Anti-Education State Republicans Exposed for Massive Cuts to UW, but will Voters hold them Accountable?

The national reputation of the University of Wisconsin is of little concern to state Republicans. Despite its massive contributions as a revenue source and job creator, Republicans were determined to turn it into nothing more than a tech college for business interests, and a breeding ground for ultra right-wing politics pushing supply-side economics, nationalism, and research backing extremist public policy proposals.

Since Wisconsin residents will most likely have a child going to the UW, Republican attempts to sabotage the university just got exposed, with the kind of headline they never saw coming:

The analysis by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, or SHEEO, looked at higher education finances since the Great Recession.

1. Report: Wisconsin Saw Fourth Largest Decline In Higher Ed Funding Between 2013 And 2018

2. While (other) States Support For Higher Education Increased 15 Percent, Post Recession Wisconsin Continued To Cut ... Wisconsin’s state funding for higher education did not follow the national trend.
3. A national report ranking ... Wisconsin saw the fourth largest decline in per-student spending between 2013 and 2018. The only states with larger decreases in that timeframe were Mississippi, West Virginia and Oklahoma.

4. Educational appropriations fell ... But between 2013 and 2018 the report showed the trend reversing in a majority of states, with the United States as a whole seeing more than a 15 percent increase in state funds per student. 

5. The SHEEO found between 2013 and 2018 state appropriations per student fell by just more than 8 percent, from $7,002 to $6,435, putting it toward the bottom of the national rankings.

6. The state Legislature included $35 million in new funding for the UW System in the 2017-19 biennial state budget ... That followed a cut of $250 million in the 2015-17 biennial budget.

All of this might just change, but don't hold your breath:

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has proposed a $150 million increase for the state’s UW campuses in his proposed 2019-21 state budget, along with a $2.5 billion capital budget for new construction and renovations.

UW program cuts and Faculty layoffs prove Walker Budget Cuts growing problem!!!

The eventual decline of all things Wisconsin is accelerating, but will voters notice how fast in time for the midterm elections. The shortfall in road funding, state parks, water and air policy, and now the University of Wisconsin.

The pathetically easy answer for Scott Walker, requiring no thought process whatsoever, was to simply freeze tuition. Because as we all know, cost-of-living, advanced technology, competitive educator salaries, and maintaining aging infrastructure aren't real considerations...oh wait, until Foxconn burst on the scene.

And no one saw this coming?

UW-Stevens Point Provost: Program Cuts, Faculty Layoffs 'Unavoidable.' $4.5M Structural Deficit Caused By Declining Enrollment After Years Of State Budget Cuts.

Greg Summers, UW-Stevens Point provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs, said years of state budget cuts and tuition freezes have compounded the university's financial problems ... "We've had years of shifting of public funding away from universities and the resulting need to look more at tuition dollars to supplement budgets. Given the tuition freeze that we've been in for five years now, that's put a pinch on possible revenues. In the 1970s the university received about 50 percent of our budget from state sources. Today that number is down to about 13 percent."

According to numbers supplied by the university, the school has been hit with more than $9.6 million in net state budget cuts since the 2011-12 school year. In the 2015-16 school year, state cuts to UW-Stevens Point's general purpose revenue was more than $5.75 million with an additional $570,500 in cuts to segregated program funds. 

It's beyond frustrating to watch Scott Walker and the Republicans scramble to attract college educated Millennial's from out-of-state, after wildly slashing UW funding based on partisan attacks.

And no one saw this coming?

WTF!!! ACLU backs away from challenging GOP shredding First Amendment with "Free Speech" Bill.

Well, that's that. What seemed like an easy one was allowed to slip by....

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin criticized those punishments as “unnecessarily draconian,” and warned they could chill free speech on campus.

Republican shakedown UW, demand Conservative Speakers in exchange for Funding!!!

It’s budget time again, and Republicans are gearing up to extort the UW system again. But really, this is friggin over the top:

Now that's what I call BIG GOVERNMENT Republican meddling. 

