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how long it takes to finish a degree, loss of student jobs on campus, inability to grow high-demand programs and outdated academic facilities not being maintained.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.

Tenure written out of state law, but penalties written in....

You're hearing it a lot now from conservative pundits and Republican politicians; tenure hasn't changed, now that the UW will watch over it. But that's not true at all.

That's why it seems crazy the clueless commentary seen here from blogger Christian Schneider was ever allowed to make print in the Journal Sentinel.

While lawmakers complained and did away with a Wisconsin law protecting tenure, they replaced it with another state law allowing dramatic penalties against tenured faculty. Huh?

From WPT's Here and Now, the most amazing observation from UW Milwaukee English Professor Richard Grusin:

Sen. Steve Nass already challenging academic freedom, calls for Professor's termination.

Before the ink is dry and the new rules on tenure are signed into law, Republican State Sen. Steve Nass was already asking the UW to fire a professor he did not agree with, accusing him of "partisan garbage research" and "hiding behind academic freedom."

Really, "hiding" behind academic freedom. Outrageous, what scoundrel. Tenure was in place to protect against this exact thing, ironically proving the point opponents made about the GOP changes back in March:

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 campus wide financial emergency.

Nass' iron fisted control over academic research is only the beginning:

State Sen. Steve Nass blasted a UW-Madison economics professor in a scathing email ... calling the academic's report on right-to-work legislation and economic performance "partisan, garbage research."

The email, sent to Senate and Assembly Republicans and UW System officials with the subject line "UW-Madison Professor Steven Deller Uses State Resources to Trash Right to Work," cites a two-page fact sheet written by a Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics faculty member.

"Attached is yet another example of wasted resources at the UW-Madison/UW Extension to issue a trumped up report from a partisan academic against Right to Work. Hiding behind academic freedom to issue partisan, garbage research is what we have come to expect from some of the overworked and stressed faculty at UW-Madison.

I will certainly forward this email on to UW System President Ray Cross and UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank, as just one suggestion of a faculty member with time to teach more courses. Or maybe not!"

Nass has been the enemy of public education for years:

Nass, an outspoken UW System critic who chairs the Senate Committee on Labor and Government Reform, took issue with Deller's findings, the way they were presented and released to the public, says his chief of staff, Mike Mikalsen.

"Steve is frustrated with what we see as a faculty member abusing their position within the UW System to issue, frankly, just pure garbage research," Mikalsen says. "This piece clearly takes a side or a position."

Yes, research and facts eventually took a side...funny how that works:

Deller, who works with the UW Extension's Center for Community and Economic Development, says he wrote the report about a month ago with the intention of providing individuals with an overview of the controversial anti-union legislation. "I tried to make it as objective as possible," says Deller. The report summarizes the common arguments for and against right-to-work legislation, acknowledging that there is "little agreement within the literature that has attempted to empirically document the impact of [right-to-work] laws."

Does this sound like a partisan researchers to you?

Deller says the cooperation between UW System academics and government officials is a two-way street: Researchers shouldn't use the university as a "bully pulpit" to promote a political ideology, but lawmakers "shouldn't shoot the messenger."

"We try to provide information and ideas and let citizens make a decision," Deller says. "If we filtered everything that came out of the university based on whether or not it's going to pass through some political lens, then why are we here?"

Ever more proof this guy is pretty impartial:

Deller, coincidentally, says he declined to join a union when he taught at the University of Maine, opting instead to donate the dues he would have paid to a general scholarship fund that the university used to support low-income students. The donation option was the alternative the University of Maine offered to address the issue of "free riders," or employees who benefit from union contracts without paying for membership. "I think you could set up the same thing in Wisconsin," Deller says.

Using income, poverty and unemployment data from states with and without the anti-union legislation and comparing them using a statistical test to identify significant differences, Deller found that "right-to-work states tend to have lower manufacturing wages and overall income levels, higher poverty rates and lower education levels."

Mikalsen also questioned whether Deller, who has a doctorate in agricultural economics and a master's in economics, was even qualified to present findings on the topic of right-to-work.

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.