Vulture School Vos - Robbinhood in Reverse

Robbin "School Vulture" Vos, vassal to the feudal American Legislative Exchange Council (fALEC) stated yesterday that he is open to Grothman's proposal of tax credits for families to send their kids to private schools. Of course he is! It's another fALEC connived way to destroy the arch enemy of the Cult of Con, public education, while rewarding the rich!

Think of it! No longer will those kids in places like Mequon and Greenfield have to suffer the indignation of mingling with the student bodies at high schools the likes of Homestead and Whitnall that have poverty rates approaching single digits! 

NOTE, I tried to post this to facefook today and include the link to the Root River Siren Blog where there is a post on this issue and I got the following response from facebook: 
"The content you're trying to share includes a link that's been blocked for being spammy or unsafe:"

Tea Leaves

Congratulations!

Whether you stood up to run for office and serve your community, organized, donated, leafleted, canvassed, phoned, wrote a letter, addressed postcards, refused to be intimidated by false accusations, wore bunny ears, or simply paid attention and voted, Thank You!

You stood up for our children and grandchildren, our community, for civility and rationalism, for our educators and not only for our public schools, but for our public institutions generally, which are under attack by the combined forces of greed, selfishness and short-sighted ignorance.

Well done. E Pluribus Unum Baby!

WeeVoter Candidates Even Refuse Interviews

If you haven't yet had a chance, grab a copy of last week's Standard Press and read the sidebar on Page 6. It recounts the exhaustive attempts by the paper to get the WeeVote endorsed candidates to grant interviews to the paper and present their views and ideas of what they would like to do if elected to the BASD Board.

It was noted that candidates Larry Anderson and Jim Bousman readily agreed to participate, and their contemporaneous answers to the questions posed are included in last week's edition.

The WeeVote candidates on the other hand at first agreed to answer the same questions posed to the other responsive candidates, but only if presented to them in writing. The Standard Press agreed, but told the WeeVoters that they would have complete the process in approximately one hour as the responsive candidates had done. Even this was unacceptable to the WeeVoters as they began refusing to communicate with the Standard Press to confirm or deny their willingness to participate, even when offered a more generous response time, better suited to their . . . sensibilities.

WeeVote Violates Code

As Glass Houses aptly points out in a comment to the article about Bonnie Ketterhagen in the March 22nd edition Standard Press, the WeeVote candidates are now in violation of State Code (just like last year) for adding pink fluorescent streamers that blow in the wind to their yard signs: http://lab.southernlakesnewspapers.com/?p=8566

Glass Houses was kind enough to add a link to the pertinent Wisconsin Administrative Code section below:

Trans 201.16 Political signs.
(1) Definitions. "Political sign" means a sign erected for the purpose of soliciting support for or opposition to a candidate or a political party or relating to a referendum question in an election held under the laws of this state.
(2)Exemption. A political sign which would otherwise be subject to the permit requirement of s. Trans 201.07, is exempted if all of the following conditions are satisfied:
(a) The sign does not exceed 32 square feet in surface area.
(b) The sign is erected entirely on private property with the property owner's consent.
(c) The sign is erected less than 45 days before the election for which it is intended and is removed within 7 days after the election except that a sign erected before a primary election may remain in place until 7 days after the next following general election if the sign solicits support for a candidate, political party or referendum question that is before the electorate in both the primary and the general election.
(d) The sign does not contain flashing lights or moving parts or in any other way fail to conform with s. 84.30 (4) (b), Stats.
(e) The sign is not erected in a location where it constitutes a traffic hazard.
History: Cr. Register, July, 1983, No. 331, eff. 8-1-83; am. (2) (e), Register, July, 1996, No. 487, eff. 8-1-96.

WeeVoter Late to the Parade

Some folks are just late to the parade as exemplified in this letter to the editor from Ms. Catherine Theilen published yesterday in the Standard Press website: http://lab.southernlakesnewspapers.com/?p=8685

She criticizes BASD School Board member Larry Anderson for not using Gubnah Walker's "Tools" to twist the thumbs of our local educators to the full extent possible and ONLY saving the citizenry $1.7 million dollars. How selfish and vindictive can the WeeVoters get with their punitive and myopic Tea Party agenda?

She then goes on to say "My suggestion is put the whole district on Obama care." What does that even mean? Does Ms. Theilen know? Does she mistakenly believe that means free healthcare provided by the federal government leaving taxpayers off the hook? My strong suspicion is that she has been the willing, but unknowing consumer of vast amounts of disinformation and likely knows little to nothing about Obamacare.