Yes, the super majority Republicans and governor are worried that there aren’t enough young malleable minds receiving their specific kind of indoctrination. It's simple too; use a few “trigger” words that set off the wondering conservative mind; Black lives Matter, I hate Scott Walker, Food Stamps, Tax Cuts, Big Government, Climate Change…etc. and your done converting the few low information voters in the class caught drooling.

One problem, and it's well documented, paranoid conservative speakers require heavy security that most colleges just can't afford to provide. They fear being questioned. 

But that won't stop Rep. Robin Vos from inserting government bureaucracy into the funding formula for the UW System. Can you say extortion?

Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is calling on the UW System to invite more conservative guest speakers to its campuses. Vos' remarks come as another contentious state budget debate looms in 2017, which again could put UW System funding on the chopping block. 

For Robin Vos, free speech means forcing certain conservative speakers on campus...wait, I'm sorry, "extorting" is a even a better word: 

In an op-ed for the website Right Wisconsin titled "A Free Speech Challenge to the UW System," Vos praises the UW Board of Regents for passing a resolution affirming "its commitment to the principle of freedom of expression." But a look at who is invited speak on UW campuses contradicts the system's call for protecting diverse viewpoints, Vos said ... conservatives are "noticeably absent" from a list of top-paid recent guest speakers at UW campuses.

But who the hell is Vos to make this call, in a blatant effort to stuff UW money into the pockets of a few "top-paid" national speakers begging for a handout at the Capitol.

"Perhaps what could be most worrisome about going to college these days is the plague of political correctness that creates an environment that ends up stifling free speech," Vos wrote. "I challenge the UW System this school year to find more ways, beyond a two-page policy statement, to ensure that all perspectives, including conservative ones, are present in the classroom." Vos said his office obtained records on speakers at four-year UW System schools in 2015 who were paid with taxpayer dollars.

Vos isn't the only one guiding the academic and social direction of our state university, remember Sen. Steve Nass:

Sen. Steve Nass says a new diversity outreach program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is "sinister" …  "they never lack money for advancing new and more sinister ways of liberal indoctrination of students."

This is only the beginning, just wait till we find out what strings Scott Walker has attached to his results based funding idea:

The process of crafting the next state budget ramps up next week when state agencies submit their budget requests to Gov. Scott Walker. The UW system, which sustained a $250 million funding cut in the 2015-17 state budget, this time is asking Walker and lawmakers for a $42.5 million funding increase in the next budget.

Walker takes from UW and Wisconsin's future to Fund Roads.

Republicans will never stopped criticizing former Gov. Jim Doyle for dipping into the transportation fund so he could pay for public education. That's because they believe it should be the other way around.

So now you know how Scott Walker borrowed money for road construction, without increasing our debt. He took money away from the University of Wisconsin for building projects.

If that wasn't bad enough, that little trick will cost the UW $30 million more. Now that "fiscal conservatism."

The state Legislature's nonpartisan budget office says the state could have to spend roughly $30 million more on several University of Wisconsin System building projects that were delayed in the last budget. Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers froze bonding for all but a couple building projects in the last budget. That let them continue to borrow for roads while still keeping overall bonding low.

Oshkosh Democratic state Rep. Gordon Hintz, who asked for the Fiscal Bureau memo, said it shows the folly of delaying these projects in the first place. "It's not any more fiscally responsible to delay doing them only to have to pay more in the future to get the same projects done simply because you can't make good financial decisions," Hintz said. "This was an example of the cost of inaction.”

Bonding will once again be an issue in the next budget as lawmakers and the governor continue to struggle with how to fund transportation ... lawmakers, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who say current levels of road bonding are unsustainable.

But don't take my word for pointing out Walker's folly and bad budgeting, they're proud of the shell game:

Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said, "The last state budget included the lowest levels of bonding in at least 20 years, and the governor will seek to keep bonding low in the next budget," Evenson said.

