Collective Bargaining Rules Leave Counties and School Boards without Standards.

When Scott Walker and his Republican pirates got rid of collective bargaining, they left a void where there was once rules and regulations governing public employees. Coming up with a replacement plan for counties and school districts would have been hard work, something freeloading Republicans avoid like hell while they collect taxpayer money.

WSJ: The Jefferson County Board last week loosened a proposed discipline standard after unions protested, and Columbia County employees are winning a series of changes to a controversial policy that top officials wrote behind closed doors to prevent employee input.

Union leaders say many of the new rules are unfair. Public administrators for schools and municipalities say it hasn’t been easy to write rules to replace union contract provisions that evolved over 50 years of collective bargaining.

“This is an entirely new arena,” said Andrew Phillips, an attorney for the Wisconsin Counties Association. “We are going to have to execute management in areas where we have never executed it before.”

Most counties had at least makeshift appeal policies in place in October to meet a state deadline, but many are now making revisions, Phillips said ... patchwork of policies that has sprung up across the state…

How dumb do voucher supporters think we are?

I had to scratch my head when I read this AP story on the bad voucher test scores in the 21 year old Milwaukee choice program.

AP:  Supporters of a Milwaukee school-voucher program say they’re not deterred by test results showing that kids in those programs perform worse than students in public schools do. 

They’re not deterred? Really? They’re okay with low student scores after 21 years of pouring taxpayer money into it.

The test results … by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction … show that voucher students are nowhere near their public school counterparts. 

How will the governor ever find a way to put a positive spin on the devastating test results?

Gov. Scott Walker says the overall voucher program is “exceptional.”

What??? Walker didn’t even try to come up with something that made any sense. And of course, the slightly higher graduation rate is the only straw Republicans can grab onto. How can low scoring student’s have a better graduation rate? Hell, I don’t know. But as a parent, I wouldn’t bet on my kid graduating with low scores on reading and math. Of course, after demanding teachers be accountable and paid depending partly on their test scores, it would follow that Rep. Robin Vos would be concerned about student test scores, right?  

State Rep. Robin Vos says the test scores don’t tell the whole story.

Spoke too soon.

AFSME's Marty Beil answers Conservative Radio Slimester Vicki McKenna's attack on working Americans.

Having worked opposite Vicki McKenna as the liberal punching bag, I thought what she did was pretty predictable. Since those days of duking it out on the air, McKenna has become more irrational, with little or no thought to keep things sane. In the radio clip below, from WTDY's Sly in the Morning, AFSME's Marty Beil reacts to the insane ranting by McKenna to add to the states pool of unemployed by firing public employees. What a great way to instill consumer confidence and spur an economic recovery.

The Facts on Public Workers and Private Sector Pay Explode Myth Pushed by Republican Governors.

Chris Hayes examines the myth that state employees are our new "welfare queens." How would you explain the fact that public workers earn 4 percent less than private sector workers. Columbian University Assistant Professor Dorian Warren has a whole lot more.