But the most entertaining and revealing part is that she turns her ill-informed ire on us wayward pamphleteers advising us as follows: "A helpful hint to the people putting political literature on car windshields: please stop.  You are in violation of Burlington city littering ordinance #200-2 sections A & C."

It's NOT Working Walker!

Thanks to the Siren we have an excellent chart that shows plain as day what miserable failures Scott Walker and his "tools" are. Wipe it clean in 2014!

Remember, the Great Republicon Recession started in September 2008, so Wisconsin was holding its own with respect to job creation until Walker took office in December 2010 with his empty promise to create 250,000 private sector jobs.

Can a WeVoter Yell at Someone in Bunny Ears?

A Warren of Lit Droppers

Once again, the WeVoter Poobah Bonnie Ketterhagen just isn’t making any sense. She calls the distribution of campaign leaflets “disrespectful”. What on earth is disrespectful about exercising democracy on public property? Nothing! http://lab.southernlakesnewspapers.com/?p=8566

And threatening to have her Tea Party minions “watch, patrol, police and monitor” these public places for citizens distributing informational literature is just another petty attempt to bully and intimidate. It won’t work, bullies need to be stood up to and called out.

Besides that, just try and yell at someone in BUNNY EARS!

Ten Years After Bush-Cheney Time Bandits & War Criminals

Remember? 12 years ago about this time of year in 2001, before 9/11, Dick Cheney was holding his secret energy task force meetings. Only the Dickster and the fossil industries were allowed to attend or know what was discussed, the public and any other groups were excluded and the content kept secret through executive privilege.

Under a Freedom of Information Act request the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch was able to get three small documents from the conclaves that inadvertently happened to be at the State Dept. and therefore had to be released under the law. These three little documents speak volumes about the agenda of the Cheney Administration.

Public Education is Patriotic!

Healthy public education is a founding principle of our democracy. Our Founders knew that it was vital to nurturing liberty, the pursuit of happiness and justice for all.

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson put forth the Northwest Ordinance, pertaining to the northwest territories of our young Republic, OH, MI, IN, IL and WI. It set aside the 16th Section of every township for the purpose of public education. The proceeds of the sale of this land at $1 per acre was put toward funding public education. This was the first national education law in the world! Public education is a foundational value of our more perfect union, that the citizens of a Republic, a representative democracy must be educated if they are to be free to govern themselves.

To honor and preserve such a system is a core patriotic value. To tear such a system down is not conservatism in the American way, but rather in the British imperial way, when only the eldest sons of the masses, if they were fortunate, might learn the craft of their fathers and only the Aristocrats, whose yoke we threw off with our Revolution were allowed to be truly educated.

The People couldn't be allowed to become educated under the old, pre-revolutionary British imperial way our they might decide they wanted to, and were capable of, governing themselves. To the aristocracy that was unacceptable, the People were to be Ruled! The shot fired around the world shattered that old system and brought forth the freedom of equal rights, self determination and self governance through the informed consent of the citizenry. An informed consent that requires an educated public.

WeVote Burlington is a local affiliate of the Tea Party, which has a national agenda of tearing down our public institutions of education and replacing them with private, for-profit schools that will not serve te public equally. The Ketterhagens, the Koldeways and Mrs. Miller may think this agenda is worthy of advancement through our community's school board, but their moral compass is misdirected and they’ve got their flag turned upside down.
http://burlingtonareaprogressives.blogspot.com/2012/11/ketterhagens-snake-strangled-banner.html

Furthermore, existing board member Phillip Ketterhagen has scapegoated our fellow citizens who teach, referring to them as cattle who need to be hit in the head with a 2x4. Yes, I understand it’s a metaphor, but metaphorically speaking that makes Ketterhagen the equivalent of a bully, berating and threatening our communal family with physical abuse . . . metaphorically of course!
 http://burlingtonareaprogressives.blogspot.com/2012/06/i-have-it-from-reliable-sources-that-tp.html

Our board of education should be a panel to nurture the best interests of our community, our children and our democracy, not a club to be wielded in beating down our family members, friends and neighbors to advance a narrow, radical, self-centered and, in the American way, unconservative political agenda. We mustn’t let our community turn into a dysfunctional family by electing two more tea partiers, Julie Koldeway and Norma Miller to act as enablers for the bully on the board.