Walker speaks without thinking again, bought into and pushed "2.8 students per faculty" lunacy.

Going for broke in his war against education and the University of Wisconsin, Scott Walker made up something so ridiculous for his low information voters, that no fact check or pants on fire rating will ever be able to take back. Common sense would have told most people that a statistic like that isn't possible, but what the hell. Bravo! JS

Our rating: Charging that the ratio of students to faculty at UW-Milwaukee is shrinking, Walker said the school has "2.8 students per faculty" member, "tied for second-lowest in its history since 1994."

But Walker cited the wrong statistic. In fact, UW-Milwaukee has 29 students for every professor, associate professor and assistant professor -- and that ratio has been growing, not shrinking, since 1994.

For a statement that is false and ridiculous, our rating is Pants on Fire.

Scott Walker trashes, taunts UW Professors, says they don't protest enough after Republican cuts.

Scott Walker is out for revenge.

Scott Walker’s world is an odd fantasy land of manufactured talking points that have sound ridiculous in reality, but are sure to piss off anyone with a sense of responsibility and business.

Walker’s massive cuts to the UW were so drastic that even his lapdog legislature trimmed them back. And as you might remember, those cuts were met with protests that filled the streets and newspapers for months. But guess who didn’t notice? Presidential nominee Walker. Come on media, the reveal is right there in his tweets. WSJ:

Scott Walker blasts professors as UW-Milwaukee faculty vote 'no confidence' in leaders … Walker followed his statement with a series of tweets in which he chided faculty for speaking out after recent changes to tenure, but not taking as strong of action in response to student tuition increases or previous UW funding cuts.

Getting even with the nationally respected University of Wisconsin is something the national media should covering. Who does that? What screwball would use the cuts states had to deal with during the Great Recession as a failing of the party in power at the time, like Democratic Governor Jim Doyle?

UW-Milwaukee became the fourth University of Wisconsin System campus to see professors declare they have no confidence in UW's leaders Tuesday, in a vote that prompted Gov. Scott Walker to weigh in with sharp criticism of the faculty. 

Walker: “Some faculty bodies ... appear more interested in protecting outdated ‘job for life’ tenure than about helping students get the best education possible.  The university should not be about protecting the interests of the faculty, but about delivering value and excellence to Wisconsin.” 

Faculty members have insisted they aren't arguing that tenure should be a "job for life." Instead, they say, it is a principle that protects professors' academic freedom, and gives them the ability to do the kind of risky or potentially unpopular work that can benefit people's lives.

Nice employer right? Working for a state university that doesn't value or even care to protect their faculties interests...hey, come work for us, right?

Scott Walker cuts result in Skyrocketing College Costs, Longer Graduation Times, Increasing Student Debt. Thank you?

Republican cuts to the UW have done more to increase tuition than any "federal" student loan program, but that won't stop Scott Walker and his band of plundering pirates in the legislature from bullshitting their constituents. JS:

The first big-picture look at how state funding cuts have affected higher education in Wisconsin's public universities, while most other states have increased funding for higher education.

Busted: In real time, after Walker's $250 million cut, we now have proof. Keep in mind, Walker wanted to cut $300 million. The results are stunning, and will cost the parents and students of the UW a whole lot more money due to longer graduation times, which takes money out of the consumer based economy for years...oh and it's a job killer: 

Larger class sizes, fewer course offerings, cuts to academic advising, potentially increasing how long it takes to finish a degree, loss of student jobs on campus, inability to grow high-demand programs and outdated academic facilities not being maintained.

So did these stunning reality based cuts give Walker second thoughts, or at a reason to reexamine the states priorities? Are you kidding? After spending $8 million more just to keep instructors after Walker's budget cuts, what's behind all this complaining...

Spokeswoman Laurel Patrick responded that the UW System's total annual operating budget this year was the largest in state history. "In fact, the UW System recently passed a budget that spent nearly $100 million more than it did last year," Patrick said. "With a budget that spends that much, the UW should be able to fund its priorities."

