Michels ushers in the End of Education as we know it.

The shockingly clueless nature of Tim Michels may just be what MAGA Republicans want, an incompetent beginner. Exhibit A: 

"The tired, old Evers approach has not worked. He's spent his career in education and our schools keep getting worse, especially (Milwaukee). I will get Wisconsin headed in the right direction. I will empower parents with greater access to information and more options for their kids." 

Parents are already "empowered," that's if they choose to be involved, and as for "more options," yea, more of...that? 

Uh, "Especially Milwaukee," birthplace of the Parental Choice Program, where it's Failing? I'll bet Michels is unaware of Milwaukee's "choice" history, which isn't a great starting point for him. Vouchers were designed by Republicans to kill public schools, leaving it devoid of good government planning (on purpose). That's basically what charter backer the Fordham Institute reported:

In 1991, Milwaukee began a bold experiment in market-based education reform. Twenty-seven years later, those reforms are something less than dramatic. The original voucher coalition was a clumsy alliance of free-market reformers, social justice warriors, urban Democrats, and suburban and rural Republicans. 

A program design encouraging the creation of new schools simultaneously led to frequent school failures that hurt the program’s reputation. Between 1991 and 2015, 102 participating schools shut their doors. For many years, opening a voucher school was as simple as filing a one-page form with the state, finding a building, and convincing parents to enroll their children. Some of these schools were of shockingly low quality, creating a public narrative that millions of dollars were being sent to storefront scam-artists running schools in name only. 

At one point in the early 2000s, voucher supporters’ longstanding resistance to standardized testing of MPCP pupils. To put it mildly, student performance was not driving legislative decision-making during this period. The result was a clumsy regulatory structure that changed frequently, failed to adequately target problem schools, and was divorced from the goal of improving academic achievement.

The fragmented structure ensures that positive reform in any one of the city’s three sectors will fail to improve the lot of a sizable slice of Milwaukee’s K–12 population.

None of these successes mask the MPCP’s failure to deliver substantive academic gains for K–12 pupils in Milwaukee.

But until a mechanism exists for creating funding and regulatory equity, outcomes-oriented accountability across sectors, and an arena to resolve issues impacting students across Milwaukee’s diverse school spectrum, we should expect to see more of the same. For now, Milwaukee’s voucher experience stands as a cautionary tale on the consequences of governance fragmentation.

Republicans at the Heart of School Problems: Remember in 2008, The Great Recession, a free-market failure Republicans oddly missed. Scott Walker constantly points to that time of high unemployment and deficits as Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle fault. 

A September 2013 item from PolitiFact Wisconsin, we rated Mostly False a Walker claim that Doyle’s policies cost the state 133,000 jobs. Walker, we noted, got the number right. But experts said the national economic crash (Great Recession) had far more to do with Wisconsin’s job losses during that period than any state policies. 

Again, this was a major Republican failure that would reverberate for decades, especially in education. For fun, here's Alan Greenspan admitting point blank the free market failure.

The Republicans Great Recession: Throughout recent history, major events took its toll on education. Most damning was this from The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a major charter school backer: 

I’ve argued before that the Great Recession had a negative impact on the achievement of our poor and working-class students. That impact came directly in the form of the difficult years for families when these students were infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Income plummeted. Poverty rates rose. Food insecurity grew. All of this would make a difference with these tykes’ later achievement. Consider, for example, findings from NWEA that showed declining test scores at kindergarten entry in the early 2010s. I suspect this also explains why so many of our social indicators were heading in the wrong direction even before the pandemic—such as the murder rate, auto accidents, and more. The downstream effects of early-childhood hardship can take years or even decades to become clear.

The impact of the Great Recession also happened indirectly, in the form of the dramatic K–12 spending cuts that happened from 2011 to 2014. Kirabo Jackson showed convincingly that these cuts had a negative impact on achievement.

They could have been talking about Scott Walker:

Walker’s first five years, schools received a total of $1.17 billion less in state aid than if the funding had remained at the base level.

The Pandemic: Thanks to Trump's bumbling chaotic mishandling of the pandemic, and Republican claims that it was never a problem, The Fordham Institute reported this unsettling reality:

In Washington, D.C., one figure stands out: 9 percent. That’s how many Black boys met expectations in math on the recently released 2022 student achievement results in the city’s district schools. On the eve of the pandemic in 2019, 17 percent of Black boys in district schools met those same expectations. The word “disaster” is used a lot lately, but it is absolutely the right fit here.

But what about the other half of D.C.’s schools, the charter sector? Sadly, 9 percent is also the percentage of Black boys in D.C. charter schools who met math expectations in 2022. That’s down from 22 percent in 2019, an even sharper decline than in Washington’s district-operated schools ... some of D.C.’s most prominent charter schools dropped by previously unimaginable amounts.

The charter school sector in D.C., seems to have had a particularly difficult transition to an all-virtual environment. This shouldn’t be a total surprise, considering that virtual charter schools across the country have displayed weak results over the years.

WI Maga Republicans picked this time to NOT fund Education, when Students need to catch-up most:  Here's what they did instead:

Students, elected officials, education, community and business leaders from around south-central Wisconsin held a press conference on the steps of the State Capitol to kick off a statewide “Day of Action” protesting the Legislature’s proposed K-12 funding.

 

"A $0 per student increase on K-12 funding for the 2021-2023 Biennium State Budget, as was recently passed by the Joint Finance Committee, is not sufficient to support pre-K-12 education.” 