We need sound, knowledgeable stewards of the public trust to nurture the health of our schools, both fiscally and educationally. That's why this citizen is voting for Larry Anderson and Jim Bousman for BASD board on April 2nd!

 

WeVote Candidates Refuse Debate

I've just gotten word that the Standard Press is NOT going to have a candidate forum because the WeVote PAC school board candidates have refused to participate. To me, this repeated refusal by the Tea Party candidates, Julie Koldeway and Norma Miller, to face the local press, to face their opponents and most importantly to face the public, the voters, and to answer questions SPEAKS VOLUMES!

I say repeated, because Julie Koldeway had already refused to participate in a public forum sponsored by the Standard Press that was to be held before the primary election. That forum unfortunately was cancelled due to a severe winter storm.

This fear of confronting the public appears at times to border on paranoia with perhaps the absurd notion that the Standard Press might be part of the "liberal media" and out to get the WeVote folks by twisting their words as exemplified by their grand poobah Bonnie Ketterhagen in this Standard Press article where she copies her comments to the WeVoters as documentation stating; “Below is a copy of the email I sent to the Standard Press after they submitted questions and requested an interview with us. If what appears in this week’s edition is different, you will know the truth.” http://lab.southernlakesnewspapers.com/?p=8244&t=Partisan+politics+marks+School+Board+election

I find it interesting that for a Standard Press article published a year or so ago about the WeVotes, Bonnie Ketterhagen and Julie Koldeway both refused to answer questions unless they were submitted in advance, so that they could carefully craft their answers and respond in writing. It's a pattern now and it's obvious that the local tea party people are afraid of something, maybe it's just saying something stupid.

However, the other two candidates, Larry Anderson and Jim Bausman were both willing and eager to participate, to state the cases for their candidacies and answer to the citizens of the Burlington Area School District.

So will it be candidates that are willing to stand forth, be open and up front about themselves and their positions, or those that fear brightlight, questioning and the potential exposure of their group's agenda before the public? The choice is yours Burlington. Vote on April 2nd (or before if you'll be away over spring break!).

Norma TP Miller Not Qualified

Burlington School Board Candidate and Tea Partier, Norma Miller in letter published in yesterday's Standard Press opinion section, said; "Right now we spend 85 cents out of every tax dollar on staff wages and benefits. That means 15 cents out of every tax dollar is spent on our children."


Ah NO, it does NOT! That statement alone demonstrates why she is not qualified to be on the Board, with regard to both her attitude toward our teachers and by her lack of understanding of how the funds to support our students are applied.

Apparently, Ms. Miller doesn't understand that the teachers are there for the students. That's not only completely misguided, it's unprofessional and disrespectful. How else are the students supposed to get educated? Education is a people intensive effort, not just in BASD, but in the schools all over our nation. Of course the bulk of the funding goes to teachers and other staff. They are what makes a building a school!

And her notion that only the remaining 15% goes to the children is equally absurd. That 15% goes to run and maintain district facilities. Like the teachers, are not the buildings also for the students? Of course! But apparently Ms. Miller believes that an ediface is more important than an educator to your children's and granchildren's future and that of our community.

I guess by her way of thinking we can cut costs by 85% and give our children nice buildings where they can stare vacantly at an empty blackboard and magically educate themselves.

I my opinion, Norma Miller offers little prospect of good stewardship over our schools or our future citizens!

The Tea Party is a Cancer!

How can you tell the Tea Party IS A CANCER? Because an investigation of the TPs by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health reveals it's a synthetic concoction funded by the Tobacco and Fossil Industries. Its' safe to breathe around the TP asstroturf, just don't Inhale.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/16042-focus-false-spontaneity-of-the-tea-party

Coniver Walker's Budget - Our Elderly & Disabled

A Budget is an expression of Moral Values or the lack thereof. Monday March 4th 9:30-11:30, Gateway Tech - Madrigrano Auditorium, 3520 - 30th Avenue Kenosha. Come hear a discussion of the impacts of Walker's proposed budget on our elderly, our disabled and those who care for them.

Wealth is Like Helium, it Stagnates at the Ceilium!

We often hear money and wealth compared to the physical properties of water. Money is "Currency" it has "Liquidity" or can be "Frozen". We have cash "Flow", we "Pump" or "Pour" money into things, markets get "Flooded", we spend it like "Water", "Float" loans and get "Drained" until we've taken a "Bath", are "Underwater" and have no "Solvency". We even store it in "Banks"! And yes, despite 30 years of evidence to the contrary, there are still those foolish enough to believe that if we allow enough wealth to accumulate at the very top, it will "Trickle" down on to us. Yew!