And since it can't, a fact the governors office chooses to ignore, the UW might lose a few of its schools:

At UWM, officials report that larger class sizes and reductions in faculty could threaten the accreditation of four of its schools: Lubar School of Business, Peck School of the Arts, Helen Bader School of Social Welfare and School of Education.

How about one more year of college...?

Eight campuses, in addition to UW Colleges, said fewer academic advisers could mean more students taking longer to complete a degree ... at least five advisers below the minimum needed to serve students effectively, according to UW-Madison's budget cut summary.

...and jobs, Republicans love jobs don't they?

Fewer student jobs on campuses:UW-Madison reports it has drastically reduced student employment positions across campus. Human Resources cut more than 6,500 hours of student employment, while Research and Sponsored Programs cut about 6,300 hours of student employment.

...in the age of information technology jobs....

Less support for IT: UW-La Crosse reported significant reductions to its operating budget for information technology services. UW-Madison reported its Division of Information Technology reduced its array of services to students in 2015-'16. Labs are updated less frequently as a result of computer lab support reductions. Students now must pay for services elsewhere because a digital media lab closed.

 ...in the age of rising medical care staffing, engineering and business...

Inability to expand enrollments in areas of increased demand: UW-Madison reported it hasn't been able to expand enrollment in business, engineering and nursing because of budget cuts — programs that are high-demand and high-value.

And like our roads and bridges, Republicans want to foist the cost of updating the UW onto the backs of the next generation: 

Lack of state funding for facilities repair and maintenance: Campuses say it could mean having to redirect money away from education ... UWM has two failing buildings: Chemistry and Engineering. It also has underutilized and inaccessible buildings. For example, UWM can use only 340,000 of the 880,000 square feet available in the former Columbia St. Mary's Hospital complex purchased in 2010 because it hasn't received state funding to renovate it and bring it up to safety codes.

UW-Platteville reported faculty are attempting to teach industry standard biology in a 1977 facility that's unchanged except for a campus-funded project in 2010. And faculty are trying to teach cutting-edge mechanical and civil engineering in a 1966 facility, the university reported.

Republican Budget Cutters Stoke more Rural Resentment, defund UW Extension Programs for Farmers, 4-H and small communities.

If Scott Walker's $3.6 million budget cut to the UW Extension doesn't get rural Republican voters riled up, nothing will. It continues the Republican assault on their own rural constituents that keeps them frustrated and angry at their own government.

The UW Extension "provides farmers with technical assistance, nutrient management and more," but those days are slipping away, thanks to cuts signed by Walker.  WISC:

After College Earnings detailed at New Obama Website.

While Republican governors and candidates for president continue to find ways to make college unaffordable or outright inferior through funding cuts, the current system is still an essential part of earning higher incomes after graduation. This might change soon, but for now, the Obama administration has put together a college report card we can all check out now, or look back on with fond memories in the future.

Below are the charts relating to the UW system. You can dig deeper into each college at the government site:

Vox: At a quarter of American colleges, the majority of students who got federal financial aid end up earning less than $25,000 per year a full decade after they first enrolled.

That startling statistic comes from an unprecedented trove of data released Saturday by the White House. The Education Department and Treasury Department combined forces to link a huge database of all students who got Pell Grants or student loans since 1996 with their income tax records, producing the clearest picture ever of how students who received federal financial aid fared in college and after.

The numbers show which colleges are living up to their promises to students, and which are not.

Adding onto the economic benefits of a college education was this just release study:

In a study published by the Economic Policy Institute, researchers Noah Berger and Peter Fisher examined correlations between educational factors and economic growth between 1979 and 2012. They found that the highest incomes were in states with the most educated workers. "There are no states with a relatively well-educated workforce and relatively low wages," the report concluded, "and virtually no states with low levels of education and relatively high wages."