Michels will win fight against CRT, that's not in our schools, and believes universal school choice will solve Milwaukee's gun violence... eventually?

MAGA Republicans bought into the CRT myth. It's a done deal. 

Imagine the victory lap Republican candidates like Tim Michels will make for killing CRT that's not in our schools. That was easy. Promise kept. 

MAGA's Shift failed lazy Parenting to Schools and Teachers: They want a limited vision of the world taught to their children, a vision free from ideas and subjects they would rather not have to debate at home. 

Seriously, what parent wouldn't be bursting with pride listening to their kid discuss a controversial topic they learned in the classroom, asking us what we thought?

Republican Rep. Joel Kitchens agrees with me, pretty much discrediting the nonsensical "parents bill of rights":

My youngest son is just 2 years out of high school, my oldest is 4 years out. I'm very familiar with today's teachers and administrators. I don't recognize the issues angry MAGA parents are complaining about. Have they never contacted the teacher. Hate to say it again, but it might be that these are bad parents guided by their delusional MAGA mentality. 

MAGA Michels, Bullsh*t Artist (really, he is): The look on Tim Michels reminds me of a playground bully who's surprised anyone is taking him seriously. He's now just tying divisive talking points together, like the mind-numbing idea of universal school choice, packaged here as, wait for it.... a solution to gun violence in Milwaukee? I wish I was kidding:

Michels is clueless on universal school choice. Rep. Kitchens could have told him Republicans didn't know it would be $500 million cost to taxpayers, and were glad Gov. Evers vetoed the idea:

Michels claims Evers (who was the former Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction) doesn't support teachers??? Oh god he's an idiot. I seriously think Michels didn't know. Michels certainly didn't know how Scott Walker's Act 10 vilified teachers for the next 10 years, creating teacher burnout and the shortage we have today. Heck, he was in another state. And that was followed up by MAGA's calling teachers "groomers" pushing CRT and gay sex. Pretending MAGA's aren't threatening teachers out of the classroom, and then blaming the former Democratic State Superintendent of schools, is breathtaking:

MAGA Republican say Transforming the nation is bad, while Michels and Ron Johnson say they want to "Transform" the nation and Wisconsin for generations to come, which is good?

Remember, Michels never heard of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) either, no matter how he might deny it. 

Here's the Here and Now full story:

WI governor candidate Tim Michels loves his AR-15 enough to lie about it. That goes for Right-to-Work, A Gas Tax, Supported Immigrantion...

Extreme Trumper and Governor candidate Tim Michels can't pretend he doesn't have an opinion on stricter gun laws targeting buyers under 21 and assault rifles like the AR-15. His first reaction? Blame BLM for the mass shootings based on "cultural change" and disrespecting law enforcement: 

Michels: "And a lot of it is a byproduct of the whole 'defund the police' movement, where cops became bad guys. I don't have that answer today."

No, that's his answer.

On WKOW's Capital City Sunday, host AJ Bayatpour tried like hell to get a simple answer to what should have been a softball question by now. Finding an opening, Michels slipped in and bragged about his military service, a point that has nothing to do with governing a civil society unless he wants to solve a few state problems with his assault rifle.

Here's the con; Michels said he entered the service in the early 80's when he was around 21, and "thoughtfully" pondered why we didn't have all the assault weapon mass shootings back then:

Michels: "We had AR's back then, why did we not have the problems back then we have today?"

Why? Remember we're talking about no AR-15 problems back in the mid 1980's? Tim is either not a smart guy at all and unqualified for the job as governor, or a bullshitter. I say both:

Bayatpour may not that bit of history but did press Michels to answer the question on background checks. We got the "no answer until he's governor" line.  Seriously, Michels is a Trump Republican, he'll do anything to please the base. That's what passes for "leadership." Here's his sleepy eyed, barely interested low-key interview:

So, all we have to do now is change the culture in the US, and gun massacres will end? How easy it that.

Michels Would Overturn Biden Election Win: Michels can't say yet. Right. AJ Bayatpour again doesn't let Michels off the hook when it comes to the 2020 election. Again, he has to become governor first, then see the actual proposal. Oh sure...

"He'd need to see more details when asked Tuesday if he'd sign a bill that sought to reclaim Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes."

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Then there's this...

"Misrepresenting our ratings or our position in any election contest does a disservice to you and all our members, as well as other gun owners to whom protection of their liberty and firearm freedoms is a factor in how they vote," the NRA wrote in a statement posted on their website.

Michels List of Clueless Issues he's Flip Flopped on: It'll be hard to pick from one governor candidate running on Twitter memes (Kleefisch), and the other (Michels) who has no idea what his own business and lobbying groups have supported:

1. Opposed Bill that prevented companies that employ "illegal aliens" from getting government contracts, tax exemptions and loans: Even though he was head of the group's board, the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association, Michels — who critics say was recruited to run by prominent Madison lobbyists — didn't know what its lobbyists were doing. He hadn't a clue. 

2. Supports Gas Tax: The two groups with which Michels has long ties, the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association and the Transportation Development Association, have advocated for higher gas taxes. 

3. Opposed Right-to-Work: Michels has said he supports the state's right-to-work law, which places a ban on requiring non-unionized workers to pay dues to their workplace union. But the Michels Corp. was part of the Wisconsin Contractor Coalition that opposed the state's right-to-work law. The construction company's employees were also a part of protests against the proposed right-to-work law at the time.

In short, Michels is staking out a hardline conservative platform. As for what his company, his employees and even his trade groups have done in the past, he hasn't a clue.