There is a reason why the failed Trickle Down metaphor of Supply Side Reaganomics is more like Voo Doo than Physics. Because when it comes to wealth accumulation, money isn't like water at all. Money is like HELIUM!

Water seeks its own level, the lowest level possible. But wealth naturally gravitates upward like helium. Left to its own devices, most of the wealth in any society will accumulate at the top, from which point the concentration will drop precipitously as one looks downward toward the bottom, where it will exhibit a vanishingly diffuse presence. They say it takes money to make money and it's true. So if you ain't got much money, you'll never make much money, unless you're the rarity that defies the physics and performs the feat that's called "Beating the Odds".

Helium released into a room will float up to the ceiling and stop there. On its own helium has no impetus to move back downward, other than the very weak force of diffusion along concentration gradients. Similarly, wealth concentrated in the top strata has no reason to move downward from the ceiling and since there is vanishingly little wealth below, there's no force to generate any dynamism in the system. And there's certainly no impulse for wealth at the top to invest itself in the interest of gaining more wealth from below, there's simply not enough of it there to make it worthwhile and generate the energy to do so.

Wealth is like Helium, it Stagnates at the Ceilium! (I've just renewed my poetic license). By September 2008, after three decades of Reaganomics, this was the state our Plutonomy had finally come to, with the vast majority of wealth concentrated at the top, the circulation collapsed, resulting in the Great Republicon Recession.

If however, instead of settling for stagnation, a force is introduced to push that helium downward, like a ceiling fan, it gets distributed more evenly throughout the room and inevitably returns to the top through dynamic flow and its property of buoyancy. Similarly, money circulated downward ($9.00 Minimum Wage, Revitalizing our Infrastructure, etc.) will flow back upward as it is used for purchasing. And unlike helium wealth can grow, so now there is momentum to invest that money to attract some of the wealth from below, which is now in more plentiful supply. And so the strength and volume of the circulation grows. And that circulation my friends, is called an "ECONOMY"!

School Vultures

Don't let the Vultures Write Your Laws!

Below is a link to Fact Sheet on Special Education Vultures from Disability Rights Wisconsin. See what a disaster these Vultures have caused in other states. Don't let them infest our state and feed off our our public schools!

http://www.wi-bpdd.org/whoweare/bpdd2013legpolicy/School%20Vouchers%202013.pdf

Tell Governor Walker not to stand for segregation of disabled students and the Education Profiteers supported by the self-serving owners of Walmart and Amway (the Walton and DeVos families) and their wholly owned legislature at the fascist American Legislative Exchange Council (fALEC).

http://www.capwiz.com/dawn/issues/alert/?alertid=62392491&type=ML

Straight Shooter

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a SLAVEHOLDING State

Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads, IN FULL: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Was the Second Amendment negotiated to allow the Southern Slaveholding States to continue policing of their large slave populations once the new federal government became responsible for the military? Read on and follow the link at the end of the article.

The Bloody NRA enablers typically leave out the first half of the sentence. It's inconvenient for their purposes, which is make money for their sponsors by selling lots of guns. But it is just ONE sentence, meaning it's just ONE thought, not two separable statements. When they do confront the entire sentence, the Bloody NRA would have us believe that the Second Amendment was created to allow us to overthrow a tyrannical government. However, it makes no sense that our founders would refer to a domestic insurrection to overthrow the government as a "well regulated militia". Well regulated by whom? On the contrary, it seems to refer to a militia capable of putting down such a rebellion or a foreign invasion and preserving our Constitutional government. And the type of Constitutional government that our founders devised for us provides for a peaceful means of changing the government. THAT is the whole point!

Furthermore, the Supreme Court while upholding the second amendment has affirmed the right of Americans to keep and bear arms to protect themselves and their homes. Never have they affirmed the right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of overthrowing the government. NEVER! While I'm not totally unsympathetic to the idea that a tyrannical government might need to be opposed if one ever arrose, there is no way that citizens will ever have the type of weapons that are, and will be in the future, available to the government. Nor should they! It's been illegal to own a machine gun since the 1930's because they present too great a threat to public safety. Is that an infringement? Yes. Is it Constitutional? Yes. Is it reasonable? You're damn right it is! How many mass muders have been commited by Gunmen equipped with fully automatic weaopns in the U.S. since the 1930's? Almost ZERO. Proof that reasonable gun control laws work, even with respect to criminals.