The numbers don’t reflect the entire picture, that’s why creating a ratings system wasn't possible:

Standard federal graduation rates exclude students who transfer without earning a degree, a problem that's especially acute for community colleges.

The earnings also include only information on federal student loan borrowers, not all students who enroll.

Some colleges argue that graduation rates and earnings don't just reflect whether the college is doing a good job, but the students it admitted in the first place. It's not hard to have a high graduation rate when you're enrolling academic superstars from well-off families; it's much harder to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds achieve the same results.

Hillary takes aim at Scott Walker's scorched earth educational cuts to the UW and public schools.

Scott Walker's calm sleepy eyed demeanor has successfully concealed his more vindictive personality trait for years. Thankfully, that's about to end.

As predicted, Walker's massive cuts to the UW and public education are now coming back to haunt him. Think Progress: 

Hillary Clinton:“And you take somebody like Governor Walker of Wisconsin, who seems to be delighting in slashing the investment in higher education in his state; in making it more difficult for students to get scholarships or to pay off their debt; eliminating the opportunities for young people who are doctors or dentists to actually work in under-served areas in return for having their debt relieved; ending scholarships for poor kids; and most surprisingly to me, rejecting legislation that would have made it tax-deductible for you on your income tax to deduct the amount of your loan payment.”

Okay, here’s the criticism that always drives me crazy; our free market Republican privateers, for some odd reason, hate the free market when Democrats like Hillary Clinton negotiate speaking fees. 

Here's Walker's embarrassing anti-free market response to Clinton's criticisms:

Clinton has come under fire for collecting lavish speaking fees from universities. 

Republican policy is rife with easy answers to amazingly complex problems, like Walker’s tuition freeze. Is that a solution to crippling student debt and the rising cost of education? Didn’t think so:

But even Walker’s attack on Clinton doesn’t escape scrutiny. University officials have pointed out that freezing tuition eliminates one option to make up for Walker’s large budget cuts. Walker also proposed a $127 million cut in primary school funding in January and Wisconsin’s decrease in per-pupil spending from the 2010-11 year was the highest of all 50 states, according to a 2014 U.S. Census Bureau report.

Again, the easy Scott Walker answer is freezing tuition at public universities. But cost conscious conservative voters should ask themselves why they should trust expensive for-profit private colleges more, when they lack accountability for promises made to students. Their record isn’t good, and victimized students are swimming in debt. 

Walker is pushing that business model. He's asking for easy accreditation for private colleges, not for the benefit of students, but for increased profits and fatter bottom lines:

Scott Walker, in a post on Red State, called her a “deceiver-in-chief” when it comes to her higher education policies:

“America needs real reforms in higher education, including putting in place incentives to keep costs low, confronting the accreditation cartels that limit options, and improving federal government data so students and families have the information they need to make the best decisions possible.”

As Think Progress rightly pointed out in a case that should give pause to tightwad conservative voters:

Their mention of accreditation is likely a reference to making accreditation easier for for-profit colleges. Corinthian Colleges have been guilty of misrepresenting job placement data submitted to the U.S. Department of Education and have closed campuses afterward. 

Scott Walker: "Bucks before Books."

I got this email attachment from my conservative friend in Milwaukee. I'm not sure what paper this is from, but if I can get a better image, it would be appreciated. Well worth posting here:

Billionaire Bucks Arena gets funding from Debt Collections and Penalty Fees from the Poor.

Corporate welfare has now completely displaced public funding for the common good. Like our public colleges. Although not a direct exchange of money, it's awful close, and highlights what really matters now in our Republican hellhole of a state.

