of their campaign contributors from the voucher lobby, whose owners rake in big profits while the vast majority of the rest of the state suffers and not just kids and teachers will lose in this scenario, but also the taxpayers who pay more for running two school systems, with results that may well be worse.
I’ll let Andy from the Soapbox finish with why the spectre of a “recovery zone” for schools should worry all of you, even if you’re not in the metro area that these zones might be imposed on.
This isn't just a fight for MPS. Yes, it's personal for me because it is my students and my job, but it's a fight for public education across Wisconsin. What happens when in 10 years you have had the same persistently low performing schools in Green Bay? Or Racine? Or Madison? You think they are just going to stop in Milwaukee?
Folks, it's time to stop treating Milwaukee and MPS as the ugly-duckling of schools and cities in Wisconsin. There's a lot you can learn from us and see in your future. Let's buckle up and start saving that future now.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
U RAH RAH WIS-CON-SIN!!!
That was unexpected and fun, wasn't it? Can't argue with that start of the year as someone who's always proud to be a 2-time Badger. But some days are better than others, and to take out an SEC team in a massive upset by running the ball down Auburn's throat for more than 400 yards? Wow.
And now we got 2 playoff games tonight? I could get used to this type of New Year's Day.
And now we got 2 playoff games tonight? I could get used to this type of New Year's Day.
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