You can't resolve the language "Well Regulated Militia being necessary to the Security of a Free State . . ." with the ability of the General Public to own any type of "Arms" ever to be devised by man. There's nothing Well Regulated about that! And remember, the Constitution doesn't say "firearms", is says "Arms", which can be interpreted to mean ANY Weapon, when of course the founders meant muskets capable of firing up to 3 rounds a minute in the hands of well trained militiamen. Hardly a major threat to public health and safety. As a Strict Constitutional Constructionalist and dogged adherent to original intent (NOT!), I insist on the right of all Americans to keep and bear all the muskets, lead balls, wadding and powder horns they can carry! RAMRODS ALL AROUND!

So was the Second Amendment designed for We the People to overthrow our own government? I don't see any evidence for that. It certainly isn't claerly stated as such. However, below is a link to an article that makes a compelling case that it's intent was to allow the Southern Slaveholding States to continue the policing of their slave populations once the right to raise armies passed from the states to the Federal Government and Congress under the new Constitution. And despite the Bloody NRA's Predictable Profit Inspired Protestations, that hardly represents a reasonable or moral underpinning for the alledged right of the General Public to own military style weapons of mass murder in Post Emanicipation Proclamation, Post Civil Rights, Modern America. 

Interchangeable magazine clips were designed for the military for maximum firepower on the battlefield. They have No Legitimate Civilian Use. Ban them NOW!

http://truth-out.org/news/item/13890-the-second-amendment-was-ratified-to-preserve-slavery

And Again! Merry Christmas from the Bloody NRA

From Mr. Gunman's Christmas Eve Massacre Note: “I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighborhood I can burn down and do what I like doing best — killing people,” Well Mr. Gunman, enabled by the Bloody NRA, picked the right mass murder tool, the military style AR-15 Bushmaster assault weapon with an arsenal of high capacity, interchangeable magazine clips!

As Christmas Eve dawned in Webster, NY Mr. Gunman set a trap. When fire fighters responded to the fire he set, he shot four of them with his Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle, the same type of semiautomatic weapon used in the school mass murder shooting 10 days earlier in Newtown, Conn. http://burlingtonareaprogressives.blogspot.com/2012/12/again-ban-weapons-of-mass-murder-again.html He murdered two volunteer firemen and severely wounded two more before engaging in a shootout with police and then blowing his own brains out.

“He was equipped to go to war to kill innocent people,” the Webster police chief, Gerald L. Pickering, said of Mr. Gunman.

When will we outlaw weapons of mass murder like the AR-15 Bushmaster and the high capacity magazine used by the mass murderer du jour in Aurora, CO, Newton, CT, Webster, NY? Oh yeah, we already did it was called the Assault Weapons Ban, but the Republicons gleefully let it expire in 2004 as required by their puppet masters, the Bloody NRA, the lobbying arm of the gun manufacturers that works feverishly to ensure their profits. It’s NOT REALLY about the 2^ndAmendment, it’s about the money.

I'm not against people having guns, but high powered, highly concealable guns with high capacity, easily interchangeable magazine clips that allowed the Virginia Tech mass murderer to spray 170 rounds in 5 minutes are not weapons of sport or self-defense. The only thing they are good for is mass murder. No one needs one and no one should have one, let alone Four, three, one!

For crying out loud, give us a chance, at least make'em have to stop and RELOAD!

Which brings up a good point, actually. It’s not the guns so much as the magazines that are the problem. I'm convinced that interchangeable magazines should be illegal to manufacture or sell in the U.S. They were designed for the military specifically so that soldiers can reload quickly, which is what makes them so dangerous to public health and safety in the hands of civilians.

There is no non-military use for these items. Simply limiting the capacity of these clips to 10 rounds as was the case under the old assault weapons ban and as is proposed by Sen. Feinstein will not do much good because a killer can still reload in seconds.

Only guns that have internal magazines that require reloading rounds one at a time, like revolvers should be legal. And those magazines should be limited to 10 rounds max. Those types of guns are perfectly suitable for self-defense and hunting. Nothing more is needed and anything more is a much too substantial threat to public safety.

I honestly believe that if these mass murderers knew they could only kill a few people on their way out, it just wouldn't provide the "glory" they're looking for. They might just not bother with it if we take all the fun out of it for them. Anyway making them less deadly and protecting public safety while preserving our 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, reasonably would be a very good thing.
 