Now word is getting out that the poor and fiscally strapped Wisconsinites will be the ones paying for the Buck's arena. As WPR's Shawn Johnson explains, the idea is ruthless:



This is outrageous beyond words, so I'm glad Think Progress saved me from having to write about this:

Wisconsinites Blast Scott Walker’s Stadium Deal As ‘Outrageous’: Building a new, publicly financed basketball stadium for the Milwaukee Bucks is either a horrendous example of corporate welfare and official corruption, or a chance to reinvigorate an economically depressed city. Several local officials are also speaking out against the county’s promise to collect $4 million per year in unpaid debts from residents, plus a penalty fee of 15 percent, to contribute to the stadium. For example, a woman who owed $1,000 for an old traffic ticket would be charged $1,150.

Milwaukee County Supervisor John Weishan, Jr. called the proposal to go after unpaid ambulance rides, delinquent property taxes and court fees “crony capitalism.”

“This plan shifts the cost of the new arena from the state and the Milwaukee Bucks’ new wealthy owners to the poorest in our community. I will not foreclose on someone’s home or shake down a senior for unpaid medical bills in order to build an arena for millionaires and billionaires.”

Whether or not it’s morally right to collect these debts to pay for the stadium, some county officials say it may not be possible, because most of the residents that owe that money are indigent.

Really Bad for other Local businesses: Redistributes wealth upward:

Economics professor Michael Rosen at Milwaukee Area Technical College said, “People have a fixed entertainment budget. So if they go see the Bucks and spend $60 or $80 on a ticket, that’s money they’re not using to go to the theater or movies or out to eat. It’s not new money, it’s just redistributed. That’s why stadiums have no positive impact on economic growth.” He also noted that most Bucks player don’t live year-round in Milwaukee, so “millions of dollars in their salaries will leak out of the community.”

Walker's corporate Socialism; otherwise known as neo-fascism: The major media is now sounding the alarm as well:

Scott Walker, Our First Socialist President: First, the Communists: Socialism is "a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government." It's the state of Wisconsin using tax dollars to build a sports arena for the billionaire owners of the Milwaukee Bucks, and its main proponent is Governor Scott Walker.

If Gov. Walker is to be the candidate of the true believers, the free market, Ayn Rand, and austerity bugs, he's got some explaining to do. What's going on is something of a hypocrisy test. If socialism is bad, if Obamacare is bad, if income redistribution is bad, well, how can two hundred million in corporate subsidies be good? Obama, by the way, has jumped onto the sports as socialism issue and proposed an end to federal tax subsidies for sports facilities. He's absolutely right as a matter of economic policies. We can't get our roads fixed, but we can subsidize the richest and most successful corporations in America. I don't think so.

New Walker regent says the UW is like a "company that has multiple manufacturing locations."

Scott Walker’s latest appointment to the board of regents pretty much signaled the end of the UW as a place to learn. Who is he, and what tie does he have to the conservative power structure overseeing our neo-fascist state now?

Gov. Scott Walker has appointed the son of a president of a foundation that supports conservative causes to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents … Mike M. Grebe, son of Michael W. Grebe, president and chief executive of the Bradley Foundation … that has backed a number of conservative public policy experiments, including welfare reform and voucher schools. Michael W. Grebe also has served as chairman of Walker's campaign.

It takes balls and endless amounts of partisan arrogance to take cronyism to this level.

But it was Grebe’s breathtaking suggestion that the UW strive to be more like a manufacturing company with specialized products that fined tuned Walker's objective.

Grebe suggested getting rid of similar UW programs offered up by a number of campuses to save money. Never mind how it narrows your UW choices, or how local students will have to move to another campus costing them room and board. Spoken like a guy with lots of money already. From WPR’s Shawn Johnson:

Grebe: "Why we would need to duplicate those programs...spread around the state in a rational way, but in a way that doesn't unnecessarily expend resources...how to think about how we operate the UW system. Again it gets to, if you work for a company that has multiple manufacturing locations, you might not do the same thing at every one of those locations, because your customer base will be different. You might specialize in one area or another on certain products."

He is talking about a place where people learn, right, not a "manufacturing" plant specializing in products for a certain "customer base?" Amazing.