Machine guns have been illegal since the 1930's and these mass murderers aren't using machine guns. Not because they wouldn't want the ability to kill even more people during their rampage, but because they are not easily available like the next best thing for Gunmen, military style, semi-automatic assault weapons with high capacity interchangeable magazines. It's time to make them illegal too!

Again!? Ban Weapons of Mass Murder . . . AGAIN!

I'm just updating a post to the BAP blog from July 20, 2012, for crying out loud. Literally! Please, I don't want to have to ever do this again, again.

http://burlingtonareaprogressives.blogspot.com/2012/07/ban-weapons-of-mass-murder-again.html

When will we outlaw weapons of mass murder like the AR - 15 Bushmaster and the high capacity magazine used by the mass murderer du jour in Aurora, CO Newtown, CT? Oh yeah, we already did it was called the Assault Weapons Ban, but the Republicons gleefully let it expire in 2004 as required by their puppet masters, the Bloody NRA.

I'm not against people having guns, but high powered, highly concealable guns with high capacity, easily interchangeable magazine clips that allowed the Virginia Tech mass murderer to spray 170 rounds in 5 minutes are not weapons of sport or self-defense. The only thing they are good for is mass murder, no one needs one and no one should have one, let alone Four three!

For crying out loud, give us a chance, at least make'em have to RELOAD!

Student Achievement - It's the Poverty Stupid!

I've been having a running "discussion" (AGAIN!)  with some Cult of Con Indoctrinants over at
http://freeracine.blogspot.com/ who insist on blaming Racine Unified (where I was educated, thank you!) generally and the teachers specifically for the poor student achievement. They think doing away with RUSD is the answer. I have been arguing, as I have in the past, that if one only looks at where these types outcomes prevail, it is pattently obvious that it is the result of concentrated poverty and all the social ills that go with it. Well that doesn't fit with the Cons Pre-Set Blame & Belief Buttons, so they will hear none of it.

As it happens I was listening to Wisconsin Public Radio (one of our crown jewels!) the other day and what do I hear? The Forward Institute has just released a study that shows School Report Card scores issued by the Department of Public Instruction are closely linked with poverty (Who Knew!). AND that Wisconsin's public schools out perform charter schools even when adjusting for the poverty of the students. http://forwardinstitutewi.org/ Take THAT would be Educational Profiteers!

Of course in true Con fashion and unable to address the substance of the study, they immediately attacked the source. But I suppose some must close their minds to "conserve" what's in there.

Press Release Excerpt: Currently more than 4 in 10 school age children in Wisconsin are defined as poor or “economically disadvantaged,” up from about 2 in 10 a decade ago. A student from a family qualifying for “free or reduced price lunch” is considered economically disadvantaged for the purposes of DPI scores – over 350,000 children in Wisconsin schools.

Based on data from the new Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Report Cards, our study showed a clear link between low Report Card scores and economically disadvantaged students who already have significant barriers to educational prosperity. Those schools with higher numbers of economically disadvantaged students had significantly lower scores on the Report Cards.
The study results show that nearly half of the Report Card score variation from school to school can be explained by the variation in poverty levels from school to school.

Since higher enrollments of economically disadvantaged students are a significant factor in the scores on the DPI Report Card, current proposals to tie school funding and teachers’ salaries to Report Card scores would unfairly punish schools in high poverty districts. As the study clearly shows, a very significant factor affecting Report Card scores is poverty, something which is outside the control of teachers and schools.

The data also revealed that contrary to the assumptions that non-traditional charter schools would be more effective through creating competitive choice, Wisconsin’s public schools significantly outperformed charter schools overall. This finding was especially evident in those schools with high poverty enrollment.

In the last four years, public school budgets have been cut by over $1 billion, while in 2012 alone, Wisconsin taxpayers provided $143.6 million to charter schools, the highest amount in state history. These fund increases did not translate into charter school performance over the three years of Report Card data collected. The Report Card data indicates public schools continue to better educate Wisconsin children than the non-traditional charter schools. Charter schools are underperforming at the core level of their mission – student excellence and achievement, without the taxpayer accountability of public schools.

These findings are important, especially as policy makers look for ways to provide the best educational opportunities for Wisconsin’s children while being mindful of the economic burdens on struggling families. Based on the high rate of Wisconsin school children living in poverty and the clear effects of poverty on education, this study recommends policymakers enhance educational opportunities for our children, and save taxpayer money by redirecting educational funds to the schools most effective at meeting the current needs of Wisconsin children, Wisconsin’s public schools.