Coincidentally, today’s Salon offered up this article, “Massive endowments, massive tuition, massive debt: Our colleges are out of control and crushing students,” that also made that same connection:

“…turning the university into a revenue-maximizing business inevitably subverts the institution’s central purpose, which is the pursuit and transmission of knowledge.”

Here's a brief overview of the article:

“The Art of the Gouge,” a 14,000-word report published by a group of more than 400 NYU faculty members. They are fed up with seeing a distinguished research university transformed into a multi-billion dollar student loan-funded vehicle for real estate speculation. The school’s recent charitable activities include things like purchasing a $5.2 million condo on Central Park West … features many other eye-popping examples of how the revenues from the school’s more than $70,000-per-year cost of attendance are being spent, while at the same time some students find themselves homeless, underfed, and desperate enough to trade sex for tuition money.

This is all part and parcel of the increasing corporatization of the American university … One problem with this little laissez-faire fable is that this particular market depends heavily on taxpayer subsidies. Another is that turning the university into a revenue-maximizing business inevitably subverts the institution’s central purpose, which is the pursuit and transmission of knowledge.

Scott Walker Stacks Regents and Legislators make UW Tenure Meaningless.

Let's start with the tenure problem created by the republican legislature. The GOP plan creates a loop hole to easily fire and lay off UW faculty and staff, no matter what UW tenure policy is in place:

jsonline: Under the GOP plan, it would allow tenured faculty and indefinite-term staff to be laid off or terminated "when deemed necessary due to a budget or program decision regarding program discontinuance, curtailment, modification, or redirection."

That's the tenure poison pill, and UW Pres. Cross isn't being honest:

UW System President Ray Cross said tenure would still exist, regardless of the layoff language the GOP plan would insert into state law. He said the Tenure Task Force, which includes faculty, can still define the terms that guide layoff language.

The republican plan would let tenure exist, but in name only. Otherwise, skies the limit when it comes to intimidation and political firings. Here's a report from WKOW. Check out the very last comment:

Tenure by definition offers protection for academic freedom, grounded in a conviction that creating knowledge and expressing ideas should be free from intimidation or retaliation. Under policy currently in state law, tenured professors can only be dismissed for just cause or a campuswide financial emergency.

The old rules disappear, thanks to our big government republican friends, intentionally.

From WISC, a little more on the faculty brain drain to come:

Donald Moynihan, a professor of public affairs at UW Madison said, “This is going to happen very quickly, within a couple of years if UW Madison and the UW System don’t keep a robust version of tenure.   You’re going to see these faculty poached away.” Moynihan says the loss of those top faculty members could make a troubled financial situation for the university even tougher. “Thirty percent of the UW Madison budget comes from federal research grants.  If star faculty, who won those grants depart that is going to create a huge fiscal problem for the university,” says Moynihan.

Wisconsin Idea still stumps Republicans hell bent on killing UW.

This morning former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager laid out the difference between universities and tech schools. For instance, tech school train you for one job. But as we've seen over the years, occupations come and go, whether through technology or trade policies that offshore jobs. Scott Walker and his plundering Republican pirates in the legislature either don't care or don't know about the long range problem some Americans will face when their profession disappears.

In March the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report that took a look at how many jobs younger baby boomers held between ages 18 to 48. They averaged 11.7 jobs. Although the term "jobs" doesn't necessarily mean a career change, common sense and life experience shows that that's a likely possibility.

Former republican Representative Michelle Litjens' disdain for what she perceives as "liberal indoctrination" is typical of conservatives who really don't get the Wisconsin Idea at all. Thus Walker's cavalier attempt to change it:

Litjens: "The UW Oshkosh for instance, as a freshmen, you take 4 different classes on recycling, and um sensitivity and religion and women's studies. And you know, as a parent who is going to be contributing towards education, are these classes that we want to either borrow money or pay for that are going help my child get a job in the future? There are stories like that uh that you hear as parents or you know of because your children are in the system, and you wonder if you're getting the best bang for your buck as a parent."

Here's Peg's great response on WPR's Joy Cardin Show (audio):

Scott Walker: The Dumbing Down of America's Poster Boy!!! Wisconsin's so proud.

It's never a good sign when your own governor and - yikes - candidate for president, is the poster boy for the current anti-education movement within the Republican Party. Even "stand with Walker" idol worshipers, with their own families to worry about, can't be happy with the downward direction their party is taking on education. College nowadays is as standard as having a high school diploma. That scares Republicans, who have for years believed universities brainwash students with liberal socialist ideas. It's time to block the school house doors again, but this time, to everyone. Salon:

If you ever want to make a conservative touchy, the quickest way is to hint that the connection between ignorance and holding right-wing views is more than a coincidence. But when you look at what Republican politicians are up to these days, especially in state legislatures, it starts to look like Republicans are purposefully trying to make Americans more ignorant. Here are 5 recent examples.

1) Oklahoma is about to ban AP history classes. Under the guise of “emergency” legislation, the education committee in the Oklahoma legislature had an 11-4 vote to advance a bill that would ban the advanced placement history curriculum from Oklahoma schools. There’s not even a real attempt here, as with other conservative assaults on education, to hide that the goal is to keep students ignorant so that they are more susceptible to right wing propaganda. The bill’s sponsor, state representative Dan Fisher, argued that the schools should be teaching “American exceptionalism,” and avoiding teaching parts of American history that are less than flattering. The Republican National Committee has endorsed the idea that AP history courses should teach less strife and present a more rah-rah view of American history. In Colorado, attempts to whitewash the history classes even resulted in student walkouts, garnering national attention.

2) Scott Walker has it out for the University of Wisconsin. Walker … not caring that it’s the state’s pride and joy … The goal is to slash a whopping $300 million from the University of Wisconsin system over the next two years … Walker and his staff haven’t really taken many pains to hide that this is rooted in a deeper hostility to the very idea of knowledge itself. “…his staff proposed changing the university’s ethereal focus on the pursuit of truth, known as the ‘Wisconsin Idea,’ to a grittier focus on ‘workforce needs,’” reports the Washington Post. Walker backed off recasting higher education as nothing more than job training … but the fact that this wording change was proposed at all shows that the hostility to education is ideological and has little to nothing to do with saving money.

3) Redefining education as “welfare” Mississippi state representative Gene Alday made national headlines recently … “I come from a town where all the blacks are getting food stamps and what I call ‘welfare crazy checks.’ Alday went on his rant in part because he was trying to justify his opposition to increased funding for elementary school education. Alday’s little racist spiel was an attempt to insinuate that teaching kids reading and writing amounts to “welfare” and to suggest that education is wasted on black people in particular.

4) Threatening to arrest teachers for sex education. In Kansas, Republicans are no longer satisfied with laws requiring teachers to pretend that it’s normal and expected for people to wait until marriage to have sex. Now there’s growing support for having teachers fear jail time should they ever hint, during sex education, that sex is a thing people do for pleasure. Using a teacher who had a poster up in class that suggested—gasp!—that sex is sometimes used to show affection, Republicans in the state are sponsoring a bill that would allow officials to criminally charge teachers for daring to acknowledge such a thing ever again.

5) Continued demands that science education be replaced with magic … creationists haven’t gone anywhere. In South Dakota, Republicans once again pushed for a bill that would “allow” teachers to “question” evolution in the classroom, which is a fancy way of saying that teachers would be permitted to treat being ignorant as the equivalent of being educated. Asked recently about evolution, Gov. Scott Walker stuck to the narrative that elevates ignorance over education, saying, “That’s a question politicians shouldn’t be involved in one way or another. I am going to leave that up to you.” The comment was the exaltation of ignorance over education. Evolutionary theory is a knowable thing. Walker epitomized the new conservative mentality of ignorance uber alles.